Gerrit de Jager

Gerrit de Jager is one Holland's most popular comics artists, mainly because of the 'Familie Doorzon' series. He began his career together with his childhood friend Wim Stevenhagen. De Jager and Stevenhagen studied at the Rietveld Academy, and eventually took on the joint pseudonym Prutspruts. Initially accompanied by fellow student Fay Lovsky, the first comic the Prutspruts collective was 'De Ironische Man'. Later renamed to Prutswerk, De Jager and Stevenhagen drew several comics for the alternative magazine De Vrije Balloen, such as 'Bert J. Prulleman' and 'Pruts Pruts, Privat Kreye'. They also created De Jager's later success series 'De Familie Doorzon' in Nieuwe Revu and 'Roel en zijn Beestenboel' in Jippo. They ended their collaboration in 1984. They devided their series and De Jager brought 'De Familie Doorzon' and 'Roel en zijn Beestenboel' to new heights.

With his satirical family comedy 'De Famillie Doorzon', Gerrit de Jager has created one of the first successful (and perhaps the best) parodies of the typical Dutch modern family life. The comic makes fun of the Dutch welfare state by using a remarkable family consisting of practically every unusual kind of people that are to be found in Holland. The Doorzon family is a distorting mirror to the Dutch people and gives a hilarious look into the Dutch mind.

'Roel en zijn Beestenboel', about a guy and his gang of speaking animals, transferred from Jippo to Robbedoes. In this new series of gags, where Roel and his pets run a vegetarian restaurant, was soon also featured in Spirou, the French version of Robbedoes (under the name 'Aristote et ses Potes'). He also filled the magazine's editorial pages with the strips 'Uit de Verhalentrommel van Oom Bokkie' and 'Oom Bokkies Kookstrook'. The final episodes of the 'Roel' series appeared in Sjosji/Striparazzi and Mikrogids. In addition, De Jager drew the girls' comic 'Puck' under the pseudonym Gep de Mooij, as well as 'Toon Ladder', 'De Postbode' and the gag strip 'Sneek'.

While still producing 'Doorzon' for Nieuwe Revu, De Jager soon took another successful series in Het Parool, 'Liefde en Geluk', about an unanswered love and dog-training. He wrote 'Eva en Adam' for the Belgian artist Philippe Bercovici for the French magazine L'Écho des Savanes, and the Flemish Panorama. He drew 'Zusje' in the daily Trouw since 1999, a character that is also featured in 'Mik', De Jager's comic for the female magazine Margriet. In the football magazine Hard Gras, he created 'Krijter'. Because of his high productivity, he is also active as an illustrator in the advertising field, among others for the warehouse De Bijenkorf.