George van Raemdonck

George van Raemdonck is considered by many as the artist who introduced comics to The Netherlands. The Belgian-born artist had to flee to Holland because of war problems in 1914. In the same year, he started to draw political gags for magazine De Amsterdammer. The writer A.M. De Jong was impressed by the work of van Raemdonck and asked him to illustrate a children's book. In 1920, Van Raemdonck made the switch from De Amsterdammer to De Notenkraker and until 1936 he kept drawing political gags and covers for this magazine.

Meanwhile, in 1922 George van Raemdonck became one of the first Europeans to draw a daily comic strip. Between 1922 and 1937, the text-strip 'Bulletje en Boonestaak' appeared 4,428 times in the daily newspapers Het Volk and Voorwaarts. Besides this classic and wildly popular strip, Van Raemdonck also created some other lesser-known comics, like the text-strip 'Appelsnoet and Goudbaard' and 'Tijl Uilenspiegel'.

During his career, Van Raemdonck published thousands of political gags, illustrated 81 books and created many paintings. He died January 28, 1966 at the age of 78.