Gerrit Stapel

Gerrit Stapel worked at an office for several years, before he joined the Bavaria film company in 1942. After the War, he drew political cartoons in Het Parool and later Het Vrije Volk. For the latter, he also drew his first comic, 'Hoedje'. He began working freelance for the Toonder Studios in 1952, where he started out doing illustrations and strips for Pum Pum, the juvenile supplement of Het Laatste Nieuws. He cooperated on the final episode of 'De Jeugd van Eric De Noorman' and created the historical comic 'Ramat'.

In the mid-1950s, Stapel launched the medieval series 'Otto van Irtin', of which 22 episodes appeared in several newspapers with scripts by Lo Hartog van Banda. Also for the Toonder Studios, he illustrated several episodes of the science-fiction comic 'Martin Evans', as well as 'Student Tijloos', 'Joris Valckenier' and a comic adaptation of the television series 'Swiebertje'.

In 1968, Stapel created his own series, 'Huon de Neveling', in the magazine Pep. In addition to this series, he drew the newspaper comic 'Floris', and succeeded Thé Tjong-Khing on 'Armand en Ilva', again for Toonder.

He also produced 'Kas Kadet' in a Belgian daily, 'Athi' and 'Ivanhoe' for Pep, 'Guus Arend' in Eppo, 'Jonne' in Donald Duck, and 'Ocke Ockinga' for a Frisian daily. After 1978, Stapel did 'Lancelot' and 'Gawijn' for Taptoe. Several of his works for the Toonder studios were reprinted at Arboris in the early 1980s. In 2003, he was awarded by the Dutch Stripschap with the Bulletje & Boonestaak-schaal.