Tobias Tak

(The Netherlands)

Upsidedown by Tobias Tak
While still in high school, Tobias Tak created the characters of 'Gaboon the Wizard' and his glamorous companion 'Schlenzy', who both starred in adventures designed to entertain his sister Elise, his brother Marten and various other friends. Tobias then entered the Royal College of Art in The Hague from which he graduated five years later. Soon after his graduation in the late 1970s, his first comics were published in the underground cult magazine Talent (also known as Tante Leny). But at this time Tobias had already started another career as a jazz and tap dancer, singer and choreographer. During the following years, while hoofing on the stages of the USA and Europe, he continued creating his cartooney friends, but it was not until 1999 that he started dedicating most of his time to drawing again. The following year the 16-page story 'Klazeena Goes Polka Dotty' was published in the Dutch art magazine Wormhole.
Upsidedown by Tobias Tak
In mid-air during a plane journey to Barcelona, Tobias met comic artist Lorna Miller, who encouraged him to continue drawing stories and offered him a guest spot in her magazine Witch, for which Tobias created a five page comic entitled 'Furry Tale'. In 2003, Tobias' first book of collected stories was published under the title 'Upside Down' and soon after that his work was noticed by editor Danny Hellman, who invited him to participate in his publication 'Legal Action Comics, Part Two'. Later that year, editor Chris Polkki, who was just starting a new anthology called 'Blood Orange', asked Tobias to create stories for the issues 1, 2 and 4. Tobias started working on a long story entitled 'The Ninth Daily Mirror', which once again takes place in the fantastical world of the wizard Gaboon.
comic art by Tobias Tak
www.tobicomix.co.uk