Ben van Voorn

After leaving school, Ben van Voorn worked as a lithographer apprentice at a printer, and enrolled as a student of the Graphic School. Fascinated by comics, he created 'Tom Tippel', which was published in magazine Libelle. The strip was inspired by 'Thijs IJs' by Marten Toonder, as van Voorn later realized.

After graduating, the artist traveled for a while through Holland, Germany and England, earning his living doing on-the-spot drawings. In 1948 he started working at Toonder Studios, and happened to have a good feel for Toonder's style.

In 1955, Ben van Voorn became a freelancer, but he was still mainly employed by Toonder. Besides illustrating many 'Tom Poes' daily comics and several commercial strips, van Voorn created a few characters himself. These are 'Donky Schot', 'Piet Mosk' (1945, about a little sparrow) and 'Pip en de Gouden Sleutel'. In 1969 he took a break from comics and traveled in the Middle-East and North Africa. After his return, Ben van Voorn devoted himself to painting and drawing until his death on 22 December 2004.