'De Smokkelaar' (2019).
Milan Hulsing is a Dutch illustrator, graphic designer and animator, as well as one of the most prominent graphic novelists of the Netherlands. Coming from the indie comics scene of the 1990s, with publications in Incognito and Zone 5300, his graphic novels reveal the author's large cultural background, ranging from literature and graphic arts to camp and pulp. Taking existing stories and novels and giving them a personal spin has resulted in a body of work in which the artist constantly reinvents his graphic approach. Recurring elements are however mankind's tendency to lie, scheme and frame, exemplified by the fraudulent civil servant in 'Stad van Klei' (2011), the comic book scam in 'De Smokkelaar' (2019) or the fantasies of Naomi in 'Spaans Rood' (2020), while the lasting effect of other people's actions are detailed in 'De Aanslag' (2015). Hulsing's pop cultural interests are also reflected in his cover illustrations for Schokkend Nieuws magazine, and his 'Fool's Gold' column with Frits Jonker in Zone 5300.
Early life and influences
Milan Hulsing was born in Amsterdam in 1973 as the son of a Czech mother and Dutch father. Both he and his older brother, the future animator Hisko Hulsing, inherited their creative talents from their grandfather, the former illustrator and writer Ber Hulsing (1907-1980). The communist Ber Hulsing and his first wife Uut had been prominent members of the resistance movement in the Zaan region during World War II, and were also writers and performers for the 't Gaat Goed cabaret of Jan Musch. His best-known song was 'Van Jou Heb Ik Niets Meer Gehoord' (1946), in which he reflected on the war years. As a communist during the Cold War era, Ber Hulsing quickly fell out of grace in the post-war cultural scene, but his artistry has lived on in his grandsons. It was his grandfather who introduced Milan Hulsing to the work of the Belgian woodcut artist Frans Masereel. World War II and the Cold War era have been recurring settings in his own work, as were themes like lies, propaganda and political interests.
However, it was a visit to family friends that proved life-changing for young Milan. While the adults were talking in the living room, he found himself in the library, where he was captivated by a large collection of comics. By discovering the work of Hugo Pratt, Moebius and Milo Manara, he understood that there were also comics for a mature audience, and it instantly made him realize he wanted to draw himself. During the early 1990s, he first studied at the Art Academy in Utrecht, but then made the switch to the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts, nowadays known as the Willem de Kooning Academy. Among his fellow students were the future comic artists Chris Berg, Luuk Bode and Michiel de Jong, as well as comic colorist Marloes Dekkers, who became lifelong friends. Hulsing graduated in 1994 with a comic story based on a Nabakov story, his first of many graphic interpretations of literary works. He subsequently studied Film and Theater Sciences, while making his mark in the Dutch indie comics scene of the 1990s. Among his early influences have been Frans Masereel, Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes and Jacques Tardi, followed later in life by Pascal Rabaté, interbellum graphic arts, Czech animation films from the 1960s and writers such as Bruno Schultz, Vladimir Nabokov and Franz Kafka.
'Another Schultz Story' (Incognito #7, April 1995).
Alternative comics
In 1994, Hulsing and his fellow students began contributing comic stories to the alternative comic magazine Incognito, published in Zaandam by Robin Schouten. His first story was the Frans Masereel-influenced two-pager 'Trauma', which ran in issue #6 in October 1994. He also participated in Incognito's chain comic 'Het Lieve Leven'. In 1996, Incognito published Hulsing's graduation project, the Nabokov adaptation 'Wolk, Burcht, Meer', as a special supplement to issue #10. Together with Chris Berg, Luuk Bode and Michiel de Jong, he also self-published the solo comic book 'From Beyond The Fridge' (1995). By 1996, Hulsing's work appeared regularly in Zone 5300, a pop cultural magazine from Rotterdam, edited by Tonio van Vugt. There, he experimented with several styles and narrative techniques, working either alone or as scriptwriter for Michiel de Jong.
During this period, Hulsing developed himself into a talented and imaginative storyteller, balancing his stories between the colorful and the dark, and between humor and perversity. With a venomous sense of humor, he poked fun at art, science at politics, but also of himself. A selection of these bizarre and often surreal stories appeared under the title 'Wat Fred Niet Wist' (Zet.El/Zone 5300, 2004). In the title story, the main character's world consists of dreaming about extraterrestrial life and unraveling conspiracy theories. Other stories feature a scientist will stop at nothing to complete his special collection of death songs ('Science Noire'), an illustrious society that studies the peculiar and idiosyncratic sides of art and science ('The Jetsetters') and a bizarre conspiracy involving socialist literature ('De Bloedelozen'). The final story, 'Daisy Gaat Uit Dansen', is a gruesome mix between sex and horror.
'Wat Fred Niet Wist'.
Collaborations with Michiel de Jong
During the early years of his professional career, Hulsing maintained a steady collaboration with his friend Michiel de Jong. They collaborated on short stories for Zone 5300, as well as the mini-comic 'Ode aan Wilhelm' (2000), which appeared in the Pincet series published by Peter de Wit and Hanco Kolk's imprint De Plaatjesmaker. For this collection, Hulsing also made the solo comic booklet 'De Grote Man' (2000). His best-known work as writer for Michiel de Jong has been the comic album 'Operatie Hanuman' (Oog & Blik, 2008), a story about climate change starring documentary maker Lana Planck. Between 15 June and 26 September 2006, the story was first serialized in the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.
'Stad van Klei'.
Stad Van Klei
For several years, Hulsing was asked during interviews when he would create a longer comic story, but he always answered it was hard for him to focus on one story and a single style for a long period of time. This changed in 2005, when he moved to Egypt, where his wife Tessa got a staff position with the Dutch embassy. Living on the island of Zamalek in the center of Cairo proved a true culture shock. The streets were crowded and noisy, chickens and goats were walking freely and there were hardly any sidewalks. When he eventually grew to appreciate and feel at home in Egyptian society, he decided to capture his impressions in his work, while using an allegorical story to tackle the country's corruption and bureaucracy.
Based on the novel 'Over The Bridge' ('Al-Khaldiya') by the Egyptian writer Mohamed el-Bisatie, 'Stad van Klei' ("City of Clay") tells the story of the civil servant Salem and his scheme to defraud the government. He invents an imaginary town along the Nile, called Khaldiya, and forges papers by the local police commissioner requesting for more government money. To keep up with his many lies, he builds a clay model of the non-existent town in his home. Gradually, Salem loses grip on reality, and is haunted by the town inhabitants he imagined. While the original novel had a toned-down style, Hulsing's painted graphic novel is a free interpretation of the story, using expressive colors that build up the story to an hallucinatory fever dream. Early episodes had been serialized in Eisner magazine in 2008. Published in graphic novel format by Oog & Blik/De Bezige Bij in 2011, the book's release unintentionally coincided with the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, resulting in additional media attention. 'Stad van Klei' was also translated into English and French. In 2021, a large-format edition with additional background material was published by Scratch Books.
De Aanslag
After five years of living in Egypt, Hulsing and his family returned to the Netherlands and settled in Delft. There, he began working on his next graphic novel project, this time using the 1982 novel 'De Aanslag' ('The Assault') by Harry Mulish as framework for his book. The novel tells the story of Anton Steenwijk, who is haunted by the consequences his family had to endure after a Nazi police inspector was killed in front of their house in the final months of World War II. Like 'Stad van Klei', Hulsing reinvented his graphic style, this time using orange and brown tones to emphasize the sultry atmosphere of the story, while using blue for flashback scenes. He also retold the story with a different chronology than in the novel, while adding symbolic and metaphorical elements to his visual style. In 2015, Milan Hulsing's 'De Aanslag' was published by Oog & Blik/De Bezige Bij.
'De Aanslag' (2015)
De Smokkelaar
Milan Hulsing's next graphic novel, 'De Smokkelaar' ("The Smuggler", Scratch Books, 2019) is set during the Cold War era, and took inspiration from the 'Octobriana' hoax. In 1971, the book 'Octobriana and the Russian Underground' presented a collection of subversive comics allegedly made by secret artist-cells from within the Soviet Union. The work claimed that Octobriana was a superheroine created by underground artists behind the Iron Curtain. In fact, all the comics featured in the book were reworked pages of stolen comic art by the Czech creators Bohumil Konečný and Zdeněk Burian - an attempt by the Czech deflector Petr Sadecký to gain fame and discredit the Communist Party in his home country.
In Hulsing's graphic novel, the writer Laszlo Rados flees to the West during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, taking with him a suitcase full of self-written comic strips, which however attract very little interest in the West. This changes when, after a few detours, Laszlo ends up in the Caribbean, where he meets the eccentric businessman Farkas. With a few adjustments, the smuggled science fiction adventures of Z.O.L.T.A.N. become political indictments against the communist ruler, supposedly made by a clandestine Eastern European artists' collective. The American press falls for the scam, and celebrates Laszlo as a heroic freedom fighter. In Eastern Europe, however, this news is also picked up, and has dire consequences for the actual artists of the original comic stories.
'Spaans Rood' (2020).
Naomi
One of the key characters from Hulsing's 'De Smokkelaar' is Naomi, a young girl with strong observational talents and the ambition of becoming a writer - in fact, she turns out to have been the narrator of the story all along. As she proved a fruitful source of inspiration, Milan Hulsing decided to create a spin-off series about her, inaugurated by the graphic novel 'Spaans Rood' (Scratch, 2020). In the harbor of St. Barnabas, Naomi spies on the arriving travelers, writes stories about them, which she then tells to her friend Katja and her teacher. Since then, Hulsing has created new stories with the Naomi character for Brul! magazine.
Voetsporen
Hulsing's 2025 graphic novel 'Voetsporen' contains adaptations of five short sci-fi stories by the Czech writer Karel Čapek (1890-1938), thereby introducing the writer's work in the Netherlands. Already a popular writer of sci-fi novels and plays - his 1920 play 'R.U.R.' popularized the word "robot" - Čapek began experimenting with short stories in 1929, and decided to write one a week for a year. These initially humorous anecdotes quickly evolved into humanistic tales mixing elements of humor, mystery and crime with the metaphysical and psychological sides of the sci-fi genre. Hulsing's pick was published in January 2025 by Concerto Books.
Cover illustrations for Schokkend Nieuws issues #126 (2017) and #165 (2023).
Pop cultural activities
In between graphic novel projects, Milan Hulsing has been working as an illustrator and columnist, often related to pop culture subjects. His illustrations and short stories have appeared in VPRO Gids, Hollands Maandblad, Academische Boekengids and the newspaper NRC Handelsblad. Since 2003, he is the regular illustrator for the cult film magazine Schokkend Nieuws, for which he has created many alienating and enigmatic drawings using a variety of styles. In 2022, a selection of his drawings for this magazine appeared under the title 'Donker en Onnatuurlijk' (Concerto Books, 2022). As avid collectors of curiosities and memorabilia, Milan Hulsing and Frits Jonker have been writing about their discoveries in the 'Fool's Gold' column in Zone 5300 (2002- ). In the Autumn 2011 edition the two editors even got six pages at their disposal which they filled with fun facts about golden age advertising key fobs.
Together with Edo Bouman, he released two compilation CD's with jazz-funk soundtrack music from Indian movie thrillers, 'Bombay Connection' (2006). In April 2007, this inspired Gerry Arling to bring the music to the stage with his Arling's Bombay Connection Band in Paradiso, Amsterdam. Milan Hulsing has also worked as a teacher in Drawing and Illustration at art schools in Rotterdam, Breda and Den Bosch.
Animator
As an animator, Hulsing has worked with the actress Sylvia Kristel (of 'Emmanuelle' fame) on the short 'Topor et Moi' (2004). The documentary revolves around cult cartoonist Roland Topor, who Kristel admired, and the Parisian art scene when Kristel started her career. Hulsing also provided the graphics for the 2005 documentary film 'Nou, Dat Was Het Dan!' by Dick Rijneke and Mildred van Leeuwaarden. In 2009, he released the hand-painted solo short 'Magic Show', a surreal tale about an illusionist couple. Through Cineventura, it played in several Dutch cinemas before the main picture, Tomas Alfredson's cult vampire film 'Let the Right One In/Låt den Rätte Komma In'.
Frame from: 'Magic Show' (2009).
Graphic contributions
In 1999, Hulsing was one of the Dutch comic artists with a comic story included in the massive 'Comix 2000' anthology by the French publisher L'Association. Hulsing was also one of the contributing artists to 'Mooi is dat' (2010) and 'Filmfanfare' (2012), two anthologies with comic interpretations of Dutch literary works and movies. In 2011, he took part in the Jan Hanlo Media Essay Prize with the comic essay 'Stille Chaos', which combined the contest's "senses" theme with the 2011 Egyptian revolution on Tahrir Square. His submission was nominated and included in the compilation 'Vijf zinnen - tien strips'. In 2012, Hulsing, along with several other Dutch artists, contributed to 'Bommel en de Bovenbazen', a collectively redrawn version of Marten Toonder's classic 'Tom Poes' story, serialized in NRC Handelsblad between 2 May through 21 September 2012. In addition, Hulsing contributed to the 2016 Oeverloos comic paper by Maia Matches, and the collective tribute comic album to André Franquin's 'Gaston Lagaffe', 'Gefeliciflaterd!' (Dupuis, 2017), and Ger Apeldoorn's 'Pep Nu' anthology (2024).
In 2024, Hulsing participated in the international exposition and graphic novel project 'Het Onvoorstelbare Verbeeld' (Scratch Books, 2024), telling stories from the Nazi concentration camps Neuengamme (Germany), the Dossinkazerne (Belgium) and Camp Westerbork (The Netherlands). The other participating artists were Guido van Driel, Erik de Graaf, Sterric, Jennifer Daniel, B. Carrot, Wide Vercnocke, Melanie Kranenburg, Tobi Dahmen and Jeroen Janssen/Arezoo Moradi.
Exhibitions
Since 2003, Hulsing's work has been included in several group exhibitions, not only in the Netherlands, but also in Budapest, Athens, Lucca and Brussels. Among the solo shows with his work have been an exhibition about 'Stad van Klei' during the 2012 Haarlem Comic Festival, one about 'De Aanslag' at the University of Amsterdam's "Special Collections" (2015) and the expo 'POP Portraits' in the Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum during the 2023 CairoComix festival in Cairo, Egypt. The release of his 2025 comic 'Voetsporen' coincided with an exhibition at the 38CC gallery in Delft.
Recognition
Over the years, Hulsing has been regularly awarded a "Stripschappenning" by the Dutch comic appreciation society Het Stripschap, starting in 2004 in the category "Dutch literary" for 'Wat Fred Niet Wist', and followed by 2008 "Best Album" awards 'Operatie Hanuman' (2008) and 'De Aanslag' (2016). His short film 'Magic Show' received the Audience Award Short Animation at the 2009 Holland Animation Film Festival.
Milan Hulsing.