Jef Nys
Encyclopedia
Jozef "Jef" Nys was a Belgian comic book creator
. He was best known for his comic strip
Jommeke
.
, Belgium
in 1927. His family came from Koksijde
, at the Belgian coast, where his grandfather was a fisherman. Jef Nys' father Hendrik moved to Antwerp after World War I
, and worked in the port. He married Louise Van Den Bos on 5 August 1922. Her father was a council member in Berchem
and worked as a painter. He had a great influence on the young Jef. Hendrik and Louise Nys had four children, two of which died at a young age. Hendrik Nys died in 1941 when he was run over by car while riding his bike.
When Jef Nys was 5 years old, he went to school in Berchem. He was a good student and a better artist, and when he was 11 years old, he started with drawing classes in the evening at the municipal art school. The most important of his teachers were Lode De Maeyer and Oscar Depoorter, renowned painters. Another field he excelled in at school was writing essays and stories. Aged 13, he had to choose his field of study, and decided to go the technical school of Antwerp to become a technical engineer. Because he was still too young, he first had to stay one year at the technical school of Borgerhout
, where he again got very good results. He no longer had the time to go to the local art school, but continued to draw, making caricatures of the teachers, and portraits of pioneers in the field of electricity to decorate the classroom.
His teachers, seeing his talent, urged him to drop his technical studies and to focus solely on his art. In 1943 he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp, led by Baron Isidoor Opsomer, where one of his teachers was Jan Van Der Loo, a portrettist. Here Nys got the background and craftmanship that would serve him throughout his career. At the same time, Jef Nys started working at AFIM, a small animation study, with his fellow student Bob de Moor
and Ray Goossens
. But when the Academy became aware of this, he had to quit his job at the studio to stay at the Academy. He continued his studies until the Academy closed down due to the threat of V-1 flying bomb
s.
After the war, he started working at 't Pallieterke
, a satirical weekly newspaper, where he made cartoons, illustrations, and his first comics. As a child, Nys had seen Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
, and it had made a lasting impression on him. In 1947, this inspired him to send a letter to the Walt Disney Company with some samples of his work, hoping to be offered a job there. The Company was not seeking anyone at the time, but the rejection letter was otherwise very encouraging, stating that "Your work was extremely interesting and enjoyed very much by those in the studio who judged it[...]" and "It is the opinion of our art critics that your samples show considerable ability and properly developed and applied, you should go far in an art career" Between 1946 and 1955, he made some short-lived comics (both comic strips and stop comics) for different newspapers, mainly the Gazet van Antwerpen
. For Het Handelsblad he produced his first longer series, Amedeus en Seppeke. Meanwhile, he had to fulfill his military duty from 1952 until 1957, working every Saturday with the Air Defense.
Jommeke started on 30 October 1955 as a one page gag comic about a boy of about 6 years old, created for a very popular weekly parochial newspaper Kerkelijk Leven (a weekly circulation of over 500,000 copies on a population of less than 6 million), which had some redactorial pages (including the comic) for the whole of Flanders
, and local pages for every parish. The last page of Jommeke appeared in Kerkelijk Leven on 2 November 1958. These gags were collected in three books in 1957 and 1958. In the same newspaper he created 5 biographical comics between 1955 and March 1959, which also appeared as albums in those years.
When Jommeke started appearing in the daily newspaper Het Volk
on 1 November 1958, it changed into a comic story of 44 pages about an 11 year old, with his friends and family. Every day, he made 2 strips, in the tradition of the Flemish newspaper comics like Spike and Suzy
and Nero, but aimed at a younger audience and with fewer political comments. The series was partially based on his older series Amedeus en Seppeke, reusing some characters and story lines. He also continued the production of biographical, more realistic stories, which are now published in 't Kapoentje, the weekly juvenile supplement to Het Volk. The last of the seven appeared in 1964.
Nys also started in 1963 the fairytale comic Langteen en Schommelbuik (Longtoe and Wobblebelly), which ended after 11 stories because the work on Jommeke became too time consuming. The stories, a spin-off of some figures from the 14th story of Jommeke, were a result of his fascination with the work of Disney. They reappeared in the 168th Jommeke story. Apart from the continuous stories in the newspaper, a few hundred weekly Jommeke gags appeared on the back cover of the Flemish comic magazine Ohee.
When in 1965 Marc Sleen
left Het Volk, Jef Nys took over his series De lustige kapoentjes for two years. After this, he worked solely on Jommeke. The series became one of the most popular in Flanders, with loads of merchandising and surrounding publications. A 1967 low budget movie did not become a huge success, with some 30,000 viewers. But the comics sold more each year, raising from 350,000 copies in 1965 to 1 million in 1970. Every year since, at least 1 million copies have been sold, and in 1976 and 1979 more than 2 million Jommeke books were sold. Every new book has an initial printing of some 100,000 copies. The first album, De jacht op een voetbal, is the most often reprinted, with 23 reprints and a total of 448,000 copies sold in 2005. From 1971 on, Jef Nys could no longer handle all the work alone and started using contributors, at first as inker
s, later also for the writing and drawing of the stories. Nevertheless he would personally follow up all the work, often taking home drawings to correct them, until very close to his death in 2009. This tight control over Jommeke will reach beyond his demise, since he specified in his testament that the series should be continued, alongside a list of specifications that would guard the overal spirit of the Jommeke universe (no violence, no sexual content, no changes to the overal appearance of the protagonists...). From 1989 until 2005, the weekly youth supplement of Het Volk was called the Jommekeskrant.
Nys worked for many years solely for Catholic newspapers and magazines, and produced many biographies of religious figures. However, in 1970, he and his wife divorced and broke up with the Catholic Church.
As of October 2009, 248 albums and more than 50 million copies of Jommeke have been sold. Although some of the comics have been translated in French ("Gil et Jo"), English ("Jeremy") and German ("Peter und Alexander"), the series has only been truly successful in Flanders, where Nys was considered as one of the four great comic artists, together with Willy Vandersteen
, Marc Sleen
and Bob de Moor
.
Comic book creator
A comic book creator is someone who creates a comic book or graphic novel.The production of a comic book by one of the major comic book companies in the U.S...
. He was best known for his comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Jommeke
Jommeke
Jommeke is the name of a Flemish comic book series and of its main character. It deals with the adventures of Jommeke, a boy of about 11 years old and his friends. The creator of Jommeke was Jef Nys.-History:...
.
Biography
Jozef Nys was born in BerchemBerchem
The 'Ring', Antwerp's circular motorway which follows the track of the former city defense walls, cuts Berchem in two parts, separating the urban inner city area of Oud-Berchem from the more residential and suburban areas Groenenhoek en Nieuw Kwartier .-Demography:Berchem's total surface is over ,...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
in 1927. His family came from Koksijde
Koksijde
Koksijde is a municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders on the North Sea coast, at the southwest side. It comprises the towns of Koksijde proper, Oostduinkerke, St-Idesbald and Wulpen.-Statistics:...
, at the Belgian coast, where his grandfather was a fisherman. Jef Nys' father Hendrik moved to Antwerp after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and worked in the port. He married Louise Van Den Bos on 5 August 1922. Her father was a council member in Berchem
Berchem
The 'Ring', Antwerp's circular motorway which follows the track of the former city defense walls, cuts Berchem in two parts, separating the urban inner city area of Oud-Berchem from the more residential and suburban areas Groenenhoek en Nieuw Kwartier .-Demography:Berchem's total surface is over ,...
and worked as a painter. He had a great influence on the young Jef. Hendrik and Louise Nys had four children, two of which died at a young age. Hendrik Nys died in 1941 when he was run over by car while riding his bike.
When Jef Nys was 5 years old, he went to school in Berchem. He was a good student and a better artist, and when he was 11 years old, he started with drawing classes in the evening at the municipal art school. The most important of his teachers were Lode De Maeyer and Oscar Depoorter, renowned painters. Another field he excelled in at school was writing essays and stories. Aged 13, he had to choose his field of study, and decided to go the technical school of Antwerp to become a technical engineer. Because he was still too young, he first had to stay one year at the technical school of Borgerhout
Borgerhout
Borgerhout is a district of the municipality and city of Antwerp in the Flemish Region of Belgium. The district houses 41,614 inhabitants reflecting 90 nationalities...
, where he again got very good results. He no longer had the time to go to the local art school, but continued to draw, making caricatures of the teachers, and portraits of pioneers in the field of electricity to decorate the classroom.
His teachers, seeing his talent, urged him to drop his technical studies and to focus solely on his art. In 1943 he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp, led by Baron Isidoor Opsomer, where one of his teachers was Jan Van Der Loo, a portrettist. Here Nys got the background and craftmanship that would serve him throughout his career. At the same time, Jef Nys started working at AFIM, a small animation study, with his fellow student Bob de Moor
Bob de Moor
Bob de Moor is the pen name of Robert Frans Marie De Moor , a Belgian comics creator. Chiefly noted as an artist, he is considered an early master of the Ligne claire style. He wrote and drew several comics series on his own, but also collaborated with Hergé on several volumes of The Adventures of...
and Ray Goossens
Ray Goossens
Ray Goossens was a Flemish artist, animator and director best known for creating Musti.-Biography:Ray Goossens was born in Merksem, Belgium in 1924. Interested in animation from before World War II, he created the animation studio AFIM in Antwerp in 1940, together with Jules Luyckx and Henri...
. But when the Academy became aware of this, he had to quit his job at the studio to stay at the Academy. He continued his studies until the Academy closed down due to the threat of V-1 flying bomb
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb, also known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile....
s.
After the war, he started working at 't Pallieterke
't Pallieterke
t Pallieterke is a satirical Flemish weekly. It is part of the Flemish movement and advocates Flemish independence. It is largely conservative in its editing, and although officially non-partisan, it is a close supporter of the far-right party Vlaams Belang....
, a satirical weekly newspaper, where he made cartoons, illustrations, and his first comics. As a child, Nys had seen Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
, and it had made a lasting impression on him. In 1947, this inspired him to send a letter to the Walt Disney Company with some samples of his work, hoping to be offered a job there. The Company was not seeking anyone at the time, but the rejection letter was otherwise very encouraging, stating that "Your work was extremely interesting and enjoyed very much by those in the studio who judged it[...]" and "It is the opinion of our art critics that your samples show considerable ability and properly developed and applied, you should go far in an art career" Between 1946 and 1955, he made some short-lived comics (both comic strips and stop comics) for different newspapers, mainly the Gazet van Antwerpen
Gazet van Antwerpen
The Gazet van Antwerpen is a Belgian newspaper in Antwerp and Flanders, published by Concentra.-History:...
. For Het Handelsblad he produced his first longer series, Amedeus en Seppeke. Meanwhile, he had to fulfill his military duty from 1952 until 1957, working every Saturday with the Air Defense.
Jommeke started on 30 October 1955 as a one page gag comic about a boy of about 6 years old, created for a very popular weekly parochial newspaper Kerkelijk Leven (a weekly circulation of over 500,000 copies on a population of less than 6 million), which had some redactorial pages (including the comic) for the whole of Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
, and local pages for every parish. The last page of Jommeke appeared in Kerkelijk Leven on 2 November 1958. These gags were collected in three books in 1957 and 1958. In the same newspaper he created 5 biographical comics between 1955 and March 1959, which also appeared as albums in those years.
When Jommeke started appearing in the daily newspaper Het Volk
Het Volk (newspaper)
Het Volk was a Belgian newspaper that focused on "news with a human undertone".-Mission statement:"You will find what you are looking for in Het Volk, the only newspaper where people really make the news. You will read everything on small and big events in your neighborhoods, your cities and far...
on 1 November 1958, it changed into a comic story of 44 pages about an 11 year old, with his friends and family. Every day, he made 2 strips, in the tradition of the Flemish newspaper comics like Spike and Suzy
Spike and Suzy
Spike and Suzy, the British title for Suske en Wiske in Dutch, is a comics series created by the Belgian comics author Willy Vandersteen. The strip is known as Bob et Bobette in French and Willy and Wanda in the U.S. It was first published in De Nieuwe Standaard in 1945 and soon became popular...
and Nero, but aimed at a younger audience and with fewer political comments. The series was partially based on his older series Amedeus en Seppeke, reusing some characters and story lines. He also continued the production of biographical, more realistic stories, which are now published in 't Kapoentje, the weekly juvenile supplement to Het Volk. The last of the seven appeared in 1964.
Nys also started in 1963 the fairytale comic Langteen en Schommelbuik (Longtoe and Wobblebelly), which ended after 11 stories because the work on Jommeke became too time consuming. The stories, a spin-off of some figures from the 14th story of Jommeke, were a result of his fascination with the work of Disney. They reappeared in the 168th Jommeke story. Apart from the continuous stories in the newspaper, a few hundred weekly Jommeke gags appeared on the back cover of the Flemish comic magazine Ohee.
When in 1965 Marc Sleen
Marc Sleen
Marcel Honoree Nestor, Knight Neels , known with his pseudonym Marc Sleen, is a Flemish/Belgian comics artist and cartoonist. He is mostly known for his comic The adventures of Nero and co.-Biography:...
left Het Volk, Jef Nys took over his series De lustige kapoentjes for two years. After this, he worked solely on Jommeke. The series became one of the most popular in Flanders, with loads of merchandising and surrounding publications. A 1967 low budget movie did not become a huge success, with some 30,000 viewers. But the comics sold more each year, raising from 350,000 copies in 1965 to 1 million in 1970. Every year since, at least 1 million copies have been sold, and in 1976 and 1979 more than 2 million Jommeke books were sold. Every new book has an initial printing of some 100,000 copies. The first album, De jacht op een voetbal, is the most often reprinted, with 23 reprints and a total of 448,000 copies sold in 2005. From 1971 on, Jef Nys could no longer handle all the work alone and started using contributors, at first as inker
Inker
The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book or graphic novel. After a pencilled drawing is given to the inker, the inker uses black ink to produce refined outlines over the pencil lines...
s, later also for the writing and drawing of the stories. Nevertheless he would personally follow up all the work, often taking home drawings to correct them, until very close to his death in 2009. This tight control over Jommeke will reach beyond his demise, since he specified in his testament that the series should be continued, alongside a list of specifications that would guard the overal spirit of the Jommeke universe (no violence, no sexual content, no changes to the overal appearance of the protagonists...). From 1989 until 2005, the weekly youth supplement of Het Volk was called the Jommekeskrant.
Nys worked for many years solely for Catholic newspapers and magazines, and produced many biographies of religious figures. However, in 1970, he and his wife divorced and broke up with the Catholic Church.
As of October 2009, 248 albums and more than 50 million copies of Jommeke have been sold. Although some of the comics have been translated in French ("Gil et Jo"), English ("Jeremy") and German ("Peter und Alexander"), the series has only been truly successful in Flanders, where Nys was considered as one of the four great comic artists, together with Willy Vandersteen
Willy Vandersteen
Willy Vandersteen was a Belgian creator of comic books. In a career spanning 50 years, he created a large studio and published more than 1,000 comic albums in over 25 series, selling more than 200 million copies worldwide....
, Marc Sleen
Marc Sleen
Marcel Honoree Nestor, Knight Neels , known with his pseudonym Marc Sleen, is a Flemish/Belgian comics artist and cartoonist. He is mostly known for his comic The adventures of Nero and co.-Biography:...
and Bob de Moor
Bob de Moor
Bob de Moor is the pen name of Robert Frans Marie De Moor , a Belgian comics creator. Chiefly noted as an artist, he is considered an early master of the Ligne claire style. He wrote and drew several comics series on his own, but also collaborated with Hergé on several volumes of The Adventures of...
.
Awards and honours
- 1988: A first Jommeke statue in BeverenBeverenBeveren is a municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Beveren proper, Doel, Haasdonk, Kallo, Kieldrecht, Melsele, Verrebroek and Vrasene....
, Belgium - 1992: Honorary citizen of KoksijdeKoksijdeKoksijde is a municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders on the North Sea coast, at the southwest side. It comprises the towns of Koksijde proper, Oostduinkerke, St-Idesbald and Wulpen.-Statistics:...
, Belgium - 1995: Honorary citizen of DurbuyDurbuyDurbuy is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Luxembourg. On 1 January 2007 the municipality had 10,633 inhabitants. The total area is 156.61 km², giving a population density of 67.9 inhabitants per km²....
, Belgium - 1997: A statue of Jommeke in MiddelkerkeMiddelkerkeMiddelkerke is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders, on the North Sea, west of Ostend. The municipality comprises the towns of Leffinge, Lombardsijde, Mannekensvere, Middelkerke proper, Schore, Sint-Pieters-Kapelle, Slijpe, Westende and Wilskerke. On January 1, 2006...
, Belgium - 1997: A stamp issued by the Belgian Post
- 1998: A medal issued by the Belgian National Bank
- 1998: A statue of Jommeke in TemseTemseTemse is a municipality located in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium, and in the Flemish province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Elversele, Steendorp, Temse proper and Tielrode. On January 1, 2006 Temse had a total population of 26,287...
, Belgium - 2005: Gouden AdhemarBronzen AdhemarThe Bronzen Adhemar is the official Flemish Community Cultural Prize for Comics, given to a Flemish comics author for his body of work. It is awarded by the Flemish Ministry of Culture during Strip Turnhout, the major Flemish comics festival, once every two years...
at Strip Turnhout, Belgium, for his entire career - 2005: A mosaicMosaicMosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
of Jommeke in WilrijkWilrijkWilrijk is a district of the municipality and city of Antwerp in the Flemish Region of Belgium. Wilrijk had been a separate municipality before January 1, 1983; the enlarged municipality of Antwerp was decentralized in 2000 and Wilrijk became one the city's nine districts.This suburb is also known...
, Belgium - 2006: A statue of Annemieke and Rozemieke (from the Jommeke comic) in Middelkerke
- 2006: A bas-relief of Jommeke in Temse
Resources
- Danny De Laet (1981), De geesteskinderen van Jef Nys, in De avonturen van Amadeus en Seppeke! page 171-176, Antwerpen, De Dageraad. ISBN 90-6371-121-2
External links
- Alan Hope, "Face of Flanders - Jef Nys" - article in Flanders Today