Tom Bouden

Tom Bouden started drawing at an early age. He began in the early 80s, by winning a comics contest for children at the BRT. During his school years, he cooperated on several schoolpapers. He also won a comics contest of the weekly De Volksmacht. Bouden studied animation in Ghent from 1989. He developed the comics character 'Boudewijn de Grom', of which some pages are published in albums later on. While drawing for an advertisement campaign, Bouden created the characters 'Max en Sven'. These characters are featured in the gay papers ZiZo in Belgium and Expreszo in Holland since the early 1990s. The first book collections appeared in 1994.

From 1997, he draws the series 'Max en Karel' in the Gay Krant. From 2000, his gay work is featured in the German magazines Queer and Freshmen, as well as the British DNA Magazine and the Dutch Gay & Night. His gay comics are collected in the album series 'Flikkerzicht'.

In addition to his adult work, Bouden has worked in mainstream comics. He started writing Disney stories for Donald Duck weekly in 1997. He has also written for theatre plays and television shows. He worked as the assistant of Hec Leemans on 'FC De Kampioenen' since 1998. Bouden has also written for 'Les Schtroumpfs' and 12 books in the series 'En Daarmee Basta!' for Swerts and Vanas.

In 2002, Bouden created a comic about songfestival contestant Sergio, and he wrote and drew the first 'Kid City' album, based on the website www.kidcity.be. In 2003 his comic 'De Lichtrode Ridder' appeared, created in cooperation with Kim Duchateau. In 2010 he released 'Boelie en Kroepie Boemboem', a comic featuring a revival of Pom's classic characters 'Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber'.

In 2011 he revived yet another classic from Flemish comics history, when he bought the rights to the title of 'De Lustige Kapoentjes'. Bouden created a cast of new characters for this children's gang, and gave them a supporting role in his 'Kroepie en Boelie' albums, while hiding small tributes to the previous creators and albums in his panels.