Jan van Haasteren

Jan van Haasteren began his comics career assisting Loek van Delden on the comic 'Smidje Verholen'. He joined the Marten Toonder studios in 1962, where he started out working at the animation department. He eventually joined the comics production. From 1963 to 1966, his main work was pencilling the strip 'Kappie'. He also illustrated numerous stories with the Disney character 'Hiawatha' for the Donald Duck weekly, as well as comics with 'The Flintstones'. Van Haasteren left Toonder in 1966, and joined the studios of Joop Geesink. There, he worked on the series 'Rick de Kikker'.

He started freelancing in 1966, and the Toonder studios remained one of his main clients. He began several series of his own, such as 'Bartje en Opa' (text by Patty Klein). He took over 'Polletje Pluim' from Dick Matena for a while, and did pencil work on the newspaper strips 'Horre, Harm en Hella' (1969) and 'Aafje Anders' (1970), as well as on five 'Panda' stories. In addition, he did promotional work for Joop Geesink's 'Loekie de Leeuw'. He cooperated with Patty Klein again on the strip 'Sjaak en Oom George', that appeared in the KRO Gids.

He was present in the magazine Pep from 1972, where he began the series 'Baron van Tast', which was scripted by Lo Hartog van Banda, Patty Klein and Frits van der Heide. He also drew an episode of 'De Argonautjes', as well as the gag strip 'Voortvluchtig'. He appeared in Donald Duck again, with 'Ketelbinkie' with a text by Wim Meuldijk and 'Ome Arie'. Van Haasteren began 'Tinus Trotyl' in Sjors in 1974. This series was later continued in Eppo, a magazine for which he also drew 'De Stuntels' in cooperation with Toon van Driel, and 'Brian en de Brainbox'.

In 1975, he created 'Erik en Opa' in Jippo (a new version of 'Bartje en Opa'), and cooperated on the critical magazine De Vrije Balloen. For this magazine, he took on pseudonyms like Harold Hurry and Jean Pion. During this period, Van Haasteren also took on several advertising assigments. Nowadays, Jan van Haasteren is best known for his Jigsaw Puzzles.