Fred Julsing Jr.

Fred Julsing Jr. was the son of painter and comics artist Fred (or Frikke) Julsing Sr., who drew under the pseudonym Larry Morgan. As a very young artist, Fred Julsing won the prestigious Jacob Marisprijs, The Hague's municipal award for art. Immediately after that, he decided to start investigating the other love of his - the comic strip. He did so at the Toonder studios, which he joined in the early 1960s. After assisting Thé Tjong-Khing on 'Student Tijloos' and Jan Wesseling on 'Koning Hollewijn', Julsing became Marten Toonder's closest assistant in the production of the famous 'Tom Poes' newspaper strip. For six years he took care of the layouts and the sketches on that strip. At the studios, he has also worked on the series 'Kappie' and 'Panda', as well as his own 'Komkommertje en Martien', which appeared in the advertising magazine Journaal 2000 from 1970. In addition, he did comics and illustrations for Baljuw, Autovisie and Ariadne.

After this educational period the time had come to start a career under his own name. He joined the magazine Pep in the early 1970s, and after some 'Pepspotters', he came up with the series 'Wellington Wish' and 'De Broertjes Samovarof & Co'. After the disappearance of the magazine, Julsing began an extensive production for the magazines of the publishing house Malmberg: Okki, Jippo, Taptoe and Primo. He started new series, such as 'Witte's Dagboek' in Donald Duck and 'Tuimel en Ich' in Sjors en Sjimmie Stripblad. He also took on a comic based on the Dutch comedian 'André van Duin' in the TV magazine Veronicagids.

One of Julsing's most famous creations is the baby 'Ukkie', which he drew for the female magazine Margriet between 1983 and 1991. The character was also featured in several advertisements. In 1993 followed 'Pietsie & Pop en de Zonen van O' in Taptoe. Julsing adapted a considerable number of fairy tales to comics, such as 'Hans en Grietje' and 'De Rattenvanger van Hamelen'. 

In 1992 Fred Julsing barely escaped from the inferno caused by a crashed Martinair DC-10 in the south of Portugal. Realizing that this event represented the turning point in his life, he withdrew in order to "reinvent himself". After that, everything in his life changed, and he moved to California. He began making spiritual paintings and dealt with the experience of the disaster in 'Tien Jaren Net Niet Dood', which was published in Het Parool. Fred Julsing died in January, 2005.