'The Break-Out' (2011).
Joris Bas Backer is a Dutch comic artist and a visual artist, based on Berlin, Germany. He is also referred to as simply "Bas" or "Joris Bas", and up until 2017, he was known as Anna Bas Backer. Recurring themes in his work are identity, gender roles and melancholy. Bas Backer has contributed to many international fanzines and anthologies, and is the author of the autobiographical webcomic 'Familiejuwelen' (2013- ), a co-production with Nettmann. His full-length graphic novel about transgender identity, 'Kisses Für Jet', was published in 2020 in both German and English.
Early life and career
Born in 1981, Bas Backer spent his youth in different cities: The Hague and Oegstgeest in the Netherlands, Bucharest in Romania and New York City, USA. Between 1999 and 2003, he studied at the Rietveld Art Academy in Amsterdam and from 2001 until 2002 at the Rhode Island School of Design in New York. Since 2003, he lives and works in Berlin, Germany. His career began with making large paintings illustrating spaces and places devoid of humans. He first started experimenting with comics in documentary style drawings; later on, he used the comic format to comment on and criticize the work he did as a fine artist. He eventually turned to creating stand-alone comics and cartoons as well, centering around the themes "Sehnsucht" (a German phrase for a sort of "painful longing"), identity, gender dysphoria and gender roles.
'Jet Boy, Jet Girl'.
Group projects
From 2005 until 2010, Bas Backer was part of the art collective Palatti, that organizes art projects, residencies and exhibitions in specific locations. He left the collective to focus on his comic projects. He is co-author and co-founder of the project 'Chicks On Comics', an ongoing, online comics discussion between feminist artists from Argentina, Colombia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore and Latvia. Among the other artists involved in the project over the years are Clara Lagos, Delius, Maartje Schalkx, Julia Homersham, Powerpaola and Sole Otero, Lilli and Ulla Loge, Caro Chinaski, Fabiane "Chiquinha" Langona, Pixin and Zane Zlemeša. Backer's comics have also been posted on platforms like Pulp de Luxe and Drawing The Times, the Dutch website for graphic journalism, edited by Eva Hilhorst.
Zines and anthologies
Backer's work has appeared in self-published comic books like 'Jet Boy, Jet Girl' - a short story based on the lyrics of the 1977 Elton Motello single, also published in Argentina by Burlesque Ediciones - and in international fanzines like Renate (Berlin), Milk & Wodka (Switzerland), Larva (Colombia), Vinegreta (Colombia) and Gambuzine (Portugal). With Ulla Loge, he made the monthly 'Night Vultures' cartoon (2009-2010) for Exberliner magazine, and he also contributed stories and artwork to the Argentinian Fierro magazine, the 2010 Portuguese anthology 'Massive' and the German-French anthology 'Beton'. Since 2021, he makes a monthly comic column for the website of TRANS, an independent magazine with online and printed content created by a (trans)gender diverse team. A limited edition collection of short stories called 'Mates' was released in 2016.
Graphic novels
Living with a son since 2012, Bas Backer launched the biweekly online 'Familiejuwelen' (2013- ) comic strip with his partner and fellow cartoonist Bärnd Nettmann, sharing funny episodes from their everyday German-Dutch family life. A book collection was published in 2018 by Jaja Verlag. An 11-page story about teenaxe anxiety published on the Electrocomics platform ('The Break Out', 2011) formed the basis for Bas Backer's first full-length graphic novel. Inspired by the author's own experiences as a transgender, 'Küsse für Jet' (Jaja Verlag, 2020) is a "coming-of-gender story" about a teenage girl in search of her identity. The English translation, 'Kisses For Jet', was published by Nobrow.
'Familiejuwelen' (2017).