'Prinses Aster' (2001).
Wilma van den Bosch was a staff artist for the Dutch Disney magazines from the 1980s until 2017. She wrote and illustrated comic stories with the Disney characters, and was the main illustrator for junior titles like Disneyland, Katrien and Donald Duck Junior. During her Disney period, she additionally made artwork for non-Disney magazines like Bobo and Tina, and created her own children's fantasy comic series 'Prinses Aster' (1999-2001). In addition, she has made illustrations for Disney merchandise, written and illustrated for children's books, and created comics as part of the Utrecht collective De Inktpot. Since 2022, Van den Bosch is one of the illustrators of the intricately detailed jigsaw puzzles produced by Studio Jan van Haasteren.
Early life and career
Wilma van den Bosch was born in 1956 in Welland, Canada, as the daughter of Dutch immigrants. Originally from the Dutch province of North Brabant, her father was an engineer working for General Motors. Based in Southern Ontario, not far from the Niagara Falls, he also owned a farm, which his wife tended by growing corn, raising pigs and dairy cows, and breeding racehorses. When their daughter was ten years old, the family got homesick and moved back to the Netherlands. Returning to their hometown of Sint-Oedenrode, her father Richard built the first public golf course in the Netherlands, Golfclub De Schoot, which opened in May 1972.
In the meantime, Wilma van den Bosch had gotten interested in comics through the work of Charles Schulz ('Peanuts') and children's book author Dr. Seuss. After graduating from high school, she studied for two years to become an art teacher, but never finished her education. For seven years, she lived near the Dutch Dodewaard nuclear power plant, where she had the opportunity to witness a large number of anti-nuclear rallies up close. During these years, Van den Bosch did many odd jobs to earn a living, alternating between roles as a carer, saleswoman, and cleaner. A 1983 interview with Morris in newspaper De Volkskrant made her realize that creating comics is actually a profession, which inspired her to pursue her own artistic career.
After writing the script for a full-length comic story and drawing the first couple of pages, Van den Bosch presented her work to the editors of Eppo magazine, who then referred her to the editorial offices of Donald Duck weekly further down the hall. After showing her work, she was asked by Disney art supervisor Ed van Schuijlenburg to write scripts for comic stories with Disney characters. In 1984, she sold her first script to editor-in-chief Thom Roep, and then continued to write for the magazine on a regular basis in the following years. Most of her initial stories were drawn by José Colomer Fonts, Dick Matena or Carol Voges, and had mostly B-characters in the lead role, such as 'Bucky Bug', 'Gyro Gearloose', 'Little Hiawatha', 'Pluto', 'Panchito' and 'Dumbo'. Several of Van den Bosch's stories also starred 'Witch Hazel' or 'Elmer Elephant', two more obscure characters from the Disney universe.
Timbuktu story from Donald Duck #28, 12 July 2002. © Disney.
Disney staff artist
From 1986 on, Van den Bosch started illustrating her own stories, starting with the character 'Little Hiawatha'. She eventually became a staff artist at the editorial offices of the publishing house VNU (and later Sanoma), where she has worked under supervision of Frans Hasselaar alongside such artists as Ed van Schuijlenburg, Michel Nadorp, Viktor Venema and Jan-Roman Pikula, throughout the decades. Van den Bosch has provided illustrations for covers and editorial pages in Donald Duck weekly, most notably the mail page, games and puzzles, funny articles from the Duckburg newspaper and the etymological section 'Weet Wat Je Zegt!' by editor Jim van der Weele. She also drew several crowded posters, most notably the ones with the 'Find the Four' theme in 2011 and 2012.
Although Van den Bosch mainly worked on illustrations for the weekly from the 1980s, she wrote and drew a notable series of stories about Donald Duck set in Timbuktu (1999-2001). Timbuktu (which is somewhat different from the real-life location in Mali) had been a running gag in many of Donald’s adventures before. Stories usually ended with him creating havoc in Duckburg and then fleeing to Timbuktu until things calmed down again, but long-time readers had never actually seen him visit this country before.
'Winnie the Pooh'.
Disneyland
Van den Bosch' main body of work during the 1990s was done for the preschool magazine Disneyland. She provided a great many illustrations, often with the character 'Winnie the Pooh', as well as the 'Disney Babies' comics feature (1990-1998), which starred Donald and his friends during their earliest years. The feature originated in France, where Claude Marin had been drawing installments of the 'Bébés Disney' since 1986. The Dutch gags had either scripts by Wilma van den Bosch herself, or by Pascal Oost. Between 1996 and 2002, she drew many spreads starring younger Disney characters like Huey, Dewey and Louie, April, May and June, and Mortie and Ferdi in several activity and fantasy settings. These drawings were reprinted in Donald Duck Junior from 2008 on.
"We dreamt our house was made of candy" (Donald Duck Junior #25, 2009, originally from Disneyland #7, 1999). © Disney.
Katrien & Donald Duck Junior
Between 1999 and 2006, Van den Bosch provided the core of the editorial artwork for Daisy Duck's own magazine Katrien, which appeared six times a year. This included most of the cover illustrations, as well as gag strips and stories starring Daisy and her nieces April, May and June. Van den Bosch wrote most of this material herself, or in collaboration with her partner Pascal Oost and the magazine's editor, Simone Ruitenbeek. Between 2008 and 2010, she also produced artwork for Donald Duck Junior, including games and puzzles with Ruitenbeek and a couple of stories written by the editors Jos Beekman, Jim van der Weele and Ferdi Felderhof.
Cover illustrations by Wilma Van den Bosch for the Dutch Disney weeklies Donald Duck (issue #16, 18 April 2008) and Katrien (issue #4, 2011).
Prinses Aster
Wilma van den Bosch is also the author of her own comic series 'Prinses Aster' (1999-2001). Aster is the princess of the small and isolated planet Eureka. Because her father, king Zolaf Leeuwenmoed, is afraid of the dark, the planet is always covered in light. Therefore the people of Eureka are not aware of the rest of the universe. Aster wants to know more and goes on a space trip with the help of astrologist Zenitnadir. Her quest to catch a star brings her to other planets, where she encounters colorful characters, including a gang of space pirates. Van den Bosch started working on the comic when her daughter was born. It took her and her partner and colorist Pascal Oost seven years to complete the project. Two long stories with the character were published in Donald Duck in 1999 and 2001, and then collected in book format by Sanoma and Silvester. The scripts for a third and fourth story have been written, but have remained unfinished.
Editorial strip from Tina #8, 2016. Translation: Puck:"Hey, the fans of Martina Stoessel are named 'Tinistas', haha!" - "We can give your fans the same name." - Tina: "Yes! And yours?" - Puck: "Good question, hm..." - Tina: "I know: 'Puckels!' ('pukkels' is Dutch for 'zits'). "Have mercy! Sorry, sorry, sorry! I simply blurted it out! Really!".
Non-Disney work (Bobo & Tina)
Besides her regular work for Donald Duck, in the 1980s Van den Bosch has also made illustrations for toddler's magazine Bobo. Between 2013 and 2017, she drew cartoons and comics with the mascot of girls' magazine Tina. Tina's new title comic was created by Jan Vriends and introduced in 2013. It stars a far younger Tina than the original mascot, who was canceled in 2010. From her home garage, Tina helps her parents to fill the magazine's pages, together with her friends Puck and Fabio. Van den Bosch has inked several pages penciled by Vriends in 2014, but has mostly made the weekly cartoons and gag strips for Tina's mail section, and special episodes for seasonal books and specials, all from scripts by editor Bas Schuddeboom.
'Greetings from Neverland' (Inktpot #12, 2007), featuring a cameo from the Shinigami from Tsugumi Ohbaen and Takeshi Obata’s manga series ‘Death Note’.
Freelance work
In 2005, Van den Bosch succeeded Wout Paulussen as the artist of 'Jan Kaman' (also known as 'Jan de Man'), a soccer comic created by Herman van Veen and written by Jan Bart Dieperink for the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB). She drew the comic for two years, until 2007, when the KNVB canceled its member magazines. Wilma was affiliated with Teken Mijn Verhaal (2000-2010), a foundation initiated by Gerrie Hondius to let comic artists draw stories created by children with a handicap. She has also contributed autobiographical stories to the Utrecht art magazine De Inktpot (2003-2007), to the ten-year anniversary book of the Kennemer Gasthuis hospital (2001), the homeless paper Straatnieuws (2007), the comics paper of the Dutch comic authors' association BNS (2010) and to the Martin Lodewijk issue of Stripglossy (December 2016). Together with members of the Inktpot team, Van den Bosch has contributed to 'De Halsdoek van Cunera' (2015), a collective book about the patroness of the city of Rhenen. In 2023, Wilma van den Bosch and Pascal Oost created a special four-page homage story for Eppo with Thom Roep and Piet Wijn's 'Douwe Dabbert' character, on the occasion of the character's upcoming 50th anniversary.
'Bartje Krulstaart' (from: BNS Stripkrant, 2010).
Children's books & illustration work
Wilma van den Bosch additionally writes and illustrates children's books. She has made the illustrations for 'Jack de Ruimteridder' (2016) and 'Vlucht Uit Het Spullenparadijs (2017) by Martine Glaser, 'Fien is een Vijfhoekje' (2017) by Nadja van Sever, and the children's songbook 'Het Grote Kinderliedjesboek' (2017) by Walter Verbeecke and Bettine van der Sluis. Her own story about the little monster 'Ikniet' ('The Notme') was released in the iStore in 2013. Together with Pascal Oost, she has made comics on commision, including the album 'Guus & Truus Maken Er (Meer) Werk Van' (2005) for the employees of De Meergroep, an agency for provision of sheltered workshops. Prior to this, in 1988, she had made the short comic story 'Gowo en het grote ruimteavontuur' for Golden Wonder crisps, in collaboration with Ed van Schuijlenburg.
Wilma van den Bosch has also drawn Disney merchandise for Hausemann & Hötte (Jumbo), Depa Disposables, Vadobag and Wings Sportsware. After she was declared supernumerary after a reorganization of her employer Sanoma in late 2017, she picked up photography. Since then, she has been experimenting with a series of photographics in comics style starring a puppet of her Notme monster, which she posts on her social media channels. In 2019, Van den Bosch also resumed her illustration work for Bobo magazine and in 2022, she joined Studio Jan van Haasteren, making junior editions of the famous Jan van Haasteren crowded jigsaw puzzles.
Recognition
In 2002, Wilma van den Bosch received the Stripschapspenning in the category "Best Dutch Children's Comic" for 'Het Licht van Eureka', the first 'Prinses Aster' album. On 15 January 2024, it was announced that Van den Bosch was the winner of the annual Stripschapprijs award, handed out by the Stripschap organization to celebrate an artist's entire body of work. The prize was handed to her on 16 March 2024 at the Forum in Groningen. At the same event, the Inktpot collective of which she is a member was awarded the P. Hans Frankfurther Prize for special merits.
Wilma van den Bosch in the Disney art studios in Hoofddorp (2016).