Peer de Plintkabouter
Marq van Broekhoven was born in Eindhoven. He made his first appearance in the small-press comic scene of the mid-1980s with publications like Jack Cadillac Magazine, for which he used the pen name Don Minx. His first nationally published comic strip appeared in newsmagazine Forum (formerly the Communist newspaper De Waarheid) in 1991. After finishing school he enrolled at the Teachers' Training College, and he later also studied Dutch Language and Literature as well as Film and Performance Art. It was during these years that he met Anton Damen, with whom he teamed up in 1993. Together they created the comic character 'Peer de Plintkabouter', at first for a local broadcasting station, later for the Dutch comic magazines Sjosji and Striparazzi (1994-99).
Later on, the 'Peer' comic has appeared in the free daily newspaper Metro (2002-03), De Telegraaf (2004-05), and in the comic magazine MYX (2003-08). Several book collections have been published by Silvester. Also in 1993 Van Broekhoven and Damen were asked to lighten up the comics news magazine Zozolala with a humorous comic strip, which resulted in 'De Collectioneur', a corny strip about a comicbook collector. De Leidsche Stripshop published one book collection of 'De Collectioneur' in 1999. Magazine Incognito published Van Broekhoven and Damen's comic 'Fritz Pitz', which was later renamed to 'Fio Dio'. Marq's one-shot 'Bubbles' was also published under the Incognito label.
Jodokus de Barbaar - Een prinses ontsnapt (Eppo, 2010)
Marq also likes to draw experimental strips, like 'Stille Lijnen', a comic book which he self-published under the label Juttemis. Through Juttemis, he has also collected his work for Incognito, including 'Fritz Pitz', and the autobiographical comic 'Marq Denkt'. The latter has also appeared in StripNieuws until 2012, when it was transferred to Stripschrift. In January 2010, he began his continuing story 'Jodocus de Barbaar' in Eppo magazine. Like 'Peer', the character also originated in a radio play he and Damen had developed for the Nijmegen pirate radio broadcast Radio Rataplan. Eppo dropped the comic after one story however, but Marq has eventually housed both 'Jodocus' and 'Peer', as well as 'Marq Denkt', with the publishing house Strip2000 in 2011. He has worked as a primary school teacher since 1989 in both Nijmegen and Breda, and is also the translator for the Dutch collections of Hal Foster's 'Prince Valiant', published by Silvester.
In 2020 he joined 75 Dutch & Flemish comic artists to make a graphic contribution to the free collective comic book ‘Striphelden versus Corona’ (Oogachtend, Uitgeverij L, 2020). The book is intended to support comics stores who had to close their doors for two months during the lockdown at the height of the COVID-19 virus pandemic.
Marq Denkt