'De Grootste Explosie ter Wereld' ("The Biggest Explosion in the World", Sjors #47, 20 November 1965).
Ben Bulters is a Dutch painter and illustrator, who worked during the 1950s and 1960s at the art studio of the publishing house De Spaarnestad. There, he provided artwork to educational spreads features like 'Dagboek van de Geschiedenis' (1963-1964) and 'Wist Je Dat' (1965-1966) in Sjors magazine. He later turned to the marketing side of magazine publishing.
Cover drawings for Sjors #1 and #6 of 1960. At the time, the 'Sjors' comic in the magazine was drawn by Carol Voges, but sometimes the in-house studio artists did fill-in jobs.
Early life and career
Born in 1936, Ben Bulters had an early interest in visual arts. Even though he didn't finish his education at the Academy of Fine Arts, he was trained to become a drawing teacher, but he never worked in this profession. In the second half of the 1950s and during the 1960s, he was a staff illustrator with the publishing house De Spaarnestad, eventually part of the VNU publishing group. Based at the publisher's art studio at the Nassauplein in Haarlem, he worked alongside fellow in-house artists as Harry Balm, Bert Bus, Nico van Dam, Ab Schatorjé and Ruud Looman. Under supervision of Frans Piët and later Schatorjé, they provided the magazines of De Spaarnestad with illustrations and comics.
One of Bulters' three spreads about horses (Sjors #1, 1963).
Sjors magazine
Just like his colleagues Balm and Bus, Ben Bulters was a regular illustrator for the comic magazine Sjors. In the late 1950s, he illustrated text stories, and also provided cover drawings with the magazine's title character, whose comic adventures at the time were drawn by Carol Voges. Several of Bulters' cover drawings had a sequential narrative. In addition, he illustrated many educational spreads about history, geology and science for the magazine, for instance a series about horses (issue #51-1962 through #1-1963). Among his recurring features were the geological quiz 'Wereldquiz' (appearing irregularly in 1962-1963 issues) and the weekly section 'Dagboek van de Geschiedenis' ("History's Diary", 1963-1964), which chronologically presented illustrated historical facts. In 1965-1966, he created several pages with historical fun facts, often sequentially told.
'Wereldquiz' (Sjors #3, 1963) and 'Dagboek van de Geschiedenis' (Sjors #9, 1963), two of Ben Bulters' recurring features in Sjors.
Later life
From his illustration work, Bulters shifted towards advertising and eventually marketing. When the VNU youth magazines were grouped in the Oberon division, Bulters became magazine manager. Over the years, he was responsible for the marketing of over 30 VNU magazines and book projects. His best-known association has been with the Dutch edition of Playboy magazine.
In his spare time, Bulters began painting nudes, an activity he has continued after his retirement. During the 1980s, his son Marc was a graphic designer for comic magazines like Donald Duck, Donald Duck Extra and Eppo Wordt Vervolgd, as well as comic books published by Big Balloon. Since then, Marc Bulters has worked for a great many magazines, most notably Autoweek.
'Wist je dat...' from Sjors #41, 8 October 1966.