'Guardian' - 'Gillian '(Eppo #18, 2014).
Robbert Damen is a Dutch comic creator and illustrator. Since the mid-1990s, he has been a regular scriptwriter for a great many comic magazines, including Donald Duck, Tina, Taptoe, Wild van Freek and Eppo. As an artist, he is known for his gangster gag comic 'Snoek en Trawanten' (1999-2009) in Striparazzi, the graphic novel 'Guardian' (2012-2019) in Eppo and the children's comic 'Prinses Simone' in Tina (2017- ). Damen has additionally worked on comics on commission for both commercial clients and educational publishers, many of them in collaboration with the artist Daniel van den Broek ('Captain Ecki', 'Calamity Jane', 'Roar').
Early life and career
Born in Noordwijkerhout in 1971, Robbert Damen grew up as the son of a bulb grower in the so-called Dutch "Bulb Region" ("Bollenstreek"), known for its iconic flower fields. As a child, he was an avid reader of the comic magazines Eppo, Kuifje and Donald Duck. As his comic book collection grew, the artists that left the most lasting impression became André Franquin, Didier Conrad, Piet Wijn and Grzegorz Rosinski.
Starting in 1995, he began publishing his work in the Dutch indie comic magazines Impuls and De Stripper. Since 1998, he has been working as a freelance illustrator and comic artist under the banner Damen Illustraties, providing both scripts and artwork to a variety of comic magazines and educational publishers. In the early years of his artistic career, Damen combined his freelance activities with a day job in his father's bulb growing company. While his brothers eventually took over the family business, Robbert Damen fully focused on his creative work. While taking on a lot of commercial illustration jobs, he gradually secured himself a prominent role in the Dutch comic industry.
'Snoek' (Striparazzi 3, 1999). Translation: "So, if I understand well: this man blackmails you, commits adultery with your wife and..." - "ENOUGH!" Mr. Snoek, I want you to kill that bastard!" - "Mm, okay! How much will you pay for this?" - "4.000 bucks!" - "B... but, Snoek, what have you done?" - "The guy in the picture was here yesterday... and he offered more!".
Snoek en trawanten
Robbert Damen's first regular feature was the gangster humor comic 'Snoek en Trawanten' (1999-2009), which first appeared in the comic magazine Striparazzi, which folded four issues later. New episodes then appeared in De Stripper (1999-2002), the comic news magazine StripNieuws (2003-2007) and MYX (2008), as well as the online Stripster portal. In a 2009 comic contest held by free public transport newspaper De Pers, 'Snoek en Trawanten' made it to the final rounds, but didn't win. Since then, the comic has remained dormant.
Artwork by Robbert Damen for Donald Duck story H28243 (Donald Duck #21, 2016). © Disney
Disney scripts
In 1996, Damen wrote his first scripts for the Dutch Donald Duck weekly, and since 2007, he has been writing Disney comics on a more regular basis. Damen's scripts mainly star Donald Duck and his family, but he has also written occasional short stories with Madam Mim and Little Hiawatha. Early on, Damen illustrated a couple of stories himself, but soon discovered he didn't feel at ease with the Disney art style. By request of editor Jos Beekman, he has been writing more adventurous stories with Mickey Mouse and Goofy since 2014. For the occasion, the Disney mouse changed back to his original red shorts and more edgy character traits, leaving behind his goody-two-shoes image of the years before.
'Ten Cate & Co'.
Tina
In 2002, Damen made his first appearance in the girls' magazine Tina. Trying out a more realistic drawing style, he wrote and drew several stand-alone short stories between 2002 and 2007. Six short stories were part of the series 'Ten Cate & Co' (2003-2005), and starred a teenage girl destined to become a private investigator. Damen also wrote several stories which were drawn by other artists. In 2007, the editors requested Damen to develop a new comic series involving the young stars of a pop group. This resulted in 'SfinX', a feature drawn by René Bergmans, who eventually took over the scriptwriting duties as well between 2010 and 2021.
Illustrations for Taptoe #6, February 2010.
Taptoe Team
Besides the Sanoma magazines Donald Duck and Tina, Damen has also worked extensively for the magazines of Malmberg and Blink Uitgevers. In 2009, he was asked to develop a new set of characters to coincide with a full restyling of Malmberg's school magazine Taptoe. The 'Taptoe Team' concept was introduced in August 2009, and featured a gang of five heroes and a dog, who solve mysteries in each issue. Damen provided the scripts and some of the illustrations, while Sander de Fouw drew the comic stories. The duo also provided a gag strip starring the team dog, 'Odin Vraagt Zich Af...' ("Odin Wonders..."). The restyled Taptoe won the 2009 Mercur Award for "Crossmedial Concept of the Year". Damen and De Fouw remained responsible for Taptoe's mascots until the final issue in August 2016, by then published by Blink Uitgevers.
'Finn & Fab'.
Other magazine work
Robbert Damen and Sander de Fouw continued their collaboration in Taptoe's follow-up Wild van Freek, an educational magazine about wildlife, built around popular TV biologist Freek Vonk. Besides comic stories starring Vonk himself, they made a strip about his pet rock monitor, called 'Johans Wilde Avonturen'. Damen left the comic in early 2018, after which Pascal Oost took over the writing duties. Between 2013 and 2018, Damen succeeded Margreet de Heer as the writer of 'Stuntelman', another comic drawn by Sander de Fouw, this time for Blink's popular science magazine National Geographic Junior. Damen additionally created the soccer comic 'Finn & Fab' (2015), of which he wrote and drew seven episodes for Just Kick It! magazine of publisher Lef.
Guardian
Damen's most personal comic project was 'Guardian'. Introduced in the first 2012 issue of comic magazine Eppo, the Guardian is a 19th-century heroine with supernatural powers, fighting crime in a mystical Victorian age. The vigilante introduces herself as an inspector of Scotland Yard, but her background is actually shrouded in mystery. Over the course of the stories, the author gradually revealed more about her past. After several short and semi-long episodes, 'Ophelia' (2016) was the first full-length serial of 46 pages. The series has been collected in book format by Rob van Bavel's Uitgeverij L.
'Prinses Simone' (Tina #3, 2017).
Prinses Simone
In late 2016, Damen was once again approached by the Tina editors to develop a new regular comic series, this time about a princess who wants to be a normal teenager. Written and drawn by Damen, 'Prinses Simone' was introduced in early 2017. She is the crown princess of Eenderland, a state that has exactly one of everything: one city, one school, one soccer club, etc. The only child of king Bruno and queen Nova, she is forced into a royal straitjacket, but actually desires to be a "normal" teenager. She befriends Ché, the daughter of Eenderland's only republican, and develops a crush for the boy next door, the farmer's son Prince, while driving the country's only secretary of state Van der Reutel mad with her free-spirited behavior. Damen's daughter Emma provides the coloring. Since 2019, Personalia has published the series in book format.
Since 2025, in addition to his own series, Damen has been writing the Tina comic feature 'Dream Team', about two friends in a hockey team: one with a talent for sports, the other with the most vivid imagination. The artwork is provided by Lisa van Winsen.
Storm & Roodhaar
In early 2020, Damen wrote and drew a special story of 'Storm' on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of this Dutch science fantasy saga, created in 1975 by Martin Lodewijk and Don Lawrence. It was published in Eppo #11 of 2020. Since 2020, Damen has been writing new episodes of the spin-off series 'De Kronieken van Roodhaar' ("The Chronicles of Roodhaar"), of which the previous episodes were written for Eppo by Roy Thomas and then Rob van Bavel. The series is drawn by regular 'Storm' artist Romano Molenaar.
'Van Toen Tot Nu' - The Roman Limes.
Comics and illustrations on commission
Damen also works as a comic artist and illustrator for commercial clients, often with an educational mission. One of his regular clients has been Jora Vision, a firm developing new projects and concepts for the recreation industry. Over the years, he has created a great many coloring pictures, illustrations and sculptures for sports clubs, playgrounds, restaurants and schools. In 2003, Damen produced the comics and activity book 'Het Grote Kapitein Haak Avonturenboek' for the thematic restaurant Kapitein Haak in Leidschendam. He was aided on the inking by Robby van der Meulen. In 2007 and 2008, he created about a hundred illustrations for 'Ned Web 2.0' textbook of the Belgian educational publisher Van In. In 2013, Damen was the illustrator and comic creator of the two-volume book set 'Van Toen Tot Nu', a joint production of Studio Stampij and Big Balloon. The illustrated books with comic segments portray fifty important events, people and objects from the history of the Netherlands.
Collaborations with Daniel van den Broek
Since 2016, Damen has worked in a steady collaboration with artist Daniel van den Broek for many projects. Through the Jora Vision agency, they have made two comic albums with 'Captain Ecki', the mascot of the German holiday resort Tropical Island in Krausnick-Groß Wasserburg, Brandenburg. Damen and Van den Broek continued their collaboration at the educational publishing house Zwijsen, where they have worked on comic books aimed at readers with specific language levels. Also serialized in Tina, 'Calamity Jane' (2020) was about the childhood of the famous historical Wild West adventurer. 'Roar' (2020) was about a little Viking boy who can transform into a polar bear, and 'Piraat Bo' (2024) stars the adventures of a young pirate girl. For Zwijsen's 2023 Code D teaching method, Damen and Van den Broek have developed the gag strips 'Wiep Wakker' (for "People and Society") and 'De D3 Vlogcast' (for "People and Nature"). In 2024, Damen and Van den Broek created 'Piraat Bo', a comic booklet for early readers, published in the AVI collection of the educational publisher Zwijsen.
A more personal project of Damen and Van den Broek has been 'Jules Verne' (2021- ), about the childhood years of the legendary 19th-century science fiction writer. In April 2021, serialization commenced in the second issue of the short-lived Belgian comic magazine Maxix. Book publications were released by Menlu. The second installment, published in 2023, was awarded the prize for "Juvenile Album of the Year" during the Stripschap Prize awards at Forum in Groningen in March 2024.
'Storm' and 'Jules Verne'.
Studio De Egelantier
A couple of days a week, Robbert Damen shares a studio space with fellow comic creator Alex van Koten in De Egelantier, an old hospital building in the center of Haarlem. Until 2023, Michiel Offerman also worked in the same building, sharing a studio space with Gerben Valkema. The creative environment has resulted in several collaborations. Together with Offerman, Damen has made a tribute story to Martin Lodewijk's 'Agent 327' for the March 2017 issue of Eppo magazine. They have additionally worked on a revival of Dick Matena and Dino Attanasio's classic gangster comic 'Johnny Goodbye', of which new stories appeared in the 13th edition of Stripglossy magazine (2019) and the 2024 Pepnu anthology. With Van Koten, Robbert Damen plotted a couple of Disney scripts. In 2024, Damen and Van Koten also created a cross-over story of their own Tina features, respectively 'Prinses Simone' and 'May & Mam'.
As a team, the three men have created four comic booklets of 'KFC Smikkelburg' (2020-2021), distributed with the Kids Meals at Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. The assignment came through the editors of Donald Duck magazine at DPG Media, who were approached with the project by KFC Northern Europe. Since they couldn't use Disney characters, they developed a completely new concept and set of characters, presenting a fictional funny animal franchise of the fast food chain. Damen and Van Koten wrote the stories, with Offerman doing the art duties. Editorial sections were written by DPG's comic editor Bas Schuddeboom, while Emma Damen provided the coloring. Since then, Damen and his studio colleagues have collaborated on several other commercial comic assignments for DPG's Sales department, published as advertisements in magazines like Donald Duck, Zo Zit Dat and Kidsweek. One notable project was a special comic booklet for Center Parcs holiday villages, 'De Blijerheide' (2025).
Graphic contributions
In 2023, Damen was the first of several comic creators to create 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. In the special thematic issue of Tina dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Patty Klein and Jan Steeman's 'Noortje' comic (issue #18 of 2025), Robbert Damen created a special 'Noortje' episode in his own style as a tribute to the character's creators.
Robbert Damen, signing 'Prinses Simone' at the Tina Festival 2019.