'Cartoonication'. Translation: "I bought books to help us with the birth of our baby, darling! Look, I've specifically bought one for you with illustrations, tee-hee, isn't that fun?" - "Great... It takes away all the fun! Just like a video game guide. The entire experience is destroyed. Books only make it boring." - "You didn't consider that book with '69 Hot Tips' boring, that brought us into this situation!"
Jonas Depuydt, also known under the pen name Jopuy, is a Belgian spare time cartoonist. After doing some local illustration jobs and the commissioned comic book 'De 7 Schaken' (2023), he has been self-publishing his own 'Cartoonication' series (2024- ).
Early life
Jonas Depuydt was born in 1988 in the Flemish town of Duffel, and has spent most of his life in the nearby town of Hove, both in the region of Mechelen. Even though he comes from a family with some artistic interests, it was an uncle by marriage who gave him his first art training, a summer course in etching. However, Depuydt's interests were comics and cartooning, in which disciplines he is fully self-taught.
Early comics and cartoons
During daytime, Depuydt works in a local shop, spending his spare time doing cartoon and illustration jobs. His assignments have mostly included jobs for local entrepreneurs, organizations and private individuals, like a ski slope, the fire brigade and a bakery. While participating in a contest for Flair magazine, he developed a set of characters. He wasn't among the finalists, but did use his creations for a webcomic with saucy humor, called 'De Sleurders' (2012). He also had 25 copies of a print edition published, which he sold to friends.
'De 7 Schaken'.
De 7 Schaken
After several years with little production - family life intervened - Depuydt returned to cartooning more actively in the early 2020s. His childhood friend Mohamed El Kasmi approached him with the idea of making a comic for his Scum Studios, a non-profit organization helping young people of all backgrounds enter the media landscape. This resulted in the comic book 'De 7 Schaken' (2023), which combined Flemish folklore with the organization's goals. The book received some newspaper coverage, and was also put on sale in the Flemish Comics Center and Het Permeke in Antwerp.
Cartoonication
The Scum Studios experience left Depuydt with the desire of creating a comic of his own. For the local free newspaper Borgerblad, he drew a couple of gag strips with the characters 'Mo & Jo', which returned in his later comics. When he was invited to come and sign at a local comic convention, Depuydt decided to compile a "best of" comic book with his personal comic creations. This kicked off the self-published series 'Cartoonication' (2024- ), a banner under which Jonas Depuydt compiles his gag strips, cartoons and longer narratives.
'Cartoonication'. The black sheep throws away a "Ku Klux clock" since it spouts bigoted slogans at him.