'Doorsnee'.
Phaedra Derhore is a Belgian illustrator and comic artist, who first came to notice through her autobiographical graphic novel 'Doorsnee' (2018), an account of her struggle with obesity and her gastric bypass operation. Derhore is also active as an inker for the TV comic 'De Buurtpolitie' (2017), drawn by Nix and Benus. She additionally gives workshops in drawing and illustration to children and teenagers, as part of the organizations ColomaPlus and ArtForum.
Early life and career
Phaedra Derhore was born in 1990 in Bonheiden in the province of Antwerp. Between 2010 and 2013, she studied storyboarding and illustration at the Sint-Lucas School of Arts in Ghent, graduating with a bachelor in graphic design. She followed this up with studying comic design at the LUCA School of Arts in Brussels (2013-2019). In 2021, Derhore obtained an additional degree in pedagogy from the Royal University of Leuven (Louvain). After graduation, Derhore has worked as a freelance comic artist/illustrator, as well as drawing teacher, while also organizing Drink&Draw sessions in Louvain coffee bars. Among her commercial clients have been Curieus study guidance, FEMA/Feproma building materials, the 2020 Leuven archeology days, the online game 'The Black Lotus', the IT company Gonogo and the youth organization Jeugdwerk voor Allen.
Comic for the "Jeugdwerk voor Allen" organization (2020).
Doorsnee
As part of her master in Comic Design at LUCA in Brussels, Derhore created an autobiographical graphic novel titled 'De Omleiding'. The comic is an account of her lifelong struggle with being overweight. She sometimes got stuck in chairs, or had trouble maneuvering herself in crowded places. On top of that, people around her showed little empathy. Classmates taunted her at school, doctors scolded her for being "too fat" and random people, but also friends and relatives, made blunt comments. Derhore was 11 when she first went to a dietist, but these methods didn't help her. In 2016 she decided to undergo a gastric bypass operation. In her open-hearted graphic novel, she visualized how she was scared of the procedure and didn't feel encouraged by her friends and relatives. Even after the operation, she kept wondering if she had made the right choice, especially since she didn't instantly feel any different. Some people kept making insensitive remarks and she still worried about regaining weight. Derhore eventually changed the title of her story to 'Doorsnee' ("cross section"). It has a double meaning, since she was literally "cut in half" ("doorgesneden") during the operation, but also wanted to be perceived as a normal, or average ("doorsnee") person. After a chapter was pre-published in the November 2017 issue of the comic news magazine Stripgids, 'Doorsnee' (2018) was released in the graphic novel format by publisher Oogachtend.
'Doorsnee'.
In interviews, Derhore commented that the book was difficult to make, especially since she made it directly after her operation. Some memories and anecdotes were painful to put on paper, but she felt obligated to draw it all out, as part of her recovery process. Her main goal was not to motivate or demotivate people to have a stomach reduction operation, but to make them realize what it feels like being obese and judged by your body mass. She deliberately didn't reveal how much she actually weighed before and after the operation, since her graphic novel isn't about statistics, but emotional ordeals. 'Doorsnee' received excellent reviews for its emotional depth. People who also struggle with obesity or have undergone a gastric bypass operation praised her account as being open-hearted and very recognizable. Veteran comic artist Marc Legendre also complimented the book.
Phaedra Derhore stated that she likes drawing autobiographical stories, since they make her experience something touchable that nobody can take away from her. She feels there's a lot of power in fragility and openness, since people appreciate authenticity. This made her feel she's giving something back to her environment, while they, in their turn, inspire her. For Derhore, this interaction between author and reader is very important, since it can connect them through her experiences.
Autobiographical comic created during the coronavirus pandemic (2020).
Other comics
During the summer of 2021, Derhore was an artist in residence at the cultural center deBuren in Paris, France, drawing a couple of short comic stories, most notably 'Kopgeest' (2022). As she walked around in the City of Light, she noticed that even in a beautiful and busy city like the French capital, her busy thoughts didn't come to a halt. It made her realize that one simply can't turn off thoughts of concern. On the other hand, everybody around her also has an inner world, which she isn't a part of. 'Kopgeest' reflected on her personal feelings of worry and insecurity.
In 2022, Derhore announced she was working on a new graphic novel, with as working title 'Als Alles Goed Gaat' ("If Everything Goes Well"). The story deals with the so-called "coming of age experience" that all young people are supposed to go through. In reality, "becoming an adult" doesn't happen in a day and certainly doesn't end one's uncertainties, especially regarding your life path. While society expects somebody who is in his twenties to be "grown up", life doesn't get easier. Derhore describes it as a "quarter life crisis". A direct motivation for the story was the suicide of a good friend and the COVID-19 pandemic, which made many people reflect their own existence. Since suicide is still a taboo topic, Derhore felt it was a challenge to write and draw about it.
Illustration from 'De Vier Ussen' (2021).
De Buurtpolitie
In addition to her own comic projects, Derhore is an assistant inker for Ben De Wever (Benus) and Nix on the comic series 'De Buurtpolitie' (2017- ), based on the police TV series of the same name. 'De Buurtpolitie' follows the bizarre adventures of a Flemish neighborhood police station.
Book illustrations
Supervised by illustrator Riske Lemmens, Derhore wrote and drew her first children's book, 'Echt Waar, Geloof Me Maar' (2013), which remains unpublished. She also livened up the pages of Jef Lemmens' juvenile novel 'De Vier Ussen' (Pelckmans, 2021).
Teaching career
As a day job, Phaedra Derhore is active as a drawing teacher. She loves working with young people and stimulating their artistic impulses. Between 2016 and 2019, Derhore taught drawing and illustration to high school students, as part of the Publicity and Illustration course at the COLOMAplus secondary school in Mechelen. For the organization Artforum, she has also given workshops for children and teenagers on how to write and draw graphic novels. Working from a special studio in the City Hall of Leuven, youngsters make their own autobiographical comics, which are exhibited afterwards. A compilation of comics made by nine of her students was released in book format under the title 'Graph-ik' (Oogachtend, 2020). Derhore has also made one page-comics for the youth organization Jeugdwerk voor Allen.
'Flinke Jongen'.
Graphic contributions
Phaedra Derhore was one of 75 Dutch and Flemish comic artists to make a contribution to the free collective comic book 'Striphelden versus Corona' (Oogachtend/Uitgeverij L. 2020), a comic book in support of comic stores that had to close their doors for two months during the lockdowns at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She also participated with the 'Oude Werken, Jonge Schrijvers' (2022) project, where 18 young Flemish and Dutch comic artists drew a short story based on a painting exhibited in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum. Derhore picked out 'Still Life with Hunting Loot' (1818) by Georgius Jacobus Johannes van Os and titled her story 'Flinke Jongen'. All comics were posted on the website of the 'Maand van de Geschiedenis' ("History Month") and in Dutch, French and English on the 'The Low Countries' website.
Self-portrait.