'Heftige Hersens'.
Jan Bart Dieperink is a Hilversum-based Dutch designer, illustrator and cartoonist who has worked as a "creative consultant" under the banner Crazie Dutch Men since 2000. His best-known comics projects are his newspaper strip with comedian Herman van Veen's clown persona 'Hermanus' (2001-2005) and the educational graphic novels about adolescents' brains, 'Heftige Hersens!' (2013) and 'Voor De leeuwen!' (2016). Dieperink also caused controversy with a tongue in cheek graphic novel about Jesus, titled 'Jezus Christus Was Een Meisje' (2018), which became the subject of a fierce boycott by Christian organization CitizenGO.
Crazie Dutch Men
Born in Hilversum in 1969, Dieperink is a completely self-taught artist. At his tenth birthday, he was surprised with a guide through the legendary Toonder Studio's. It certainly fuelled his ambitions to become a comic artist himself, but he initially chose another career path in sales. He kept on drawing in his spare time however, and by 2000 he took the plunge and began working as a designer and illustrator as Crazie Dutch Men. He has illustrated children's books and worked for the weekly magazine Nieuwstribune, the monthly Starstyle, Amsterdam magazine and CJP Magazine, among other clients. To complement his income, he continued to give sales training for service personnel in shops and the catering industry.
'Hermanus'.
Collaborations with Herman van Veen
As a youngster, Dieperink already had a fascination for the humor of the Dutch singer/performer Herman van Veen. Van Veen often performed as a clown in a checkered black-and-white jacket, which inspired Dieperink to do a celebrity comic about this persona. Luckily, Van Veen was interested too, and in November 2001, the 'Hermanus' character was first presented to the public in Van Veen's humor booklet 'Grappen en Grimassen'. About 800 'Hermanus' strips were published in Het Utrechts Nieuwsblad and other regional papers of the Wegener publishing group. The playful and surreal gags starring the Dutch comedian with a clown's nose and aforementioned jacket were first collected in a landscape format-shaped booklet by Stripstift, with both a Dutch and a German edition in 2007. The publishing house Strip2000 released four new collections in 2015-2016. Dieperink has additionally cooperated with animator Martin Jan van Santen on three animated pilots with Van Veen's clown persona.
Beteeen 2005 and 2007, Dieperink also provided the scripts for Van Veen's soccer comic 'Jan Kaman' (or 'Jan de Man'), which appeared in De Bal, a members magazine of the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB). When Wout Paulussen, the artist since 2001, left the comic, Dieperink initially drew a couple of episodes himself, before Wilma van den Bosch became the comic's artist. Dieperink is also involved in other concepts for theater shows, musical performances and animated films by the Herman van Veen Studio's.
'Hermanus'.
Collaborations with Mark Mieras
Jan Bart Dieperink has collaborated with scientific journalist Mark Mieras on several educational books about the adolescent mind. The first was the graphic novel 'Heftige Hersens!' (Nieuw Amsterdam, 2013), which gave insights into the different activities in the busy brains of adolescents in documentary format. Why do they fall in love, become jealous or in doubt about their bodies? Visual artist Laura Laaroo provided the coloring and graphic design. The book was presented in the Stadsschouwburg city theater of Amsterdam where young actors performed scenes from the book on stage. This interactive show has been revived several times. An updated edition was released by Bazalt in 2019. Dieperink and Mieras' next collaboration was 'Voor de Leeuwen!' (Van Gorcum, 2016), a guide book for teachers to become self-assured in their work by understanding the ways and means of their young students. Teacher and author Marijke van Dijk served as a consultant.
Jezus Christus Was Een Meisje
In 2018, Crazie Dutch Men self-published Dieperink's spoof on religion, the "unorthodox, satirical and happy blasphemous" book 'Jezus Christus Was Een Meisje' ("Jesus Christ was a Little Girl"). Inspired by the classic film 'Monty Python's Life of Brian' (1979) and the American saying "Don't be such a little girl about it!", it presents an alternative reading of the historical Jesus in his younger years, when he would have been a woman. In December 2018, it was festively presented in the Rotterdam bookstore Donner, with a speech by the journalist Nico Haasbroek.
The book caused controversy when supermarket chain Dirk offered it as a prize in a contest in the December 2019 issue of its monthly Ditjes en Datjes. Conservative Christian organization CitizenGO was outraged by the action, and threatened it would incite its members to do their groceries elsewhere if Dirk wouldn't stop promoting the book. When a petition was signed 20,000 times, the supermarket offered its apologies and withdrew from further promotion. CitizenGO then targeted the Bol.com online store that had Dieperink's book for sale. In the December 2021 issue of the comic news magazine Stripschrift, Dieperink wrote an amusing account of all the buzz around his book, explaining that very few understood the pun of the title and that none of the Christian organizations that attacked the book had never even seen the book or tried to contact him. Readers of Stripschrift were finally offered the opportunity to win one of the three(!) copies of 'Jezus Christus Was Een Meisje' from the contest that the Dirk supermarket never followed up on.
'Jezus Christus Was Een Meisje'.