Episode of the 'Kiek Nou' strip, which appeared in 9 regional newspapers. Translation: "Bah, there's a hair in my food... Judging by the color it's one of yours!" What's the matter?" - "I only had one hair!".
Fer Elzinga is a Dutch comic artist, illustrator and cartoonist, working mainly for commercial clients, institutions and schools under the name "Fer Elzinga -STRIPWERK". With his semi-realistic drawing style, he has worked for major clients such as Microsoft, Heineken, DHL, Ecorys, NXP (a division of Philips), AKZO, De Hypotheekshop, Centraal Beheer Achmea and various municipalities and business magazines. Among his notable comic features have been 'De Avonturen van Koning Walter' (1994-1998), 'Kiek Nou...', 'Kijk Op De Wijk' (2009-2012) and 'Groeten uit Hoogdam'. In addition, he was among the first group of cartoonists associated with the Stichting Tekenen voor Kinderen ("Foundation Drawing for Children"), and has given hundreds of drawing workshops throughout the Netherlands.
Early years
Born in 1962 in Purmerend, Fer Elzinga has been drawing since early childhood. By the age of 8, thanks to his mother, he already saw several of his drawings printed in the local newspaper. As a teen, he was an editor/cartoonist for both his school newspaper and his volleyball club magazine. At age fifteen, he earned his first money by drawing QSL cards for 27Mc radio amateurs. Three years later, he had his first professional assignments making illustrations for his former economics teacher Leo Peters, who was developing new teaching material on the subjects of accounting and business arithmetic through Stichting Leerplan Ontwikkeling ("Foundation for Curriculum Development"). This educational material first appeared in several trial editions, and was eventually published by Malmberg, with Elzinga's drawings being copied exactly by Malmberg's studio illustrators for copyright reasons.
'De Avonturen van Koning Walter' (1996).
Because of his secondary school education level, Elzinga was not allowed to attend art school. Instead, he enrolled at the Chemical Analyst program of the Ir. W. van den Broek Institute in Amsterdam. Although he graduated in 1982, his military service again thwarted his plans to go to the Art Academy. During his service, he took all kinds of commercial art assignments. By the time he returned to civilian life, Elzinga didn't go to the Academy, but instantly started his own business. Throughout his professional career, he took several additional jobs, for instance as department head of various research laboratories, art and sound director for a record company and commercial positions in sales. He was also active as photographer, journalist, editorial assistant and editor for local newspapers. All these professions gave him useful experience in text writing, layout, printing and typography. By 2004, he was able to become a full-time cartoonist, illustrator, comic artist and workshop teacher. For almost all of his products, he provides his own design and printing. A self-taught artist, Elzinga worked for many years in the region of the Noordwijk coastal town, and eventually settled in Bergentheim in the eastern province of Overijssel.
2009 episode of the newspaper strip "Kijk op de Wijk" for the Municipality of Katwijk about the dog waste problem. Translation: "This dog shit problem fails to be solved! Yuck!" - "Eh... maybe we have to demonstrate again on how to use the dog turd deposit box... Look!".
De Avonturen van Koning Walter
Having drawn comics in his notebooks since childhood, Elzinga first gained notice with his interactive comic 'De Avonturen van Koning Walter' (1994-1998). He began the strip during a fair organized by the antiquarian bookshop Moby Dick in Noordwijk, where readers were invited to determine what will happen next in the story. Because of the many enthusiastic applications, the local paper Noordwijks Weekblad began serializing the story on a weekly basis. During a period of four years, the paper ran 136 episodes, but the story remained unfinished.
Kiek Nou
After 'Koning Walter', Elzinga created over 60 episodes of the humorous newspaper strip 'Kiek Nou...' ("Look now", in dialect) for the same publisher, Verhagen from Rijnsburg. The jokes revolved about very different subjects, often with subsequent jokes around a theme. Current affairs such as the Huishoudbeurs ("Household fair"), elections and holidays like Easter, Christmas and the Dutch Sinterklaas festivities. Neither 'Koning Walter' or 'Kiek Nou' earned Elzinga any money, but they did land him a job as a photographer, journalist and editor with two of Verhagen's local newspapers.
Kijk Op De Wijk
After a while, Elzinga also got the opportunity to create a strip to accompany the 'Kijk op de Wijk' column on the municipality page in Katwijk Speciaal, a weekly newspaper from the coastal town of Katwijk aan Zee. Between 2009 and 2012, he commented on the regional news in a total of 222 gag strips. A selection of both the written columns and Elzinga's comic strips was compiled by the Katwijk municipality in the book 'Het Beste Uit 6 jaar Kijk Op de Wijk' (2013).
Comic strip with Koen de Koerier/Matthias le Coursier for the staff magazine DHL To Go (2006). Since the magazine appeared throughout the Benelux, there was also a French-language version for the French-speaking part of Belgium. It was the first foreign placement of a comic by Elzinga. In the gag, the cyclist who carries the Yellow Jersey has forgotten to put it on. Matthias drives behind him to deliver it, but is accidentally declared the winner of that day's contest.
Commercial comic strips
Working as a full time cartoonist and illustrator since 2004, Elzinga created many one-shot comic strips for various clients. Among his recurring assignments have been comics and illustrations for the staff magazine of DHL Benelux and a comic for De Hypotheekshop Badhoevedorp, which has appeared in a real estate magazine. For the weekly newsletter for Ecorys Vastgoed in Rotterdam, Elzinga created sixty episodes of the real estate strip 'Groeten uit Hoogdam'. With input from Ecorys employees for the appropriate jargon, the strip depicted trends from the real estate world in the fictional town of Hoogdam (modeled after Rotterdam). During a period of five years, Elzinga has drawn 50 full-page gag strips for the business magazines INTO Business Woerden, INTO Business Alphen, INTO Business Gouda and INTO Business Haarlemmermeer, making fun of the business climate and its related politics.
An episode from the comic strip Groeten uit Hoogdam for Ecorys (2008), on current real estate topics. This seventh serial dealt with the plans of a "city for seniors" in the Noordoostpolder region. Translation: "Be honest... this looks just like a prison?!?" - "You're right... I'm going to address your problem at the college and the council..." - "If they wait for that to happen it will be alright. By the time the municipal council has taken a decision, another decade will have passed!!!".
Illustrations and cartoons
After starting his own business, Elzinga created many illustrations for advertising agencies and specialist magazines, for instance the tire industry trade journal VACO, Rijnstreek Business and the five INTO Business magazines. Among his notable commercial art assignments have been artwork for the Amsterdam Arena's Fun Fair Boulevard, a cartoon on the front page of the PCM Locale Media newspaper De Alphenaar, an illustration for Natuur & Milieu's climate guide, a CD cover for the Bertelsmann Music Group, dozens of travel impressions for the Fjell Tours travel agency, and nine collage illustrations for fairy tale music cassettes by the record company Weton Wesgram.
Cover drawings for a '6 Beroemde Sprookjes' fairy tale audio play cassette, released by Weton Wesgram (1991) and the novel 'De Aarde in het Licht' (2021).
Following the launch of a successful coloring picture campaign in his own region, Elzinga created a great number of large coloring pages for NXP (a division of Philips), Koninklijke Saan and Monsterboard.nl. For some pictures, he also developed a 3D version for older children to color. In cooperation with the organization Kwartier Zorg & Welzijn, he has for years been making leaflets and posters for all kinds of activities in the village of Overschild, a town harmed heavily by the earthquakes caused by the gas extractions in the province of Groningen.
Coloring picture for the December 2014 issue of the staff magazine of NXP, the chips division of Philips.
Drawing classes and workshops
Since the mid-1990s, Elzinga has been giving drawing and cartoon workshops under the banner Striptekenclub Duin & Bollenstreek. Starting with dinner table courses in his own home for five students, his initiative expanded to rooms filled with 10 to 25 students in ages ranging from 8 to 25 years. Aiming to instill a passion for drawing and comics in a broader sense, he also organized group excursions to comic-related exhibitions and the Haarlem Comic Festival. When the artist moved from Noordwijk to the province of Overijssel, his initiative came to an end. As a farewell to the Striptekenclub Duin & Bollenstreek, the Noordwijk public library held an exhibition of work by Elzinga and his three oldest students, Jaap Baalbergen, Marcel Turk and Lukas Duijvenvoorde.
As a result of his experience with teaching drawing classes, Elzinga developed a series of workshops, promoted in his hometown and surrounding communities as "Comic Strip Drawing in School Holidays", covering new topics and themes each holiday. Later, the focus shifted to workshops and live cartooning at libraries and schools, as well as special workshops during the Northsea Summer Festival in Katwijk (2004-2006). In later years, Elzinga has been giving lectures and workshops at schools and libraries during the annual Children's Book Week, transposing the week's theme to comics.
Collage of Elzinga drawings for the "Drawing for Children" foundation since 2012.
Benefit foundations
In 2003 and 2004, Elzinga participated in the "Teken Mijn Verhaal" ("Draw My Story") initiative of Gerrie Hondius, Dithmarine van Rongen and Joost Pollmann, in which a cartoonist visualizes a story created by a disabled child. In 2012, Elzinga was approached to become an artist at the Medisch Spectrum Twente hospital in Enschede for the Stichting Tekenen voor Kinderen ("Foundation Drawing for Children"). Founded in 2007 by youth theater producer and cartoonist Dolph Paulsen, the foundation has organized drawing projects for children in special circumstances, for instance in refugee centers, hospitals and other medical care centers. The children decide what will be drawn for them, and the end result provides them with a distraction on the spot, but also a lasting memory. As the foundation expanded its activities throughout the Netherlands, Elzinga was part of the first group of associated artists, which eventually grew to over sixty participants. As of 2024, he has created a rough estimate of over 5,000 to 6,000 drawings for sick children, in association with the foundation. Elzinga has frequently declared being impressed and moved by what an enormous impact a personal drawing can make on a child.
Film work
In addition to comics, illustrations, cartoons and drawing lessons, Elzinga began making videos in 2020. His first major assignment was creating nine short films on behalf of Drawing for Children for Vluchtelingenwerk ("Refugee Council") and Time4You, a group of volunteers organizing edutainment activities for young people in refugee centers. During the first COVID-19 lockdown measurements, no activities were allowed in these centers, so instead Elzinga's videos presented drawing lessons on several themes, and appeared weekly in the Time4You Journal. Additional films were made for Kwartier Zorg & Welzijn, the schools project of the Drawing for Children Foundation and the Alliance Drenth Care for the Elderly.
Fer Elzinga during some of his workshops.