'De Tekenaar' (Jump #42, 2025).
Jonathan van Engelenhoven is a Dutch comic artist and writer. After starting out in the small press scene and contributing to some collective projects, he has had his humor comics published in Stripglossy ('Hersenspinsels', 2021-2022), Jump ('De Tekenaar', 2024- ) and Zo Zit Dat ('Wie Had Dat Gedacht', 2025- ). Since 2019, he is also a scriptwriter of Dutch Disney comics, notably writing the 'The Tortoise and the Hare' feature'.
Early life and influences
Jonathan van Engelenhoven was born in 1998 in Leiden. Even though his direct family hasn't worked in arts, his paternal grandfather was the sculptor and ceramist Gerrit van Engelenhoven. However, his father was an avid collector of comics, who infected his son with the same passion. During his childhood, Van Engelenhoven read almost all the European classics, and eventually also Marvel and DC, as well as manga. His favorite comic series have been Hayao Miyazaki's 'Naucicaä of the Valley of the Wind', André Franquin's 'Gaston Lagaffe' and Disney comics, which have also become influences on his own work. Instrumental in Jonathan van Engelenhoven's career has been his mentor Margreet de Heer, as well as her husband Yiri T. Kohl. Too young to enroll at the Artez Art Academy in Zwolle, sixteen-year old Jonathan van Engelenhoven moved, on his own, to Belgium, where he studied comics at Syntra in Hasselt (2014-2015).
Margreet de Heer is always full of praise about Jonathan van Engelenhoven.
Tutorship of Margreet de Heer
Already in primary school, Van Engelenhoven had been making his own comic booklets under the title 'De Beren'. They contained comic stories, a mail page and advertisements, and were distributed among his classmates. At one point, he sent one of his DIY comic booklets to Margreet de Heer, who at the time promoted young comic talent through her Daily Danger website. A couple of years later, De Heer served as proofreader for his high school paper, a comic about why comics should be considered art. Throughout Van Engelenhoven's further career, Margreet de Heer has remained his main tutor and avid supporter, even calling him her "comic son". Through De Heer, Van Engelenhoven was introduced to the small press comics scene, and to several of his future clients. In return, he has supported her during her own endeavors, for instance her 2017-2020 term as "Comic Artist Laureate of the Netherlands".
From: 'De Ziel van Leiden' (2017).
Early comics
While still a teenager, Van Engelenhoven created his first commissioned comics, all for regional projects in the city of Leiden. At age fifteen, he created the comic book 'Walter Benjamin: Cultuur Barbaar!' (2013) for a local an art and music festival with the philosopher Walter Benjamin as the theme. In 2017, he drew the chapter 'Archeologie & Architectuur' in the local comic book 'De Ziel van Leiden', published by FutureManagement on the occasion of a research project for the "soul" and essence of the city of Leiden, initiated among other people by Robert van Oirschot and Nils Bierman. Among the other contributing comic artists were Eline W., Nicoline Heemskerk, Caspar ten Dam, Rooske Eerden and Abel van Oirschot. In the following year, Van Engelenhoven and Nils Bierman alternated on the artwork of 'De Ziel van VBM (2018)', a similar comic on the occassion of the 100th anniversary of the Trade Union for Civilian and Military Defense Personnel (VBM). Other commercial artwork during this period were cartoons for the logistics company MendriX. In the meantime, Van Engelenhoven created his own small press comics, for instance 'Blame it on the Lag' (2015) and 'Radboud' (2016), which he sold at comic festivals.
'Radboud' (2016).
Donald Duck
Since 2019, Jonathan van Engelenhoven has been a regular scriptwriter for the Dutch Disney magazines of DPG Media, followed four years later by an additional stint as comic colorist. By the time he started, the editors were looking for new scriptwriters, leading comic editor Bas Schuddeboom to contacting his friend Margreet de Heer. Since she had no time, De Heer suggested Schuddeboom should contact Van Engelenhoven, which kicked off a fruitful collaboration. After some try-out stories with 'The Big Bad Wolf', he also tried his hand at Disney movie characters like 'Madam Mim' and 'Robin Hood', followed by short stories and gag strips starring the Duck family.
Storyboarded script segment for story H2024-222 starring 'The Tortoise and the Hare'. The final version drawn by Thomas Cabellic appeared in Donald Duck #3 of 2025.
Since 2022, Van Engelenhoven is the writer of the comic feature about 'The Tortoise and the Hare', based on the 1935 Silly Symphonies short of the same name. After the Dutch Disney magazine had lost the license to use the character of 'Br'er Rabbit', this new feature was initiated by editor Schuddeboom as it starred a similar trickster. After writing three stories himself, Bas Schuddeboom asked Jonathan van Engelenhoven to continue the adventures of Max Hare, Toby Tortoise and the other villagers of Pluizendal. Besides a steady scriptwriter, the 'Tortoise and the Hare' comic also found a dedicated artist in the Frenchman Thomas Cabellic.
Segment of the 'Hersenspinsels' comic in Stripglossy, in which Jonathan van Engelenhoven talks about working with his editor Bas Schuddeboom on his Disney scripts (2022).
Magazines
In 2021, Van Engelenhoven won the StripBattle of Personalia's Stripglossy magazine, which earned him a recurring spot in the magazine during the period of one year. This became 'Hersenspinsels' (2021-2022), a funny autobiographical look in the life of a young comic artist. With support of Margreet de Heer, he has continued this theme with 'De Tekenaar' (2024- ) in Jump, a youth magazine also published by Personalia. In this more exaggerated version, the main star is a cartoonist who always misses the deadlines. Since March 2025, Van Engelenhoven has also appeared in the popular science magazine Zo Zit Dat with 'Wie Had Dat Gedacht?!', a comic feature about a girl and her uncle who go to a VR-version of the past to learn all sorts of interesting things about famous scientists.
'Wie Had Dat Gedacht?!' (Zo Zit Dat #5, 2025).