Toon and Toos Brodeloos meet the comedy group Farce Majeur in VPRO-Gids #13, 1976
Rob Gorter was a Dutch cartoonist, caricaturist and illustrator, who also published under the pen name Roggel. Born in Rotterdam in 1945, he made his debut in the Limburg magazine Ut. He had a weekly children's comic called 'Jappie' in the regional newspapers De Nieuwe Limburger and Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad, and was active for a variety of sports magazines. As an avid soccer fan, he made caricatures for Sport Express and Voetbal International, while the first magazine also ran his strip 'Harro Hairtrick'. According to an article in Leeuwarder Courant of 14 July 1969, Gorter applied a style similar to that of famous sports cartoonist Dik Bruynesteyn. Bruynesteyn didn't mind, and was even asked to fill in for the young artist during a holiday break. Bruynesteyn grabbed this chance and in return mimicked Gorter's style in detail, while signing the work with "Rob Gortig" ("Gortig" meaning "going too far" in Dutch). Gorter briefly worked with Bruynesteyn for a short while on the comic 'Chris Crack' in 1970. He has been equally active as a cartoonist for several magazines involving the sports swimming, korfball and handball.
Gorter made a contribution to Evert Geradts' underground comic Tante Leny Presenteert in 1972. He was one of the artists involved in the 'Toon en Toos Brodeloos' strip, which a team of seven artists produced in 1976 for VPRO-Gids, the magazine of broadcasting company VPRO. Each episode was a satirical story about one of the Dutch broadcasting companies, drawn by a different artist. Gorter did the one about NCRV, while the other artists were Joost Swarte (AVRO), Evert Geradts (KRO), Joost Troost (EO), Harry Buckinx (VPRO), Aart Clerkx (VARA) and Fred Julsing (TROS). The stories were collected in a book by Har van Fulpen's Drukwerk in 1976.
Gorter was mainly active as a commercial artist. He regularly produced artwork for Hans van Beers and Jan Smeets of the Sittard youth centre Don Kiesjot, who also organized the annual Pinkpop festival from 1970. In September 1976, Gorter started drawing the strip 'Buro Moeilijke Zaken' in Apo-nu, an information magazine of the city of Rotterdam. He additionally drew 'De Familie Hatweeootje', a promotional comics booklet for the Drinking water pipeline Rotterdam. The characters show similarities to Robert van der Kroft's 'Droppie Water', which he has been drawing for the district water control board of Rotterdam since 1982.
Since the 1980s, Gorter has been the house illustrator of the Alpha Group, a company in Oud-Beijerland which provides promotional gifts, premiums and fashion logistics. Among the company's many clients are the union FNV, stores like C&A, M&S and Neckermann, the clothing brand Mexx, the Red Cross, the Ministry of Waterways and Public Works, and the banking industry. Rob Gorter passed away on 4 June 2017. His obituary notice came with a recent self-portrait.
Rob Gorter's drawing for his obituary