Dorith Graef is a Dutch comic artist, writer and editor based in Leiden. She has worked for the Dutch children's magazines Donald Duck and Tina of publishing house Sanoma since 2012, and is also active as an illustrator for children's magazines and books related to horses. After several years of scriptwriting, she co-created the monthly comic 'Nena's Vlog' (2019- ) for girls magazine Tina with scriptwriter Bas Schuddeboom.
Early life and career
Born in Eindhoven in 1988, Dorith Graef made her first comics for manga-related fanzines while still a teenager. After Japanese Language and Culture, Dorith studied Arts, Journalism & New Media at the University of Leiden. In 2009 she translated an installment in Ryu Fujisaki's manga series 'Hoshin Engi' for Glénat. Dorith has a creative mind with a strong urge for wordplay, irony and self-mockery, which she not only showcased on her own social media channels, but also on the group effort 'Oppervlakkige wijven' (2011-2016).
Donald Duck & Tina
She began working for the Sanoma children's magazines Tina and Donald Duck as a student intern in June 2012, and continued to work for both titles as a freelancer and then staff member. Originally hired as a web editor, Dorith was one of the few interns with an actual knack for comics. For Tina, she has written scripts for the celebrity comic series based on Dutch singers Nick & Simon (2013, artwork by Rafa Ruiz), as well as Tina's title comic (2014-2015, artwork by Carmen Pérez). Since 2014, she has written Disney comics with the characters 'Scamp', 'April, May and June' and the young 'Duckies'. Graef has additionally written gags with 'Professor Breinstein' for the popular science monthly Zo Zit Dat (artwork by Studio Comicup).
Horse illustrator
A true "horse girl", Dorith published the short-lived comic about riding school pony called 'Blunder Bennie' (2015). In May 2015 she became an online blogger and illustrator for horse-related magazine Bit. She quickly transitioned to the paper version of Bit with illustrations and her own column. For publisher Kluitman, she subsequently illustrated Gertrud Jetten's horse-related children's books 'Help, Ik Ben Een Pony!' (2018) and 'Help, Waar Is Mijn Pony?!' (2019). In the following year, she illustrated 'De Clown, De Draak Of De Westernpony...' (Happy Horse Riding, 2020) by Saskia Kokkeel.
From: 'De clown, de draak of de westernpony...'
Disney art department
Since 2018 she is a member of the art department of the Dutch Disney magazines, and responsible for the planning and routing of the coloring process. To improve her own skills, she inked a Disney comics story pencilled by Sander Gulien, and provided coloring to several editoral productions herself.
Nena's Vlog
She has also remained active for girls' magazine Tina. Since late 2018 she works with comic editor Bas Schuddeboom on the near-monthly gag strip 'Nena's Vlog', about a goofy wannabe vlogger girl. The feature made its debut in Tina's vloggers-related issue #5 of 2019.
Dorith signing at the Tina Festival on 22 September 2019 (Photo: Yvette Hoogenboom).