'The Girl is Mine'.
Mars Gremmen is a Dutch comic artist and cartoonist, whose zany comics with vivid artwork and slapstick humor have appeared in many Dutch comic magazines. During the 1990s, he made his debut in Sjors en Sjimmie Stripblad and its successors with humor strips like 'Meneer Foutjes' (1994-1998) and 'Trix' (1995-1999). Among his other long-running comic features have been 'The Girl Is Mine!' (2001-2006) in Hello You! and 'Mac & Maggie' (2002-2013) in MacFan. Mars Gremmen's cartoons and caricatures have been used in magazines and TV shows, and since 2021 he has been one of the artists of Studio Jan van Haasteren, making jigsaw puzzles.
Early life
Marcel Gremmen was born in 1969 in the city of Nijmegen, where he has lived his entire life. His father was a driving instructor, his mother a housewife. In a 2010 interview with Eppo magazine, Gremmen described his childhood as quite "gray" and not always a bed of roses. Drawing since age two, he could use his artwork to vent frustrations and pent-up emotions. It laid the foundations for his future comics, which often degenerate into violence, anger and frustrations. With his slapstick style, he could dynamically and humorously depict intense emotions. As he describes it himself: "I like to act with my drawing pen".
Self-taught and without a family background in arts, Gremmen devoured almost every comic he could get his hands on. His own style is a melting pot of countless influences, although he has mentioned as his main inspirations Tex Avery, George Herriman, Cliff Sterrett, E.C. Segar, Carl Barks, Morris and Mark Retera, as well as the humor of Laurel & Hardy.
Early comics
At age eleven, Gremmen saw one of his comic strips about a frog published in Taptoe magazine. Five years later, in 1985, he participated in a contest of Eppo magazine, for which readers could submit a script for the comic 'De Alsjemaarbekendband'. Gremmen won, and his script was used for one of the comic's episodes by series creator Evert Geradts. Other early cartoons appeared in Hartehulp, a regional magazine for people with heart disease. In 1987, he provided the artwork for 'Doornroosje en De Strijd Tegen de Tijdgeest', a comic strip written by Henk Lucas on the occasion of the renovation of Nijmegen pop venue Doornroosje.
'Meneer Foutjes' (SjoSji #5, 1997). Translation: "So, if we see someone, you act like you're a poof and I'll sit on you. Then nobody will notice that you're an extraterrestrial... NOW!" - "Pssst... Did he fall for it? Or shall I whistle discreetly?" - "Eh...".
Scriptwriter
During the 1990s, Gremmen - often referred to as simply "Mars" - slowly made his way into the Dutch mainstream comics scene. Through Studio Funny Farm in Arnhem, he got acquainted with fellow comic artists Kees de Boer and Jeroen Steehouwer, who introduced him to Sjors en Sjimmie Stripblad. Between 1995 and 1998, he was one of the contributing scriptwriters for the short 'Sjors en Sjimmie' comic stories in SjoSji magazine, made under supervision of Robert van der Kroft, Wilbert Plijnaar and Jan van Die, and drawn by Studio Comicup in Barcelona. Also in 1994, one of his scripts with the Disney character 'Little Hiawatha' was published in the Dutch Donald Duck weekly, with artwork by Jeroen Steehouwer.
Meneer Foutjes
In Sjors en Sjimmie Stripblad and its successor SjoSji and Striparazzi, Gremmen debuted officially as a comic artist, starting with the gag strip 'Meneer Foutjes' (1994-1998). Created and written by Funny Farm colleague Kees de Boer, the strip initially featured a boring little man and his dog, while over the years more crazy characters were added to the cast. Later episodes of the strip were written by Gremmen himself, some in collaboration with Herman Roozen. After a while, he also began making editorial illustrations for the magazine's mail page.
'Trix'.
Trix
One year after Sjors en Sjimmie Stripblad was transformed into the bi-weekly SjoSji magazine, Gremmen launched his own humor feature 'Trix' (1995-1999), about a small, mean-spirited girl who smokes Havana cigars. Always in need of money, Trix and her masochistic, acne-ridden boyfriend often pushed the boundaries of what one could expect in a youth comic. Together with other original Sjosji strips like Mark Retera's 'DirkJan' (1993), Marq van Broekhoven's 'Peer de Plintkabouter' (1994) and Marc van der Holst's 'Spekkie Big' (1995), Gremmen's comics were part of a new wave of Dutch gag strips, characterized by cynical, student-like humor and often crude artwork. Particularly Gremmen's 'Trix' comic seemed to polarize readers, who either loved the comic or despised it. In 2013, Strip2000 released two book collections of the 'Trix' comic.
'Popi de Clown' (Striparazzi #3, March 1999).
Striparazzi
In August 1994, Gremmen's comic story about the intensely evil clown Popi (a pun on the Dutch TV clown Pipo de Clown) was published in Robin Schouten's small press comic magazine Incognito (issue #5). In 1999, 'Popi de Clown' returned in four additional one-page comic stories in Striparazzi, and even appeared on the cover of the magazine's final issue. In 1998, Mars Gremmen also drew and co-wrote the final two stories of Peter de Wit's 'De Familie Fortuin' feature for Striparazzi.
'The Girl Is Mine!'.
Malmberg: Hello You! and Flo'
In 2000, Gremmen became a regular contributor to Hello You!, the educational English-language monthly of the Malmberg publishing house. His first feature was 'Captain Tom And His Mom' (2000), a one-page science fiction strip about a muscular space traveler and his domineering mother. In the following year, this strip was replaced by Gremmen's bilingual 'The Girl Is Mine!' (2001-2006) feature, an explosive mix of unrequited love, heated arguments and zany humor. The main character is Tex, an artistic, feisty teenager who is madly in love with the English au pair Jody. His main competitors in winning over Jody's affections are the utterly stupid goofball Diederik and Alfred, Jody's conceited and arrogant dog. A first book collection of 'The Girl Is Mine!' was released in 2004 by Silvester, and nominated for a Stripschappenning. In 2014, Strip2000 published the feature in two books, this time under the Dutch title 'Ze Is Van Mij!'. In later years, episodes of the strip have been published under the title 'Cette Fille Est A Moi!' in the Belgian monthly Farfelu.
For another Malmberg title, the girls' magazine Flo', Mars Gremmen took over the scriptwriting duties from Herman Roozen of the comic about the space girl trio 'Galaktika' (2006-2008), drawn by Maarten Vande Wiele.
De Ontdekkers
De Ontdekkers
Between 2004 and 2006, Gremmen also appeared in the popular science monthly National Geographic Junior with 'De Ontdekkers', a comic starring the adventurous Elsje, her fearful dog Bas and the top photographer uncle Sjors set, who set out again to discover Earth's flora and fauna in their own unique way. In 2015, Strip2000 released two book collections of the series.
'Mac & Maggie'.
Comics by commission
Mostly through the Comic House agency, Gremmen has made comics and cartoons for a host of commercial clients and specialized magazines. For Astmakids, a bi-monthly magazine of the Asthma Fund, he created covers, illustrations and comics about the asthmatic kangaroo Max and his friend Manfred the mouse (1999-2003). One of Gremmen's longest-running comic features was 'Mac & Maggie' (2002-2013), a collaboration with scriptwriter Jan van Die for the bi-monthly magazine MacFan. While Maggie is looking for intimate moments with Mac, he is mainly interested in the latest Apple gadgets. In 2009, Van Die released one book collection under his Divo imprint.
With Herman Roozen as writer, Gremmen made the adventures of 'Billy Bankbiljet' ("Billy Banknote", 2010-2012) for educational folders of the Dutch National Bank.
Illustration with caricatures for Veronica Magazine, starring the regular host and regular guests of the TV show 'De Wereld Draait Door' in a parody of Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper'. From left to right: Jort Kelder, Arie Boomsma, Prem Radhakishun, Giel Beelen, Halina Reijn, Aaf Brandt Corstius, Matthijs van Nieuwkerk, Marc-Marie Huijbrechts, Claudia de Breij, Jan Mulder, Merel Westrik, Paulien Cornelisse and Yvon Jaspers..
Illustrator and caricaturist
Besides comics, Gremmen's commercial artwork has included storyboarding some scenes of the film 'Down' (2001) by Dick Maas and the entire film 'Tom & Thomas' (2002) by Esmé Lammers, both productions by First Floor Features. His illustrations and caricatures have appeared regularly in Veronica Magazine and Eppo, and sporadically in the newspaper De Gelderlander and Margreet Dolman's Mens & Gevoelens magazine. Along with Mark Retera, Gremmen provided several of the celebrity caricatures used for 'Café de Wereld', a satirical 3-D animated segment of the Dutch TV talk show 'De Wereld Draait Door'. Among his further commercial clients have been KPN, Hema, De Nederlandse Bank, Nedtrain, VLS-Group and the Meneba flour factories.
'Op De Redactie' (Eppo #3, 11 February 2010).
Editorial comics
In addition to illustrations and caricatures, Gremmen's collaboration with Veronica Magazine also resulted in 'De Red@ctie' (2007), a gag strip about the magazine's fictional editorial staff. Between 2009 and 2015, these characters returned in the second run of Eppo magazine, this time in the single-panel cartoon 'Op De Redactie'. As Eppo's house cartoonist, Gremmen also provided the cartoonist caricatures for the magazine's interview sections, as well as the 'Gemarst' cartoon to accompany one of the readers' mail page.
For Eppo publisher Don Lawrence Collection, Gremmen was also prominently featured in the short-lived relaunch of the Dutch edition of Mad Magazine (2011-2012). In collaboration with editor Ger Apeldoorn, he made the feature 'Mars Rekent Af Met...', a series of pantomime one-page jokes in which the cartoonist deals with bankers, referees and other louts.
'De Fietsvogelaar' (Eppo #25, 12 December 2018).
Birdwatcher
In his spare time, Gremmen enjoys experimenting with graphic styles in his sketch books. However, during the 2010s, his cartooning activities slowed down. Instead, he became an avid birdwatcher. Yet his new hobby also inspired new comic projects. In Eppo, he created two three-page episodes of the semi-autobiographical comic 'De Fietsvogelaar' (2018-2019), and with Margreet de Heer as writer, he made the hilarious one-shot comic story 'Fiona's Vogelvlog' (2023) in the girls' magazine Tina. Mars Gremmen and his birdwatching activities have also inspired the character of Marcine in Tina's 'Suus & Sas' comic by Gerard Leever.
'Fiona's Vogelvlog' (Tina #33, 2023).
Studio Jan van Haasteren
Since 2021, Mars Gremmen has been one of the artists of Studio Jan van Haasteren. Working in the tradition of Jan Van Haasteren's popular cartoon jigsaw puzzles, the studio has been making similarly detailed crowd cartoon pictures for puzzle production company the puzzle brand Jumbo. Gremmen's goal with these drawings is "to put a joke on every piece of the puzzle". As can be expected, recurring elements in puzzle drawings are several types of birds, most notably a blue heron, a raven and a cormorant, but also a birdwatcher who is fanatically looking for a kingfisher, a family of acrobats and Tarzan. Among the other artists affiliated with Studio Jan van Haasteren are Rob Derks, Dick Heins and Wilma van den Bosch.
One of the jigsaw puzzles drawn by Mars Gremmen for Studio Jan van Haasteren.
Strips in Gelderland
Throughout the years, Gremmen has been a prominent member of the provincial comics scene of Gelderland. Two issues of his comic book 'God, Wat Ben Ik Goed!' (1998-1999) were published under the Juttemis imprint of fellow Nijmegen comic artist Marq van Broekhoven. Since 2007, Gremmen has been hosting the weblog 'Strips in Gelderland', which contains work and background information from cartoonists with roots in the province of Gelderland. This blog also spawned the anthology book 'Strips in Gelderland' (Hildebrand Comix, 2009), of which Gremmen was one of the initiators. In the Netherlands, Gremmen was one of the first comic artists with an extensive personal weblog and website, on which he posted "making offs" and other artwork.
Graphic contributions
In 2006, Gremmen made a tribute drawing for the 60th anniversary of Hans G. Kresse's classic comic hero 'Eric de Noorman'. For a while, a 13-meter-tall sticker of his drawing hung on the outside wall of the Arnhem city hall. For a special 2013 issue of Eppo magazine dedicated to the classic comic magazine Pep, Gremmen made a three-page tribute comic of Peter de Smet's 'De Generaal'. In the following year, he participated in Eppo's series of homage comics for Martin Lodewijk's 'Agent 327' series. In 2020, he joined 75 Dutch & Flemish comic artists and made a graphic contribution to 'Striphelden versus Corona' (Oogachtend/Uitgeverij L, 2020), a free collective comic book in support of comic stores that had to close their doors during the lockdown at the height of the COVID-19 virus pandemic.
Recognition
Gremmen's comic book of 'De Ontdekkers' was awarded a 2016 Stripschappenning for "Best Youth Album".
Self-portrait of Mars Gremmen and his characters. Translation: "Could you please not move!".