'Baron van Tast' (Pep #20, 1974)
Jan van Haasteren is a Dutch artist, who started out making many humorous comics for a variety of publications, of which 'Baron van Tast' (1972-1975) is probably the best known. He is most famous however for his large and crowded drawings, which have appeared on posters and jigsaw puzzles. His work is characterized by its high density of (visual) jokes and absurdities.
Early life and career
Van Haasteren was born in 1935 in Schiedam as the eldest of three sons, and grew up during World War II. After the war, he first attended the technical school, where he learned to become a home and decoration painter. He then studied Publicity and Advertising at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam. Although he was already a persistent prankster, he graduated with ease. After fulfilling his military service, he began his career with the small Rotterdam-based advertising agency Grijseels, before landing a job with the larger agency Nijgh & Van Ditmar. In his spare time, he had his first experiences as a comic artist, when he assisted Loek van Delden on his newspaper comic 'Smidje Verholen'.
'Kappie en het Bollejong'.
Toonder Studios
He joined the Marten Toonder studios in 1962, where he initially worked in the animation department. He eventually joined the comics production. From 1963 to 1966, his main work was pencilling Marten Toonder's newspaper strip about tugboat captain 'Kappie'. Through Toonder, he also illustrated numerous stories for the magazines with licensed characters of De Geïllustreerde Pers. In alternation with Jan Steeman, he drew the back-up feature in Donald Duck weekly between 1965 and 1969. Van Haasteren was mainly responsible for the adventures of Walt Disney's 'Little Hiawatha', while Steeman drew most of the 'Big Bad Wolf' stories, although Van Haasteren also did some of those (1967-1969). Van Haasteren also drew several 'Hiawatha' gag pages for the women's weekly Margriet in 1966, as well as as comic stories with Hanna-Barbera's 'Cave Kids', 'The Flintstones' and 'The Jetsons' for the comic book De Flintstones. The scripts for these productions were mostly by Andries Brandt and Patty Klein.
Hiawatha story for Donald Duck #48, 1966.
Joop Geesink
Van Haasteren left Toonder in 1966, and joined the studios of Joop Geesink. There, he worked on a comic based on the TV puppet series 'Rick de Kikker', which was published in the Heintje comics paper of supermarket chain Albert Heijn. This strip was under supervision of Frits Kloezeman, and made in cooperation with inker Ton Beek. Van Haasteren also illustrated a book with the character, called 'Rick en de gestolen gemeentekas' (1967). He started freelancing in 1967, and the Toonder studios remained one of his main clients.
Erik en Opa
He created 'Bartje en Opa' with Patty Klein, which appeared in free local papers from Amsterdam (1967-1970) and The Hague (1970-1971). One of the first Dutch family comics, it was continued under the title 'Erik en Opa' in Malmberg's school paper Jippo from 1974 to 1980. In 1968, he took over the funny animal comic 'Polletje Pluim' from Dick Matena in Prinses for a couple of years. He also did a lot of advertising work through agencies like Elly op de Weegh's Art Connection and Eddie Archer's Archer Art.
'Erik en Opa' (1976).
Other comics
In 1969, he did pencil work on the somewhat absurd and supernatural Toonder newspaper strip 'Horre, Harm en Hella' in cooperation with Thé Tjong Khing, which had previously been drawn by the Spanish artist Juan Escandell and was later continued by Georges Mazure. The stories were written by Andries Brandt and Patty Klein and published in De Telegraaf. Van Haasteren worked with Brandt for De Telegraaf again from 1970 to 1972, when he was the artist of 'Aafje Anders', a comic about an adventurous girl in Amsterdam. The artwork of this comic was later continued by Robert Hamilton and Richard Klokkers. Van Haasteren furthermore penciled five stories of Marten Toonder's 'Panda' strip. In addition, he did promotional work for Joop Geesink's 'Loekie de Leeuw'.
'Aafje Anders'.
Baron van Tast
Between 1972 and 1975 Van Haasteren was present in the comic magazine Pep of De Geïllustreerde Pers. He started out with the absurd series about the hallucinating 'Baron van Tast tot Zeveren', in which nothing was what it seemed. It was the first comic strip in which Van Haasteren hid his trademark background jokes, such as shark fins and snorkels coming out of the ground, peeking eyes, false teeth, mysterious hands and monsters. For the scripts, he got help from Renee van Utteren, Lo Hartog van Banda, Patty Klein and Frits van der Heide. He also made 'Voortvluchtig' (1973), a gag strip about an escaped prisoner being chased by a prison guard. With Patty Klein, he made the final story of 'De Argonautjes' (1974), a comic created by Dick Matena and Lo Hartog van Banda.
'Tinus Trotyl'
Comics in the 1970s
He returned to the pages of Donald Duck with two stories starring Wim Meuldijk's character 'Ketelbinkie' (1973-1974). It was then taken over by Jan van der Voo, while Van Haasteren created two stories with the character 'Oom Arie': 'Oom Arie op Safari' and 'Bombarie om Balthasar'. Both were written by Frits van der Heide and published in 1974. A third story written by Cees de Groot was started, but never completed or published. In Sjors, Van Haasteren created the comic about 'Tinus Trotyl', a character with a sickly fascination for explosives. The scripts were written by Philip Sohier with assistance from Patty Klein from 1974 on. The comic was continued in Eppo after Pep and Sjors merged to this new magazine in 1975 and 1976. For Eppo, Van Haasteren also drew 'De Stuntels' in cooperation with Toon van Driel (1978) and his final new comics effort, 'Brian en de Brainbox' from a script by David Ireland (1985).
'Voortvluchtig' (Pep #6, 1973)
Throughout the years, Van Haasteren has worked extensively with scriptwriter Patty Klein. Besides previously mentioned productions, they created 'Ole en Kreutel' for Vecomijkrant and, for Geesink Productions, a series of stories under the title 'Zij Maakten Geschiedenis' for the TV show 'NOS Kiosk'. Between 1978 and 1987, KRO Gids ran their comic strip 'Sjaak en Oom George', about a boy and his inventor uncle.
'Sjaak en Oom George' (1985).
De Vrije Balloen
Van Haasteren and Klein were also the initiators of the satirical magazine De Vrije Balloen in 1975. Largely launched out of dissatisfaction with the cancellation of several series after the merger of Sjors and Pep to Eppo, this magazine offered its contributors full artistic freedom. This resulted in more experimental and adult-themed comic stories by Robert van der Kroft, Jan Steeman, Thé Tjong-Khing, Andries Brandt and of course Jan van Haasteren, who often used the pseudonyms Harold Hurry and Jean Pion for these stories. Van Haasteren also created the magazine mascot, the little devil Tobias Quintenpreut. The team was aided by Jan's brother Herman for the production, and by Hans van den Boom for the finances. Later on other artists joined, such as Willy Lohmann, Harry Balm, Gerrit de Jager, Wim Stevenhagen, Eric Schreurs, Paul Schindeler and Paul Bodoni. The final issue appeared in 1981.
Two magazine covers for De Vrije Balloen. The first one is a caricature of then Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt.
Advertising work / Puzzles
Van Haasteren has additionally worked as an advertising illustrator, and especially his crowded posters became well-known. The first one he made was for Bokma lemon gin. The posters were such a success that board game manufacturer Jumbo asked him to produce these type of drawings for a series of jigsaw puzzles, which earned him international fame. Van Haasteren has made about a hundred puzzles for Jumbo, which are all set on different locations and vary from 150 to 5.000 pieces. The many background jokes from his 'Baron van Tast' comic returned, and he added several more. Besides shark fins, hands and eyes, most of the puzzles also feature Saint Nicholas and a cameo of the artist himself. Although over 80 years old, Jan van Haasteren still makes an average of three puzzles a year in his atelier in Bergen, Noord-Holland. To cope up with the demand for more puzzles, Jumbo opened Studio Jan van Haasteren in 2013 to secure the production. Affiliated artists were Rob Derks and Dick Heins, joined in 2022 by Mars Gremmen and Wilma van den Bosch.
Jan van Haasteren's personal favorite, the Crazy Casino puzzle.
Recognition
During the Stripdagen in Houten, on 30 September 2006, Jan Van Haasteren, Jan van Reek, Willy Lohmann and Raymond Bär van Hemmersweil won the Bulletje en Boonestaakschaal. On 26 April 2013 he was knighted in the Order of Orange-Nassau for his contributions to Dutch comics culture, and for his role as inspirator of comic artists and illustrators. In 2021 Jan Van Haasteren and the other members of Studio Van Haasteren (Dick Heins and Rob Derks) were awarded the P. Hans Frankfurther Prize for special merits.
He was guest editor of the second edition of the StripGlossy by Uitgeverij Personalia in September 2016, and at the occasion he made two new stories with 'Baron van Tast', again in collaboration with Patty Klein.
Self-portrait from the back cover of the Tinus Trotyl album.