'Drab Drabbers' (Gazet van Antwerpen, 5 July 1988).
Mark Janssen is a Flemish comic artist. From the late 1980s until the mid-1990s, he had a humorous adventure comic, 'Drab Drabbers', which ran in the Gazet van Antwerpen. He also illustrated the gag comic 'Komkommer en Kwel' (1996) for the magazine Blik, written by Danny De Haes. Since 1994, Janssen has created various propaganda comics to promote the political party Groen! in his hometown of Lier. Mark Janssen should not be confused with fellow artists like the Antwerp sculptor Marc Janssens (b. 1969), Dutch illustrator Mark Janssen (b. 1974) or Dutch doctor-cartoonist Marc-Jan Janssen. And also not with Flemish actor Marc Janssen (1940-2017), Dutch historian Marc Jansen (b. 1946), Belgian cyclocrosser Marc Janssens (b. 1968), Epica guitarist Mark Jansen (b. 1978) or Dutch footballer Mark Janssen (b. 1992).
Early life
Mark Janssen was born in Lier in either 1971 or 1972 (a 1996 article in Blik mentioned him as 22 years old). As a child, he once won first prize in a drawing contest, of which the ceremony was attended by prince Albert (the later king Albert II of Belgium). Janssen studied at the HoGent KASK and after graduation, he became a teacher at the secondary school Heilig Hart van Maria Berlaar. On 11 October 2010, Janssen was co-founder of the "Order of the Velvet Knight" ("Orde van de Fluwelen Ridder"), a mock knight order to celebrate the work of cartoonist GoT, who also hailed from Lier.
Drab Drabbers
In the late 1980s, Janssen was a cartoonist for KIK, the youth supplement of Gazet van Antwerpen, where his humorous adventure comic series 'Drab Drabbers' ran until the mid-1990s. About 28 stories were serialized, written by "Theo & Marco", but never collected in book format. Janssen claimed that the editors promised to have their publishing company De Vlijt release the stories in album format, yet never actually did so. Instead, the series was canceled.
'Komkommer en Kwel'.
Komkommer en Kwel
Together with scriptwriter Danny De Haes, Janssen then made the gag comic 'Komkommer en Kwel' (1994-1996), which ran in the gossip magazine Blik. The series starred two bumbling neighbors, one tall (Komkommer), the other short (Kwel). Their names are a pun on the expression for hopeless misery, "kommer en kwel", invented by Marten Toonder.
Propaganda comics for Groen
Since 1994, Janssen has made several propaganda comic books to support the environmental political party Groen! in Lier. These were all traditionally published during the council elections. His 1994 book promoted local candidate Paul Hermans, and the 2000 one Elly Vermeire. In 2006, the party itself was the subject. In 2016, Janssen made the satirical propaganda comic book '... En Waar De Stad Bleef Stille Staan... Een Klucht In Zes Bedrijven' ("...And Where the City Stood Still... A Farce in Six Acts"). Written by party politician Jan Hermans, the story stars Pallieter, a literary character created by the Lier-born novelist Felix Timmermans (who is also the father of the previously mentioned cartoonist GoT). He finds out that a lot of things in his beloved city aren't going well, but in the end - predictably - a better future appears to be possible if people vote for Groen!. The comic book was distributed in a print run of 16,000 copies. Other Belgian cartoonists who have made party propaganda comics were Rik Clément, Luc Cromheecke, Shirow Di Rosso, Ian and Geert Kinnaert.
Burentwist
Janssen also drew an advertising comic book, 'Burentwist' (1998), starring the character 'Meneerke DCM', published by the fertiliser company De Ceuster Meststoffen (DCM).
'En Waar De Stad Bleef Stille Staan...'.