Havank - 'Hoofden op hol'.
Daan Jippes is widely considered as one of the Netherlands' most accomplished comic book artists, and one of the few who has gained international fame. He is mainly noted for his work on Disney comics, especially for his ability to work in a near-mint copy of Carl Barks' style. After training most of the original artists of the Dutch Disney comics production in the 1970s, he went to work directly for the Walt Disney Company in the USA, and then became a leading comic artist for the Danish Disney publisher Egmont. A true comics chameleon, Jippes can easily adopt the drawing style of other artists, including such giants as André Franquin, Floyd Gottfredson, Morris and Albert Uderzo. From his cover illustrations with classic Franco-Belgian comic characters for Pep magazine in the 1960s to his adaptation of Jan Kruis' personal drawing style, which in 1999 became a standard for the studio production of 'Jan, Jans en de Kinderen', most of his work was done anonymously. Therefore, Jippes has become less of a household name among the general public than his contemporaries Martin Lodewijk and Dick Matena. In fact, for many years, his only personal comic was the influential one-shot album 'Twee Voor Thee' (1972), starring the character Bernard Voorzichtig, which established his reputation as an "artist's artist".
Early life and career
Daniël Jan Jippes was born in 1945 in Amsterdam, and grew up reading comic magazines like Donald Duck and Robbedoes, the Dutch-language edition of Spirou magazine. He picked up drawing at an early age, and saw several of his submissions published in the readers' section of the latter magazine. Artists from Spirou's so-called "School of Marcinelle", and André Franquin in particular, have had a great influence on Jippes' work. From the other side of the Atlantic, one can count Carl Barks, Floyd Gottfredson, Walt Kelly, Cliff Sterrett and Mad Magazine's Mort Drucker among his influences. As a youngster, Jippes carefully studied and copied artwork of the artists he admired. A self-taught artist, Jippes' professional career began right after he fulfilled his military service, at age 19. He went from art agency to art agency to present his portfolio, but all in vain. Eventually, in 1966, he was directed to the publishing house De Geïllustreerde Pers.
'Hipper contra de Kuddefabriek'.
De Geïllustreerde Pers
At De Geïllustreerde Pers, Jippes was initially hired to work in the lay-out departments of the magazines Margriet and Revu. Revu also published his first comic story, the psychedelic flower power strip 'Hipper' (1967-1968). Written by advertising copywriter Hans Ferrée, 'Hipper' was a product of its time, dealing with a long-haired, flute-playing hippie and his struggles with the establishment. Some readers had problems with the comic's free spirit, and the feature ended shortly after the launch. Still, the work proved important as it introduced Daan Jippes to the field of comics. While working for Revu, he regularly visited the offices of the comic magazines Pep and Donald Duck, which were situated in the same building. In 1968, he made the transition to Pep, where he was a staff artist until the summer of 1969, and then turned freelance.
'Het Is Een Vreemdeling Zeker...' (Pep #36, 1973).
Pep staple
At Pep, Jippes started out doing lay-outs and cover illustrations, mostly featuring the magazine's licensed characters from abroad. He proved to be instantly capable of adapting other artist's drawing styles, and drew covers with Tibet's 'Ric Hochet', Jean Tabary's 'Iznogoud' and most notably Albert Uderzo's 'Astérix'. Issue #41 of 1968 featured a first short story by Jippes, written by Willy Lohmann. 'Spoedbestelling Mexico' starred a mailman who ends up in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico, where he accidentally wins each game. Between 1970 and 1973, Jippes wrote and drew several independent one-page gags for the 'Pepspotters' section. Jippes was also approached to draw Willy Lohmann's 'Engelbert', as well as Martin Lodewijk's gangster comic 'Johnny Goodbye', but these duties eventually went to Lohmann himself and Dino Attanasio, respectively. Over the course of 1969, Jippes began working on the definite showcase of his virtuoso drawing style. It helped him establish his legacy as one of the "Big Five" of Pep artists, along with Martin Lodewijk, Dick Matena, Fred Julsing and Peter de Smet.
'Twee voor Thee'.
Twee voor Thee
Jippes' first personal graphic novel, 'Twee Voor Thee' (1972), was written by Martin Lodewijk, and centers around a Dutch family of 19th-century tea merchants. The main star is Bernard Voorzichtig, an avid tennis player who inherits the faltering family company. Accompanied by his butler, a black Frisian called Siebe, he heads for the Dutch Indies (present-day Indonesia) to investigate a mysterious tea forgery scam. Always the perfectionist, it took Jippes three years to complete the story. When he had finished the first twenty pages in a style similar to the classic Dupuis school, André Franquin in particular, he put the story on hold to first finish off some assignments for the Dutch Disney weekly Donald Duck. By the time he resumed 'Twee Voor Thee', he had undergone so much influence from 'Mickey Mouse' artist Floyd Gottfredson, that he finished the story in a completely different drawing style. The story was finally serialized in Pep issues #33 (12-18 August) through #52 (23-29 December) of 1972, and published in book format in the following year.
Even though no further stories starring Bernard Voorzichtig were ever made, 'Twee Voor Thee' has become an all-time classic of Dutch comics, especially among Jippes' peers. Many Dutch artists have used it as a reference and source of inspiration. According to legend, Martin Lodewijk had begun working on a second script, but accidentally left it in a phone booth one day.
Cover illustrations for 'The Flintstones Comics' and Pep issue #21 (24 May 1969).
Disney comics
After turning freelance in mid 1969, Jippes began working for the other comics publications of De Geïllustreerde Pers as well. For instance, he made cover drawings with Hanna-Barbera characters for the monthly De Flintstones comic book, and began a fruitful collaboration with the Dutch Disney magazines. One of his first jobs was remounting an American pocket story into regular page format in 1970, while Jippes' first solo comic was a five-page 'Mickey Mouse' story drawn in a pure Gottfredson style, published in issue #13 of 1972. In the following years, as his role in the local production of Disney comics gained importance, he continued to provide a great many cover illustrations.
As early as the 1950s, artists like Endre Lukács and Lex Overeijnder had made original artwork for the Dutch Donald Duck weekly, while the Toonder Studio's provided most of the 1960s back-up stories. However, the local Dutch Disney production truly came to blossom during the 1970s, especially after the publisher regrouped its comics activities in the Oberon division. In 1974, chief editor Paul Deckers had proposed a local art studio to overcome the lack of sufficient American source material. Jippes was appointed art director in 1975, after which the Dutch Disney comics gained in quality. Jippes drew many covers and wrote several stories, but also trained and guided artists like Ben Verhagen, Michel Nadorp, Ed van Schuijlenburg, Wilbert Plijnaar, Robert van der Kroft and Mark de Jonge. The 'Donald Duck' stories he drew himself had a vivid style with nearly the same quality level as Carl Barks' drawings. For other stories he stuck to doing lay-outs, while artists like Freddy Milton provided the finished art. During this period, the foundations were laid for the steady production of Disney stories in the Netherlands, which lasts until this day. Dutch stories have been syndicated all over the world, from Europe and the USA to Indonesia and China. By the 2000s, the Dutch became leading producers of Disney comics worldwide, along with Egmont in Denmark and Disney Publishing in Italy.
Comic strip from Donald Duck 1973-33. © Disney.
Move to the USA
Jippers' work for the Dutch licensee of Disney comics did not go by unnoticed. In 1980, Don McLaughlin, art director of Disney Consumer Products in Burbank, California, invited him to come and work in the States. From the fall of 1981 until December 1989, Jippes was stationed in the Burbank studios. His main body of work during this period were the Disney newspaper comics. From 3 May 1981 until 3 January 1982, he drew the 'Mickey Mouse' Sunday comic written by Del Connell, with Mike Royer providing most of the inking. Between 1986 and 1988, he regularly worked on Bob Foster's 'Donald Duck' daily and Sunday strips, collaborating either as a penciler or inker with artists like Jim Franzen, Jules Coenen, Ulrich Schröder or Disney veteran Tony Strobl.
Jippes also co-wrote and illustrated the comic book adaptation of Robert Zemeckis and Richard Williams' feature film 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?' (1988). Jippes took care of the cartoony characters, while Dan Spiegle drew the "real life" human ones and backgrounds. Contrary to the film, though, Jippes couldn't portray any of the classic characters from Disney, Warner Brothers, MGM, Lantz or Fleischer in cameo roles. He also had early access to the script, so some scenes are notably different compared with the finished movie. In the Netherlands, the story marked Jippes' sole publication in Sjors & Sjimmie Stripblad, one of the successors of Pep magazine. The Consumer Products division was also responsible for producing artwork for merchandising, retail and licensing purposes, while Jippes also illustrated many covers for American Disney comics licensee Another Rainbow.
In 1989, Jippes transferred to Disney Animation in Glendale, California. One of his first jobs was working with Hans Bacher on character designs and storyboards in Don Hahn's unit for the production of 'Beauty and the Beast' (1991). He then worked on the animated featurette 'The Prince and the Pauper' (1990) and the Disney classic 'Aladdin' (1992), for which he designed the villain Jafar.
'Who Framed Roger Rabbit', by Daan Jippes and Dan Spiegle - © Disney.
After a stint at Disney's European Creative Centre in Paris, France, Jippes joined Steven Spielberg's Amblimation studio in London, where he did the storyboard for 'Balto' (1995). He then returned to the United States to do assignments for Universal Pictures and Dreamworks. In 1997, Daan Jippes was brought back to the Netherlands for a first time, when entrepreneur Han Peekel had the ambition to set up a comics-related theme park in Rotterdam, called Cartoondam. He also desired an animated series based on Peter de Smet's 'De Generaal', for which Jippes would make the storyboards. Both projects however proved a deception for all parties involved, resulting in Jippes's return to the USA. He finally ended up working for Disney Television, where he participated in the production of some direct-to-video sequel films and the TV series 'Mouse Works'.
Sketch for a Winnie the Pooh children's book.
Further work on Dutch Disney comics
Even though he was in the USA, Dutch editor Thom Roep continued to hire Jippes to draw cover illustrations for Oberon's Disney publications, most notably for the series 'De Beste Verhalen van Donald Duck' and 'Oom Dagobert', which collected all the Carl Barks stories in book format. Jippes also provided occasional scripts and story art, most notably for a couple of Barks-style ten-pagers starring 'Donald Duck' and his family. Another remarkable contribution was the short non-Disney story 'Botje Beer' (1981) for the monthly Mickey Maandblad, which was in fact a reworked version of a story that Carl Barks had created with MGM's 'Barney Bear'.
In 1991, Jippes provided the pencil art for the celebration story of the weekly's 40th anniversary, written by Evert Geradts and inked by Michel Nadorp. In the following year, he embarked upon the ambitious project of redrawing all the 'Junior Woodchucks', 'Uncle Scrooge' and 'Donald Duck' stories that Barks had written, but not drawn, after his retirement. Jippes managed to give them the typical Barks touch, which the original versions by Tony Strobl and Kay Wright lacked. Jippes reworked several of these stories for the Dutch publisher until 1999.
'Botje Beer' (Mickey Maandblad #8, 1981).
Studio Jan Kruis
In 1999, Jan Kruis and his business partner Joop Wiggers had sold their rights to the Dutch family comic 'Jan, Jans en de Kinderen' to VNU, who ran this strip weekly in its women's magazine Libelle. To preserve its production, the publisher set up an in-house studio for the production of the weekly gag page and the related merchandise with the characters. With Jan Kruis officially staying on board as external supervisor, Daan Jippes was appointed as art director. Among the early artists employed by the studio were Rob Phielix, Gerben Valkema and Peter Nuyten. Jippes remodeled Kruis' trademark shaky linework into a more streamlined house style, while also compiling model sheets and a style guide. In early 2001, Jippes left after creative differences between the studio and the Libelle editors, but returned for a short period in 2002-2003. Eventually, Rob Phielix became the lead artist of 'Jan, Jans en de Kinderen', while in later years, artists like Maarten Gerritsen, Michiel van de Vijver, Daniel van den Broek and Irene Berbee have provided pages on a regular basis as well.
Donald Duck - 'Rarest of the Rare' (2013) - © Disney.
Egmont
With his regular stint at Studio Jan Kruis coming to an end in 2001, Jippes returned to Disney comics, this time working for Egmont in Copenhagen, Denmark. He notably resumed redrawing the classic stories scripted by Carl Barks, and with the publication of 'King Scrooge The First' in 2007, all of the legendary artist's remaining scripts had received an appropriate Jippes treatment, a total of 450 pages. Since 2001, Jippes has also drawn a great many of his own stories and gags with the Duck characters, but additionally many cover illustrations in collaboration with Ulrich Schröder. Many of his stories were written by Jippes himself, but he also worked in collaboration with Byron Erickson, Don Markstein and Pascal Oost. In addition to his Duck-related work, Jippes has made a series of 'Goofy' gags in collaboration with Ulrich Schröder and French scriptwriter François Corteggiani between 2007 and 2016.
When by 2019 his regular collaboration with Egmont had ended, Daan Jippes returned to working on new Disney comics for the Dutch Donald Duck magazine. Together with fellow artist Ulrich Schröder, he worked on gags and stories with characters like Goofy, Panchito and the Big Bad Wolf, a collaboration that lasted until 2022.
Havank - 'De Schaduw op de Tast'.
Havank
By 2004, Jippes was back in the USA working at Dreamworks, when he was reading a 'Gil Jourdan' album by Maurice Tillieux. The Franco-Belgian classic gave him the idea of adapting the Dutch detective novels by Hans van der Kallen (1904-1964), who worked under the pen name Havank. Van der Kallen had written about thirty crime novels between 1935 and 1959, most starring the French police inspector Charles C.M. Carlier, nicknamed "The Shadow". In 1972, the publishing house Helmond had already released two anonymous and more forgettable 'Havank' adaptations. As his first project, Jippes picked the key episode 'Hoofden op Hol' (1939), but completely reworked the plot, while maintaining Havank's typical humor and archaic language. He also changed the name of the protagonist from Carlier to Havank, as a tribute to his creator. The drawing style as well as the "waffle iron" panel lay-out carefully mimicked that of the Spirou magazine house style of the 1950s, with André Franquin as main influence. Because of the French setting and the Franco-Belgian drawing style, Jippes assumed the pen name Danier for the occasion. To further carry out his Danier persona, he wore a French beret and smoked a pipe during promotional events and signings. In 2006, 'Hoofden Op Hol' was serialized in Dutch newspaper AD, and published in book format by Uitgeverij L the same year. When publisher Rob van Bavel relaunched comic magazine Eppo in 2009, Danier was present with his second 'Havank' adaptation, 'De Schaduw op de Tast' (2009). The project then stalled due to a lack of sufficient funding and publication opportunities.
Later work
Since 2006, Daan Jippes worked through his own Studio Lijnlust in Bussum, which has also been frequented by Rob Phielix, Gerben Valkema, Pascal Oost and Henrieke Goorhuis. Besides making new Disney comics, Jippes was guest editor-in-chief of the first issue of the Dutch Stripglossy by Seb van der Kaaden's publishing house Personalia. In May 2016, it was presented at the Haarlem Comics Festival. For later issues of Stripglossy, Jippes has illustrated a story of Frans Hasselaar's superhero parody 'Beterman' (2018) and served as the artist for the revival of Dino Attanasio's classic character 'Spaghetti' (2019), again in collaboration with Hasselaar.
Graphic contributions
Jippes paid homage to Marten Toonder in the tribute book 'Was Tom Poes Maar Hier - Een Hommage aan Marten Toonder' (De Bezige Bij, 2006). He drew a homage to Robert Crumb in the collective book 'A Tribute to Robert Crumb' (Éditions 52, 2013). In 2017, Jippes was also one of many comic artists to salute André Franquin's 'Gaston Lagaffe' in the collective homage album 'Gefeliciflaterd!' (Dupuis, 2017). In 2018, Jippes wrote and drew 'Dossier Trollenland' for Eppo, a short story starring 'Agent 327' in tribute to its creator Martin Lodewijk. In 2020, he joined 75 Dutch & Flemish comic artists to make a graphic contribution to the free collective comic book ‘Striphelden versus Corona’ (Oogachtend, Uitgeverij L, 2020). The book was intended to support comics stores who had to close their doors for two months during the lockdown at the height of the COVID-19 virus pandemic. In 2022, Daan Jippes designed the catalog cover for the original art exhibition about 70 years of the Dutch Donald Duck weekly in the Museum of Comic Art in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
Recognition
During the 2001 Stripdagen comic festival in Den Bosch, on 22-23 September, Daan Jippes was awarded the annual Stripschap Prize by comic appreciation society Het Stripschap.
Daan Jippes signing in Gallery Lambiek on 6 June 2009.
Legacy and influence
Daan Jippes ranks as one of the most influential Dutch comic artists. As an artist, he never chooses the easy way out. His pages make use of virtuoso lay-outs and unusual perspectives, earning him the highest praise from his peers. Many Dutch artists have ranked him among their top influences, including Maarten Gerritsen, Pieter Hogenbirk, Maarten Janssens, Hein de Kort, Gerard Leever, Michel Nadorp, Wilbert Plijnaar, Eric Schreurs, Ronald Sinoo, Jan Steeman and Gerben Valkema. In Finland, Kari Korhonen ranks him as an influence, in the Czech Republic Dan Černý, while in Spain José Ramón Bernadó and Carlos Mota are among his disciples. However, Jippes' meticulously cramped panels and somewhat archaic use of language might require some extra effort from the general reader. Nonetheless, Jippes chameleonic drawing talent is undisputed. It is no wonder that he was chosen to maintain the legacies of Carl Barks and Jan Kruis. Also, his Pep cover illustrations with 'Asterix' or 'Lucky Luke' can hardly be distinguished from ones by the original artists, Albert Uderzo and Morris. At one point in the early 1980s, Jippes and scriptwriter Lo Hartog van Banda were working on a brand new 'Astérix' story for a planned monthly Asterix magazine. Legend goes that Uderzo felt so threatened by Jippes' graphic talents, that the project was cut short. However, the fact that the monthly never saw the light of day is probably a more plausible explanation.
Lambiek will always be grateful to Daan Jippes for illustrating the letter "V" in our encyclopedia book 'Wordt Vervolgd - Stripleksikon der Lage Landen', published in 1979.
1999 version of Carl Barks story 'Wailing Whalers' by Daan Jippes. © Disney.
Original version by Kay Wright from 1972. © Disney.