Operatie Hanuman
Michiel de Jong is a comic artist from Rotterdam, who works in the Atomic Style, which was popular in the 1980s through artists like Yves Chaland, Joost Swarte and Serge Clerc. He was born in Leiden, and attended the Arnhem Art School and the Willem de Kooning Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam, where he studied alongside Luuk Bode and Milan Hulsing. De Jong's first published comics work appeared in the comic magazine Briknazarr in 1986. In 1988 he started publishing cartoons in the magazine Striptuur. In 1995 he was nominated for the HR& Award for most distinctive study achievement with the comic book 'Multiple Sores', which he made with Anneke van der Zande.
Bigg
De Jong has worked as the assistant of Hanco Kolk and Peter de Wit at Studio De Wittenkade in Amsterdam for several years. With Kolk, he furthermore made the comic series 'De Familie Sloterdijk', about an expat family in the USA, for the English language magazine Hello You!. For the adolescent magazine Webber, he made 'Bigg' with Peter de Wit in the late 1990s. He was also present in SjoSji with 'Mikki & Finn' from scripts by Martijn Daalder and Martijn Snoodijk. In 2007, he drew 'Karlijn', a short-lived spin-off of the popular family comic 'Jan, Jans en de Kinderen' by Studio Jan Kruis, for girls' magazine Tina.
Ode aan Wilhelm
Michiel de Jong has regularly published his work in the alternative comic magazine Zone 5300. With Luuk Bode, he has made the absurd gag strips about 'Dinky & Donky', and he has worked with Milan Hulsing on several short stories. De Jong and Hulsing also made the mini-comic 'Ode aan Wilhelm' for the Pincet series of Hanco Kolk and Peter de Wit's publishing label De Plaatjesmaker. In 2006, they published 'Operatie Hanuman' in Algemeen Dagblad. It starred the documentary maker Lana Planck and dealt with climate changes. A book was published by of which the first story, 'Operatie Hanuman' was published in book format by Oog&Blik, and won the "Album of the year" award at the Stripdagen of 2008.
Candy (Zone 5300 #3, 2005)
In 2016, he was one of the six Dutch artists to draw a comic book starring Willy Vandersteen's 'Suske en Wiske' for S.O.S. Children's Villages, based on a story by a Dutch celebrity. De Jong made the story 'De charmante chirurg' with novelist Esther Verhoef. The other artists involved were Eric Heuvel, Hanco Kolk, Gerard Leever, Romano Molenaar and Gerben Valkema. In 2017 he also paid homage to André Franquin's 'Gaston Lagaffe' in the collective tribute album 'Gefeliciflaterd!' (2017).
Editorial strip from Zone 5300, starring Pieter M. Dorrenboom, Luuk Bode, Michiel de Jong, Tonio van Vugt, Dinky & Donky, Frits Jonker and Milan Hulsing (from left to right).
Michiel de Jong also works as a commercial illustrator for clients like Schouwburg Rotterdam, Bayer, Elsevier and KPN. He is represented by the Comic House agency. In 2009, he made the illustrations for 'Drakentanden', a graphic poetry project for Castle Groeneveld, based on poems by Mark Boog, with coloring by Marloes Dekkers.
Comic about Pat Boone, for Zone 5300