'Rats', De Waarheid, 26 February 1985. Translation: "Hm, once again one of those dirty, long-haired, work shy thugs. I'm going to act forcefully. Hola!" - "M-M". - "Oh dear, it's a woman!" - "Well, what's wrong with that?" - "Nothing, on the contrary, I might add." - "O.K., then hand over your wallet! And quick, because I have an appointment with the hairdresser!" - "Help!".
Remco de Korte is a Dutch graphic designer, teacher and comic artist who, during the 1980s, published comics under the pseudonym "Remco van Rotterdam'. He made contributions to the amateur magazines Rats and Baal, as well as the communist newspaper De Waarheid. His most enduring feature was the gag comic 'Rats' (1980-1981, 1985)
Education
Remco de Korte was born in Rotterdam in the mid-1960s. Between 1980 and 1983, he studied to become a teacher at the Pedagogical Academy Dordrecht, and subsequently had more artistic studies at the Academy for Visual Arts Tilburg (textile arts, 1983-1986) and the AKI University of the Arts in Enschede (monumental, interior and architectural design, 1986-1990).
Rats
With Paul Versluis, he published at least five issues of the amateur comic magazine Rats in 1980 and 1981. Besides work by De Korte, these issues also contained contributions from Marc de Boer, Johan Dorpmanns, Leo Immerzeel, Sam Siahaya, Tosti, Ted Valkenburg, Berend J. Vonk and Govert Zoethout. De Korte provided the title comic, 'Rats', which featured anthropomorphic rats in gag situations. Between 3 January and 1 April 1985, 'Rats' also appeared in the Communist newspaper De Waarheid. The artist signed his newspaper strip with "Remco van Rotterdam", and appeared alongside new strips by Marc de Boer and Alfred Bryan.
De Korte was part of a new generation of cartoonists that filled the paper's comics section, and most of these artists came from the amateur magazines Rats, TNT and Baal. When he left the paper, new strips by Ernst van Veenendaal, Herwin Walravens and Gerrit Geitenoog made their appearance. In an interview with Van Veenendaal, Walravens and De Boer in Het Vrije Volk on 25 January 1985, the trio named Remco de Korte as one of their favorite cartoonists, along with Peter Pontiac and American underground artists. In the early 1980s, Remco de Korte also contributed to several later issues of Marc de Boer's amateur comic magazine Baal.
Cover illustration for 'Rats'.
Later career
Like most cartoonists from De Waarheid's comic section, De Korte disappeared from the comics radar in the mid-1980s. He spent the following decades working as a teacher at primary schools in Rotterdam. Since 1990, he additionally worked as a designer on several projects involving theater design, interior decoration and furniture. His companies Onwijs (1994- ) and eeZee Media (1995-2017) are specialized in educational multimedia and communication projects for public institutions (libraries, museums), education, health and other care and businesses. In 1990, his illustrations appeared in the Dutch literary-scientific magazine Vooys.
'Rats'. The woman complains that she suffers from back pains and a violent husband. The doctor advises her to "kick".