'Claire'.
Robert van der Kroft is one of the most prominent Dutch comic artists, with a track record in both the mainstream and alternative comic scenes. After beginning his career working in a round and cartoony drawing style for the magazines Donald Duck and Pep, he settled on a Clear Line approach when becoming the new artist of the classic children's series 'Sjors en Sjimmie' (1975-2001). Together with his regular scriptwriters Wilbert Plijnaar and Jan van Die, he also co-created 'Claire' (1988-2017), a contemporary humor comic for the Belgian women's magazine Flair. Robert van der Kroft was additionally co-founder of the Dutch alternative comic magazines De Vrije Balloen (1975) and Zone 5300 (1994- ), and one of the driving forces behind the Cross Comix Festival in Rotterdam (2016- ).
'Sjors en Sjimmie'.
Early life and influences
Robert Van der Kroft was born in 1952 in Rotterdam. His interest in drawing and comics didn't come from a stranger, since his father worked as an advertising illustrator. At an early age, Robert started collecting comics. At age 4, he colored the black-and-white pages in his copy of 'Avonturen in Minasoussa' by Frans Piët, starring Sjors and Sjimmie, characters he later drew himself for over 25 years. Van der Kroft drew his first comic stories for his high school newspaper, and later also contributed drawings to the alternative cultural newspaper Aloha. He spent a total of seven weeks at the Rotterdam Art Academy (three weeks in the first, and four in the second year), but discovered he couldn't develop his ambitions for cartooning there. Besides his father, Van der Kroft has mentioned André Franquin, François Walthéry, Roy Crane and Hergé as important inspirations for his work.
Cover illustrations for Donald Duck issue #1 (4 January 1975) and issue #23 (4 June 1976).
Donald Duck and Pep
In the early 1970s, Van der Kroft applied for a job with Oberon, the youth magazine division of the publishing company VNU. While he initially tried to get his work published in Sjors, he was instead hired by the weekly Donald Duck magazine. Between 1973 and 1977, Van der Kroft drew many covers, posters and comic stories starring Disney characters like 'Donald Duck' and 'The Big Bad Wolf' (including the test script of future editor-in-chief Thom Roep). He got the opportunity to develop his more personal style with his strip 'Pepijn' (1973-1975), published in Pep magazine. After a couple of sporadic appearances, it became a weekly half-page strip in which Van der Kroft announced the content of that week's issue, and experimented freely with lay-outs, meta humor and comics conventions. He also published a couple of independent stories in Pep, which in late 1973 included his first collaboration with scriptwriter Wilbert Plijnaar.
'Pepijn', from Pep #18, 1974.
De Vrije Balloen
During the mid-1970s, publisher Oberon announced that it would shut down its titles Sjors and Pep and merge them into a new magazine called Eppo, a decision that caused a lot of unrest among the authors involved. As a result, several of them teamed up to create the independent magazine De Vrije Balloen. Starting in 1975, the magazine gave its contributors full artistic freedom, which resulted in more satirical and adult-oriented comic stories than they created for the Oberon magazines. Robert van der Kroft was part of the original team, alongside Jan van Haasteren, Thé Tjong-Khing, Jan Steeman, Andries Brandt, Lo Hartog van Banda and Patty Klein. In the first seven issues, published in 1975 and 1976, he experimented with several drawing styles, from realistic to comical and more stylized.
'Wie Moppert Tegen 't Weer?', by Robert van der Kroft and Andries Brandt (from De Vrije Balloen #1).
Other 1970s work
During the 1970s, Van der Kroft's work additionally appeared in De Bajeskrant, a paper for prison inmates, and Studio, the magazine of broadcasting organization KRO. For the latter, he made the short-lived comic 'Jopper en Bars' (1976-1977). According to legend, this comic was canceled because of an offensive episode against Dutch prime minister Dries van Agt. In 1985, a selection of Robert van der Kroft's work for the magazines Pep, De Vrije Balloen, De Bajeskrant and KRO-gids Studio was published in the album 'Ratje Toe' by Jumbo-Offset.
First strip of 'Jopper & Bars' from KRO-gids Studio #51, 1976.
Sjors & Sjimmie
The launch of Eppo magazine in 1975 meant a turning point in Van der Kroft's career. New features were launched, some series from the magazines Pep and Sjors were continued, others were assigned to different artists. Editor-in-chief Frits van der Heide initially asked Van der Kroft to draw a local version of Sjors magazine's 'Billy Bunter', a British comic drawn by Reg Parlett, which had appeared in Sjors as 'Billie Turf'. When this project was canceled, the young artist was offered the 'Sjors & Sjimmie' comic instead, and so became part of a long history. In 1938, this comic was created by Frans Piët as 'Sjors van de Rebellenclub', a locally produced Dutch continuation of Martin Branner's US newspaper comic 'Perry Winkle'. In his early years, the white, blond-haired boy Sjors looked exactly like Perry, but Piët streamlined him into his own character and made the settings typically Dutch. Initially a gag strip, the series became an adventure comic after the war. In 1949, Piët introduced Sjors' black friend Sjimmie to the cast, after which the series was retitled 'Sjors en Sjimmie'. In these early post-war adventure comics, clearly a product of their time, Sjimmie was presented as a stereotypical dim-witted, primitive and overly scared black African. When in 1969 Jan Kruis took over the series, he redesigned the protagonists, making Sjimmie more intelligent, brave and less racially offensive. The stories themselves were modernized as well. Succeeding Kruis after two stories, Jan Steeman and his scriptwriters added sci-fi and fantasy elements.
'Sjors en Sjimmie'.
In 1975, the new magazine Eppo needed an even more modern rendition of the classic comic strip. Van der Kroft was assigned to redesign the main cast once again. At the suggestion of editor Martin Lodewijk, the series returned to its original gag comic format. Like Sjors in both Martin Branner and Frans Piët's early tenures on the strip, Sjors and Sjimmie became more rebellious. Existing characters like Colonel Snork (known simply as "De Kolonel") and his daughter Sally became the boys' parental tutors and frequent victims of their shenanigans, usually ending with the Colonel's trademark sigh "Bareuh!". The farmer's boy Dikkie, another character from the original 1930s series, became more crooked, always trying to trick his friends into giving him food or money. Van der Kroft's initial gags were written by Patty Klein, but when in 1977 the writing team of Wilbert Plijnaar and Jan van Die took over, the series got its definitive look.
'Sjors en Sjimmie'.
Although the setting of the fictional Frisian isle of Schiermeeuwenoog of their predecessors was maintained, the new authors situated their characters in an urban environment, inspired by their hometown Rotterdam. The comic was even more stripped from all the racial stereotyping of the previous decades, and turned into a multicultural and contemporary comic full with pop culture references. The trio introduced themes like young romance, star fandom, graffiti, hip hop, fast food, breakdancing, video games and other cool stuff to their episodes, making their version of 'Sjors & Sjimmie' an interesting time capsule of teenage life during the 1980s and 1990s.
'Sjors en Sjimmie'.
Wiroja's
Known as the "Wiroja's", an acronym of the first letters of their first names, Robert van der Kroft, Wilbert Plijnaar and Jan van Die proved to be a golden team. The authors applied an almost schematic working method. Each page consisted of 12 panels of an equal height and width, with an occasional double panel. They used only overall shots from one viewpoint, and no close-ups or changes of perspective. The artwork evolved into a variation of the "Clear Line", a drawing style introduced by classic authors like Hergé and Edgar P. Jacobs. All these structured elements make the comic pages of the Wiroja's instantly recognizable and legible. The production was a true group effort. After brainstorming about the plots, Plijnaar did the page lay-out, then Van Die provided the dialogues, after which Van der Kroft drew the finished page.
'Sjors en Sjimmie'.
Studio production
The readers responded so well to the changes made to 'Sjors en Sjimmie' that in 1988 Eppo magazine (by then called Eppo/Wordt Vervolgd) was re-named to Sjors & Sjimmie Stripblad. Since they were now the magazine's title heroes, the editors wanted to have the characters star in short stories as well, in addition to the gags. For such a production, the workload became too high and the Wiroja team decided to cut down their work on 'Sjors en Sjimmie'. In total, Robert van der Kroft had produced 637 gag pages with the characters. Still under supervision of the original team, new writers and artists were assigned to make these new short stories. The Wiroja trio made a "Sjors and Sjimmie Bible" with strict guidelines for plot structure, character traits and page lay-outs. Many freelance writers have contributed to the franchise during this period, including Evert Geradts, Mars Gremmen, Remco Polman, Wilfred Ottenheijm, Mark Middelhuis, Paul Hoogma, Piet Zeeman, Peter de Wit, Branko Collin, Ruud Straatman, Michael Engler and Michiel van de Pol, as well as editors from the Oberon comic magazines (Kees Vuik, Jos Beekman, Frans Hasselaar, Ed van Schuijlenburg). Between 1988 and 1994, Hein Haakman wrote and drew episodes (mostly gags), and Hans van Oudenaarden also drew a couple of stories. However, most of the artwork was outsourced to Spanish studios like Creaciones Editoriales, Bonnet, Comicon and, most notably, Studio Comicup, who assigned Carlos Guirado and Josep Nebot to do the job. After Sjors & Sjimmie Stripblad (1988-1994), the characters of Sjors and Sjimmie continued their adventures in new renditions of the magazine, SjoSji (1994-1998) and Striparazzi (1998-1999). When the latter title came to an end, the feature was discontinued. Between 1977 and 2000, Robert van der Kroft's version of 'Sjors & Sjimmie' has been collected in 45 albums by Oberon and Big Balloon.
Since 2019, the Wiroja team has been making new gag pages with 'Sjors en Sjimmie' for Stripglossy magazine of publisher Personalia. Returning to the characters for the first time in decades, their first new page appeared in the magazine's 12th issue. The series had been put on hold for many years, following a legal conflict between the authors and the owner of the characters, publisher Sanoma (which had bought the VNU magazine division). Stripglossy publisher Seb van der Kaaden received a license to produce new stories, which enabled a widely publicized relaunch. Since then, 'Sjors & Sjimmie' have reappeared in subsequent Stripglossy issues.
'Claire'.
Claire
While 'Sjors & Sjimmie' was continued by other authors, the Wirojas developed a new comic called 'Claire' (1988-2017), using the same gag format, page structure and graphical approach. The comic appeared in the Belgian women's magazine Flair, both in the Flemish and the Walloon edition, while it also ran in its sister magazine Flair in The Netherlands. Book collections have been published by Divo, the publishing company of Jan van Die. The series was a gag comic centering around twenty-year old Claire, her black boyfriend Ricky and her girlfriends Jup (with the spectacles) and Brix (the shorter one). The title character was named after the 1972 song 'Clair' by Gilbert O'Sullivan, despite the fact that the Clair in that context was the singer's three year-old daughter. The name 'Claire' was also chosen since the name is common among both Dutch-language and French-language speakers.
'Claire'.
A muscle injury in his shoulder forced Robert van der Kroft to seek assistance from the 16th album on. The Spanish 'Sjors en Sjimmie' artist Carlos Guirado of Studio Comicup had proven to be most capable to approach his graphical style, and was assigned to finish and ink Van der Kroft's pencils and lay-outs, starting with approximately page 700. In 2002, Wilbert Plijnaar became too busy with his work for American animation studios and was replaced as a writer by Evert Geradts. A small trademark Van der Kroft put in the bottom right of each final panel of his 'Claire and 'Sjors & Sjimmie' pages was a little man with the gag number written on his body. Observant readers can spot which episodes are drawn without Spanish assistance, as only Van der Kroft's own pages contained the "number man". This trademark ending is reminiscent of the animated autographs Franquin used for his 'Gaston' and 'Idées Noires' gags.
'Claire' was a mainstay in Flair for decades and became somewhat of a mascot. In readers' polls it was generally considered to be the most popular feature, particularly with people who fell outside the magazine's demographic, such as male readers. In 2009, 'Claire' was discontinued in the Dutch edition of Flair, but it kept running in the Belgian magazine until March 2017. By then, Carlos Guirado was already over 70 and wanted to retire. Apart from that, the Belgian Flair only ran a new episode every three weeks and filled the other issues with reprints of older gags. This prompted the authors to end their comic. In the final episode, Claire and Ricky got married, ending the series in style. The authors announced that new albums will still appear, mostly with episodes that hadn't been published yet. Certain gags have also been made available for iPhone download in the App Store, even though Apple censored episodes with too much nudity.
'Droppie Water in Schieland' - 'De Reis van het Afvalwater' (1982).
Droppie Water and other commercial comics
Besides his work for 'Sjors en Sjimmie' and 'Claire', Robert van der Kroft has been an illustrator and comic artist for commercial and educational purposes.Van der Kroft's best-known work in this genre is the character 'Droppie Water' (1981- ), an anthropomorphic drop of water. Commissioned by the district water control board of the Schieland area near Rotterdam, the character first appeared in 1981 in an educational strip, published in the free local newspaper De Havenloods. Since then, Van der Kroft has produced much promotional artwork with the character for the Dutch Water Authorities, including five educational comic booklets about the work of water management boards. Published between 1982 and 2016, the booklets tackled subjects like wastewater, rainwater, dykes, nature and the climate. For the last three volumes, Van der Kroft received assistance from Edwin Stierman. The Droppie character has also appeared on merchandising like pens, key rings, cuddly toys, games and bags. Since 2016, Van der Kroft and writer Thomas Rijk (pen name of Rich Thomassen) have been making regular comic pages with 'Droppie Water' for the free local newspapers in the district of the Waterschap Hollandse Delta water board. Since 2024, this has been a monthly strip.
'De Familie Zorgeloos' (De Paraplus, May 1978).
For magazine De Paraplu of insurance company RVS, he created the family comic 'De Familie Zorgeloos' (1977-1980) and for Calvé peanut butter, he created a range of peanut characters and the feature 'Opinda vertelt' in Calvé Pindakaas Club Krant (1979-1981). Between 1980 and 1981, he produced advertising strips for Mona deserts in Libelle magazine. He has made designs for the TV show Kinder Kafee (1995) and the children's section of the C&A department stores (1996). For Douwe Egberts coffee, Van der Kroft provided the illustrations for book adaptations of the Dutch musicals 'Annie' (2005, written by Lydia Rood and based on Harold Gray's classic comic strip) and 'Dokter Dolittle' (2010, written by Gerard van Midden, and based on the stories by Hugh Lofting).
Cover illustrations for Calvé Pindakaas Club Krant.
Zone 5300
During the celebration of the 250th issue of comics news magazine Stripschrift in the Rotterdam public library, Robert van der Kroft met Tonio van Vugt, who created the small press magazine Barwoel with some of his fellow art school students. The two men toyed around with the idea to launch a new indie magazine, filled partially with comics and partially with cultural news and interviews. During the Haarlem Comic Festival of 1994, the team presented the demo issue of Zone 5300, a small-press publication named after the postal code of Rotterdam. Like De Vrije Balloen, the black-and-white magazine in comics format was completely self-made. Over the years, many contemporary authors from the Netherlands and Flanders have contributed to the magazine, including Erik Kriek, Milan Hulsing, Michiel de Jong, Jeroen Steehouwer, Wasco, Gerrie Hondius, Marcel Ruijters, Simon Spruyt, Barbara Stok, Rob van Barneveld, Gummbah, Kim Duchateau, Typex, Sandra de Haan, Luuk Bode, Lamelos, Michiel de Jong, Schwantz, Jan Vriends and Pieter van Oudheusden. Already in its second year, Zone 5300 was awarded the Stripschap Penny for special merits. After five years, production and printing activities were transferred to a foundation. Stichting Rotown Magic has been the publisher since 2004. Robert van der Kroft has remained involved with the magazine as an editor, while Van Vugt assumes the role of editor-in-chief, aided by his partner Natasja van Loon and comic artist Marcel Ruijters.
'Annie, Het Verhaal van de Musical'.
Graphic contributions
Robert van der Kroft paid homage to André Franquin's 'Gaston Lagaffe' in the collective tribute album 'Gefeliciflaterd!' (Dupuis, 2017). In 2024, Robert van der Kroft drew a special four-page homage story for Eppo with Thom Roep and Piet Wijn's 'Douwe Dabbert' character, on the occasion of the character's upcoming 50th anniversary. The script was provided by series co-creator Thom Roep himself. Also in 2024, Van der Kroft drew a new episode of his 1970s meta humor 'Pepijn' strip from a script by Bas Schuddeboom for Ger Apeldoorn's 'Pep Nu!' anthology book.
Other cultural activities
Besides his work as an artist, Van der Kroft has been active as a musician. Throughout the years, he has performed in several bands in genres varying from punk and ska to rockabilly. The band Zorro for instance has performed for about 15 years. Together with Tamara Prins-van 't Hof, Robert van der Kroft has been for hire as a DJ under the banner "The Plastic Fantastic Time Machine". Both Van der Kroft and Prins also perform with DIT, a cover band that gives a surprising twist to famous and lesser known hits.
Between 2005 and 2012, Robert van der Kroft lived in Italy, but he eventually returned to his hometown Rotterdam. Together with Hanco Kolk and Erik De Graaf, he was one of the initiators of the annual Cross Comix Festival in this city, of which the first edition was successfully held in October 2016. The festival intends to showcase the many manifestations of comic art, and the importance of comics and cartoons for the arts and society. Explored are the cross connections between other art disciplines, politics, technology, media and philosophy. In the second half of 2024 and the first part of 2025, Van der Kroft embarked upon a TheaterCollege tour, 'De Lijn van Robert van der Kroft', during which he talked about the history of comics and his own work in the field.
Recognition
During the 4-6 November 1988 Stripdagen comic festival in The Hague, the Wiroja team consisting of Wilbert Plijnaar, Jan van Die and Robert van der Kroft won the Annual Prize for Special Merits (nowadays the P. Hans Frankfurther Prize) from comic appreciation society Het Stripschap. On 21-22 October 1995, during the Stripdagen in Breda, the three men received the Stripschap Prize for their collective body of work. After retiring from comics and concluding his theater tour, Robert van der Kroft was knighted in the Order of Orange Nassau on 25 April 2025.
Legacy and influence
Robert van der Kroft had a strong influence on Johan Westerhoff, Ben Westervoorde and Zookie.
The Wiroja's with Sjors and Sjimmie from the title page of album 14.
www.sjors-en-sjimmie.nl (in Dutch)