'Dolfi en Wolfi op Speurtocht' (2012).
Frits van Loenen is a Dutch illustrator and comic artist, and since 2003 a regular contributor to the children's magazine BimBam with activity spreads and the comic series 'Dolfi en Wolfi' (2008-2012).
Early life
Frits van Loenen was born in 1967 in IJsselstein, where he still resides. Drawing comics since his early childhood, at age sixteen, he sent two full stories to the publishing house Oberon, which, however, remained unpublished. Between 1984 and 1988, Van Loenen attended the Graphic Lyceum Utrecht, studying illustration and graphic design. He continued his studies with an evening course in graphic design at the Artibus art academy (1990-1992). During the early 1990s, he had several meetings with the British comic artist Don Lawrence, who supported and encouraged him to continue his cartooning ambitions.
'De Apenluiders' (1990).
Comic creator
Combining his work as a comic artist with day jobs in graphic design and communication, Van Loenen has worked for a variety of clients. In 1990, he created his first comic 'De Apenluiders', about the history of IJsselstein, which was first serialized in a regional paper and then published in a landscape-format booklet by the local carnival organization KOIJ IJsselstein. After that, he created comics for several church magazines, for instance the gag strip 'Bart en Boris' (1995-2000) and a comic adaptation of the Book of Genesis (2000-2006).
'Genesis: The Tower of Babel'.
In 2003, Van Loenen began his collaboration with the Christian children's magazine BimBam, for which he created the comic serial 'Dolfi en Wolfi', based on the children's book series by J.F. van der Poel. The stories take place in Florida where two children have exciting adventures with their dolphin Dolfi and shepherd dog Wolfi. Between 2008 and 2012, four book collections were published by De Groot Goudriaan, an imprint of Uitgeverij Kok. Since 2017, Frits van Loenen has also supplied BimBam with a bi-weekly activity spread. A selection of these pictures were collected in the booklet 'Kijk Nou Eens!' (Den Hertog, 2020).
Activity spread for BimBam magazine.
Between 2017 and 2020, Van Loenen also made a monthly gag comic for Fobs, an international magazine for fencing installers. These strips appeared in Dutch, German, English, French, Italian and Polish. Since 2021, he has been making a monthly gag comic for Family 7 Magazine, the TV guide of the Christian broadcaster Family 7 from Apeldoorn.
In 2021, Frits van Loenen participated in the Comic Battle of the publishing house Personalia in Stripglossy magazine, which resulted in an appearance on the local TV station RTV Utrecht. In addition, Frits van Loenen makes paintings commissioned by private individuals.
Promotional artwork for Fobs magazine.