'Kraaienhove'.
Willy Lohmann was a Dutch comic artist and cartoonist, best known for his moody newspaper comic 'Kraaienhove' and his many contributions to the Dutch edition of MAD magazine. Born in Zutphen as Willy Geert Lohmann, he moved to Utrecht in his early childhood. After his school years, he went to work at the advertising department of Douwe Egberts. He worked there until 1958, and then found employment with the advertising agency Delamar in Amsterdam for a year and a half.
'Berend Plunkerman' (De Spiegel, 1964).
During this period, he began drawing comics in his spare time. He drew 'Bazurka en Jampie Hoed' in Algemeen Dagblad until 1963, as well as 'Tim en Tokkie' in Libelle. He became a freelance artist in 1960. Among his clients were the Toonder studios, for which he was one of the artists for the 'Tom Poes' daily for a while (the story 'De Wezelkennis'). He published 'Berend Plunkerman' with scripts by Henk Lokman in De Spiegel from 1962 to 1964, and made 'Govert Edelwijs' for Taptoe in 1962.
'Kraaienhove'.
Lohmann is best known for 'Kraaienhove', of which about 50 stories were published on a daily base in the Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool between 1962 and 1972. He continued his series during the 1970s in comic magazine Pep (1972-1975) and in De Vrije Balloen. In addition, he was present in the Dutch Donald Duck weekly with 'Waldo'.
'Liselore'.
Other Lohmann creations from the 1970s are 'De Familie Spokeling' (1966-1967) in Taptoe, 'Liselore' (1976-1977) in Nieuwe Revu, 'Big Boss' (1972) and 'Engelbert' (1970-1973) in Pep, as well as 'Frank en Ewoud en de Gestolen Tankauto', an advertising comic for the water company of the province of Overijssel.
He has drawn a lot of comics, illustrations and covers for the Dutch edition of MAD Magazine, and also for De Vrije Balloen. Between 1984 and 1988, he drew 17 stories of the crime strip 'Marco Silvester' for the Leeuwarder Courant newspaper.
'Marco Silvester'.
In 1985 he was one of several graphic artists to contribute to the anthology book, 'Tegenaanval' (De Lijn, 1985), initiated by Patty Klein. The book protested against the conviction of comic artist Wim Stevenhagen who refused to fulfill his military service.
Willy Lohmann remained active throughout the following decades, drawing cartoons for publications from the Netherlands and abroad. He won several international awards for his cartoons and participated in many cartoons festivals. Several collections of his cartoons were published between 1983 and 1996, including a series of gift books for the publishing house Mondria. Lohmann also gave cartoon workshops through a correspondence course that he had developed. During the Stripdagen in Houten, on 30 September 2006, he, Jan Van Haasteren, Jan van Reek and Raymond Bär van Hemmersweil won the Bulletje en Boonestaakschaal. He lived on a houseboat in Halfweg, where he developed plans for new comics projects. Sadly enough, Willy Lohmann passed away on 5 October 2013 while on holiday in Turkey. His comic 'Odewijk de Goede' was published posthumously in Stripnieuws in November 2013.
Self portrait of Willy Lohmann, as featured in 'Liselore'.