De Leidsche Nachtwacht
Bert van der Meij is a Dutch comic artist and cartoonist, born in Katwijk aan Zee. He studied arts at the Royal Acadamy of the Arts in The Hague, and at the Californian College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. While in the States, he exhibited his work on a couple of occasions. His first published comic strips and cartoons appeared in the free Dutch comics info-magazine ZozoLala, Emigre, Zone 3, Vinyl, Music Maker and Wordt Vervolgd from 1983 on. His first books, 'This land is my land' and 'His Masters Voice', were published through Zet.El, the publisher of ZozoLala, in 1986-87.
Moesashi 2 - Moesashi Ontmoet Kodjiro
He then began his long association with the publisher Sherpa, who released his books 'Jungleverhalen' (1989), 'De Mens Boeroebi' (1990), and the series 'Hooglied' (three books, 1989-94), 'Moesashi' series (three books, 1991-93) and 'De Winnaar' (two books, 2005). Sherpa also published the cartoon collections of Van der Meij's popular penguin cartoons, aptly called 'De Pinguïns'. Together with Lian Ong he made the books 'De Lift' and 'Liften' for the publishing house Casterman.
De Mormels
He made the comics 'De Mormels' (1994-2004) and 'Koken met Kokkie' (2002-04) for Suske & Wiske Weekblad and he also had a comic page called 'De Dummies' in Autokampioen in 1999. The latter was followed by 'CrashTestDummies' for ANWB-Onderweg (2009-2011) and ASH-magazine (2009-2010). Van der Meij has furthermore made the cartoon series 'Groente en Fruit' in Okki and Zone 5300 and 'Het zijn de klijne dingen...' in the Extra-Wegener daily papers, Zone 5300 and Memory Magazine.
Van der Meij's topical strip 'Kappie' runs on the front page of the local Katwijk newspaper De Katwijksche Post since 2002. His book 'Het Geheime Schilderij van Rembrandt' was published in 2006 on the occasion of the Rembrandt Year.
Since the 1990s, Van der Meij has been active as a graphic designer and advertising artist for publicity agencies. Illustrations by him have appeared in the Malmberg magazines, De Volkskrant and books by Wolters Noordhoff and Zwijssen. Among his comics and cartoons are the album 'De Leidsche Nachtwacht' for Rabobank Leiden, the comic strip 'Jan en Janus' for Rabobank Moerdijk and the 'Watt & halfWatt' cartoon for the site of the advertising company DUNE. He has done several art assignments for his hometown Katwijk.
