'Hier Waakt Oma'.
Wout Schildermans is a Belgian illustrator, painter and graphic designer. He works under the pseudonyms Melvin or Mister Melvin for publishing houses, advertising agencies and production companies. He is most notable as the most prominent illustrator of Stefan Boonen's children's books, which often make use of comic strip-like illustrated sequences.
Early life and career
Wout Schildermans was born in 1980 in Neerpelt. He studied at the Hogeschool PXL in Hasselt. He worked as a teacher at the Provinciale Hogeschool Limburg, but later moved to Borgerhout.
Children's books
Under the pseudonym Mister Melvin, Schildermans made the illustrations for children's graphic novels by writer Stefan Boonen at the publishing house De Eenhoorn. 'Hier Waakt Oma' (2014) tells the story of a fantastic weekend with an extraordinary grandma. 'Mammoet (over Theo, een van de beste jongens ooit) (2016)' is about Theodore Bob Prinsel the First, a rich and imaginative kid who has to live up to the expectations of his wealthy parents. He escapes his everyday reality through his fantasies, and has adventures in a prehistoric amusement park with cannibals, saber-toothed rabbits and a primeval girl. 'Kamp Bravo' (2018) is set in a youth camp, where one boy feels homesick and too scared to make contact with the other kids. 'Max Halters' (2020) revolves around a professional stuntman, while 'Dat Met Leo' (2020) centers on a boy who feels nobody recognizes him and goes in search of himself. 'Billie en zijn Genen' (2021) is an unusual book in the sense that it explains children in a playful, but educational way what genes and DNA are. Boonen and Schildermans went so far to have their own DNA tested for this book and consulted the Center of Human Inheritance at the University of Leuven/Louvain.
Schildermans also illustrated Kim Crabeels' 'De Grote OnderbroekenRoof' (Pelckmans, 2021). In this book a piece of underpants is stolen from the Royal Museum for Underwear. The head of the museum has to find the thief.
Other activities
Schildermans is co-founder of BLUTS, an animation studio specialized in animated shorts for bands and other customers. He is also a member of DeKLUP, a graphic collective who make excursions to the most unusual places, to make drawings from life there. Their travels have ranked from parks and forests to the Erotica Fair.
