'Man en Paard'.
Meinte Strikwerda is a Dutch graphic designer, illustrator, comic artist and a teacher in communication and graphic design. Under the pen name Mestrik, he has been creating comics, most notably his absurd series 'Man en Paard' (2004- ), which has appeared irregularly in a variety of publications and books.
Early life and influences
Meinte Strikwerda was born in 1964 in the Frisian city of Stavoren. His family had a strong interest for history and culture, and his father encouraged him to cut out and collect the comics that ran in the newspapers. His creative influences have been wide and varied, including Dutch comic creators like Marten Toonder and Peter de Smet, as well as international staples like Hugo Pratt, Moebius, Frank Miller, Jacques Tardi and Cyril Pedrosa. Among his other inspirations are painter/sculptor Anselm Kiefer, the Jewish-American writer Chaim Potok and the British fine artist Stanley Donwood. Between 1983 and 1988, he studied to become a drawing teacher and the Minerva Art Academy in Groningen, and subsequently received his Bachelor in Illustrative Design. One of his teachers at the academy was the comic artist Jan Kruis. For most of his adult life, Meinte Strikwerda has lived and worked in the northern Dutch city of Groningen.
Teacher/coach
After his graduation, Strikwerda spent most of the 1990s working as a teacher in Desktop Publishing and Graphic Design for institutions in Groningen, Lelystad and Amsterdam, including Idécom, Breuer Instiute and Com'media. He has additionally done corporate trainings in Quark Xpress, Illustrator and Photoshop through GOC in Veenendaal, and was a teacher at the Minerva Academy (Multimedia and Animation) and NHL Stenden (Communication and Marketing Communication), as well as a business coach at the OndernemersAcademie. Since 2010, Strikwerda is affiliated with Noorderpoort in Groningen as a teacher in Graphic Design and Concepting.
Educational artwork by Mestrik.
Graphic design and illustration
Between 1998 and 2015, Strikwerda ran an agency in graphic design and illustration, together with Nynke Kuipers. Based in the cultural center Het Paleis in Groningen, the Kuipers en Strikwerda firm worked on concept art, designs, illustrations and strategies for a variety of clients, including publishing houses, universities, hospitals and corporations. His illustrations have appeared in magazines of the VNU publishing group, sponsored magazines and the products of educational publishers. His further commercial work has included artwork for advertising agencies in Amsterdam, Groningen and Zwolle, as well as creative concepts for corporate films for Philips, Gasunie, Smurfit-Kappa and the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, among other clients. Between 2000 and 2011, Strikwerda was additionally art director for Ookjij.nl, an online platform for people with an intellectual disability.
Comics
In his spare time, Strikwerda has worked on his own comic projects, using the pseudonym Mestrik. During the 1990s, his earliest comics appeared in Bumper, a primary school magazine of the educational publisher Wolters-Noordhoff. Further comics appeared in a variety of regional underground comic magazines, most notably GR'NN. His work was also featured in the compilation 'Gr'omnibus' (Sherpa, 2006). In 2006, Mestrik additionally made a contribution to 'Groningen bij Nacht', a collection of comic stories from the city of Groningen, published by Passage.
'Man en Paard krijgen het te heet' (2007).
Man en Paard
The October 2004 issue of GR'NN ran the first episode of what became Mestrik's signature comic, 'Man en Paard'. Much like Peter de Smet's classic series 'De Generaal', 'Man en Paard' is a highly absurd comic with endless variations on the same theme. The title heroes are a depressed knight - characterized by spindly arms and legs, pointed helmet, and funny boots and gloves - and his walking and talking horse, who in vain try to capture a white dragon with sunglasses. Their nonsensical quest can take them anywhere the cartoonist wants, including through space and time.
'Man en Paard Geven Zich Bloot' (2012).
After the first book publications, 'Man en Paard Krijgen Het Te Heet' (Trivium, 2007) and 'Man en Paard Geven Zich Bloot' (Passage, 2012), 'Man en Paard' gained more mainstream notability when Strikwerda participated in the first Strip Battle contest of Stripglossy magazine by publisher Personalia. Over the course of the magazine's earliest issues in 2016-2017, Strikwerda "battled" against fellow cartoonists Gerco van Beek and Arjen Niezen, and was eventually elected the winner. Besides earning the symbolical "Baron Van Tast Award", this also resulted in regular appearances of 'Man en Paard' in the Personalia magazines Stripglossy and Jump, as well as a book series. Episodes of 'Man en Paard' have also appeared in the regional newspapers Dagblad van het Noorden and Leeuwarder Courant.
'Verschanst in de Tijd' (2015).
Realistic comics
In a realistic drawing style, Strikwerda drew the historical comic book 'Verschanst in de Tijd' (Personalia, 2015), dealing with the "forgotten" Battle of Noordhorn, a pitched battle near Groningen of the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish army in 1581. The script was co-written by René van Iterson. In addition, he has been working with scriptwriter Willem Ritstier on the science fiction comic 'Tracy Karbits, Ruimte Ruimer' (planned for 2025).
Cold case comic, artwork in collaboration with Anco Dijkman.
Cold case comics
Since late 2021, Strikwerda and his friend and studio colleague Anco Dijkman have been working on a series of "cold case comics". The concept originated from an idea that Personalia publisher Seb van der Kaaden had proposed to the late crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, who was assassinated earlier that year. Working in collaboration with the police force, a two-page comic is made, providing details of an unsolved crime case in the hope that informers or witnesses will come forward. On 30 December 2021, the first of these untitled "cold case" comics went into circulation with wide media coverage, including in national newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (A.D.). Afterwards, more cold case comics were created in collaboration with the Peter R. de Vries Foundation.
VOIC/INKT.PRO
Since 2010, Strikwerda has been a board member of the Verenigde Oost-Indische Inkt Compagnie (VOIC), an association of about 120 cartoonists, illustrators and other graphic artists from the northern Dutch provinces. In 2024, the association changed its name to INKT.PRO. Among the group's collective projects have been Het Huis van Kat en Muis' (2016) and 'Nieuwe Ouders voor Nilo' (2018), children's stories written by, respectively, Tjibbe Veldkamp and René Hoogschagen, with illustrations by several VOIC members, accompanied by an interactive exhibition at the GRID graphic museum in Groningen.
'Thea en Louis'. Translation: "Eurosonic was really great, but now I have a squeaky sound in my left ear. Just when I'm going to (a concert by) Noorderslag..." - "Annoying, but I know a solution." - "SQUEAK!" - "Ah, thanks. Now I have a squeak in both ears. That's stereo!" - "Anything for music!".
Graphic contributions
In 2019, Strikwerda contributed artwork to Leon Verhoeven's comic cook book 'Strip Kookboek', published by Personalia. In 2024, he paid homage to the late Dutch cartoonist Eric Schreurs in the tribute book 'Een Strip Hommage - Eric Schreurs' (Reboot Comics, 2024).
Since September 2021, he has been contributing the strip 'Theo en Louis' to SPOT Magazine, starring a couple that experiences all sorts of things in the cultural life of the city of Groningen.
Meinte Strikwerda signing his work in 2024. Photo © Erwin Suvaal.