'Mickey Lost 't Op' from Donald Duck #31, 6 August 2005.
Michel Nadorp is a staff artist at the Dutch art studio of the Dutch Disney magazines, published subsequently by VNU, Sanoma and DPG Media. Over the years, he has become one of the leading cover illustrators, making his work a trademark of the Dutch Disney publications. Together with editor Jos Beekman, he has co-created popular editorial comic features like 'Goofy Geeft Les' and 'Mickey Lost 't Op'. Outside of the Disney realm, he has written articles about superhero comics, and created non-Disney gag strips like 'De Nitwits', 'Zus & Zo', 'Max!' (1996-1999) and 'Ab van de AbvaKabo' with writers like Joost Timp and Frans Hasselaar.
Cover illustrations for Donald Duck issue #31 (6 August 2010) and Donald Duck Extra issue #12 (1993).
Early life and career
Born in Rotterdam in 1960, Michel Nadorp grew up an avid comics fan, with a special interest in superhero comics. Hoping to make a living as a comic creator himself, he offered his services to the editors of the Dutch comic magazine Eppo. They redirected him to the artist Fred Julsing, who could use an assistant. Staring in 1979, Nadorp helped Julsing with the coloring of 'Witte's Dagboek' comic for Taptoe magazine. During this period, he also drew a solo comic, 'Kick en De Onderwereld', which remained unpublished. In the following year, Julsing recommended him to the Dutch Disney editors at the publishing house VNU, where he started working under the guidance of Daan Jippes.
Cover illustrations for the Greek Disney weekly Donald Duck and the Donald Duck Pocket #158.
Donald Duck
In 1980, Michel Nadorp began his long tenure with the in-house art studio of the Dutch Donald Duck weekly, initially freelance, but since the mid-1990s as a staffer. Working at the studio for over forty years, Nadorp has been its longest serving member of the studio, and over the years, he has worked alongside Frans Hasselaar, Ed van Schuijlenburg, Wilma van den Bosch, Viktor Venema, Jan-Roman Pikula, Maarten Gerritsen and Tim Artz.
Among Nadorp's early Disney jobs were drawing covers for the Donald Duck weekly and the now-defunct Mickey Maandblad. Since then, his main output has remained poster and cover illustrations. Until 2014, nearly all the covers for the Dutch pocket comic books until 2014, and his art has often graced the covers of the weekly Donald Duck and the monthly Donald Duck Extra. His cover art has been reused for Disney publications all over the world, while he also contributed exclusive cover illustrations to Aku Ankka Ekstra in Finland (2007-2012).
'Goofy Geeft Les' (Donald Duck #5, 4 February 2011).
Between 1980 and 2000, Nadorp has additionally illustrated over 50 comic stories with Disney characters like 'Donald Duck', 'Dumbo', 'Goofy' or 'Mickey Mouse'. Together with editor Jos Beekman, he set up several popular sections, starting with 'Goofy Geeft Les' (1999- ), a comics rendition of the classic 'How To' cartoons, in which Goofy explores all sorts of different subjects. Besides a handful of fill-in writers and artists, Nadorp and Beekman have continued to collarorate on the feature ever since. Between 2000 and 2010, Michel Nadorp was also the main artist of the riddle comic 'Mickey Lost 't Op' (2000-2010), again in collaboration with Beekman as writer. After that, Jan-Roman Pikula has taken over the art duties for this feature. In addition, Michel Nadorp's artwork has been featured on promotional artwork and online products like Ducktypen and the DuckWorld Adventures game.
'Max'. Translation: "Buzz off, little twerp." - "Hey, dear, you know what they say about little men: that they have an enormous you-know-what." - "I thought that was a fable. There's only one way to find out whether it's true. It is." - "This is probably the first time that somebody is knocked-out by his own erection."
Non-Disney work
During his freelance years, Nadorp has worked on a couple of non-Disney comic strips for other publications. During the 1980s, for comic magazine Eppo, he has drawn cover illustrations with licensed characters from foreign comics, such as Morris' 'Lucky Luke', Michel Greg's 'Achille Talon' ('Olivier Blunder'), Willy Vandersteen's 'Suske en Wiske', Mort Walker's 'Beetle Bailey' ('Flippie Flink'), Chic Young's 'Blondie' and Albert Uderzo's 'Asterix'.
In the 1980s, he made comic strips like 'De Nitwits' (with Frans Hasselaar) and 'Zus & Zo' (with Joost Timp) for Club Veronica. In the 1980s, Nadorp and his friend and colleague Frans Hasselaar also made the comic strip 'Ab van de AbvaKabo' for the Dutch labor union AbvaKabo, followed by the gag strip 'Max!' (1996-1999) in the youth magazine Hitkrant. For the fourth issue of Stripglossy magazine in 2017, he illustrated a story of Hasselaar's superhero parody comic 'Beterman'. The previous installments were drawn by Maarten Gerritsen and Tim Artz.
'Zus & Zo'.
Articles about superheroes
Nadorp is a connoisseur and collector of American superhero comics, with a particular fondness for DC Comics and its 'Batman' franchise and the independent publishers. In the Netherlands, Nadorp has edited Dutch translations of 'Batman' comics (Junior Press/Baldakijn Boeken) during the 1980s and 1990s, and he has written articles about superhero comics for Wordt Vervolgd and the comics news magazines Stripschrift and Striprofiel. With Ger Apeldoorn, he originated the 'Stars & Strips' section about US comics in the magazines Wordt Vervolgd and then Stripschrift. The section is nowadays written by Olav Beemer. For the 1990/1991 Superhero pocket calendar, Michel Nadorp has drawn an exclusive 'Spider-Man' story.
'Beterman'.