Wil Raymakers is best known as the creator of the 'Boes' strip, together with writer Thijs Wilms. This "silent strip" features the animal kingdom in all kinds of hilarious situations, and was published in several newspapers (from 1980), magazines (Eppo/Wordt Vervolgd, Suske en Wiske Weekblad) and book collections (published by Drukwerk from 1981-89, and Standaard until 1993). The strip was also made into a animated television series called 'Ox Tales' by Telescreen/TV Tokyo in 1988/89. Prior to 'Boes', Raymakers made the strip 'Dierenleed' with writers Ronald van Deursen and Thijs Wilms, published by Drukwerk.
Loeki (Okki, 6/12/1996)
In the mid-1980s, Raymakers was hired to work at the Geesink studios, the Dutch animation studio which is responsible, among other things, for the famous lion 'Loeki de Leeuw', who appeared in commercial breaks on Dutch television. He leads the studio together with Louise Geesink, who took over control after her father's death in 1984. Raymakers worked on the art department of 'Loeki' and the other characters, drawing among others a comics strip with 'Loeki' for Okki in 1986. In 1988 Raymakers moved to Portugal. Every five weeks he travelled back to the Netherlands to discuss new assignements. He quit 'Boes' halfway the 1990s to work full-time for the Geesink Studios.
Between 2001 and 2004 he illustrated a couple of 'Tom Poes en Heer Bommel' advertising books for Aegon ('Heer Bommel en de Sterritaire Stormloop', 2002) and Pfizer ('Heer Bommel en de Wachtlijsten' [2002], 'Heer Bommel en de Smetvrezers', [2003], 'Heer Bommel en de Goede Gedachte' [2004])), based on scripts by Patty Klein. Raymakers even moved back to Amsterdam permanently for these assignments. He was in charge of training future 'Toonder' artists afterwards. On 23 October 2006 Wil Raymakers became a member of the foundation Toonder Auteursrecht, who are in charge of Marten Toonder's copyright. In June 2010 he also became a member of the Toonder Compagnie.
Boes (1984)