'Otto Spoof'.
Willem Ritstier is a Dutch illustrator, cartoonist, and one of the most productive comic scriptwriters of his home country, based in Oud-Beijerland. His solo gag series feature a wide range of zany kids, bums and parrots, such as 'Bartje' (1983-late 1980s), 'Harry Lipwitts' (1984-early 1990s), 'Gaaibaai' (1988-1990, 2004), 'Flip' (2005-2014) and 'Mimoo' (2014- ). As a scriptwriter, Ritstier was for many years closely associated with Minck Oosterveer. Together, they created series like 'Philip J. Boogaard' (1984-1986), 'Claudia Brücken' (1988-1991), 'Jack Pott' (1990-1994), 'Speedball Nation' (1995-1996), 'Rick Rolluik' (1999-2001), 'Zodiak' (1996-2001), 'Nicky Saxx' (2002-2008) and 'Ronson Inc.' (2009-2011) for several magazines and newspapers. Historically, 'Nicky Saxx' was the last adventure comic strip serialized in a Dutch newspaper. Among Ritstier's many other co-creations are 'Soeperman' (1986-1998, 2009-2012) and 'Stanley' (1995-2003) with René Uilenbroek, 'Pelle' (1998-2003) with Jeroen Steehouwer and Frans Leenheer, 'Sam & Sam' (2001-2004) with Rob Phielix and then Carry Brugman, 'Anders' (2009-2016) with Erwin Suvaal and 'Ward' (2012- ) with Marissa Delbressine. In later years, he explored the western genre with the series 'Claire DeWitt' (2014-2017) and 'Jenny Pine' (2020- ), drawn by Fred de Heij, and ventured into futuristic worlds with 'Saul' (2017- ) in cooperation with Apri Kusbiantoro. More personal were his moving graphic novels 'Wills' Kracht' (2017) and 'Opstaan... en Doorgaan - Verder Na Een Verlies' (2020), dealing with the illness and premature death of his first wife.
Early life and career
Willem Ritstier was born in 1959 in Rotterdam. At age 11, he began fabricating his own comic magazines. He began his professional life with office jobs, for instance, in 1970 at an advertising agency. In his spare time, he made cartoons and comics, which he submitted to a great many magazines, but in vain. However, he managed to get some of his comics published in the amateur section 'Plant 'n Knol' of Robbedoes, the Flemish edition of Spirou magazine. Appearing in the sections no less than four times, his contributions were printed in issues #1960 (6 November 1975), #1964 (4 December 1975), #2001 (19 August 1976) and #2014 (18 November 1976). Ritstier's persistence in pursuing his career in comics is illustrated by a remark from Robbedoes editor Jos Wauters: "You could send him away one hundred times, but he would always come back one time more." Early influences on Ritstier's work were Christian Binet, Greg, Gotlib, Dupa, Gerrit de Jager, Peter de Smet, Willy Vandersteen and the Dutch comedian André van Duin, while his early comics also featured the typical Rotterdam directness and slang.
'De Familie Best'.
Early comics and cartoons
In 1982, Robbedoes editor Jos Wauters published one of Ritstier's short stories starring explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley in the fourth installment of the 'Robbedoes Album +' series of specials. Other early cartoons by the self-taught cartoonist Ritstier appeared in the Rotterdam weekly Groot Charlois and the Sunday paper De Maas. In 1983, Maarten J. de Meulder published Ritstier's first album, the semi-autobiographical 'De Familie Best'.
Bartje
Still in 1983, Ritstier was present in Robbedoes on a more regular basis, as the magazine had just launched its own separate section for Dutch and Flemish artists, apart from the French-language parent magazine Spirou. Running in a corner of one of the editorial pages, Ritstier's gag strip 'Bartje' (1983-1985) featured a clever and cheeky little boy with a giant cap, accompanied by his philosophical dog Kwibus and cocky parrot Lou. In 1985, Bartje continued as a daily strip in the local newspapers of the Sijthoff Press Group (Rotterdams Nieuwsblad, Haagsche Courant, Goudsche Courant). A collection of 'Bartje' strips was published by Loeb in 1986. During its final years, the 'Bartje' newspaper strip was "ghosted" by Leo Immerzeel.
'Harry Lipwitts', with a cameo of Bartje (Eppo Wordt Vervolgd #2, 1985).
Harry Lipwitts
Ritstier's corny slapstick stories about the incompetent criminal and layabout 'Harry Lipwitts' (1984-1986) ran in the comic magazines Robbedoes (1984-1985) and Eppo/Wordt Vervolgd (1985-1986), before continuing from 1987 into the early 1990s as a newspaper comic in Leeuwarder Courant. Each episode shows the zany lazybones strolling the streets, encountering all kinds of corny and absurd events.
Gaaibaai
While Ritstier continued 'Harry Lipwitts' in the Leeuwarder Courant, he additionally created the comic 'Gaaibaai', about a bachelor, Lodewijk Spruit, and his conceited parrot Foppe Meyer. Starting in 1988, it ran in newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, and later also appeared in the 'Suske en Wiske' holiday books by Standaard Uitgeverij. In 1989 and 1990, Standaard released two book collections of the comic. In 2004, 'Gaaibaai' was revived in a TV magazine under the title 'Foppe'.
'Gaaibaai'.
Yèch
In 1983, Ritstier began an association with the publishing house Jumbo-Offset. After publishing an album with the character 'Babet' (1983) in a collection of "experimental" comics, he became one of the originators of the amateur comic magazine Yèch. Participating in seven issues from 1984 until 1985, Ritstier formed the editorial team with Caren Peeters, Adri van Kooten and Minck Oosterveer. Besides his first collaborations as a scriptwriter with the artists Oosterveer and Van Kooten, the magazine featured new strips with Ritstier's own 'Babet', a baby girl with modern, feminist standpoints. Another Ritstier character created for Yèch was 'De Vries', a quick-witted and impertinent parrot who moves in with his former owner's nephew. Together with artist Jeroen De Coninck and fellow writer Caren Peeters, Ritstier also created the chivalry comic 'Heer Blooderick'.
A collection of these early comic strips was published in 1985 under the title 'Thee Met Een Wolkje Melk'. Among the other contributors to Yèch were Rob Phielix, Peter Hulpusch and René Uilenbroek. When in 1985, Yèch was transferred from Jumbo-Offset to Pinpoint Productions, the magazine became a training ground for new talent for Eppo/Wordt Vervolgd magazine. The final issue of Yèch appeared in 1986.
'Philip J. Boogaard', with art by Ritstier and Oosterveer.
Team-up with Minck Oosterveer
As a scriptwriter, Ritstier was for decades closely associated with the artist Minck Oosterveer. After their editorship of Yèch, they collaborated on many comic series until Oosterveer's untimely death in 2011. An early creation was the clumsy private investigator 'Philip J. Boogaard' (1984-1985), his name an obvious reference to film noir actor Humphrey Bogart. Most adventures ran in the Saturday newspapers of the Sijthoff group, two additional ones were published in the 1985 and 1986 'Suske en Wiske' holiday books. As a true joint effort, Ritstier wrote the scripts and drew the caricatural segments, while Oosterveer took care of the realistic parts of the artwork. After that, Ritstier and Oosterveer established a more traditional working relationship as writer and artist, respectively.
Ritstier & Oosterveer: magazine comics
Through Dutch editor Rob Harren, Ritstier and Oosterveer managed to get their comic about Berlin police investigator 'Claudia Brücken' (1988-1991) published in the Belgian magazine Kuifje, the Flemish edition of Tintin. In 1990 and 1991, the publishing house Lombard released three books, both in Dutch and French. Due to a change of management and the subsequent disappearance of the magazine, a fourth story was left unfinished. It didn't see print until 2000, when Boumaar released a book publication. Claudia Brücken was named after the singer of the 1980s synth pop groups Propaganda and Act.
After a short-lived project about the superhero comic 'Arachna' (1994) in the comic news magazine Comic Watch, Ritstier and Oosterveer were present in Suske & Wiske Weekblad with the semi-caricatural adventure comics 'Speedball Nation' (1995-1996) and 'Rick Rolluik' (1999-2001).
'Claudia Brücken' and 'Jack Pott', cover art by Minck Oosterveer.
Ritstier & Oosterveer: newspaper strips
In 1990, Ritstier and Oosterveer created their first daily comics serial. Six adventurous stories with the not-too-bright late 1930s gambler and skirt-chaser 'Jack Pott' (1990-1994) were published in the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. The series came to an abrupt end when the paper changed its policy regarding comics. By 1996, Ritstier and Oosterveer had found their way to the newspaper De Telegraaf, which first carried their heroic fantasy serial 'Zodiak' (1996-2002). At the time, the paper was in need of a replacement of the popular American 'Flash Gordon' comic drawn by Jim Keefe, which had just ended its run. Because of this, the American space opera created originally by Alex Raymond served as a major inspiration for 'Zodiak', as did the works of fantasy novelist J.R.R. Tolkien.
The main characters in 'Zodiak' are Tom van Santen and his girlfriend Caren van der Plas, who accidentally get lost in a world where life is based on the twelve zodiac signs. The authors deliberately gave their comic a pulpy look and feel, which especially was reflected in Oosterveer's sexy female characters. In interviews, Willem Ritstier has explicitly stated that 'Zodiak' had an ironic touch, and that he felt disappointed that general audiences didn't pick up on this, and only judged the series from a superficial viewpoint.
'Zodiak' and 'Nicky Saxx'.
Between 2002 and 2008, Ritstier and Minck Oosterveer created their next newspaper adventure comic, 'Nicky Saxx', starring Nicky and her friend Elja Steiner, who travel the world as private investigators, problem solvers and paranormal researchers. When newspaper De Telegraaf decided to only print gag comics from then on, Ritstier and Oosterveer had the dubious honor to literally carry the Dutch newspaper comic serial to its grave in the final episode of their strip, printed on 4 January 2008. They visualized this historical event in the final panel, letting their characters observe a tombstone reading: "R.I.P. The serialized daily comic. The adventure ends here." Books of both 'Zodiak' and 'Nicky Saxx' were published by Boumaar, while between 2007 and 2009, André Wijntjes and his publishing imprint Kippenvel released six issues of a Nicky Saxx Magazine.
Oosterveer and Ritstier's newspaper characters symbolically bury the newspaper comics serial in 2008.
Final collaborations with Minck Oosterveer
Up until Minck Oosterveer's untimely death from a motorcycle accident in 2011, the two regular collaborators teamed up for several additional projects. In 2007, first short story of their horror comic 'Trunk' was published in Menno Kooistra's horror anthology 'Bloeddorst' (2007). In the following year, a longer story called 'De Onbekende Soldaat' (2008) was serialized in MYX Magazine. In 2009, the authors were then present in the relaunched Eppo magazine with the raw wild west detective series 'Ronson Inc' (2009-2010). Two albums were published by Don Lawrence Collection in 2010 and 2011. In 2011, Ritstier and Oosterveer also made 'De Banneling van Thoem', an album of the epic space saga 'Storm', created originally by Martin Lodewijk and Don Lawrence. It was the intention that the duo would produce new albums in alternation with the other team of authors - consisting of scriptwriter Lodewijk and artists Romano Molenaar and Jorg de Vos - but Oosterveer's unfortunate death thwarted these plans.
'Soeperman' appearing on the cover of Sjors en Sjimmie Stripblad (September 1990), and a book collection of 'Stanley'. Cover art by René Uilenbroek.
Scriptwriter for further magazine comics during the 1980s and 1990s
Besides his steady collaboration with Oosterveer, Ritstier has worked with several other artists on a regular basis. For Eppo/Wordt Vervolgd, he wrote stories of 'Dabbo' for Hupet in 1987-1988, and he co-created the hilarious superhero parody 'Soeperman' with René Uilenbroek. During its initial 1986-1998 run, 'Soeperman' eventually continued his career in Eppo/Wordt Vervolgd's successor Sjors & Sjimmie Stripblad. A proper album collection never saw the light, but until 1998, Soeperman's antics have been collected in albums by Oberon, Zet.El, Big Balloon and BeeDee. When Eppo magazine was relaunched by Rob van Bavel's Don Lawrence Collection, the authors created new episodes of their humor comic between 2009 and 2012.
Between 1995 and 2003, Ritstier and René Uilenbroek were present in Suske & Wiske Weekblad with the humor comic 'Stanley'. Set in dark Africa, the series features an incompetent white explorer, Stanley (named after Henry Morton Stanley), and his far smarter and sarcastic black guide Weekend (a nod to Man Friday from 'Robinson Crusoe'). In many ways, this comic was an updated version of Ritsier's early 1980s solo comic strip of the same name. Between 2003 and 2009, publisher Boumaar released three books of the series.
Besides his two collaborations with Minck Oosterveer, Ritstier scripted several additional features for Suske & Wiske Weekblad, including 'Quint & Co' (1995), drawn by Rob Phielix, and 'Pelle' (1998-2003), which had artwork by Jeroen Steehouwer and Frans Leenheer. As a writer and artist, he created the gag strip about the wisecracking kid 'Alvin' (2000-2001), a feature that initially shared the page with Walter's 'Tuin-Tv' and Ikke's 'Kas'.
'Ward' - 'Het Labyrint' and 'Saul' - 'De Huurlingen van Barkahn'.
Scriptwriter for 21st century magazine comics
By the 2000s, Ritstier had established himself as one of the most prolific scriptwriters of his home country, both for children and mature audiences. From the late 1990s until 2014, he wrote the funny animal puzzle comic about the mouse and elephant detective duo 'Sam & Sam' for Samsam, an educational school monthly about children in developing countries, published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The artwork of the first 27 episodes was provided by Rob Phielix, after which the pencil passed to Carry Brugman (2001-2014). A book collection appeared in 2007. In addition to writing for his own creations, Ritstier has written stand-alone comic stories for the girls' magazine Tina between 2002 and 2006 (art by Carry Brugman, René Bergmans, Peter FitzVerploegh and others) and he succeeded Pieter van Oudheusden as the writer of Studio Vandersteen's 'Junior Suske en Wiske' from 2012 to 2014 (art by Jeff Broeckx). Since 2015, he also writes comics with Disney characters for the Dutch Donald Duck weekly and its Donald Duck Junior spin-off.
In 2009, Rob van Bavel of the publishing house Don Lawrence Collection relaunched Eppo, the classic comic magazine of the 1970s and 1980s. Many contributors of the early years returned to its pages, including Willem Ritstier. In addition to the previously mentioned 'Ronson, Inc.' with Minck Oosterveer, his first new creation was the time traveler 'Tim Tijdloos', drawn by Pieter Hogenbirk (2009). In 2012, Ritstier and Marissa Delbressine launched the adventure serial 'WARD', about a family that ends up in all kinds of fantastic and mysterious adventures after an ill-fated sailing trip. In addition, Ritstier also helped Delbressine with the creation of her webcomic 'The Shadow Prophet', debuting in 2020 on the Webtoons platform. Under the pseudonym Pim van Helmond, Ritstier also briefly scripted Eppo's title comic (2011-2012), drawn by Uco Egmond and Dick Heins. With Roelof Wijtsma, Ritstier revived the classic soccer comic 'Roel Dijkstra' (2017-2018), which was one of the staples in the original Eppo, originally created in 1975 by Andries Brandt and Jan Steeman.
Willem Ritstier served as guest editor-in-chief of the fourth issue of the Stripglossy, published in March 2017 by Personalia. The issue marked the debut of 'Saul', a futuristic fantasy series with painted drawings by the Indonesian artist Apri Kusbiantoro, which meticulously mimics the atmosphere of Don Lawrence's classic 'Storm' artwork. Further episodes have been serialized in the glossy, while since 2018, Personalia has also collected the series in book format. Also for publisher Personalia, Ritstier continued his collaboration with Roelof Wijtsma for a short-lived junior soccer comic for girls, 'Josje' (2021), of which a couple of episodes were published in Jump magazine, and one in Tina.
For the new Belgian comic magazine Maxix, Ritstier teamed up with the artist Michiel Offerman to create 'Luthon-Höge' (2021-2022), a series about a young police inspector who joins the "gendarmerie" of a small countryside town in 1950s France. In the same magazine, he launched the adventures of 'Jeff Rylander' (2021) - a former crime reporter at a low point in his life - with artist Eric Heuvel. In 2022, Ritstier collaborated with Ger Apeldoorn on writing the Maxix comic feature about dream detectives 'Poh en Slim', drawn by Ralf van der Hoeven.
'Anders' and 'Claire Dewitt'.
Scriptwriter for album series and graphic novels
Following the decline of the Dutch mainstream comic magazine, many of Ritstier's later projects were published directly in book format. With his former Yèch partner Adri van Kooten, Ritstier created 'Winth' (2008), a fairy tale comic set in ancient Japan. The project was halted after only one album, when its publishing house Bee Dee canceled its activities. With artist Erwin Suvaal, Ritstier made the trilogy 'Anders' (Arboris, 2009-2016), about two "normal" kids in a world where everything is different. Several installments of the strip were first printed in the comic news magazine StripNieuws. For artist Hendrik J. Vos, Ritstier wrote the second volume of the sci-fi comic 'Jack Slender' (V.O.S., 2013).
Due to the early death of Minck Oosterveer, the western series 'Ronson Inc.' had come to a sudden halt. However, the experience had triggered Ristier's interest in the genre. He found a new partner-in-crime in Fred de Heij, with whom he intended to continue the series. When publisher Rob van Bavel refused a third episode of 'Ronson Inc', the authors created a brand new "horror western" trilogy for publisher Xtra, starring the black bounty hunter 'Claire DeWitt' (2014-2017). For this series, Ritstier was partially inspired by the gritty western TV series 'Deadwood', but he also decided to explore the boundaries of the genre by adding horror elements and pulpy action. After this trilogy, Ritstier and De Heij embarked upon another no-nonsense western heroine, this time inspired by classic 1950s western movies. In 2020, the "Calamity Janesque" 'Jenny Pine' (2020) and her dog Leo rode off in their first album, published by Standaard Uitgeverij.
In 2018, Ritstier and the artist Wilbert van der Steen were commissioned to create 'Chemo-Kasper' (2018), an educational comic about children's cancer. It was a joint production between Ballon Media and the Prinses Maxima Centrum. Outside of the western genre, Willem Ritstier and Fred de Heij additionally collaborated on the graphic novel 'De Witte Dood' (MENLU, 2023), set in 1939 during the Russian invasion of Finland. Also for MENLU, Willem Ritstier worked with artist Andrea Kruis on the graphic novel 'Alsnog' (2023), about an elderly man who has one last opportunity to give his repetitive life a new direction.
'Flip'. Translation: Flip is horrified about his nightmare... being kissed by a girl!
Later solo comics and cartoons
Although since the 1990s, most of Ritstier's comics output has been in the role of scriptwriter, he has continued to draw cartoons and comics himself. In the early 1990s, Ritstier's family gag strip 'De Familie Iks' was published on a weekly basis in De Courant Nieuws van de Dag. One small landscape-formatted book collection was published by Amice in 1993. Using the pen name Vigil, he drew the gag comic 'Basta!' (1995-1996) in Suske en Wiske Weekblad. Among Ritstier's commercial comic strips are 'Dirkje' for the grocery magazine Ditjes & Datjes of supermarket chain Dirk van den Broek and 'Co & Wattje' for the power company Eneco. His creations 'Alvin' and 'Otto Spoof' have made appearances in the specialized comic magazines StripNieuws (2003-2004) and P@per (2012-2013), respectively. For the children's newspaper Kidsweek, he made the gag strip 'Flip' (2005-2014), which was in many ways a continuation of 'Alvin'. Since 2014, Ritstier posts regular cartoons with the kitten 'Mimoo' and her mouse friend on Facebook. Since 2019, Ritstier is part of Hans Lijklema's collective Facebook project 'Cartoons for Breakfast', both with 'Mimoo' and his postcard-style 'Like Me' feature.
'Rozewater'.
Greeting cards and other illustration work
Despite his impressive body of work, Ritstier's main source of income has been designing greeting cards, an activity he has done since 1988 for companies like PaperClipCards. Ritstier's cartoons and illustrations have appeared in Algemeen Dagblad, De Telegraaf, Leeuwarder Courant, calendars for Lannoo, and a number of internal publications of corporations like KLM and Philips. From the first issue in 1994 until 2015, Ritstier was the regular illustrator and cartoonist for the scientific children's magazine Zo Zit Dat. He has additionally made illustrations for children's books and advertisements, sometimes using the pen name Bill Risty.
Since 2022, Ritstier has been writing and drawing children's picture books for publisher MENLU, starting with 'Mamma! Waar ben je?' (2022), featuring the character of Elly the elephant. This first book was followed by 'Kasper Gaat Vliegen' (2022) and 'De Appel' (2022). In 2023, Elly the elephant returned in 'Niemand Wil met Elly Spelen'.
'Mimoo'.
Autobiographical graphic novels
In 2009, Ritstier's wife of 29 years passed away from breast cancer. The artist began working on a very personal graphic novel about her illness and subsequent death in 2011. He restarted the effort three times before he found the right approach. Ritstier openheartedly covered the entire process his family went through: the questions, the fears, the treatments and the end. He chose a simplified graphical approach, drawing characters without faces. This way, the author could keep more distance to the heavy subject matter, and put more expression in the character's movements instead of cartoony faces. 'Wills Kracht' was published by SubQ in 2017. The subsequent period of mourning and going on with life is covered in the book's follow-up, 'Opstaan... en doorgaan - Verder na een verlies' (2020). In 2024, Ritstier released what is so far the final installment in his autobiographical trilogy, 'Maandag Gaan We Scheiden', detailing the difficult divorse of his second wife from her first husband.
'Wills Kracht'.
Graphic contributions
Ritstier paid homage to Marten Toonder in the tribute book 'Was Tom Poes Maar Hier - Een Hommage aan Marten Toonder' (De Bezige Bij, 2006). In 2020, he joined 75 Dutch & Flemish comic artists to make a graphic contribution to the free collective comic book 'Striphelden versus Corona’ (Oogachtend, Uitgeverij L, 2020). The book is intended to support comics stores who had to close their doors for two months during the lockdown at the height of the COVID-19 virus pandemic.
Recognition
On 4-5 March 2017, during the Stripdagen in Rijswijk, Ritstier was awarded the Stripschap Prize for his contributions to Dutch comics, especially as a writer. It was the first time that the prize was awarded solely to a comic writer; in 1975, scriptwriter Lo Hartog van Banda had to share his award with the artist Hans G. Kresse.
Legacy
Since his beginnings as an artist of slapstick and zany humor strips, Willem Ritstier has widely expanded his activities into every thinkable genre. One of the Netherlands' most prolific and allround comic authors, his body of work contains not only kids' humor comics and action-filled adventure and fantasy serials, but also widely praised personal graphic novels. Willem Ritstier's children have also pursued creative careers. His daughter Veerle is an artist as well, who makes pieces of art with techniques ranging from 3D textile sculptures and etchings to paintings and photographs. His son Alwin (b. 1990) is a filmmaker, who maintains the YouTube channel Vet Gezellig with his wife and vlogging partner Ghislaine van de Elst. In 2021, Alwin Ritstier released a book about dealing with severe anxieties, 'Gek van Mezelf' (Lev. Uitgevers, 2021).
Willem Ritstier in 2017 (Photo © Peter Beemsterboer).