'Pete's Blues' (Zone 5300 #102, 2013).
Tobias Tycho Schalken is a Dutch artist from Den Bosch, who, in comic circles, is best known for his joint work with Stefan van Dinther. Ever since their years at Breda art school Sint-Joost, Schalken and Van Dinther have been involved in several art disciplines. With their self-published debut 'Eiland' (1997), they instantly made their name.
'Ultima Thule'.
On the level of content, the avant-garde comic anthology 'Eiland' stood out for Van Dinther's poignant graphic experiments and Schalken's poetic paintings. After the first 'Eiland' , the duo was joined by Erik van der Heijden, which led to the sequel 'Eiland' (1988). Bries published the third and fourth Eiland in 2000 and 2001, while a fifth installment was published by the French publisher Frémok in 2010. With every new 'Eiland', Schalken and Van Dinther kept on growing to new heights. This is vividly illustrated by their remarkable contributions to the international comic anthology Comix 2000 from the renowned French comic publisher L'Association.
'Balthazar'.
The inventiveness and maturity that characterize the Eiland comics can also be seen in the duo's other works. Schalken makes sculptures, videos, interactive installations, illustrations for stories and articles in newspapers and magazines, and also paintings. A solo effort by him was published by Bries in 2003, called 'Eiland Presents: Balthazar Part 1'. It offered a clever mix of medieval prints, 1960s science fiction book covers and details of Renaissance painting. A collection of Schalken's sculptures, short strips, drawings, paintings, sketches and background articles, called 'The Heart Of The Matter' was published by d'Jonge hond/WBOOKS in 2010. His work has appeared in such publications as Zone 5300 (The Netherlands), Lapin (France) and Strapazin (Switzerland).
'That Bright Land'.