'Broer Konijn' (Donald Duck #48, 1976).
Ed van Schuijlenburg was a Dutch comic artist and animator. Between 1969 and 2006 he was a long-running contributor to Dutch Disney publications. Besides drawing covers and comics stories, he was most notably the art corrector for the local production of Disney comics. In this occupation, he has trained several generations of new Disney artists.
Early life and animation career
Ed van Schuijlenburg (also referred to as "Eddy van Schuylenburg") was born in 1946 in Amsterdam. He began his career at the Toonder Studios in Amsterdam in September 1965. He worked at the animation department alongside Lucas Abedy (1944-2016), who was later also his colleague at the Donald Duck weekly. The team participated in the production of 'Astérix et Cléopâtre' (1968), a film by Belvision based on the comic book 'Asterix and Cleopatra' by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny. Part of the production was contracted out to the Toonder Studios under supervision of the Danish staff animators Børge Ring, Bjørn Frank Jensen and Per Lygum. In 1967, Van Schuijlenburg also contributed to Ring's independent animated short film 'Man en paard' (1968).
Ed van Schuijlenburg, Lucas Abedy and Theo de Kreij at the Toonder Studios. Photo: Corry van Kesteren.
Early comics
In 1969, Van Schuijlenburg became a freelance artist for De Geïllustreerde Pers, part of the VNU publishing group. With Rens Benerink, he made a couple of one-shot comic stories, called 'Pepspotters', for comic magazine Pep. With Benerink as inker he also drew stories with Hanna-Barbera's 'The Jetsons' (for instance #11 of 1969) for the monthly Flintstones comic book. He made his first appearance in Donald Duck weekly in early 1970.
'Het Feest' (Pepspotter from 1971).
Donald Duck
In early 1970 Van Schuijlenburg made his first appearance in the Dutch Disney weekly Donald Duck. Along with Carol Voges and Endre Lukács, he was one of the early artists to work directly on the local production of Disney comics in the Netherlands. He made cover illustrations and comic stories with Walt Disney's 'The Big Bad Wolf'. In 1973, under editor Paul Deckers, local production of Disney comics became more important. Van Schuijlenburg drew stories starring 'Little Hiawatha', 'Jiminy Cricket' and his personal favorite, 'B'rer Rabbit'. Between 1973 and 1974 the rabbit appeared in gag comics on the back cover of each issue. Van Schuijlenburg drew all episodes. The idea was based on the U.S. 'Br'er Rabbit' Sunday comic pages by Paul Murry, Dick Moores and Riley Thomson. He continued to draw longer stories with the character throughout the decade from scripts by Thom Roep and Piet Zeeman, among other writers. The inking chores were handled by either Joanika Ring or Jules Coenen.
Comic story from Donald Duck #2, 1978.
In 1977, Ed van Schuijlenburg became a staff artist at VNU's comics division Oberon. He succeeded Daan Jippes as art supervisor/corrector in 1980. In this occupation, he has been mainly active coaching other artists. During his tenure, several talented artists found their way to the magazine, such as Michel Nadorp, Wilma van den Bosch, Mau Heymans, Bas Heymans, Sander Gulien and Viktor Venema. Van Schuijlenburg and studio chief Frans Hasselaar were also responsible for contracting foreign studios for the increasing production. This included Spanish studios like Blai Sanchis' Studio Bonnet, Jordi Sanchis' Studio Blai, Bardon Art and José Cánovas' Comicup Studio, as well as Fabrício Grellet's Magic Eye from Brazil. The most fruitful partner proved to be Studio Comicup, which provides a large part of the Dutch Disney artwork since 1987.
Van Schuijlenburg continued to make an occasional cover illustration for Donald Duck and the other Disney publications (like the cover of the annual Sinterklaas issue), as well as illustrations for pre-school magazine Bobo. He also provided illustrations and a comic strip for the book 'Goochelen met Hans Kazan', published by Oberon in 1985. The comic was written by editor-in-chief Thom Roep. In 1988 he made the short comic story 'Gowo en het grote ruimteavontuur' for Golden Wonder crisps, in cooperation with Wilma van den Bosch.
Recognition
During the Stripdagen in Houten, held on 26-27 September 2009, Van Schuijlenburg was awarded the Bulletje en Boonestaakschaal for his contributions to the Dutch Disney production.
Recent years
Ed van Schuijlenburg retired in May 2006, moved from Amsterdam to Haren in the province of Groningen, and now spends his time experimenting with Flash animation and writing his memoires.
'Hein Konijn' (From: Goochelen met Hans Kazan, 1985).