'Noortje' in the 2000s.
Jan Steeman was a Dutch comic artist, with a long track record in most of the major Dutch comic magazines. At the start of his career in the 1960s, he created comics for the Malmberg school magazine Taptoe, and drew stories with Disney's 'Big Bad Wolf' for the Donald Duck weekly. Between 1970 and 1975, he was a staple in Sjors magazine, drawing both the title comic 'Sjors en Sjimmie' and the science fiction comic 'Arad en Maya'. When Sjors merged with Pep into Eppo magazine, Steeman worked with writer Andries Brandt on the association football comic 'Roel Dijkstra' (1975-1981). His most enduring collaboration was however with scriptwriter Patty Klein, with whom he created the gag strip about the bumbling teenage girl Noortje (1975-2016), who quickly became the most popular character in the girls' magazine Tina. Created in a close collaboration for 41 years, Klein and Steeman's 'Noortje' holds the record as the longest-running Dutch comic series made continuously by the same team.
'Het Stoomhuis' (from Prins Leo).
Early life and career
Jan Steeman was born in 1933 in Schagen, North Holland, and grew up reading comics. One of the first titles he read was the adventure comic 'Rob en Daan', which his older brother cut out from the newspaper. It was a translation of the British picture story series 'Rob the Rover' by Walter Booth. Steeman later also enjoyed 'Kapitein Rob' by Pieter Kuhn and 'Prince Valiant' by Hal Foster. A self-taught artist, he began his career as an illustrator in Alle Hens, a scouting magazine from The Hague. He illustrated text stories and articles for this publication throughout the decade, and by 1956, he also contributed the comic story 'Pinkie en de Tijdlift' in cooperation with writer Frans Hummelman. Around the same time, Steeman wrote and drew the comic story 'Het Stoomhuis, De IJzeren Reus', based on the Jules Verne story 'The Steam House', for Prins Leo, a promotional magazine for Brinkers margarine.
'Rik en Het Zwarte Komplot' (Taptoe, 1962-1963).
Rik and other Malmberg comics
In 1959, Steeman had his first appearance in the Malmberg school magazine Taptoe with the gag strip about 'Rik, de Reizende Reporter' ("Rik, The Traveling Reporter"), which was also written by Frans Hummelman under the pen name Frans Leonard. This comic evolved into an adventure serial under the title 'Rik, Clio en Pluk' (1961-1970). Since 2002, the Kippenvel imprint of André Wijntjes has released and re-released several book collections with the 'Rik' stories.
In addition to his regular feature, Steeman also created stand-alone stories for Taptoe, such as 'Kokosbomenvoetbal in Stille Oceaan' (1961), 'Het Geheimzinnige Vliegveld' (1965), 'Do en Diederik', 'Gevecht om een Vogelbekdier!' (1962-1963), 'Rooie Rug' (1968), 'Wie Wint De Pepina-Beker?' (Okki-Taptoe holiday book 1968), 'De Kerstboom' (Okki-Taptoe Christmas book 1968) and 'IJspret' (Okki-Taptoe Christmas book 1969). In the late 1960s, he also made three stories with the character 'Mannetje'. In the late 1970s, Steeman renewed his collaboration with publisher Malmberg for a couple of stories published in Okki, a school magazine for younger children. These included 'De Kleren van meneer Buys' (with Frans Hummelman for Okki-Jippo Vakantieboek 1976), 'De Barre Winters van Vroeger' and 'Het Land Achter De Laatste Flat' (script by Frank Herzen, 1978-1979).
"De Kleine Boze Wolf' (Donald Duck #22, 31 May 1969).
Toonder Studios
In 1964, Steeman began a freelance association with the Toonder Studios, the largest comic production house in the Netherlands. He was mainly assigned to draw stories with licensed characters for the publications of De Geïllustreerde Pers. For the bimonthly comic book De Flintstones, he made stories with the Hanna-Barbera properties 'The Flintstones', 'Yogi Bear' and 'De Steenrakkertjes' ('Cave Kids'). Between 1967 and 1969, in alternation with Jan van Haasteren, he drew most of the early locally produced comic stories with Walt Disney's 'The Big Bad Wolf' and 'Hiawatha' for Donald Duck weekly. Steeman generally took care of the stories with the wolf, while Van Haasteren drew Hiawatha's adventures. Nearly all of these stories were plotted by Andries Brandt and Patty Klein, although Lo Hartog van Banda also wrote an occasional script. Between 1968 and 1970, Steeman also provided pencil art for a couple of stories of Marten Toonder's newspaper comic 'Panda', which was written by Eiso Toonder at the time.
"Panda en de Imp' (Limburgsch Dagblad, 2 October 1968).
Sjors (and Sjimmie)
In 1969, Steeman presented his story 'Tijl Dierelier en de Waterknoeier' to the editors of Sjors magazine of the publishing house De Spaarnestad. It was another collaboration with scriptwriter Frans Hummelman, and dealt with a man who could talk with animals. Hummelman eventually backed out of the project, and it took until 1972 before Steeman completed the story himself. By the time it ran in Sjors magazine, Steeman was already the artist of two prominent series for Sjors. To keep up with this workload, he had ended his previous collaborations with Toonder, Taptoe and the scouts.
Sjors en Sjimmie - 'De Slordige Slork' (1972).
In 1970, Steeman had succeeded Jan Kruis as the artist of the title comic 'Sjors en Sjimmie'. Working in collaboration with scriptwriters like Frans Buissink, Annelies Dekker and Thom Roep, Steeman drew new stories until the end of Sjors' run in 1975. Steeman worked in the same tradition as Jan Kruis, who had modernized the comic after taking over from the original artist Frans Piët in 1969. However, the playful Steeman-era stories are characterized by the addition of science fiction elements, mostly through the introduction of the space creature Slork. Amsterdam Boek and Oberon published four book collections with Jan Steeman's 'Sjors & Sjimmie' stories. The 'Slork' creature returned in 1979, when singer Dennie Christian released a song called 'Het Slorklied'. For the occasion, a new comic album called 'De Jacht op de Slork' was created by Steeman and Buissink.
Arad en Maya - 'De Wielgangers'.
Arad en Maya
With scriptwriter Lo Hartog van Banda, Jan Steeman further delved into the science fiction genre with 'Arad en Maya'. Consisting of nine stories, this series dealt with spaceship operator Arad and the girl biologist Maya, who could communicate with animals and creatures through her telepathic hair band. In 1973, the first story 'Manus op Mytica' was published in book format by Oberon. Between 1977 and 1980, the full series was published by CentriPress.
Roel Dijkstra - 'Thuiswedstrijd' (1980).
Roel Dijkstra
In 1975, the comic magazines Sjors and Pep were merged into the new weekly magazine Eppo. As a result, 'Arad en Maya' was canceled and the 'Sjors & Sjimmie' series was taken over by Robert van der Kroft, who gave the comic a new gag strip rendition with writers Wilbert Plijnaar and Jan van Die. In the new magazine, Steeman was assigned to draw the adventures of soccer player 'Roel Dijkstra', scripted by Andries Brandt. For the early stories, soccer player Willem van Hanegem was involved as an advisor. Scriptwriter Brandt was anything but a soccer fan, and gave Steeman free game to fill the sports sequences himself. The character was initially a talented player with the local club FC Leidrecht, but turned into an international soccer hero as the stories progressed. Steeman and Brandt made ten stories with the character until 1981, after which new stories were drawn subsequently by the Brit Keith Watson and the Serb Marinko Lebovic, while Dave Hunt, Jaap Bubenik and Roy Robson (Jacques Post) took care of the scripts. The series was revived between 2016 and 2018 by Willem Ritstier and Roelof Wijtsma in the relaunched Eppo magazine.
'Uit Het Alledaagse Leven van de Heer D.' (De Vrije Balloen, 1975).
De Vrije Balloen
In 1975, Jan Steeman was also involved in the launch of De Vrije Balloen, a satirical comic magazine initiated by Patty Klein and Jan van Haasteren. Created out of dissatisfaction with the way Oberon had treated their authors after the merger of Sjors and Pep into Eppo, this magazine offered its contributors full artistic freedom. Steeman experimented with several styles for a couple of experimental and adult-themed comic stories. A collection of his satirical stories dealing with TV star worshipping, the Dutch welfare state and modern art were published in the book 'Metamorfosen' (Arboris, 1982).
'Noortje' in 1976.
Noortje
Also in 1975, Patty Klein developed a gag comic for Tina, centering on a goofing, red-headed teenage girl named Noortje. As she felt sorry for him losing two series at once after the cancellation of Sjors magazine, she brought in Jan Steeman as the artist. First introduced to Tina's readers on 12 September 1975 (issue #37), Noortje Visser is a young high school girl, who enjoys typical teenage interests like fashion, pop music and boys. In a 1978 gag, she celebrates her 16th birthday, but in later interviews, she is usually referred to as being fifteen. At home, Noortje has to deal with her parents, Jan and Marga, and her annoying brother Sander. Her best friend is Marlies, who lives on a farm. Another recurring character is Noortje's elderly and old-fashioned aunt Amalia.
The weekly gags portray recognizable situations for teenage girls, like lovesickness, boring school lessons, worries about personal beauty, a quest for independence and parents who just don't understand. However, Noortje herself is more of an anti-hero. She is incredibly clumsy, naïve and impulsive. She often says or does things she didn't quite think through, getting into embarrassing but funny trouble. Despite being a young adult, Noortje is still very child-like in her thinking and behavior. She is scared of spiders, keeps a teddy bear in her bedroom and has a tendency to cry heavily when things don't turn out the way she expected. Her interest in boys tends to be superficial and often motivated by unrealistic romantic fantasies and expectations. But she is such an adorable innocent that she easily won the readers' sympathy. More importantly, sometimes she actually amazes her environment with her inventive and creative ways to solve problems.
Although Noortje gets gooey over boyfriends, Klein and Steeman always kept her love life chaste. She is sometimes seen dating, embracing or kissing attractive boys, but her parents are very protective of her. Journalists often sometimes asked the authors whether Noortje was sexually active, but they always dismissed these claims. A key to the feature's success was always Noortje's warm, wholesome family environment. Her parents may be strict and sometimes come across as bumbling, they still love Noortje, while she also feels safe and comfortable at home. Noortje's father was modeled after Steeman himself, down to his first name Jan.
Noortje in the 1990s.
'Noortje' is a typical example of Patty Klein's rich imagination. She uses everyday situations and settings for a teenage girl, and gives them an absurd twist. For instance, when Noortje goes out to borrow a cup of sugar, she ends up at the door of a sugar factory instead of a next door neighbor. When she reads about a tip to enjoy a bath with Coca Cola and potato chips, Noortje actually fills the bath with coke, and is then puzzled about what the fuss is all about. And when she goes to a sleepover party, she misses the entire thing because she actually fell asleep right away. Klein stated that much of Noortje's crazy ideas and illogical thinking came from her own puberty years, and that the character can be considered her alter ego.
When 'Noortje' took off in Tina during the mid-1970s, the comic was a remarkable, but welcome change. Up to that point, most comics in the magazine were melodramatic boarding school stories, imported from British girls' magazines. 'Noortje' was distinctively Dutch in its setting. For years, it was also Tina's only gag comic. Artist Jan Steeman deliberately worked in a semi-realistic drawing style, because he was advised that the magazine's target audience wouldn't like cartoony depictions of girls their age. Whether this theory was correct or not, the realistic drawings did make Noortje's bad luck more recognizable and relatable. And when Tina eventually started to include more caricatural comics, 'Noortje' still stood out as the only realistically-drawn humor comic in its pages. The series ran for more than four decades, surviving all of Tina's restylings and incarnations, and becoming an unofficial mascot for the magazine. Browsing through decades of 'Noortje' pages gives a good impression of the changing fashions, media stars, trends and all the other important stuff in a teenage girl's life throughout the years. Still, Noortje's basic personality traits and cast never changed.
Noortje in 1997. Her father is a self-portrait of Jan Steeman.
In the 1976 Christmas issue of Tina, readers were invited to design a dress for Noortje. Two years later, a door-size 'Noortje' poster was given to new Tina subscribers. The poor girl celebrated her 500th blunder in 1986, her 1000th in 1996 and when the 1500th gag came about in 2005, a look-a-like contest was held. In 2000, Noortje's 25th anniversary led to a 'Noortje'-themed special issue. For her 40th anniversary in 2015, a special issue of Tina was released with tribute comics by Gerard Leever ('Suus & Sas'), Jan Vriends ('Roos'), Rene Bergmans ('SfinX'), Bas Schuddeboom ('Tina', 'Jan, Jans en de Kinderen') and Thom Roep ('Madelief'), combined with a lot of editorial attention for to Tina's oldest serving character.
In 2005, Noortje's publication rhythm changed from weekly to bi-weekly. A new gag alternated with a reprint every other week. Although the comic has appeared since 1975, and some book collections had appeared in the 'Tina Topstrip' series, it took until 1994 before a regular album series was launched, published over the years by VNU/Sanoma, Strip2000 and Personalia.
For 41 years, from 1975 until 2016, Patty Klein and Jan Steeman remained the sole creative forces behind the feature's success, making 'Noortje' the longest-running Dutch comic series made continuously by one and the same team. When health issues forced Jan Steeman to retire at age 83 in 2016, his son Lucas Steeman took over as artist for two additional years. However, after Jan Steeman's death in 2018 and scriptwriter Patty Klein's sudden stroke a few months later, the future of the series seemed uncertain. Frank Jonker stepped in as a scriptwriter until Klein would recover, but unfortunately she was never quite the same again until her death in 2019. Out of respect for Klein and Steeman, Tina's editors decided not to continue the series, and run reprint episodes instead. A true testament to the character's enduring popularity is that even these reprints have remained beloved with a new generation of readers.
Graphic contributions
In 1985, Steeman was one of several graphic artists to contribute to the anthology book, 'Tegenaanval' (De Lijn, 1985), initiated by Patty Klein. The book protested against the conviction of comic artist Wim Stevenhagen who refused to fulfill his military service.
Recognition
On 22-23 October 2005, during the Stripdagen comic festival in Houten, Steeman received the Stripschap Prize for his entire body of work. This was the only comics award he received throughout his career. Since 2003, the Dutch city of Almere has a street named after Hartog van Banda and Steeman's character Maya in its Comics District.
In Tina issue #18 of 2025, the 50th anniversary of the Noortje character was celebrated in a special thematic issue, published on 1 May 2025. The issue contained an historical overview by Klein and Steeman's last comic editor, Bas Schuddeboom, a selection of classic Klein & Steeman episodes, as well as special 'Noortje' episodes by Tina's comic creators Robbert Damen, Gerard Leever, Jan Vriends and a team-up of Marloes de Vries & Bas Schuddeboom.
Later years and death
For most of the 1980s and 1990s, Jan Steeman additionally worked in the advertising industry as a visualizer. In 1992, he graphically developed the characters 'Haasje en Rammelaar' from the children's stories and songs by Cees Stolk. Working well into his 80s, in August 2016, health issues forced him to stop drawing 'Noortje' after 41 years of loyal service. He passed away from kidney failure in his Heiloo home on 24 January 2018. Little over a year later, Patty Klein passed away as well, marking the symbolic end of the 'Noortje' comic too.
Family in arts
Three of Jan Steeman's sons have worked as illustrators. Lucas (1960) and Sander Steeman (1964) have been represented as visualizers and commercial artists through the Roughmen agency. Theo Steeman (1958) began his career as a comic artist, before becoming an undertaker. Steeman's son Peter is a journalist and editor.
Self-portrait.