'De Liefhebbers'.
Toon van Driel - generally known simply as "Toon" - is one of the most productive and recognizable humorous cartoonists in the Netherlands, whose down-to-earth style has appealed to readers from all layers of society. After several odd jobs, Van Driel began his cartooning career in 1973, when his long-running gag series 'F.C Knudde' (1973- ) debuted in newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD). Centering around the worst (fictional) football team ever, longer stories and color gag pages of his comic strip have subsequently appeared in magazines and books, while the series also inspired many merchandise products. Known for his sharp wit and quick drawing style, Van Driel has produced many additional comic features, the best-known being the gag strip 'De Stamgasten' (1980-2021), about a group of funny animal pub crawlers, also appearing in AD. Over the years, the comic received many spin-off comics, most notably the ones about the failing lion 'Felix Leo' and the dirty joker rabbit 'Ab Normaal'. Since 1987, Van Driel has also been a mainstay in newspaper De Telegraaf with long-running creations like the celebrity comic strip about Dutch comedian André van Duin (1987-1990s), which gradually evolved into a spin-off about Van Duin's dogs 'Wibo & Gorp' (1990s-2019). Telegraaf readers of the 21st century are also well-known with Van Driel's domestic humor strip 'De Familie Weltevree' (1997- ). In addition to his newspaper comics, Van Driel has been present in magazines like Nieuwe Revu, Panorama, Eppo, Veronica Magazine and the periodical of the Van der Valk hotel chain, with a great many long- or short-running comic series, among which 'Rokus en de Rest' (1980-1985), 'Knetter' (1985-1987), 'Het Vreemdelingenlegioen' (1985-1994) and 'Henk de Noodhulp' (1994-2009). He was also the co-creator and original writer of Eric Schreurs' sleazy humor comic 'Joop Klepzeiker' (1982). On top of all that, Van Driel has been busy with animated shorts, TV adaptations and fine art paintings based on his creations. With his efficient, deliberately unpolished drawing style fully in service of the on-the-spot sharpness of the joke, Van Driel heralded a new style of satirical cartooning in the Netherlands, which later also spawned popular creators like Hein de Kort, Gerrit de Jager and Gummbah.
André van Duin-strip from De Telegraaf. Translation: "Hello, with Van Duin." "I recently bought a fake Christmas tree from you." "And the needles fall off. "What do you mean: 'Can you reckon how good it has been faked?!!'".
Early life
Antonie Marcel van Driel was born in 1945 in Amsterdam, the first of two children of Koos and Truus van Driel. Coming into this world during the final hunger-driven months of World War II, his childhood was far from carefree. His father was a Dutch Railways stoker with Communist sympathies and violent tendencies, who didn't seem to care much for his wife and children. At home, Van Driel felt emotionally neglected, but he had more fun with his maternal grandfather Jaap van Dam (1876-1972), a former advertising illustrator and background designer for operas and comedy revues. Besides his grandfather, Van Driel's interest in drawing was sparked by reading all the familiar classic Dutch comic series of the time, including the ones by Marten Toonder.
As a child, Van Driel often set out to explore Amsterdam, a city at the verge of rebuilding after the war years. Through secretly sneaking into the Artis zoo and the Museum of the Tropics, shoplifting at the Bijenkorf department store and playing soccer in a local cemetery, he gradually found his independence as a streetwise young man with an urge for fun and adventure. School, on the other hand, was the least of his interests. From an early age, Van Driel had the ambition to become famous, but it took several years before he found his trade. Even though he married his first wife early - at age 18 - his early life was characterized by jobhopping, drinking and many romantic escapades. In his later years, Van Driel remained restless and hard to pin down. He got married three times, had six children and lived all round the Netherlands, including Amsterdam, Schoorl, Bergen, Alkmaar, Badhoevedorp and Amstelveen, all the while going back and forth from poor to rich multiple times.
In his late teens, Van Driel did his first artistic work for an advertising agency, making drawings for Kitekat cat food, among other things. But his ambitions reached higher and he wanted to make the grade in the United States. To get there, Van Driel and his wife Ien faked being Mormons wanting to do missionary work overseas, in order to have the Mormon church pay for their trip. Arriving in Salt Lake City, they quickly dropped off the Mormon radar and enjoyed the hippie lifestyle, while doing janitor work in a hospital. However, Ien's homesickness and Van Driel's fear of being drafted for the Vietnam war put an early end to their American dream. Back in the Netherlands, an experience ánd banjo richer, Van Driel tried his hand at his next career move: music.
Single sleeves for Dimitri's 'Got A Dog Named Sally/Strange Is The Grass' (1967) and Marchall's 'My Jenny'. Discogs has 1971 as the release year of the latter single, but in his biography, Toon van Driel stipulated the Marchall project was before Shocking Blue. Also, in 1971, Van Driel was working for the Dutch airline service KLM.
Musician
At the turn of the 1960s into the 1970s, Van Driel got involved in the Hague music scene, at first performing as a banjo player in the cover band Dimitri. In 1967, the group also released a single on the Polydor label, 'Got A Dog Named Sally/Strange Is The Grass'. Teaming up with Robbie van Leeuwen - at the time guitarist with The Motions - he also released a solo single under the name Marchall, but his single 'My Jenny' allegedly only sold 17 copies. Van Driel later joked: "My family wasn't larger than 17 people." He also joined Van Leeuwen in his new band, Shocking Blue, who became famous for their international number one-hit 'Venus' (1969). The young man wrote the B-side of that single, 'Hot Sand', and four other songs, none of which charted. Since he wrote everything under a pseudonym, Van Driel never earned any royalties from the band's worldwide success. As he wasn't able to play the banjo and sing at the same time, he decided to drop his musical ambitions altogether. In between, Van Driel wormed his way out of his military service by faking mental instability.
Switch to cartooning
For three and-a-half years, Van Driel worked as a flight attendant on the Amsterdam-Tokyo line of the Dutch aviation company KLM, before having an office job as archivist with the governmental Resident register. When in 1973, Van Driel was unemployed once again, he decided to pursue a career as cartoonist/comic artist. With hardly any graphic experience whatsoever, the self-taught cartoonist applied for a job with the Toonder Studios, at the time the largest production house for comics and animation in the Netherlands. Meeting Marten Toonder in person, the studio patron asked the young amateur whether he could draw "a bear attacking a helicopter". As could be expected, the inexperienced Van Driel couldn't pull this off from the top of his head. Toonder predictably turned him down, but was nice enough to give the young artist some support and useful guidelines. He told him that he had talent, but advised him to just keep it simple, rather than try out illustration work that he couldn't handle.
Keeping these words in mind, his drawings and comedy always remained very basic, but effective in communicating gags and stories. Besides his grandfather and Marten Toonder, inspirations and influences on Van Driel's cartooning career have been Peter de Smet, Dick Matena and Martin Lodewijk. Graphically, Van Driel's work is reminiscent of the minimal work of Jean-Marc Reiser, while the cartoonist later also expressed his admiration for the humor of the British comedy team Monty Python and Gary Larson's 'The Far Side' cartoon series.
Early 'FC Knudde' comic strip.
F.C. Knudde
Still in 1973, Van Driel set out to present his work to newspapers. He first went to the Amsterdam paper Het Parool with the concept of a professor in a country with zany creatures. Unfortunately, the paper already had a comic strip about a professor, Bob van den Born's 'Professor Pi', so they turned him down. While there, Van Driel noticed the paper also ran a comic strip about soccer, Dik Bruynesteyn's 'Appie Happie'. This encouraged him to transform the funny men from his professor strip into little soccer players, and offer this new strip to Algemeen Dagblad, where he convinced the editors by saying "I want to create a comic strip for you, despite the fact that I can't draw." The editors took sympathy on him and on 19 March 1973, Van Driel's 'Knudde' comic strip (1973- ) made its debut. For decades, the newspaper ran the feature under the title 'Sportvereniging Knudde', allowing the cartoonist to tackle other sports as well, but through the later book and magazine publications, the comic is widely known as 'F.C. Knudde'. During the early years, Van Driel operated under the wings of sports editors Ron Abram and John Le Noble, who helped him in developing his humor style and finding the strip's definitive form. Particularly Le Noble had an important role in the plots of the longer narratives that followed later in the series, which are credited to "Toon & Joop".
'F.C. Knudde'.
Hence the name ("knudde" is a Dutch expression for "worthless"), 'F.C. Knudde' is a comic strip about a completely incompetent association football team. All characters are near indistinguishable chalk white men with huge bulbous noses, red trousers and an overall goofy expression. The two main protagonists are goal keeper Dirk and defender Jaap. Most of the time, Jaap loses the ball to the other team and has silly accidents on the field. On the rare occasion that he scores, it is usually in his own goal. Despite being utter losers, the F.C. Knudde players have matches all over the country, and somehow manage to play in our other countries too. Over the years, the team has traveled to Argentina, Iceland, France, the United States, Africa, Russia, Romania and even into outer space!
In the original newspaper version, 'F.C. Knudde' is mostly a gag strip, but when publication expanded to magazines and books, full pages and longer episodes were produced as well. In the longer stories, references to popular media phenomena are rampant, including popular TV soaps such as 'Dallas', 'Dynasty', 'Falcon Crest' and people like The Rolling Stones and Laurel & Hardy. The latter duo inspired much of Van Driel's own slapstick, since he has a fondness for comedies about losers. Over the years, several famous (Dutch) football champions and trainers had cameos in the series. One of the most thrilling moments in Van Driel's life happened when he traveled on the same plane as Dutch football star Ruud Gullit. He observed Gullit reading 'F.C. Knudde' in the papers and laughing out loud when he recognized himself in that day's episode.
'F.C. Knudde Naar Argentinië'.
'F.C. Knudde' originally ran three times a week, but the Algemeen Dagblad readers loved it enough that it soon appeared on a daily basis. The comic's catchphrase "Tikkie terug, Jaap!" ("Pass it back to me, Jaap!") became a familiar line to many. Van Driel's disastrous Knudde team debuted in a time that Dutch football stood in the center of international attention thanks to its star champion Johan Cruijff, the three consecutive victories of AFC Ajax during the UEFA Cup and the Dutch national team making it to the finals during the 1972 World Cup (which they lost). 'F.C. Knudde' was the perfect counterweight to these real-life successes, showing underdogs failing utterly on the field, while also spoofing the weighty scientific analyses of pseudo-intellectual trainers and commentators. Starting in 1974, the AD newspaper awarded the monthly "Knudde trophy" to a failing sportsman or organization, most of whom took it in good fun.
On 26 September 1975, 'F.C. Knudde' began reaching a wider audience when an animated version of the strip appeared under the title 'Tikkie terug!' in the TV broadcast 'AVRO's Sportpanorama'. Together with animator Bart Jan van Baarle, Van Driel created about 100 weekly episodes, firmly cementing his strip into the people's minds and turning it into a national institution. It was a rare occasion that a Dutch comic series was adapted for a national TV series, with only Jean Dulieu's 1967 'Paulus de Boskabouter' puppet TV series and the short-lived TV sitcom based on Peter van Straaten's 'Vader en Zoon' (1972) predating the 'Knudde' cartoons.
'F.C. Knudde'.
F.C. Knudde: success
Following the success of the TV shorts, 'F.C. Knudde' continued scoring with audiences in the next decades. Starting in 1975, the AD newspaper and then Classics Nederland released the first book collections, while the series also transferred to other magazines. Between 1976 and 1995, 'F.C. Knudde' appeared on a weekly basis with half-page gags in color in the Dutch comic magazine Eppo and its successors Eppo/Wordt Vervolgd, Sjors & Sjimmie Stripblad and SjoSji. Longer satirical episodes appeared as serials in Nieuwe Revu and later in Panorama. Some of these serials dealt with other sports, like cycling ('Knudde Naar Frankrijk') and the 1980 Winter Olympics ('Knudde In Amerika'), but in general, soccer remained the focus.
Over the years, 'F.C. Knudde' has inspired a huge amount of merchandise. The characters appeared on a wide variety of products, including cups, pillows, calendars, pocket books, plates, shirts and naturally soccer balls. The comics have been compiled in many book specials, several of which coincided with the quadrennial World Championships Association Football. To celebrate the 1998 championship, the Dutch postal service let Van Driel design a special stamp. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the series in 2013, Peter de Jonge and Wilfred Legebeke compiled the book '40 Jaar FC Knudde'. In its foreword, the Dutch national football trainer Louis van Gaal wrote the dubious compliment: "Everyone who knows the national football trainer a bit is aware that he makes an effort for people with a handicap, so that's why I enjoy doing something for Toon." In 2016, trainer Guus Hiddink opened an exhibition of Van Driel's cartoons in Haarlem. The same year, Van Driel also illustrated the cover of the football magazine Voetbal International.
'F.C. Tammo 80'.
F.C. Knudde: legal battle with De Vrijbuiter
With a daily comic strip, weekly gag pages and serializations and successful book collections, 'F.C. Knudde' promised to be a true cash-cow. In 1979, Van Driel sold the rights of his strip to publisher Jacques de Leeuw, head of De Vrijbuiter N.V. (the future Audax group). In return, the publisher gave him a steady income, a villa in the town of Bergen and a Porsche car. Under the wings of De Vrijbuiter, 'F.C. Knudde' products flooded the market, from book collections to merchandise. Between 1978 and 1998, De Vrijbuiter released no less than 35 albums of the series, and also introduced the comic on the German market. In 1981, the publisher launched Knudde magazine, filled with exclusive comic strips and a huge fold-out poster. To keep up production, most of the artwork of the magazine was produced by Van Driel's assistant, Ray Nicholson, who had previously worked on several licensed properties for De Vrijbuiter. Nevertheless, the title only lasted nine issues, the last one published in 1984.
Even though he could live a life of luxury, Van Driel gradually became displeased with the fact that he was no longer in control over his own creation. After a heavy disagreement, he refused to do any further work for De Vrijbuiter, and even stopped returning their calls. In the mid-1980s, the publisher fired him, confiscated his sports car and canceled the mortgage on his house. A lengthy court battle followed, during which Van Driel could count on the support of newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, who didn't want to lose their hit comic feature. In 1988, a judge ruled that De Vrijbuiter indeed owned the rights to the book publications and merchandise of 'F.C. Knudde', but that Van Driel was still in charge of the AD newspaper strip, which by then also appeared in regional papers like Het Limburgs Dagblad, Het Brabants Dagblad and De Stentor. In later years, it became clear that he also owned the online rights to the 'Knudde' strips, allowing him to publish his comic on the internet as well.
While De Vrijbuiter continued to release new 'Knudde' products, Van Driel regularly struck back by creating similar comic features for other publications, for instance the 1987 soccer strip 'De Kanjers' in Panorama magazine, and the "sequel" strip 'FC Tammo 80' (1998) for Nieuwsblad van het Noorden. Still it took several years and lawsuits before he reacquired the full rights to his 'Knudde' characters after coming to an agreement with Jacques de Leeuw in 2006. The first new story 'Knudski' (2008) was a striking parody of the soccer world and appeared in the men's magazine Aktueel Sportief. Between 2008 and 2013, new 'Knudde' cartoons were featured daily on the Nusport section of the news website Nu.nl, which gave Van Driel the opportunity to directly comment on current affairs in the world of soccer. In 2010, the strip made its appearance in the free newspaper Metro, and additionally ran in regional papers of the Wegener group, including Brabants Dagblad.
At the occasion of the 2018 World Championships, the long 'Knudde' adventure 'Knudde naar 't WK' (2018) was released in book format. It is the first album in which his assistant Ray Nicholson was credited on the cover.
'De Stamgasten'.
De Stamgasten
Following the popularity of 'F.C. Knudde', strips by Van Driel became in much demand. Newspaper Algemeen Dagblad was happy to give him additional space for a second daily gag strip. On 14 June 1980, his 'De Stamgasten' debuted in the paper, and weekly color installments of the feature later appeared in the magazines Eppo and Panorama too. Built around a simple but effective premise, the comic follows the drunken antics of a group of funny animal pubcrawlers. All episodes take place in "De Stam", a bar mostly situated in a tree trunk - the name being a pun on the Dutch expression "stamkroeg" for "favorite bar" and the Dutch word for tree trunk, "boomstam". Sometimes, however, this establishment can be found in other places, varying from the desert to the South Pole. Inside, its clients fill the room with idle chatter, drunken hook-ups and vulgar jokes. The bar keeper is a no-nonsense dog who frequently has to force his guests to pay for their drinks or go home when it's closing time.
'Felis Leo'. Translation: "You'll see, time and time again, whenever you want to catch a deer, you have to wait for a passing herd."
During the feature's 40-year run, almost every thinkable animal has visited Café De Stam, with all the regulars having their own running gags. Bertus the crocodile always trips whenever he enters the place. The bespectacled bird Ome Jan tries to seduce inflatable dolls, while the Siamese twin cats Tjap & Tjoy are complete opposites but still physically connected to each other. A nameless pheasant with a bow-tie insults female visitors, only to be beaten up by them afterwards. A condor who works as an airline pilot can never fly without being scooped by a Boeing. Felis Leo the lion is a failure as a hunter as he has moral objections to hurting his prey, and Stanley the black dog is a frequent victim of racial prejudice, despite the fact that he is the only person in the bar who actually works for a living. Other pub crawlers are a donkey waiter, a drunk pig, a group of oversexed penguins, a snake frustrated by his lack of paws and an elephant who feels insecure about his small organ. Van Driel's favorite character in 'De Stamgasten' was the "canaryphant" Kierewiet, a canary with an elephant's trunk and incomprehensible speech. One of the best-known characters however is Ab Normaal, a sex-crazed pink rabbit who enjoys telling dirty jokes.
'Het Vreemdelingenlegioen'. Translation: "Achoo!" - "There, dirtbag!".
De Stamgasten: success and spin-offs
With 'De Stamgasten', Van Driel aimed at a broader audience than 'F.C. Knudde' and effectively gained huge commercial success. Van Driel attributed this to the fact that he spent many hours in the pub himself. The series provided enough material to create spin-offs about some of the individual pub crawlers. Ab Normaal entertained the readers of Panorama with his dirty jokes and sleazy deeds, while Felis Leo's ill-fated attempts at catching a deer could be followed in the Belgian comic magazine Robbedoes (1984-1985). In Eppo/Wordt Vervolgd and Sjors en Sjimmie Stripblad, the pub setting was dropped for the spin-off 'Het Vreemdelingenlegioen' ("The Foreign Legion", 1985-1994), in which everything was possible. The love life of Van Driel's favorite animal characters was chronicled in 'De Liefhebbers' (1987), a series of more elaborately painted full-page gags. 'De Stamgasten' additionally inspired advertising comics for Duyvis crisps and Amstel beer. Between 1986 and 2002, forty book collections with 'Stamgasten' gags were released by Land Productions, the self-publishing imprint of Van Driel and his second wife, Jolanda. The final daily strip of 'De Stamgasten' appeared in the AD newspaper in 2021.
'Ab Normaal'.
Ab Normaal TV show
Between 2001 and 2003, a TV show was created around the vulgar joker Ab Normaal. A puppet version of the rabbit - produced by the team behind the British satirical TV show 'Spitting Image' created by Roger Law - was placed in a bar with a live audience. Ab was performed as a hand puppet, voiced by Rob Ronalds, while the real-life actress Jennifer van Groeningen acted as his dumb blonde sidekick Bev. Each episode had Ab telling bawdy jokes to the audience. The self-described "Dutch king of the jokes" always laughed out loud with his own punchlines, aided by a laugh track pepping up the audiences' reactions. At first, 'Ab Normaal' ran on the Dutch commercial TV channel Yorin, but eventually channel-hopped to RTL5, V8 and Veronica. The pink rabbit even recorded two novelty songs, the cover 'Kleine Blonde Mariandel' (2001) and 'Schudden Met Je Tieten' (2002), which took the melody of Las Ketchup's 'The Ketchup Song' and added lyrics about girls shaking their breasts.
In 2003, 'Ab Normaal' ended its original run on Veronica, but returned to the airwaves five years later, albeit in a similar show with a different title: 'Komt Een Man Bij De Dokter' (2007) on the channel Tien (which later became RTL 8). The show has also been broadcast on TV73 and Comedy Central. In 2010 and 2011, Ab Normaal also terrorized radio emissions of Patrick Kicken's morning radio show 'PK @Veronica'. In 2002, the formula was copied in Flanders too, where a local version of 'Ab Normaal' ran on the commercial channel VT4. His sidekick was played by a local actress, Vanessa Hoefkens, but otherwise nothing was changed. This Flemish adaptation never caught on, since most viewers weren't familiar with the original comic strip and so couldn't take a puppet seriously.
'De Stuntels' (1978).
Collaborations
Perhaps the most productive comic artist of the Netherlands, Van Driel and his comics thrive by his unique, personal signature. Only on occasion has he worked with other artists, and not always with satisfying results. For Eppo magazine, he drew 'De Stuntels' ("The Bunglers", 1978-1979) in collaboration with comic artist Jan van Haasteren, signing the feature with the collective pseudonym "ToJo". Like the title implies, the "Stuntels" are two clumsy idiots, comparable to Laurel & Hardy. Each short story casts them in a different job, in which they always fail utterly. Van Haasteren later dismissed the strip, largely because of Van Driel's reckless inking over his pencil work. Despite this clash of styles, some new episodes appeared in Knudde magazine between 1981 and 1983. In 1985, Van Driel briefly revived the project in Eppo under the title 'De Sukkels' (1985-1986), this time with artist Bart Slijp. The final episodes were written by Patty Klein. For his assistant Ray Nicholson, AKA "Nick Ray", he wrote the gags of 'Familie Kijkgraag' (1984-1985), a comic appearing in the gossip magazine Weekend.
Van Driel was also co-creator of the comic series that made Eric Schreurs famous: 'Joop Klepzeiker' (1982-2003). When Van Driel was a contributor to Nieuwe Revu magazine in the early 1980s, he proposed a concept about a wandering schlemiel in a filthy, hostile city. The name "klepzeiker" was lifted from an Amsterdam slang book and is a pejorative term; it literally translates to "mouth urinator", but a more accurate description would be "somebody who talks shit." In his initial concept, Van Driel portrayed Joop as he was putting his dick through the mailbox of a sperm bank so he could deposit. It became clear to him that the Dutch "godfather of filth" Eric Schreurs would be far more capable in giving the Klepzeiker world the atmosphere it deserved. When the concept was accepted, writer Van Driel and artist Schreurs collaborated on the comic under the anagram pseudonym "S. Treurschoon". After only a year, Van Driel left to join Panorama magazine, leaving the comic to Schreurs, who for another thirty years brought the comic book depictions of dog turds, snot and ear yellow to new graphic heights. In the subsequent book collections, Van Driel's name was never mentioned, making his connection to one of the Netherlands' most outlandish comics largely forgotten.
For the artist Mark de Jonge, Van Driel later wrote the strip about the two monkeys 'Piet P. & Arie O.' (1990-1991), published in Panorama magazine.
'Knetter' (Eppo/Wordt Vervolgd #2, 1985). The idiots try to make their dachshund "fly", but the dog crashes to the ground. They conclude: "That's the problem with dachshunds: great flyers, but they can't listen!"
Comic feature factory
Having two extremely popular daily comic strips, their weekly spin-offs and related products to his workload didn't keep Van Driel from creating a great many additional comics. Most of the time, he was present in a newspaper with more than one comic feature. Whenever a new editor came around and canceled one of his strips, he simply came up with another one in order to keep his spot (and paycheck). In addition to 'F.C. Knudde' and the 'Stamgasten' spin-off 'Het Vreemdelingenlegioen', Van Driel filled the pages of Eppo magazine with several other features. Between 1980 and 1985, he provided the magazine with the funny animal strip 'Rokus en de Rest' (1980-1985), about an elephant, a mouse and many other animals. Under the pen name Glob, Van Driel then created the Monty Pythonesque gag comic 'Knetter' (1985-1987), in which all human and animal characters wore hats and sunglasses, and everything was possible. The same goes for the equally absurd gag strip 'Jan', which ran in 1993 and 1994 in Eppo successor Sjors en Sjimmie Stripblad.
'De Nakomertjes'. The father has an important phone call, but accidentally yells at his young son "to wipe his ass himself", which the caller misinterprets as an insult.
During the early 1980s, Van Driel began his collaboration with the men's weekly Panorama, which ran 'F.C. Knudde', 'De Stamgasten' and new creations. In 'De Nakomertjes', Van Driel chronicled his new family life with offspring from his second marriage. While he was caught up in lawsuits involving 'F.C. Knudde', he tried his hand at another soccer comic, this time starring both people and funny animals, called 'De Kanjers' (1987). Later Van Driel features for Panorama were 'Sir Harley Davidson', about an antique biker, and 'Het Oog Wil Ook Wat', a cartoon series with naughty acts shown through a keyhole.
'Hullie'. Translation: "Jaap, it was very nice of you, but may I ask you why you brought flowers?" - "Just because." - "Just because?" - "Just because."
Newspaper Algemeen Dagblad also ran several additional Van Driel features, for instance the experimental and philosophical strip 'Hullie' (24 September 1981 - 31 December 2001), which Van Driel made (with his other hand) in a linear drawing style under the pseudonym John Myshkin. The gags have later appeared on a series of calendars. Starting in 1984 and continuing for several decades, Van Driel created a daily 'Goedemorgen' cartoon for the paper's front page. From the mid-1990s until 2009, Van Driel also produced the comic 'Henk de Noodhulp' for Valk Magazine, the magazine of the Van der Valk hotel and restaurant chain. For the free public transport newspaper Spits, Van Driel created the 1999 gag strip 'De Reiziger'.
'André van Duin' strip from Veronica-blad.
Telegraaf comics: Van Duin & Zo/Wibo & Gorp/Weltevree
Since 1987, Van Driel has been present on a daily basis in newspaper De Telegraaf, starting with a celebrity comic about Dutch comedian André van Duin, 'Van Duin & Zo' (1987-2005). New episodes were made for Veronica Magazine as well. While Van Driel created by far the best-known, he wasn't the first to produce a comic version of the popular comedian, who is known for his hilarious stage and TV shows, zany characters and novelty songs. In 1975-1976, Fred Julsing had already drawn the gag comic 'André', but this wasn't much of a success. In 1984, the Belgians Dirk Stallaert and Patrick Vermeir considered creating a comic based on Van Duin, but dropped their plans to make a comic about the Antwerp comedy band De Strangers instead.
Not worried about these previous attempts in the slightest, Van Driel created his own graphic interpretation of the famous humorist, this time with actual involvement of Van Duin. Their version lasted a lot longer, although later in the run, during the 1990s, Van Driel shifted the focus from the comedian to his two dogs, Wibo and Van Gorp. In 1990, the Dutch TV station TROS broadcast the TV series 'Lach Mee met André', which compiled all of Van Duin's stage shows and TV appearances on their channel. The intro to each episode showed clips from these broadcasts, but also a gag page from Van Driel's comic strip. In 2023, publisher Cliché published the first volume of the complete re-edition of Van Driel's 'André van Duin' comics.
'Wibo & Gorp'.
During the 1990s, the 'Van Duin & Zo' comic was retitled to 'Wibo & Gorp', which continued in De Telegraaf until 2019. Besides the two real-life dogs of André van Duin, the strip also had episodes that centered around completely different animals, much in the style of Van Driel's 'Stamgasten' comic. Since 1997, another long-running strip by Van Duin for De Telegraaf is 'De Familie Weltevree', which deals with the everyday life of the loveless couple John and Von Weltevree. Van Driel jokingly remarked he gets his inspiration from his own three marriages, and that there are only two types of marriages: bad ones and very bad ones.
'De Familie Weltevree'. Translation: "You're never excited again."
Online activities
Since 1986, most of Van Driel's non-Knudde comics have been published in book format by his own Land Productions imprint. Since the 2000s, he has presented his topical cartoons and comic strips online as well. Toonvandriel.nl is the portal for all his activities, which over the years has offered the e-cards site tooncards.nl, the funny animal joke site lachendierenbrullen.nl, the family humor spot vaderitis.nl and websites featuring episodes of his current strips 'Knudde', 'De Stamgasten', 'Wibo & Gorp' and 'De Familie Weltevree'.
'Gijpvogel'. Translation: "All I said was: "I can keep two balls up." "
During the 2010 World Championship Association Football, a special app named 'MyKnudde' was launched. Readers were able to fill in their own speech balloons next to a caricature of sports journalist and commentator Johan Derksen. More than 10,000 comments were submitted. The concept was repeated at the occasion of the European Championships 2012 and the World Championships 2014, with respectively former professional soccer player and commentator René van der Gijp ('Gijpvogel'), and Dutch singer and media personality Gordon ('Goor draait door'). The best submissions were published in the free public transport newspapers Metro and Spits. On Twitter, Van Driel has also encouraged his followers to fill in blank speech balloons, using the hashtag #nietlullenmaarvullen.
Paintings
During the 21st century, Van Driel has also been active with making fine art paintings based on his funny animal creations. Several of them have been on display, for instance in Gallery De Toonzaal in Haarlem, Grand Café Fabels in Bergen and several other bars and galleries. In 2022, Van Driel's paintings were on display in the Zandvoort Museum in the show 'Max in Car Toon', dedicated to Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen (who had also played a role in his 'F.C. Knudde' strips). Besides Van Driel's paintings, the exhibition also featured installations by the Car Art collective.
Style
Instantly recognizable and steady in quality, Van Driel works in a very simple anti-art style and uses jokes on the same level. He once described his art style as "drawing with a toothbrush". At the height of his production, Van Driel drew about eight strips per day, five of which were based on current affairs. Van Driel calls it his "professional ethics" to be able to crank out a piece of work within several minutes. To come up with the ideas, he just has to follow the news. In the evenings, he manages to make oil paintings, all with the same absurd and typical humor. Once his assistant Ray Nicholson was faced with a deadline: whip out eleven pages of material before dawn, while he already booked a holiday the next day. Nicholson phoned Van Driel that he would never be able to reach his deadline. However, Van Driel came up with a clever solution to make the job go faster. For four pages, F.C. Knudde's football match took place in heavy fog.
As his assistant, Ray Nicholson worked with Van Driel on several of his strips, besides 'F.C. Knudde' also helping with 'De Stamgasten' and 'André van Duin'. For the 1977 serial 'Knudde naar Argentinië', Van Driel briefly had assistance from the young cartoonist Peter de Wit, who later admitted it was very difficult to mimic Van Driel's rudimentary drawing style. Van Driel's three wives have all helped the cartoonist with the coloring of his comics.
Toon van Driel "evaluates" one of his jokes in a comic strip called 'Wat is leuk?'
Recognition
On 4-6 November 1988, during the Stripdagen in The Hague, Van Driel received the Stripschapprijs for his groundbreaking body of work. While Van Driel had always craved for the most important Dutch comics award he infamously called it a "tasteless and far too heavy monstrosity", which he "would love to give away too." At the same time he was quite grumpy because he "deserved this honor many years before." On 7 November 2023, Van Driel was knighted in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Legacy
Because of his loose graphic style and low-brow comedy, Van Driel has also been the victim of criticism and disdain. Yet he has always put his own work into perspective. The artist enjoys referring to himself as a "mediocre and awkward draftsman" and a "bad businessman." However, at the same time, he has always been proud that he managed to build a successful and enduring career with his characters. The artist attributes his immense production to an urge to prove himself, because he always felt misunderstood. With his popular and down-to-earth humor, Van Driel managed to reach the common man with a drawing style that would otherwise only reach an alternative readership. Van Driel warmed up a mainstream audience for other self made authors, like Hein de Kort, Eric Schreurs, Windig & De Jong, Gerrit de Jager, Wim Stevenhagen and Willem Ritstier. The success of 'Knudde' has also been instrumental in the popularity of the gag strip in Dutch newspapers.
One notable celebrity fan of Van Driel was Dutch Prince (and current King) Willem-Alexander, whose Leiden student house had several Van Driel drawings on the walls. His Majesty's students' society was even named after Kierewiet, the silly bird from the 'Stamgasten' comic.
Books about Toon van Driel
For those interested in Van Driel's life and career, the biography 'Knudde: Het Bizarre Levensverhaal van Toon van Driel, schepper van F.C. Knudde en De Stamgasten' (Ambo/Anthos, 2023) by Alexander Brandenburg and Jaap van de Venis is highly recommended.
Self-portrait.