Autobiographical comic (2015).
Joost Verweij is a Dutch cartoonist, children's book author, musician and painter, active in the Nijmegen region. His cartoons and autobiographical comics have appeared in self-published comic books and on the artist's online channels. Verweij has also made cartoons for the healthcare organization Vierstroom and the software company Luminis.
Early life
Joost Verweij was born in 1968 in Oirschot, a town in the province of North Brabant. Coming from a multidisciplinary family, he grew up with a wide range of interests, with his mother always supporting his creative ambitions. Drawing since childhood, he read all kinds of mainstream comics, with particularly Albert Uderzo's 'Astérix' and André Franquin's 'Gaston Lagaffe' leaving a lasting impression.
Bister ink drawings from the period 1993-1997.
Painter
In the second half of the 1980s, Verweij attended art school, first at the Academy of Visual Arts in Tilburg, and then the KASKA Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, where he studied painting. During the 1990s, Verweij was a visual artist in North Brabant, fortunate enough to make a living in this field for a while. He made bister ink drawings and oil paintings, inspired by his main influences George Grosz, James Ensor, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Francisco Goya and Peter Paul Rubens. A notable assignment was painting a copy of the Virgin Mary triptych in the chapel of Aarle Rixtel. At the end of the decade, Verweij moved to Arnhem, where he began a career in IT. By then, his artistic work was limited to making posters for the monthly lectures.
'Bearwood' (BNS Stripkrant, 2010).
Comics
In the early 2000s, Verweij relocated to Nijmegen, where he continued working as a web developer, but also turned to making comics and cartoons. His main inspirations in the field were Marjane Satrapi, Maaike Hartjes, Jeffrey Brown and Chris Ware. By the end of the decade, he began creating his own comic diaries, which he initially published on his website under the title 'Toevallen' (2008-2010). In 2010, Verweij was able to better find his way in the comics scene after joining the newly established Professional Association of Dutch Comic Artists (BNS). He continued his diary comics in the self-published mini comic series 'Parten' (2011-2012), and created small children's booklets, for instance 'Bob Staat Op' (2017). In 2012, he created the booklet 'Het Verlegen Ezeltje' as a promotional gift for the IT company Evident in Utrecht. He also made a comic series about animals, called 'Animale Driften'.
'Het Verlegen Ezeltje' (2012).
Cartoons
Around 2017, Verweij largely switched from comics to cartoons. After trying his hand at political cartoons, he settled on creating friendly critical drawings with an absurdist slant. Between 2019 and 2023, he made thematic cartoons for the members' magazine of the healthcare organization Vierstroom. From 2020 to 2023, he additionally created visualizations and whitepaper illustrations on subjects like cloud migration and onboarding for software company Luminis. Combining his creative work with a day job as service designer with an insurance company, he has been for hire as a live cartoonist and concept visualizer. By 2025, Verweij has also picked up painting again.
Cartoon (2023). "Don't worry, you're in complete control!"
Music
In addition to visual arts, Verweij has also performed and recorded as a musician. During his student years, he played in the Tilburg rock band Digestives, where he did the feedback, beeps, pentatonic guitar solos, and the occasional keyboard. Subsequently, he and the band's bass player continued to perform in several other bands. In 2001, he recorded his first Dutch-language solo album, 'Aardig'. Between 2011 and 2014, he was in Wreef, a Dutch-language punk-rock-esque trio from Utrecht. Continuing to write his own material, Verweij digitally released his album 'Ouder' (2025) on Bandcamp, about the last period he had with his father.
Sequential cartoon (2020). Translation: Daphine is the first influencer in the world, who tries to demonstrate that putting a menhir in your background "makes you appear more slim". Only millenia later, "her fraud within the stone industry is exposed".