'Dumbo' for Donald Duck #5, 2016. © Disney.
Piet Voordes is a Frisian cartoonist and illustrator, who has done artwork for several types of children's media, including books, CD's and magazines. As a comic artist, he has worked on Dutch Disney comics, a celebrity comic of weather forecaster Piet Paulusma (2011-2012) and tie-in comics related to the TV shows 'Ernst, Bobbie en de Rest' and 'Club van Sinterklaas'.
Life
Piet Voordes was born in 1966 in Sint Annaparochie, a town in the Dutch province of Frisia. Later in life, he settled in the nearby town of Dronryp.
'Donald Duck' story H97081 (Donald Duck #42, 19 October 2001).
Disney comics
A self-taught artist, Voordes began submitting his artwork to the Dutch Disney magazine Donald Duck in 1995. After a try-out page and some further guidance by art supervisor Ed van Schuijlenburg, he began drawing occasional comic stories for the Dutch Disney licensee VNU (later Sanoma). Between 2000 and 2018, his stories with the Duck family, and some with the flying elephant 'Dumbo', ran in the weekly Donald Duck and its bi-monthly sister title Katrien. In later years, he also inked stories penciled by Sander Gulien.
'Ernest, Bobbie en de Rest'.
Jetix-related projects
In addition to his Disney work, Voordes has been active as a commercial illustrator for children's books and other products. He notably developed the comic characters based on the Jetix children's TV series 'Ernst, Bobbie en de rest', and was the regular artist of the show's tie-in magazine, of which the first issue appeared in May 2004. Since then, several books and other products have appeared with his artwork. Starting in 2007, Voordes was also the comic artist working on products related to another Jetix TV show, the seasonal 'De Club van Sinterklaas'. Many of the scripts for these comics were by Frank Jonker.
'Piet Paulusma Comic', starring real-life weather forecaster Piet Paulusma. Dutch-language version: "Are you still inside? Get out! I can't make a prediction this way!! Go up, that's where you belong... (grunt)."
Piet Paulusma strip
In 2011 and 2012, Voordes made a weekly celebrity comic about Piet Paulusma, the meteorologist who had captured people's hearts with his on-location weather forecasts on SBS television and his trademark Frisian closing remark "Oant moarn" ("See you tomorrow"). For many viewers, he turned into a cult figure, paving the way for his own 'Piet Paulusma Comic', running in the weekly papers published by the Wegener press group. Some of the gags were written by Frank Jonker, Pascal Oost or Wim Schluter. In 2011, a self-published book collection appeared in a landscape format. It was reprinted in 2018 by Paul Reichenbach's Pear Productions.
'Keet!: Dit Ben Ik' (2016).
Book illustrations
With writer Frank Jonker, Voordes has also made the promotional children's book 'De Magische Schatkist' (2013) for Redband candy. As an illustrator, he has provided artwork for books related to the animated TV series 'Martin Morning' (2011) and the children's TV character 'Keet!' (2016). In addition, he has made the illustrations for the educational 'TopLab' book series by Lizzy van Pelt and an educational book series on music, published by ABC Uitgeverij. In 2017, he provided the artwork for 'Verse Kamper Uiensoep', a story book compiled by Paul Reichenbach with folklore stories from the city of Kampen.
'Ernst, Bobbie & De Rest'. Translation: "Hello, the other way!" - "What do you mean: 'the other way'? Oh... I get it, this nail is for the wall on the opposite side, haha!' - 'Sigh...'.