'Truth or Dare: the Jimmie Angel story'.
Jan-Willem de Vries is a Dutch scriptwriter, comic historian, exhibition programmer and former comic artist, whose affiliations have included the Dutch Comic Museum and Storyworld, both in Groningen. With the artist Ben Westervoorde, he has created a graphic novel biography series about Dutch singer André Hazes (2016-2020), as well as other music-related comics. Within comic circles, De Vries has also been notable for his documented publications regarding the history of the Toonder Studio's, most notably the company's animation projects and the inner workings of its legendary comic division.
Early life
Jan-Willem de Vries was born in 1975 in Nietap, a town 20 kilometers west of Groningen. As a child, he developed a keen interest in comics and film, with Disney as his main passion. Since the age of nine, he was also creating his own comics. He studied Illustration at the Minerva Art Academy in Groningen (1993-1997), since illustration was closest to comics. During this time, he also discovered films more rooted in reality, like Robert Altman's 'Short Cuts' (1993) and the work of Stanley Kubrick and John Sayles (best-known for 'The Return of the Secaucus 7' and 'Lone Star'). This influenced his comic work and steered it into a more adult approach of storytelling. He graduated with 'Brug', a philosophical comic about a man with a fear for bridges.
'Blues' (Gr'nn #11, 2001).
Comic artist
After graduation, De Vries spent a couple of years working as a comic artist and illustrator. In the late 1990s, he had several painted stories published in the local comic magazine Gr'nn, which were light-hearted and humorous, but with a strong focus on characters. Internationally, his story 'Dominique' was featured in the massive 'Comix 2000' anthology of the French publisher L'Association. These early comics by De Vries were collected in the free digital comic book '14:00 en Andere Verhalen', available on the artist's website.
Between 2002 and 2006, he worked on the English-language comic 'Truth or Dare, the Jimmie Angel Story', the true story of the pilot who in 1933 discovered the world's largest waterfall in Venezuela. In 2011, he self-published the story on-demand through the Amazon webshop. In 2006 and 2007, De Vries also teamed up with scriptwriter Jan Krol and fellow artist Eric Snelleman to create the daily newspaper comic 'Zapklaar', published in three Dutch newspapers (De Leidsche Courant, Het Noordhollands Dagblad, Haarlems Dagblad). Another comic strip called 'Medi-gein' ran in specialized magazines for hospital employees.
'Medi-gein'. Translation: "Hmm... What's this patient's occupation?" - "Magician." - "Like I thought!".
Scriptwriter
While working on these solo comics, De Vries discovered he was more into storytelling than into producing art. So he dropped his own artistic ambitions, and turned to scriptwriting instead. His feature film 'Niks voor Jip' (2005), about an intriguing wedding video, was screened in the Images cinema in Groningen and got favorable reviews. Years later, he was asked by the publisher Silvester Strips to create a graphic novel about Dutch folk singer André Hazes (1951-2004). Drawn by Ben Westervoorde, the three-volume series 'Hazes: De Stripbiografie' (2018-2020) met with much critical acclaim for its clear storytelling and fine research.
In the Netherlands, and especially in Amsterdam, André Hazes (1951-2004) was the most important interpreter of the so-called "song of life". In these folksy cries from the heart, all facets of our existence are sung about: from love and melancholy to sorrow and despair. In the three books, De Vries and Westervoorde covered the successes and tragedies of Hazes' own life, dealing with his difficult childhood and upcoming success, his family life and struggles with alcoholism and depression, and concluding with the massive commemoration in the Amsterdam Arena. Carrying the titles 'Bloed' ("Blood"), 'Zweet' ("Sweat") and 'Tranen' ("Tears"), the three volumes combined aptly formed the title of one of Hazes' most beloved and characteristic songs.
As their collaboration proved a success, De Vries and Westervoorde then set out in developing their next project, the short story series 'Off The Record'. Built around the unlikely friendship between the former record store owner Bas and a quick-witted girl called Nina, the authors offer mini-biographies of several bands and musicians. In June 2022, the first stories appeared in the Belgian comic magazine MaxiX. After this magazine was canceled in late 2023, the authors launched a successful crowdfunding campaign with publisher Personalia, allowing them to continue with their comic.
Volume #3 of the Hazes graphic novel biography and issue #9 of the magazine series about the Toonder Studio's.
Pop culture historian
In 1999, De Vries begin combining his cartooning work with a part time day job in a local bookstore. Between September 2004 and December 2018, he found employment with the Dutch Comic Museum in Groningen, where his fascination for comic history was fuelled. He produced several temporary expositions, including ones about comic creator Daan Jippes, the Donald Duck weekly and the girls' magazine Tina, and also took care of the related catalogs and museum books. Since 2019, De Vries has been working as a programmer with Storyworld at the Forum in Groningen, a museum about the art of storytelling through animation, comics and video games.
In his spare time, Jan-Willem De Vries has been researching the history of the Toonder Studio's, in the second half of the 20th century the largest production house of comics and animation in the Netherlands. This resulted in a book about the studio's animation projects, 'De Toonder Animatiefilms' (Silvester, 2012), special releases for the Marten Toonder Collectors' Society and specific books about Toonder co-workers like Børge Ring (De Kunst van Børge Ring', Personalia, 2015) and Piet Wijn ('Piet Wijn Biografie', Het Verdient Een Boek, 2023). Between 2017 and 2019, De Vries self-published an extensive 18-issue magazine series about the history and backgrounds of the comic division of the Toonder Studio's, later compiled into a two-volume book collection by Cliché.
Jan-Willem de Vries at the Dutch Comic Museum in Groningen.