My career in comics started with drawing comics about myself. In 1999, when I wrote and drew the short story ‘How To Get Over Your Ex’, everything clicked for me. I did not consider myself a particularly good artist, but I knew I had a story to tell and that my drawing was at least adequate. It was more than satisfying to have a fully finished comic in my hands, and it certainly helped me get over my ex!
There’s definitely a therapeutic aspect to drawing autobiographical comics. In therapy we learn to look at ourselves, and this is exactly what happens when you draw. You have to get out of yourself, interpret yourself and your situation and put it on paper in a way that communicates who and where you are to a reader – this process in itself is one of the best tools for self-analysis.
No wonder then that I turned to comics when in 2002 I quite suddenly became stepmother to three kids. The seemingly simple, upbeat stories I drew about our household adventures not only helped me to assess myself in this new role, but the kids as well. I called them ‘Kinderleed Komix’, literally ‘Child’s Suffering Komix’ (in jest of course) and over the course of six years I produced a whole series of self-published smallpress comics:
Apart from drawing our real life, I also drew three fantasy adventures for each of the kids, in which they each starred. The one for Ellen, The Riddle of Nine, can be read here in full:
In 2005 I started drawing autobiographical comics for the web. The webcomic ‘Lief & Leed’ ran for about a year and a half, and helped me get into the groove of a daily comic and develop a “quick&dirty” drawing style. This comic was in Dutch, but it came to include my 24 Hour Comic Day comic, which I did in English and which ended up in the Anthology of that year!
It can be argued that my educational comics are also autobiographical comics – in each of them I draw myself as protagonist, taking the reader by the hand through various subjects, but also talking about my own experiences. Here’s an example from Philosophy:
In 2015 I tried my hand at autobiographical webcomics a second time. I called it ‘Discoveries in Comics’ and it can still be read on Tumblr:
When I was Comic Artist Laureate (2017-2020) I also drew about myself. During these three years, I made a timeline every three months to show what I had been up to. These timelines became the backbone for my book compilation ‘Strip Holland Strip’:
In 2023, plagued by menopausal mayhem, marital meanderings and maternal mutations, I started drawing very personal comics about myself again, and to publish them on Substack. This time my comics are more candid than ever. They really help me (and my husband) to come to grips with this stage of life – and are very fun to draw!
