Jacobus Grosman

Jacobus Grosman studied at the Art Academy in Arnhem during the 1920s. Around 1930, he created 'Gijsje Goochem', a comic about a little boy, his friend Wimpie, his dog Nero and a policeman named Buikie. The language he used was deliberately incorrect "child-speech". During the crisis in the 1930s, Grosman, like so many others, lost his job.

After sending a few 'Gijsje Goochem' strips to the N.D.I. publishing company in Deventer, he was immediately hired as illustrator. Besides working as an advertising artist, Grosman's comic appeared in several magazines all over Holland up until 1953, inclucing Elck Wat Wils, Ons Geïllustreerd Weekblad, Olijk en Vrolijk and De Week in Beeld. Several 'Gijsje Goochem' stories were collected in six books by De Geïllustreerde Pers under the title 'Gijsje Goochem's Guitenstreken', in 1937.

Besides 'Gijsje Goochem', Grosman created a few other strips, including 'Slimpie Branie' in Olijk en Vrolijk (1936), 'Assemee en Zilverbaard' in Utrecht in Woord en Beeld (1935), and 'De Wonderlijke Avonturen van Pietje Peggel' in a book by N.D.I. (1935). After the War, Grosman was doing illustrations for Geïllustreerde Pers magazines like Margriet, Eigen Erf and De Stuwdam.