Maaike Hartjes

Maaike Hartjes started drawing comics when she was only six years old. Although she developed a realistic style, she actually became known for the sketchy doodles which she used in her diary. Several issues of 'Maaike's Dagboekje' ('Maaike's Little Diary') have been published in the small-press circuit. In 1998, she graduated in Illustrative Design. She runs her own comic-studio, De Zwarte Handel, which she started with fellow artist Floris Oudshoorn in 1995, and works for various magazines and newspapers, especially Viva women's magazine.

In 2002, 'Maaike's Grote Dagboekje' ('Maaike's Big Little Diary') appeared at publisher Oog & Blik. This diary contains Maaike's comics about Alexander Zograf's emails from Serbia during the bombings in 1999. In 2008, Oog & Blik published 'Hong Kong Dagboek', which contains the comic diary she kept during a trip to Hong Kong with her friend Mark Hendriks.