Robert van der Kroft

Robert van der Kroft is best known for his recreation of the famous 'Sjors en Sjimmie' strip, as well as the gag strip 'Claire'. He began his comics career in the Dutch Donald Duck weekly, illustrating stories with Disney characters. Between 1973 and 1975, he drew the info-strip 'Pepijn' in Pep. He was a regular contributor to the alternative comics magazine De Vrije Balloen from 1975. He also did several advertising assignments, such as 'Droppie Water' for the Unie van Waterschappen.

He took over the 'Sjors en Sjimmie' series from Jan Steeman in 1975. This series is the Dutch version of Martin Branner's 'Perry Winkle' (a spin-off of 'Winnie Winkle'), which was introduced in The Netherlands during the thirties, and elaborated upon by Frans Piët, who introduced Sjors' friend, Sjimmie. Together with text writers Jan van Die and Wilbert Plijnaar, he formed the Wiroja's.

They modernized the 'Sjors' comic by introducing themes such as love, star-fandom, graffiti, breakdancing and other cool stuff. The readers responded so well to the changes that the magazine Eppo, in which the stories were published, was re-named Sjors & Sjimmie Stripblad.

In 1988, the work pressure got too high and the Wiroja's decided to start with another comic and keep their work on 'Sjors en Sjimmie' in the background. The artwork was was continued by the Spanish Comicup Studios, but the original team kept the supervision. The Wiroja's new comic was called 'Claire', which appeared in Flair and dealt with a twenty-year-old woman, addressing an audience of girls and young women. Together with Tonio van Vugt, Van der Kroft launched the Dutch magazine Zone 5300, a magazine of comics, culture and curiosities, in 1994.