Willem Vleeschouwer

Willem Vleeschouwer was born in Hilversum and attended the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Early in his career, he made illustrations for Anti Apartheids Nieuws, and illustrated a punk card game for music magazine Oor. His first comic was 'De Wonderbaarlijke Reis van Jacobus Maneschijn en Sientje Zeester', written by Willem Wilmink, and published daily in De Waarheid from 1978. This was followed by the series 'Duppie' ('Duppie en de ZZ-sekte', 'Duppie en het Doorbroken Isolement') with Gerard van Santen, and 'Flip Vla en Pintie Prima', also for Oor.

Later comics by Vleeschouwer are 'Plenty Plaatjes', 'De Wraak van de Dikke Ong' and the Spoorstraat soccer comic 'Stront aan de Knikker'. His cartoons and illustrations appear in magazines like Elsevier, Esquire, PSV-Voetbalblad, Autoweek, Het Parool and Cosmopolitan. Among his commercial clients are Gall & Gall, Red Band, Wehkamp, Postbank, Punica, Duyvis, Nederlands Zuivelburo and Albert Heijn.

Willem Vleeschouwer felt validated as a comic artist after he received a signed drawing from Franquin just a few months before Franquin's death, in reply to Vleeschouwer's interest in his work. The second part of this comic, 'Stront aan de Knikker', appeared in June 2001 and was presented with an exhibition in Galerie Lambiek. Pages of this comic can be seen on Vleeschouwer's virtual exhibition on this site.