Exclusively for the launch of my graphic novel Baby boom (and for some sponsors) i made art prints of material used in the comic, but reassembled. The piezzopiece prints are in different formats and were show at a solo show at Gallery KochXBos, Amsterdam.

Some of them are still for sale – contact me if you have interest.

Images i started with trying to get the right ‘tone of voice’ for the show. The images did not make it to the show but i think they are worth showing. Some have a certain melancholic sentiment that i think is something to use in a next autonomous project.

A Room With A View originally was made for the theatre show ‘Some Kind Of Golem’ by Amsterdam klezmer Band but the song for which this work was intended needed another image during the development of the show. So now it found its home at the waiting room of the Doctor’s Office of my friend Esther.

Zafar was a song dedicated to the dolphin with the same name.

Image is based on the opening scene of Once Upon the Time in the west by Sergio Leone. But here, the windmills are connected to each other and turn in opposite direction. So what happens?

Image drawn to be projected behind Amsterdam Klezmer Band playing their show Some Kind Of Golem, directed by Dick hauser. The horse is based on the sculptures of Baron Peter Klodt at the Anichkov bridge in St. Petersburg.

Image projected in a format of 2 x 5 meters at the show Some Kind of Golem by Amsterdam Klezmer Band.

image projected at Some Kind Of Golem by Amsterdam Klezmer Band

Quarantaine is a song by Jasper de Beer for the Amsterdam Klezmer Band theatre show ‘Some Kind Of Golem’, directed by Dick Hauser. These illustrations were projected at 3 x 5 meters behind the band during the show. A tribute to Cassandre, obviously.

Power Cut tells the story of the band playing on a festival where the electrified sound was very bad. They played and played but the sound was horrible and too loud. Then there was a power cut and they played acoustically, unamplified. Suddenly, everybody was dancing and their gig was a great success. I visualised the power cut as if caused by a rat eating a cable in the PA system.

Op de Brug ia s song written by Jasper de Beer about how the Amsterdam Klezmer Band met. Dick Hauser, the director of the theatre show Some Kind Of Golem associated the story with James  Ensor’s painting ‘L’Entrée du Christ à Bruxelles’ and i thought it would be nice to put figures from that painting on an Amsterdam bridge welcoming the band.

Nachtrit is a song by Job Chajes about the long nights in a car with the band – and the hypnotising effect of it.

This is an illustration coming with a song by Gijs Levelt about the cavias of his children,  Although they look cartoony, they really are drawn after the likeliness of the two pets. The idea came from director Dick Hauser, who thought it should be cool if they looked a bit out of place in a night club. I added the Fleischer brothers feel to it.

Mendele is a song by Job Chajes for Some Kind Of Golem. It was the last song to have a lyric and it turned out to be about the covid crisis, as the band had been unable to tour for two years. But beautiful things happened in that period as well, for instance the musicians finally had time to work on unfinished solo compositions and projects. The Van Gogh reference became a bit of a running gag, but i think everybody can see what is meant here.

Fanfare is a song by Joop van der Linden. In the theatre show he tells a story about his father playing trumpet and who had the best sound he ever heard. His father also bought him his first trombone.

Theo’s song ‘Breekbrood’ is one of my favorites in the show. For the theatre show I made a closed door, leading to a room that resembles Van Gogh’s room in Ardès. I just made the perspective slightly more ‘correct’ and made the composition of clean planes and lines, giving the place something eerie rather than cosy.  And studying the Van Gogh painting, i wondered why there was a chair in front of that door, while the room was painted from inside. Did van Gogh not wanted to be disturbed when he painted it? Did he want to keep Gauguin out? The high view perspective on the room gives the feeling as if we’re looking through a spy cam.

This empty room, with a chair in front of the door to lock it and keep people out, while it seems empty… I thought it was fascinating, and made more perspectives as if the viewer is a ghost in this abandoned room.
The empty frames provide an even more uncanny atmosphere. And then suddenly we are outside. Alone, in a landscape that is both alien and familiar. Where are we heading?

Aunt Peppie is the opening song of the show. Dick and i thought it would be good to sort of give hints to what is coming. Even the moon and the chair are hints. Of course, the picture on this site is too small to see it, but in the bottles are a lamp, a paper boat floating on water, a letter, soap and a rat’s skeleton.

‘In Bed With Amsterdam Klezmer Band’ is a soft, children-friendly swab with caricatures of the band members.

Drawing for my friend Sjoerd who, at some point, went to India on a motor bike.

Peter, who has built this site and many others so well, is also an excellent cook. So i drew this portrait of him.

The Spinshots played a song called ‘Cleans-o-tech’ and pretended it was a tune they had to play for they were sponsored by the company. I drew this mascotte, we had some advertisements and at some point in our career a dancer in a suit that looked like a cleans-o-tech- bottle.

Part of the fun of making an animation movie is making the props: things the character use, hold or are just there in the background. We could do a lot of inside jokes here. The scenes were so short and the images so rapidly moving that you’d hardly see the naughty jokes we’d make. Here you can quench the bottomless thirst of your inner pervert ast the images are frozen and as long on your screen as you wish.

Poster for a circus. I’d love to do more assignments in this style – drop me a line if you have interest!

present for Flora Dolores, the singer of the Spinshots, who could have any of the designs of Comic Sexy made for her in the identity colours black and cherry red.

I don’t really remember why i drew this cute punk. Maybe a greetings card or a teeshirt?

This is a design for a button. You could buy buttons from Buzzworks at record stores and comic stores, and on festivals. Buzzworks asked several Dutch comic artists to make buttons, and i had the pleasure to be one of them.

‘Lady Justice’ at the court building in my animation film ‘Deep Shit’.

Illustrations for an event at the Milkyway, Amsterdam. US president Bush jr  spoke of Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan as the ‘Axis of Evil’ and would soon be bombing. There was a night with discussions about the idea of a supposed ‘axis of evil’ Was it there? Was bombing a way to deal with it? They idea came from my client Rachida Azough: ‘you don’t bomb cute girls’.

Obviously, the pin ups were a satirical way of saying we’re talking about humans, not ‘evil forces’. The logo of this event was the ‘smart bomb’.

As the song goes ‘Pretty woman, walking down the street’ – she is a background figure in Deep Shit.

Like almost every Dutch comic and graphic artist, I am a huge fan of Peter Pontiac. When i was a kid, there were only two futures: in one, you’d become like your father, and in the other you’d be like Peter Pontiac. I have never regretted choosing the latter.

Peter drew for music magazine Oor and his characters were dark, his comics had punks and drugs and people in the gutter. I still draw army boots the way i saw Peter Pontiac doing it and when i finally met him because of an exposition where we both had work presented i totally fell in love again. The man had eyes like he used to draw! Very deep, very friendly and seemingly all-knowing.

He made a portrait of me for my 40th birthday – you cannot believe how honoured i was. And he asked me to draw a something for his magazine it had to be a tribute because as a young boy, i already understood how pretty his character Gigi was. I think Baby Boom even has a bit of Gigi in her. But Gigi was a bit inspired by Deborah Harry – i think. And i like Deborah Harry too!

So just to give credits: the lady in front is supposed to be Gigi, the guy in the back is supposed to be Pontiac’s Gaga, and well, i am in the middle.

Well, when one lives in Amsterdam and one draws – this is what you get as a side character for your animation movie.

Autonomous work. I used to sell hand made prints with this design. I have always found it miraculous that the stories in the Bible are so patriarchal. Is Mary really supposed to be happy to be impregnated with a child that she will survive and is not made with her consent?

Learn to play Guitar was one of the fake-ads i made as a series of autonomous work.

Inflatable Elvis was one of the fake ads that I used to make. I wished i still had time for these fun projects. But, now that i am developing ‘Baby Boom in Amsterdam’ a lot of this kind of ideas are implemented in the comic.

There was a time i made fake ads as an autonomous project. this was one of them. I am sure you can see that Lucy The Home Made Maid came from this idea, much later.

This illustration had absolutely no practical need but it was nice to make.

‘Martin’s Monthly Pin Up Parlour is an event for comic, low brow and pin up artists, or wannabe’s. Every month we invite a model that is dressed up and given make up by my partner Laura A Dima and i prepare some exercises for the participating artists. Besides that I host the evening and play vinyl pebbles that are in tune with this months theme.

I drew this picture of my all time heroine Baby Boom for a teeshirt years earlier, but it seemed to fit the purpose.