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George Van Raemdonck (28 August 1888 – 28 January 1966) was aBelgian comics artist and painter, and is generally considered to be the firstFlemish comics author. He mainly worked for left-wing, socialist and anti-fascist magazines and newspapers, creating thousands of political cartoons.
George van Raemdonck was born inAntwerp in 1888. His father, who worked as apharmacist, also was a talenteddraftsman. His mother, who was French, died when George was still young. Because George van Raemdonck was gifted with some musical talent, he was sent to the conservatory to study the violin. At the same time, he started painting, and in 1903, aged fifteen, he entered theRoyal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, where he was taught byFranz Courtens, and where he won the 1913 de Keyer's Prize. During those years, he already made illustrations for a number of novels and for the magazineLange Wapper.
He left Antwerp to live inZwijndrecht on 29 July 1909. On 12 April 1913, he married Adriana Denissen, and their first daughter Pauline is born on 21 February 1914. His second daughter Anna was born on 22 February 1916.[1]
Because of theFirst World War, he fled on 9 October 1914 with his wife and child to theNetherlands, where he soon started drawing political cartoons forDe Amsterdammer. In 1920 he leftDe Amsterdammer to commence work atDe Notenkraker, where he contributed until it folded in July 1936.
Dutch writerA. M. De Jong was impressed by his work and asked him at the end of 1917 to illustrate his juvenile novelVacantiedagen. They soon became friends. In 1922, De Jong asked him to provide the drawings for thecomic stripBulletje en Boonestaak, which was published between 2 May 1922 and 17 November 1937 inHet Volk, the daily newspaper of theSocial Democratic Workers' Party, and inVoorwaarts. The author and artist regularly added references to one another or cameos of each other in the strip. The comic strip was collected in books in Dutch, with at least 66 different editions so far, and has been translated in German in 1924 and in French in 1926.
They also created together the bookVrolike Vertelsels, with 62 drawings by van Raemdonck, written by De Jong with the pen name Frank van Waes. Another comic strip they cocreated wasAppelsnoet en Goudbaard, published between 1925 and 1927 in the magazineBlue Band, a purely commercial publication by a butter producer.
On 12 November 1928, van Raemdonck moved back to Belgium and started painting again, but he continued his close collaboration with De Jong until the sudden death of De Jong during theSecond World War, when he was assassinated on 18 October 1943 by DutchSS members. Apart from the comics, their most successful collaboration was the bookseriesMerijntje Gijzen, which started in 1935 and was made into a film in 1936.[1]
After the war, van Raemdonck started a long-term collaboration with writer L. Roelandt (pen name ofJef Van Droogenbroeck), creating together the comic stripsTijl Uilenspiegel, appearing from 1964 on inVooruit,Smidje Smee andRobinson Crusoë. He lived his last years inBoechout, where he died in 1966.
In his memory, every three years since 1986 a cartoon contest, the George van Raemdonck Kartoenale, is held in Belgium, with the 11th edition in 2008.[1] A monument representingBulletje en Boonestaak has been placed in Boechout, and a park in the same town has been named in his honour.[2]
A list of 158 books and comic books illustrated by G. Van Raemdonck can be found at the Dutch Royal Library website[1].
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