Together with Peter de Wit (illustrator of the comic strip Sigmund), Hanco Kolk has formed a creative duo since 1984. For Dutch television, they have produced and presented the Teleac course on Comic Drawing. As the duo “Mannetje en Mannetje,” they also presented comedic sketches on Dutch television. They have also established a publishing house together, called “De Plaatjesmaker,” and have created the comic strip Gilles de Geus. Kolk and De Wit also collaborate on the comic strip S1ngle, which can be read in over fifteen newspapers and has been adapted into a TV series for three seasons.
Hanco Kolk designed the animated drummer for the website of De Harmonie. In 2007, his magnum opus “Meccano – de Ruwe Gids” was published, which is considered one of the classics of Dutch comics. In 2011, “Tot ziens, Justine Keller” was released, for which he collaborated with musician Spinvis.
In the cultural magazine Ons Erfdeel, Hanco Kolk is described as follows:
“If we are to call one author of comics in our language area a jack of all trades, it would have to be Hanco Kolk. He is equally skilled in creating humorous adventure stories, graphical experiments, and innovative satire. (…) Kolk’s talent as a storyteller is just as great as his graphical skill, which he has abundantly proven in the last thirty years as a trendsetter in Dutch comics. His body of work reflects a diversity of styles, with the story almost always holding an important place. Graphically, he has shown that a comic can also produce groundbreaking work without limiting oneself to purely illustrative experiments. (…) Hanco Kolk has had a significant influence on the development of the comic strip in the Netherlands and his work remains surprising and challenging to this day.”
www.ftn-books.com has several Hanco Kolk titles available.
