Last weekend was warm in more than one way: meteorologically, Amsterdam suffered a few days of over 30 degrees Celsius; but more importantly I was part of two events that were truly heartwarming!
First was the presentation of a book I illustrated - writer Jordy Kuys and I met up early to sign over fifty copies of ‘Trammelant in Tralaland - het Feest van Tante Kee’:
The location was perfect: a very special open air playground in Haarlem - not your usual playground but a kind of “wild” area where kids can run, build and explore:
Since Haarlem is close to the North Sea, the temperature was a lot cooler than in the city. Thundery clouds were racing through the skies, but we kept it dry all through the festivities:
It was a truly warm and happy event, for a truly warm and happy book…
It’s not just a book - Jordy has made remastered songs of the old Dutch nursery rhymes his stories are based on AND there’s an audiobook as well, voiced by actress Ruth Roos:
Ruth made me and Jordy this adorable miniature version of the book with a little magnet on the back - it’s on our fridge now!
This is the entire creative team - from left to right: Ruth Roos who voiced the audiobook, Yiri T. Kohl who did the coloring and layout, author Jordy Kuys, and me. What a wonderful collaboration!
On Sunday I was part of the Wallen Festival, a festival in the oldest part of the center of Amsterdam, including the Red Light District. The Prostitution Information Center asked me to do a lecture on making comics about sex work, which I did gladly!
I opened my talk by reading this comic out loud. It explains how I got into drawing comics about sex work and becoming an ally for destigmatisation.
One of the first comics I drew is actually situated in the PIC. It’s in my latest Mijntje-album and here in English for your entertainment and education:
My Mijntje-album is for sale at PIC in the Dutch version. After all the positive feedback, I’m now going to make an English printed version happen. There’s a lot of demand for it at PIC!
After these warm days, the temperature dropped considerably. I drove back to Northern Germany…
…and arrived back home here:
Not too bad, eh? It’s cool and lush here. I have days of gardening and comicking ahead of me.
Life could be worse.
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