'Zwoeger' (Vers van 't Vat, 1 August 1959). Translation: 'Lunch break until 14 o'clock.'
De Graaf was a Dutch mid-20th century cartoonist, illustrator and comic artist. In the 1950s, signing exclusively with his last name, he was house cartoonist for the newspaper Het Vaderland. He also drew the gag comic, 'Zwoeger' (1959-1960), for Vers van 't Vat, the monthly magazine issued by the Dutch beer brand Heineken.
Life and career
Almost nothing is known about the cartoonist who signed his work with De Graaf. During the 1950s, he was a regular gag cartoonist for Het Vaderland, a newspaper published in The Hague. Besides cartoons, De Graaf also wrote articles about his profession and cartoon art in general. While his first name was not mentioned in those articles, the cartoonist did reveal in a 1 April 1957 article that he lived in a house by the sea and that he was a professional cartoonist.
In 1959 and 1960, De Graaf was also present in Vers van 't Vat, the monthly staff magazine of the Heineken brewery, for which he created the short-lived comic strip 'Zwoeger'. Sometimes in pantomime and sometimes with dialogue added with typewriter, the gags are inside jokes about an unlucky office worker. His name refers to the verb "zwoegen" ("to toil").
Cartoons by De Graaf for Het Vaderland from 1 November 1954 and 26 November 1955.