'Willems Wereld'.
Aloys Oosterwijk is a Dutch comic creator and courtroom sketch artist. Starting in the alternative comics scene of the 1970s, he gained mainstream exposure as a member of the 1980s comic collective Studio Arnhem. Within the comic scene, he is best-known for two comic series featuring the same protagonist under a different name. The first is 'Cor Morelli' (1984-1996, 2012- ), a detective comic that has run in Het Laatste Nieuws, Robbedoes and Eppo. The second is 'Willems Wereld' (1997-2017), a gag comic about a lonely bar- and whore-hopper, printed in the men's magazine Panorama. Among his additional comic projects were erotic stories for a couple of Spanish magazines, medieval adventure comics in girls' magazine Tina and commercial comics through his agent Comic House. Aloys Oosterwijk's courtoom drawings have appeared in almost every Dutch media outlet, covering a great many high profile criminal cases. His drawings for the trials against master criminal Willem Holleeder and the Dutch-Moroccan Mafia formed the basis for the "illustrated documentaries" 'Bij De Neus - Het Holleeder proces in Beeld' (2019) and 'Marengo - Het Beeldverslag' (2024), both made in collaboration with journalists.
Early life
Aloys Oosterwijk was born in 1956 in Schalkhaar, a town near the city of Deventer in the north-east province Overijssel. He grew up in a farmer's family. From a young age, he enjoyed cutting images from magazines, pasting them into a narrative and write his own dialogue to go with it. After a while, he began drawing his own images, laying the foundations for his future career in comics. As a child, Oosterwijk had a stammer. One thing he liked about drawing comics was that he could write the fluent, snappy dialogues that were too difficult to express in real life. Among his main graphic influences have been Hal Foster, Edgar P. Jacobs, Willy Vandersteen, Jean Giraud and Philippe Druillet.
'Il Pantalone' (Talent #3, 1979).
Early comics
Between 1974 and 1979, Oosterwijk studied at the Art Academy of Arnhem, while beginning his career within the Arnhem comic scene. Between 1975 and 1978, he published his first stories in all seven issues of the amateur comic magazine De Omelet, which also contained work by his friends Hanco Kolk, Ben Jansen, René Meulenbroek, Rieuwert Catz and Diederick van Kleef. Oosterwijk additionally contributed to other underground/alternative publications, such as Evert Geradts' Tante Leny Presenteert and De Vrije Balloen. When publisher Drukwerk launched the alternative comic magazine Talent in 1978, Oosterwijk was present with comic stories starring the character 'Pater Smollenbrink', an opportunistic missionary in colonial Africa. Oosterwijk also drew comics about real-life people, such as art forger Han van Meegeren, the original Beatles drummer Pete Best, French sex bomb Brigitte Bardot, U.S. music producer Phil Spector and ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn. Oosterwijk was eventually the first of his gang to publish a comic book. In 1979, Drukwerk released a collection with his Talent stories under the title 'Een Keurig Wit Pakje Met Geen Vlekje Besmeurd'. Two years later, this book was also translated in French, appearing under the title 'Un Impeccable Ensemble Blanc Immaculé' (Le Graphe, 1981).
Studio Arnhem
While pursuing a daytime job as a drawing teacher, in 1981 Oosterwijk joined his friends Hanco Kolk, René Meulenbroek, Ben Jansen and Evert Geradts in the founding of Studio Arnhem. Artists like Gerard Leever, Kees de Boer, René Uilenbroek and Jaap Stavenuiter joined later on. With the intention of becoming professional comic creators and illustrators, the team found its way to most of the mainstream comic publications of the 1980s. Some of the projects were done collectively, others were solo efforts. For the group project about photographer 'Otto Raaf' for the Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool, Oosterwijk designed the characters, while the inking was done by Gerard Leever and the background art by Ben Jansen and René Meulenbroek. The script of the story was provided by non-studio member Ger Apeldoorn. One episode, 'Concert voor Carras', was serialized between 3 January and 26 March 1983. When the comic opportunies increased, Oosterwijk was eventually able to quit his dayjob.
Cor Morelli - 'De Man Op De Dia' (Robbedoes #2454, 23 April 1985).
Cor Morelli
In 1984, Aloys Oosterwijk created his first enduring comic character: the detective Cor Morelli. The character's name is a play on the word "moral", while his face is modelled after French actor Lino Ventura. Morelli often works with a female assistant, Esther Echt, who is far smarter than Morelli and often solves most of his cases. Esther's looks were modelled after Oosterwijk's girlfriend at the time, Ellen Klever, a stage designer and twin sister of the future actress Trudi Klever. 'Cor Morelli' (1984-1996) debuted in the Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws with the story 'De Antonius Moorden', after which the series subsequently found a spot in the Belgian comic magazine Robbedoes (the Dutch-language version of Spirou) and the Dutch comic magazine Eppo (which successively changed its name to Eppo/Wordt Vervolgd, Sjors en Sjimmie Stripblad and SjoSji). At the request of the Robbedoes editor, Oosterwijk started spending more time to his drawing style, which became more realistic, revealing influences from classic "Clear Line" artists like Edgar Pierre Jacobs and the crime noir comics by Gérard Goffaux and Philippe Berthet.
Cor Morelli - 'Beiroet' (1991).
Between 1987 and 1996, five book collections with 'Cor Morelli' stories were published subsequently by Oberon and Arboris. In 1996, 'Cor Morelli' was discontinued. In 2006, publisher Komik released a sixth installment, collecting the 1991-1992 serial 'Beiroet', Oosterwijk's personal favorite. Since 2012, the character is revived in the second run of Eppo magazine , published by Rob van Bavel's Uitgeverij L. with a new series of "cold case" stories. Instead of the longer serials of the 1980s and 1990s, Oosterwijk focused on short stories dealing with "cold cases", appearing under the banner 'Open Dossiers' ("Open Files"). In this incarnation, Morelli usually ponders about a case that seems unsolvable. As he goes through the facts, the reader is invited to think along, pick up clues and solve the case himself.
'El Peso de la Ley' (De Visitatie).
Studio De Wittenkade
In the second half of the 1980s, Oosterwijk moved from Arnhem to Amsterdam, where he shared a studio with Peter de Wit and Hanco Kolk, which became known as "Studio De Wittenkade". Artists like Ben Westervoorde, Michiel de Jong and Floris Oudshoorn joined later on. During his time with the studio, Oosterwijk has produced erotic comic stories for the Spanish magazines Totem El Comix and Kiss Magazine, some of which were also published in The Netherlands in Penthouse Comix. For Kolk and De Wit's Pincet collection of mini comics, Oosterwijk created the comic story 'Te Klein Om Gelukkig in Zijn' (De Plaatjesmaker, 2000).
'Blanche & Gijske' - 'De Waarzegger' (Tina #12, 2005).
Tina
Between 1993 and 2006, Oosterwijk created several stories for the girls' magazine Tina. His first contributions were three eight-page stories starring the medieval girl 'Mirte' (1993), whose name and looks were based on one of Oosterwijk's other friends from the Arnhem scene, the actress Mirte van Heusden. With scriptwriter Patty Klein, Oosterwijk additionally created fourteen stories of another medieval series, 'Blanche & Gijske' (1994-1997, 2005). Set in the Late Middle Ages, the maiden Blanche is the bored daughter of the lord of Montfort, who becomes best friends with the daughter of the innkeeper, Gijske. Oosterwijk's work for Tina further includes several one-shot stories, written by either himself or Frank Jonker. Years later, book collections of both the 'Blache & Gijske' and 'Mirte' stories were published by André Wijntjes' Kippenvel imprint, respectively in 2013 and 2022.
'Willems Wereld'. Translation: "Out of necessity you integrate the qualities of the "opposite sex". You became aware of your natural polar opposite. You've discovered the woman in yourself. That's why you're an emancipated man." - "... True, but it remains difficult!".
Willems Wereld
When 'Cor Morelli' was discontinued in SjoSji magazine in 1996, Oosterwijk quickly tried to find another magazine willing to publish the comic on a regular basis. As an alternative, he took the protagonist of his detective comic and suggested making a spin-off around his "spare time" activities. A few gags following this concept, titled 'Morelli's Vrije Tijd', had already appeared in 1992 in the alternative comic magazine Razzafrazz. This spin-off was eventually accepted by the editors of the men's weekly Panorama, who ironically enough were completely unfamiliar with the 'Cor Morelli' comic. However, the editors didn't like the name Cor Morelli, according to Oosterwijk because the new boyfriend of the ex of Panorama's editor-in-chief was called Cor. Either that or because they found the name Cor Morelli too difficult, the editor suggested renaming the character Willem and retitling the spin-off 'Willems Wereld', a pun on the 1992 comedy film 'Wayne's World'. In the final months of 1996, Oosterwijk began building up a stock of episodes. The first 'Willems Wereld' gag appeared in Panorama's third issue of 1997.
In the one-page comic gags of 'Willems Wereld' (1997-2007), the main character is a bachelor who spends most of his time pub crawling and whore-hopping. He is a typical bar stool philosopher who observes life from behind a glass of beer. His love life is melancholic, full of impossible romances and cheerful visits to "ladies of pleasure". However, Willem also engages in other activities. He serves as an artist's model, a stand-in for movie actors or as an employee in various short-lived jobs. Other recurring characters in the comic are bar woman Rita, Willem's bespectacled friend and sidekick Kleine Ruud (whose look is based on comic artist/graphic designer Rudy Hulleman) and the obnoxious pony-tailed jerk Tony the Pony (modelled after ice skating champion Rintje Ritsma).
'Willems Wereld'.
Since Willem is often interacting with attractive, scantily clad women, the comedy in 'Willems Wereld' is sometimes contested for being vulgar and sexist. Oosterwijk didn't mind this kind of comedy, since he made it at the request of the men's magazine Panorama. But interviewed by Walter Dijkshoorn in Stripnieuws #23 (February 2007), it did bother him that he was often pigeonholed as "sexist", since other Dutch comic series with similar raunchy jokes didn't get this kind of criticism. He also pointed out that readers who expect flat-out porn in 'Willems Wereld' will be vastly disappointed.
Between 1997 and 2018, eighteen albums of 'Willems Wereld' have been published, first by VNU/Sanoma, then by Uitgeverij L and Arboris. In 2009, a special edition of Panorama appeared under the title 'De Dikke Willem', containing comic pages, an interview with main character Willem and an article about Aloys Oosterwijk's work as courtroom artist. In 2017, new management of Panorama decided to cancel the comic after 21 years. The final episode saw print on 21 September 2017. After that, Oosterwijk returned to the original Cor Morelli character, creating new "cold case" stories for Eppo magazine.
Facial expressions of criminal Willem Holleeder during his court case, 4 December 2015.
Courtroom sketch artist
In addition to doing comics, Aloys Oosterwijk and fellow cartoonist Mark Retera have made portraits of people at parties and receptions, with Oosterwijk focusing on realistic drawings and Retera doing big-nosed caricatures. This helped him learn how to draw "live" models. Since 2004, Oosterwijk has been one of the Netherlands' most prominent courtroom sketch artists. His first excursion in this line of work was for Panorama magazine, reporting about the so-called "Sloerie van Sloedrecht" case, about a prostitute who blackmailed men. While Oosterwijk covered the case in court, two blackmailers who also stood trial visibly expressed their annoyance that he was sketching them. He felt threatened, but was excited at the same time, leading to him doing more work in this field. An important mentor to Aloys Oosterwijk was the veteran courtroom sketch artist Chris Roodbeen. Among the other Dutch courtroom sketch artists have been Felix Guérain, Jan Hensema and Petra Urban.
Mr. Probz vs. Sony Music (16 May 2023).
Since 2009, Oosterwijk has been working directly for the Dutch press agency ANP. His drawings of criminals and court cases have appeared in Panorama, Haagse Courant and Algemeen Dagblad, and also on TV shows like 'NOS Journaal,' 'Peter R. De Vries Misdaadverslaggever', 'Pauw & Witteman', 'DWDD' and 'Jinek'. With his recognizable watercolor style that instantly captures subtle character traits and expressions, Oosterwijk has covered countless of criminal cases in the Netherlands. Among them were the high profile trials against master criminal Willem Holleeder, the Muslim-extremist terrorist group Hofstad Network and the leading members of the Dutch-Moroccan crime ring, known as the "Mocro Mafia". If the accused and defenders are seated far away, Oosterwijk sketches them with use of binoculars.
Close-up of Ridouan Taghi, one of the main suspects in the Marengo trial.
On occasion, Oosterwijk's drawings for high profile cases have been used for book publications, starting with the collections 'Op de huid' (Xtra, 2007), 'Op de huid 2 - Pedo's, Penoze, Pooierboys en Politieke Kopstukken' (Xtra, 2011) and 'De Politierechter - Alledaagse Criminaliteit' (De Kring, 2013). The book 'Bij De Neus - Het Holleeder Proces in Beeld' (Uitgeverij L, 2019) contains his 300 drawings of the Holleeder trial in the high security "Bunker" courtroom, as well as new drawings with reconstructions of the eliminations the criminal was accused of. This "illustrated documentary" was completed with background articles by the journalists Vico Olling and Sjerp Jaarsma. Starting in 2019, Oosterwijk and ANP journalist Marieke de Witte have been covering the Marengo trial against Ridouan Taghi and other members of the Dutch-Moroccan Mafia. Offering a reconstruction of a trial characterized by much violence, which included the murders of a key witness, a lawyer and crime journalist Peter R. de Vries, the book 'Marengo - Het Beeldverslag' was released bij Uitgeverij L in March 2024.
Illustration from 'Marengo' (2024).
Commercial work
Through his agent Comic House, Oosterwijk is also for hire as an illustrator and portrait artist. Over the years, he has also done a couple of comics in commission. For newspaper De Telegraaf, he created an instructional strip about golfing, called 'Golfen Met Gary Wiren', and for Yachting World, he made the historical comic 'Passionate Yachtsmen'. In 2003, Oosterwijk drew the educational comic book 'Werk en Bijstand in Amsterdam', informing people on how to get a job and social welfare in Amsterdam. The work also appeared in an English and Turkish translation.
Musical career
In the 1980s and 1990s, Oosterwijk was also a singer and guitarist in the bands De Rambo's (1982-1986, with Rieuwert Catz, Wouter van der Laan, Ben Jansen and Wilco Wolfers) and De Keng (1987-1993, with Arjen Vreeken, Wilco Wolfers, Hilbert Wiese, Cees Jan Tans, Henk Dassen).
When 'Willems Wereld' was canceled, Oosterwijk returned to his original Cor Morelli character. (Eppo #1, 2023).
Graphic contributions
In 1987, Oosterwijk contributed a 'Cor Morelli' story to the collective benefit book 'Strips voor Mozambique' (Van Bavel, 1987), to help the people in Mozambique. He also made a graphic contribution to 'Met Durex in de Wolken - Voel Je 'M' (1998), promoting the condom brand Durex. In addition, Oosterwijk paid tribute to Marten Toonder's 'Tom Poes' comic in the collective tribute book 'Was Tom Poes Maar Hier' (De Bezige Bij, 2006) and to Eric Schreurs in 'Een Strip Hommage - Eric Schreurs (Reboot Comics, 2024). In 2020, Oosterwijk joined 75 Dutch & Flemish comic artists to make a graphic contribution to the free collective comic book 'Striphelden versus Corona' (Oogachtend, Uitgeverij L, 2020). The book was intended to support comics stores who had to close their doors for two months during the lockdown at the height of the COVID-19 virus pandemic.
Together with crime journalist Peter R. de Vries, Aloys Oosterwijk was guest editor of the April 2021 issue of Stripglossy magazine, published by Personalia. Besides featuring an interview with De Vries and an 'Open Dossier' comic by Oosterwijk, the two men also appeared in a photo comic.
Aloys Oosterwijk during his exposition at Gallery Lambiek in 2001.
Recognition
During the Stripdagen comic festival in Houten of 29 September 2007, Aloys Oosterwijk was awarded the Stripschap Prize by comic appreciation society Het Stripschap for his entire body of work. For the occasion, a special art book about the women in the 'Willems Wereld' comic was released under the title 'Vrouwen' (Uitgeverij L, 2007).
On Friday 21 September 2001, a month-long exposition of the work of Aloys Oosterwijk was opened in Galerie Lambiek. Between 22 October 2016 and 30 March 2017, 1001 of his drawings were exhibited in the Stripmuseum in Groningen. Additional exhibitions of Aloys Oosterwijk's art have been held at Trix & Rees (2006), Stripdagen Houten (2007), Haarlem's town hall (2008), Bunker Amsterdam (2009), the courtroom of The Hague (2009), Palace of Justice in Breda (2009), Gallery Anouk in Haarlem (2010) the Amsterdam court of justice (2011) and the Abbey of Egmond (2017).
'Willem's Wereld'.