To celebrate, here’s a page from the book. It explains the Scientific Method. In The Netherlands, I heard this page is popular with physics teachers, and a card is in the making that will be distributed in high schools.

If you’re a teacher (or even if you aren’t) please feel free to use this picture. Just remember there’s a lot more where it came from, which is my book Science: a Discovery in Comics, and it’s coming out this Summer.

The page concludes with the inevitable Aristotle, who also featured of course in my previous book Philosophy: a Discovery in Comics – he’s a pivotal figure in the history of science as well (and basically in the whole of the development of Western culture).

To celebrate the second printing of Philosophy: a Discovery in Comics, I made another GiveAway on GoodReads.com. Now’s your chance to win a free, autographed copy of the first print! Click here to sign into GoodReads and enter the giveaway.

In the meantime, the newest book Science: a Discovery in Comics is almost ready to go to the printer! To start promotion, I made a page on my website detailing the contents of this book, with a lot of pictures and even a large spread about genetics. Click here to check it out!

Two years ago the old abandoned shack in the park grounds was reopened by an enthusiastic young couple, Tim and Astrid, who started selling delicious smoothies, toasties and other goodies there. Their cafe in the park, called Terrasmus, became a great success and last winter they remodeled the place, so they can accommodate more people inside and have more room for workshops, music festivals and all sorts of activities for kids.

A few days before the reopening, we walked by to check the place out, and bumped into Tim and Astrid themselves, who showed us around. They pointed out a great empty stretch of wall where they were thinking of asking a local artist to do a mural – so we immediately volunteered and the same evening I made a sketch for a drawing of about 3,5 by 1,20 meters.

After some back and forth about things to include in the picture – basically everything and everyone that can be found in the park on a nice sunny day – we had an approved sketch that Yiri then colored in bright summery colors. We sent it to the printer to have it printed on wallpaper, and within a week a big package was delivered to our doorstep.

Yiri and part of the drawing, fresh from the printer’s; it’s HUGE!

The picture rolled out on the floor of the cafe.

The glueing of the picture, by Tim and Astrid’s parents.

The placing of the picture, by Tim & Astrid, and Astrid’s parents.

The end result!

And here is the whole picture, enlarge by clicking on it:

Intended audience, the picture & me.

If you’re in Amsterdam, come and take a look at it at Terrasmus in the Erasmuspark – and have one of Tim & Astrid’s great smoothies to make it a perfect experience!

I started ‘Mijntje’ for Dutch lesbian magazine Zij aan Zij in 2004 and she’s my oldest and longest running comic. Mijntje is a 22 year old bisexual girl who’s in a relationship with Mia, with various adventures on the side.

Especially for ‘Anything That Loves’, I have translated ten comics, and re-christened Mijntje into Minnie for the english-speaking world.

Given the ongoing struggle for any minority that doesn’t fit into what other groups define as “normal”, I think this will be an important book that will contribute to the visibility of the shifting realities of sexuality, instead of the cliches. I’m proud my Minnie can be part of this, and I encourage anyone with an interest in the subject to back the Kickstarter here to receive the book – and there are also cool T-shirts to order!

Here’s a preview of one of the ten Minnie comics that will be in the book:

Yiri takes the stage for three action-packed pages, after which he is unceremoniously uhm, well, annihilated basically.

To counter his gruesome graphic demise, I drew up this alternative ending:

If you want to read the whole of his performance, you can download the first issue for just 99 cents on Comixology by clicking here.

Or you can wait until June, when the entire graphic novel will be on sale in comic stores and beyond!

Lately, my husband Yiri and I had a lot of fun creating these:

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(Translation by me, colors by Yiri)

If you’re really lucky, your comic runs for a few years and builds a readership. A run of two, three, four years is a really good one in this time when magazines seem to re-style at a disturbing rate. (Unfortunately, the comic is usually the first thing to get changed under a new editor.)

And if you’re really really lucky, you get a chance to revive such a comic, even after years and years, in another magazine.

This is what happened to me with my comic Stella.

Stella appeared in girls’ magazine Flo’ from 2005 to 2008, when the magazine folded. Stella was an eleven-year old, as were the readers, and she was well loved.

Last Summer, I was asked to make a comic for magazine Hoe Overleef Ik, aimed at girls around 15 years old. I asked if I could draw Stella again, this time a little older. The editor was OK, and the readers liked it, and by now I have already made six new adventures for her.

Here’s the comic at the very start, in 2005:

And this is the new Stella, that appeared last Summer:

I love this.

Even though I’m busy enough preparing the translation of ‘Science: a Discovery in Comics’ (to be published in September) and the second print of ‘Philosophy: a Discovery in Comics’ (Yay! A second print!) AND the usual assignments and commissions, I’m making time to get into this project, reading and illustrating one tale a day.

Why?

It doesn’t pay anything – and though it may generate some exposure of my work, it’s highly unlikely it will make a big splash amidst the thousands of artworks that are being uploaded.

I’m doing this because it’s FUN – with all capital letters – the kind of fun that working aith others in a studio or 24 Hour Comics Day brings me. It’s the pleasure of working without restrictions, combined with the energy generated by a whole bunch of people doing the same thing, riding the same creative wave. Yes, I know I sound like a hippie, but I can really feel this almost tangible energy that surrounds a project like this. It’s crisp, it’s fresh, it’s positive. It’s thousands of people making stuff that did not exist before. It’s miraculous.

I wish the world could be more like this: simply Creative, without worrying about payments or copyrights. I’m so happy with people like Neil Gaiman and his wife Amanda Palmer, who are showing the world the power of connectivity and what it can do for art.

Anyway, here are my illustrations so far:

Even though the tales are only about two pages long, Gaiman manages to conjure up such a wealth of imagery. It’s in my comic artist’s blood to try to get as much of the story into my drawing: the soldiers, the forest, the beach, the couple with the champagne, and of course the Unspeakable Things that lurk behind the seconds… You can read the story here.

The February Tale became a tryptich. It’s about an old lady who lost a pendant on a beach – but she doesn’t actually feature directly in the story. So I wanted to draw her, and her reaction to what’s happening, something that’s only speculated about.

I surprised myself with this one. Even though I can often picture in my head what kind of drawing I want, it always turns out different. That’s partly, I think, because I never had any formal education in drawing. I have not tried different styles as much as I would have liked to. In the past years, working on my books, I have stuck closely to my “simple” drawing style. After such a long time of full time drawing, I find that I actually have built some skill, a certain routine, a confidence that I can make a drawing work on a page. And now I can apply that confidence to these drawings in a whole new way and style, and here’s actually a realistic-looking Old Woman, that I didn’t know I could draw until now!

The March Tale is about pirates and a Southern porch and when I read it, I immediately saw silhouettes, because that reflects the nostalgia as well as the frilliness of the story. But I’ve never really done silhouettes, so again this was a nice experiment, and again I surprised myself! And lo and behold, it also turned out to be a tryptich:

It’s my intention to illustrate all of the twelve stories in the coming week. It gives a nice new impulse to my work rhythm. It’s like pushing myself into new territories – full of discoveries and unexpected vistas.

If you want to get in on this project, you can! You should! Artwork can be submitted until March 11. You can read all about it when you click this link.

Join in!

As Neil Gaiman says: “Sure, the world is full of artists, but none of them is YOU. Don’t withhold the world your unique view on things.”