'Mislukte Metamorfose' (Tina #7, 2024).
Janneke van den Biggelaar is a Dutch storyboard artist and 2D animator, who has worked on variety of national and international film and animation productions, notably the 'LEGO City No Limits' series. As a comic artist, she started out in the 2000s in the Dutch indie manga scene, contributing stories to several small press anthologies. For a more mainstream audience, she has worked on comics for the girls' magazine Tina, since 2026 drawing 'Nora' from scripts by Bas Schuddeboom, a contemporary spin-off to Tina's classic 'Noortje' feature. Janneke van den Biggelaar the storyboard/comic artist should not be confused with graphic designer and stained-glass artist Janneke van den Biggelaar.
Early life
Janneke van den Biggelaar was born in August 1986 in Bergen op Zoom in the south of the Netherlands. Her father was active in the metal and plastics industry, while enjoying drawing and handicraft in his spare time; her mother worked in healthcare. When growing up, her parents always encouraged their daughter's creativity and curiosity. As a teenager, Janneke missed in-depth comics aimed at girls and young women, and found herself in the more complex stories and characters of the female-oriented manga genres shojo and josei. Important artistic influences became mangaka like the Clamp collective, Naoko Takeuchi and Ai Yazawa. Later in life, she has mainly drawn inspiration from various small press comics, graphic novels and her own life. Besides drawing, she has enjoyed herself with singing in a choir, climbing, writing, reading and taking photographs.
'A Ship Full of Fools' (2007).
Manga circle Neutral
Early in her career, Van den Biggelaar worked with children through the social childcare organization Kober in Breda. In her spare time, she and a couple of friends formed the doujinshi manga circle Neutral, which also included Dori (Dorith Graef), Kitsu (Elsje Bakker) and Wybsu (Stephanie Lechner). Active between 2005 and 2011, the group released seven small press anthologies, each linked to a specific color and theme: 'Shiroi Yume/Kuroi Akumu' (gothic, 2005), 'Cotton Candy' (pink/sweet romance, 2006), 'Aoi Tsuki' (blue/tragic love, 2007), 'Shinkui Named' (red/horror, 2007), 'Himawari' (yellow/slice of life, 2008), 'In de Schaduw' (purple/horror, 2009) and 'Morgen' (orange/taboo, 2011). Credited as "Janna", Van den Biggelaar contributed stories to each volume, notably the 80-page story 'A Ship Of Fools', about Cin who has to defeat a "vampirate" and falls in love with a mermaid - a co-production with Elsje Bakker for the 2007 release 'Shinkui Named'. Between 2008 and 2010, Neutral also released three self-titled Dutch-language comic books. Also with Bakker, Janneke van den Biggelaar had a story published in the 'Oost West' manga anthology by the publishing house Bee Dee (2009).
Comic for Neutraal #2 (2008).
Other small press manga
In addition, Van den Biggelaar contributed to fan manga based on Shimoku Kio's 'Genshiken' and the Clamp series 'X' and 'xxxHOLiC'. She also appeared in the 2010 anthology 'Megane ManiaXXX', which had "glasses" for a theme, and in several releases by other manga collectives, often in collaboration with Elsje Bakker. Her contributions to the TeaTales anthologies 'Cherry Lips' (2009) and 'Tales of Bluebury' (2010) dealt with eccentric characters, a rich guy tormented by the connection he unknowingly made, and a girl who doesn't want friends, only to dish out blows. To the two volumes of the 'Liquorice' anthology by OpenMinded (2009, 2011), Van den Biggelaar and Bakker explored the relationship of a young couple. Relationships were also the main topic in Van den Biggelaar's stories for the Grapefruit Tea anthologies 'Over jou en mij' (2014) and 'Levensloop' (2015). Some of her later manga were written by Valerie Chang, for instance the stories collected in the comic booklets 'Pudding Aap' (2010) and 'Kleurstof' (2011).
Page from 'Kleurstof' (2011).
Animation & storyboards
In the meantime, Van den Biggelaar studied 2D animation at the St. Joost School of Art & Design in Breda, graduating in 2013 with an animated short based on her comic story about the relationship between a teacher and a student from the Neutral anthology 'Morgen'. Subsequently, she worked as an animator for several agencies, and also on the short film 'PepeLuu and the Wolves of Mangotown' (2016) by Valerie Chang. In 2017, she took an additional course in storyboarding from VIA University College in Denmark, and has been working as a storyboard artist since.
Over the years, Van den Biggelaar has worked on many different national and international productions for cinema, television and streaming services (Netflix, Apple TV+, Videoland), either in the Netherlands or abroad. In her home country, productions she worked on have included the preschool and toddlers' puppet series 'Dropje' ('Doopie', 2018-2019) and the animated series based on the live-action show about naughty girl 'Knofje' (2018), as well as the 2014 animated feature film based on Mies Bouhuys and Fiep Westendorp's classic cat characters 'Pim & Pom' ('Pim & Pom: Het Grote Avontuur'). Through the British animation studio Blue Zoo, Van den Biggelaar has worked on the 'LEGO City No Limits' web series, starting her collaboration with season 5 (2025). Specialized in character performance and action adventure storytelling, Her work in animation is characterized by her witty sense of humor, out-of-the-box thinking and ability to convey heartfelt emotions.
Introduction episode of 'Nora' (Tina #26, 2026).
Tina magazine
Through her former Neutral companion Dorith Graef, Janneke van den Biggelaar was introduced to the editors of the girls' magazine Tina, who were busy with expanding their horizon by including new creators in its pages. In Tina #7 of 2024, her short solo story 'Mislukte Metamorphose' appeared in Tina, featuring two kids who attempt to go to school "undercover". About a year later, in issue #11 of 2025, she drew her next story for Tina, 'Te Vertrouwen Of Niet?', this time written by Robbert Damen.
Since mid-2026, Van den Biggelaar is the artist of 'Nora', a spin-off comic feature to the classic comic series about the clumsy teenager 'Noortje'. Originally created in 1975 by Patty Klein and Jan Steeman, the comic had been running in reprints for several years. While the gags were still popular, it became increasingly difficult for the editors to update the decades-old 'Noortje' gags to modern times. Changing the dialogues to fit present-day stars, hypes and technology felt increasingly "off" as the artwork remained typically 1980s or 1990s. In 2026, the Tina editors decided to embrace the vintage vibe of the 'Noortje' comic and keep it rooted in its original timeframe.
With former Tina editor Bas Schuddeboom as scriptwriter, Janneke van den Biggelaar developed a contemporary companion strip starring Noortje's granddaughter Nora, in which Noortje herself appears as an elderly but equally goofy woman. Drawn in a modern manga-flavored style by Van den Biggelaar, the 'Nora' comic debuted in Tina issue #26 of 2026. As Patty Klein used many of her own teenage experiences while writing the 'Noortje' gags, Schuddeboom decided to use the later-day Klein as a blueprint for the character of "Oma Noor", while he gave the 13-year-old Nora traits from his own character. While her grandmother is playful, out-of-the-box and slightly eccentric, Nora is, in contrast, more reserved, analytical and prone to see bears along the way.
Self-portrait in the artist's storyboard style.