Sjors & Sjimmie - 'Mobiele muziek' (Sjors en Sjimmie Stripblad #17, 1989).
Hein Haakman is a Dutch illustrator, comic artist and storyboard artist. Between 1988 and 1994, he was one of the artists for the 'Sjors & Sjimmie' story production in Sjors & Sjimmie Stripblad.
Life and career
Born in 1964 in Leiden, Hein Haakman grew up in a town near Lake IJsselmeer. Originally, he was trained as a car mechanic and later worked as a gardener's assistant. In 1985, he began an additional career as an illustrator and visualizer for advertising agencies. Over the years, his clients have included Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Philips, Danone, Royal Dutch Shell and Heineken. In this line of work, Haakman was asked to work in all sorts of techniques: from super-realistic to simple and cartoonish, and from rough to refined.
Sjors & Sjimmie
In 1988, the VNU publishing group launched Sjors & Sjimmie Stripblad as the latest incarnation of its comic magazine Eppo. The iconic comic rebels Sjors and Sjimmie became the title heroes. The editors wanted them to have a prominent role in the new magazine, so new artists and writers were brought in to produce longer stories, all under creative supervision of the official creators Robert van der Kroft, Wilbert Plijnaar and Jan van Die. Scriptwriters were found in the ranks of the Dutch Donald Duck weekly, while Spanish studios like Comicup, Comicon and Bonnet provided most of the artwork.
At the time, Hein Haakman was working as a gardener's assistant in the region of Lutjebroek, when he learned that the magazine was looking for new artists for the weekly 'Sjors en Sjimmie' gag page. In his spare time, he made a test page, and submitted it to editor-in-chief Peter van Leersum, and was promptly hired. Between 1988 and 1994, Haakman was a regular artist for the weekly gag page, although he also dew an occasional short story for both Sjors en Sjimmie Stripblad and its successor Sjosji. Together with his brother Vincent, he also came up with several of the plots. While his artwork was uncredited, but can be retraced through the initials HH in between the panels.
'Koos Oudewater', from the 1989 'Cartoon AID' book.
Other comics
Among Hein Haakman's own comic creations was 'Koos Oudewater', a character that appeared in the 1989 charity 'Cartoon Aid' anthology. In the late 1980s, he also alternated with Tom van Wanrooy and Barend Lammes on the 'Koik 'rs an' section in the regional papers Dagblad voor West-Friesland and Noordhollands Dagblad. The feature provided a daily drawing based on a typical phrase or expression from the West-Frisian region. In 1989, he additionally helped with the inking of the 'Gilles de Geus' episode 'De Batavia' by Hanco Kolk and Peter de Wit.
'Ulyana's grote avontuur' (2015).
Ulyana's grote avontuur
In 2015, Hein Haakman created the comic story 'Ulyana's Grote Avontuur', by commission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN aid organization in The Hague dedicated to helping migrants. One of their activities is supporting people who voluntarily want to return to their home country when the situation there is safe. In Haakman's comic, the parents of title character Ulyana have decided to return home, but their daughter is unsure of how she will manage there, because she has spent so much time in the Netherlands. After hearing the experiences and reassurances of other refugees in the asylum seekers' center, Ulyana feels more secure and positive regarding her return.
Upon the release of the comic in April 2015, the IOM received backlash from the opinion platform Joop.nl of the broadcasting corporation BNNVARA. The critic felt the organization promoted repatriation by giving misleading information and using racial stereotyping. The article also criticized how the comic showed the children being happy to return to their home countries because of the nice weather and natural surroundings, but failed to address the reasons for their refuge in the first place. An online petition to halt further distribution of the comic, however, failed to attract much supporters.
In a response on its website, the IOM stated that this comic story "about voluntary return and reintegration" was made "as an effort to recognize the right of children to be informed about the return procedure and the role that IOM plays." In an additional reaction to this Comiclopedia, comic creator Haakman refuted the petition's claim that the comic was "manipulative in its attempt to influence children in a direction of decision-making that is clearly not in their own best interest" by stating that the comic wasn't distributed among refugees in the first place, and that the IOM only supports people who voluntarily decide to return to safe countries.
Camaleó
In his spare time, Hein Haakman has been working under the pen name Camaleó on a project called the "Parallel Comic World". Just like a preview offers a glimpse into a forthcoming film, Camaleó's large canvases give fragments of comic series and universes that don't exist, but invite the viewer to imagine what could be. Using his experiences from his work in commercial art, he has been creating these large canvases in all kinds of styles and forms.
Hein Haakman, AKA Camaléo, working on a canvas for his "Parallel Comic World".