Cartooning is not a social activity... On how a game student became a comic artist

Pim lives in Valencia. Something I more readily associate with light and colour. What makes you create such grey drawings!? He laughs a little apologetically, ‘I wouldn’t like to be there myself, in my own fantasy world...’ But where does it come from then? ‘From my subconscious...?’ He looks at me questioningly. ‘No idea, I have a fascination with machines, always had. I’m from Vlaardingen and we used to drive past the port of Rotterdam, maybe that’s where it comes from, I can still see it now - the machines, the industrial landscape, not knowing what it is, that fascinated me enormously as a child. That mysteriousness, and always seeing something different, discovering something new, that fascination is what I mainly want to evoke with my comic strips.’ 

Grey and bleak 

Tremen is something you actually have to undergo, I understand from Pim. The 50 pages take you into a grey and bleak world. A dystopia in which, as Pim himself says, you wouldn’t want to live. ‘The book consists solely of images,’ he tells me, ‘so there is no text that sends you in a certain direction, everyone can give it their own interpretation. It is mainly meant to keep you discovering.’ 

Right into place 

And what did you discover yourself while studying? ‘Not so much actually, I already knew the game programme would be something for me, it all fell right into place. I didn’t know anyone when I started the programme, but I always felt at home. That’s what I discovered, I think, that there are people with the same interests, that creates a bond. I lived in a student house in Breda, I spent long days at school in the Game Lab, but I also went out a lot, which was a kind of outlet for me.’ 

I already knew how to draw! 

‘I very consciously chose the game programme in Breda,’ Pim continues. ‘I already knew how to draw, I mainly wanted to learn something new. Drawing went well for me during the selection process. I remember we had to draw a self-portrait, and a car and a building, if I remember correctly. I also had to make a 3D model of a bicycle. That one was ugly! A lot of cylinders, and lots of rings all mixed up. I had no understanding of 3D, that much was obvious, but that was exactly what I wanted to learn!’  

Graduating in Valencia 

And what exactly fell into place during your studies? ‘The programme was a really good way for me to find my way in the world of Game Design. The teaching team has so many connections with the industry. I did my placement at Ambassadors in Amsterdam, which is an animation studio that mainly makes TV commercials. And I graduated at Elite3D in Valencia, an outsource company that makes the 3D models for Call of Duty and Diablo, among other things. Here I learned how they make models for Triple-A productions.’  

Europe’s number one comic book country   

‘After graduating, I started working on my first comic immediately,’ Pim says. ‘At one point I had four plates, I sent them to a publisher and he saw something in them. And that became Tremen 1.’ He is quite down-to-earth about it. ‘It does make a difference that I am with a French publisher,’ he explains, 'France is Europe’s number one comic book country. Comics is seen there as a mature medium on a par with film and literature. I am really in a niche with what I make, so I cannot make a living from it yet. That is why I also make 3D models for a company in the Netherlands.’ 

Turning their thinking around 

And now a guest lecturer at BUas. Why do you think they asked you? ‘To show students that you can also do something else after your studies, something you might not immediately think of.’ And what did you teach students? ‘A bit of turning their thinking around, I hope. In my studies, I learned to draw in two steps. For instance, you roughly sketched a character for a game on paper and in the 3D version you added all kinds of characteristics. I take a slightly different approach. I also start on paper, I make a small scribble of my idea, I convert that to 3D, I give it the right shadows, that has to be right, of course, but apart from that it is all very clean. And then I paint over it, digitally that is. I did the same with my comics. That is how I feel it really comes to life.’ 

A different story 

‘It’s only right for me when you can transform what you have in your head into images. I do that in my comics, and hopefully soon in my own animated film, because I would like to do other things as well. Cartooning is not a social activity. If you work in a studio with colleagues, then it’s a different story, but I’m still mostly working alone in front of my laptop. You can do that anywhere, that’s the beauty of it, for example in Valencia.’ And that doesn’t inspire you...? ‘Well, that is not entirely true, there is a small piece of Valencia in my first comic, which is a house. Other than that, the images are mainly inspired by the Netherlands, flat and grey that is!’ laughs Pim. ‘But that animated film will definitely be more colourful.’ We’ll hold you to that, Pim!  

Image 1 = the scribble on paper 

Image 2 = in 3D, clean, with the right shadows and suchlike  

Image 3 = the ultimate digital drawing (the painting) 

Interview: Maaike Dukker-’t Hart