This weekend the bi-annual Haarlem comic con was held again, all around the inner city of Haarlem and beautiful if at times a bit windy it was too, making it very nice to walk around the various stalls to spot new cartoonists and get some sketches.
Case in point. Marloes de Vries, a graphical designer/art director turned illustrator, who as she told me has done a lot of work for children’s books. She said she had wanted to be a cartoonist for a long time but had only in the last few years taken it up again.
One of the reasons she started doing cartoons again was because she had “left her hometown in the countryside and moved to the big city on the other side of the country” and it wasn’t always easy adjusting, hence she started keeping a visual diary. Early last year she started publishing these cartoons as journal doodles on her tumblr, which she collected into her first, self published book this year. Of course I picked it up and not only got it signed, but this boss sketch as well.
I like her artwork a lot; it’s cute without being cutesy, deceptively simple and it reminds me of somebody else but for the life of me I can’t think of who. Nevermind. What’s also a plus is that just browsing through the cartoons made me laugh several times.
You can buy Journal Doodles — The Works at Marloes’ own shop, which also has several prints on sale.