The Dutch Fund voor Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds voor Beeldende Kunsten, Vormgeving en Bouwkunst) has awarded the 2011 Marten Toonder Award to Peter Pontiac. The Marten Toonder Award is an lifetime achieve awarded annually to cartoonists with outstanding contributions to the development of Dutch comics. Pontiac is the second cartoonist to get this award; last year’s winner was Jan Kruis, creator of the longrunning family strip Jan, Jans en de Kinderen. Pontiac was awarded the “Marten” not just for his long service, but especially for his graphic novel Kraut, the biography of his father who worked as a war correnspondent for the Waffen SS during WWII. From the jury report: “Pontiac wrote and drew the best Dutch graphic novel. His work is innovative. He added something to the Dutch comic that had not been present before: combining penmanship with artistry“.
Pontiac’s win is completely justified: he is one of the grand old master of Dutch comics, with a forty year or so career in both comics and illustration, working for both comix zines and more commercial magazines, especially rock magazines. It is perhaps his drawings of various rock stars for which he is best known. He hasn’t done much long form comics work, with Kraut being a bit of a departure for him. The only thing I’d quibble with is that nonsense about being the first to combine artistry with penmanship — if nothing else, the guy whom lends his name to the award, Marten Toonder did so decades before him. But I’l forgive the jurors that bit of poetic license.
With Pontiac being only the second artists to get this award, who will be a likely candidate for next year? Joost Swarte is one possibility, as one of Holland’s best internationally known cartoonists, or Henk Kuijpers, whose Clear Line drawn Franka series is one of the more important and commercial succesful modern Dutch comics. Of course there’s always the possibility that the jurors go for a more contemporary cartoonist like Barbara Stok, who has played an important role of getting comics accepted by “proper” book publishers through her autobiographical collections.
The award ceremony will be held at the Breda Stripfestival which runs from 9 to 11 September. It includes 25,000 euros in prize money.