Ype + Willem: a funny fumetti

So earlier this month I went to my first comics con in twelve (!) years and the best part of a con is always finding new, interesting comics and cartoonists. Ype Driessen was my biggest discovery of the Haarlem con, even though he’s been active for years, having had a comic in the Dutch newspaper NRC Next for some time. Shows how much out of the loop I am. Luckily his publisher had a stand in Haarlem, the cover of his book caught my eye and I started reading, and, almost immediately, giggling. If reading four strips in a row makes me giggle three times, it must be good.

As you can see from the examples above, Ype Driessen makes fumetti, or photo comics, according to him largely because he can’t really draw. There is a minor tradition in Dutch comics of fumetti gag strips, most notably by Hanco Kolk and Peter de Wit in the eighties, with Mannetje and Mannetje, in which Ype fits nicely. There’s something inherently funny in seeing those hugely exagerrated poses and emotions acted out, but Ype has a sense of humour that would’ve worked just as well in more traditionally, drawn strip. He’s not afraid to make fun of himself or his boyfriend, can be slightly bitchy, but on the whole isn’t very mean and occasionally it’s corny; very corny.

In the interview/mini documentary Ype did for a Dutch broadcaster, shown below, he shows how he creates his comics, with the interviewer as the straight man.