Dick Matena
Dick Matena is a Dutch comics writer and cartoonist. He has also published under the pseudonyms A. den Dooier, John Kelly and Dick Richards.
Matena has made several kinds of comics, from humor comics to erotic comics, but is known for his comic-book adaptations of famous literary novels.
Early life and education
Matena was born in The Hague.Career
Toonder studios
In 1960, at the age of 17, Matena started working as a volunteer at the Toonder studios. He helped with the drawing projects of Tom Puss and Panda.In 1968, his first own comic appeared in the comic magazine Pep.
Freelance period
In 1964, Matena started working as a freelancer, in the beginning mainly for the Toonder studios. He drew his own comic Polletje Pluim.For Pep, he drew De Argonautjes and Ridder Roodhart. He wrote scenarios for the Macaroni's and Blook.
He later worked for the cartoon magazine Eppo, and wrote four scenarios for the comic series Storm. Under the pseudonym Dick Richards he wrote eight scenarios for the comic De Partners, drawn by Carry Brugman.
In 1977, Matena changed his drawing style and created his first realistic comic, Virl.
Foreign period
From 1982 until 1984, he lived in Spain and worked for the art agency Selecciones Ilustradas.For the comic magazine Titanic, he created two starship stories.
After his move to Belgium, he created the comics De laatste dagen van Edgar Allan Poe, Gauguin en Van Gogh and Mozart & Casanova.
Spin-off of ''Storm'' and after
With stories by Martin Lodewijk, Matena drew three spin-off comics of Storm. The series of these Storm albums are called Kronieken van de Tussentijd. He used his pseudonym John Kelly at first; the last comic is published under his own name.In 1997, he started again with the comic Tom Puss. Two stories were published in the Dutch version of the magazine Donald Duck.
Comics of Dutch literature
Matena draws comics of classical Dutch literary books. In 2003, he won the Bronzen Adhemar award. He was the first non-Flemish comics artist to receive this honor.Awards
- Stripschapsprijs for his complete comic work 1986
- Bronzen Adhemar for his comic work of the book De Avonden 2003
''De Argonautjes'' (with Lo Hartog van Banda)
''Storm'' (with Don Lawrence)
The Chronicles of the Deep World'''Chronicles of Meanwhile'''