'Het Lot', contribution to De Gedroomde Lijn (2006).
Viktor Venema is a Dutch comics art editor, cartoonist, inker and animator. Between 2000 and 2017, he was a staff artist with the Dutch Disney magazines, published by Sanoma in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands. He nowadays works as a freelance illustrator.
'Gus Goose and Grandma Duck', letterbox comic for Donald Duck #15, 2010. © Disney. Gus Goose has a nightmare in which he sees an enormous cake, but lacks the hunger to eat it.
Disney studio
Born in 1980 in the West-Frisian village Andijk, Viktor Venema studied character design, illustration and animation at Rens Benerink's Cartoon School in Amsterdam. Upon graduation in 1998, he started working as a freelance artist at the art studio of the Dutch Disney weekly Donald Duck and the other Dutch Disney publications. He became a staff inker in 2000, replacing Guido Matena. His initial job was inking the editorial art and covers by fellow studio colleagues like Maarten Janssens, Ed van Schuijlenburg and Wilma van den Bosch. He also inked the Donald Duck Junior stories drawn by Wilma van den Bosch and Jan-Roman Pikula in 2010-2011. He is also responsible for most of the cartoons that illustrate the "letter of the week" in Donald Duck's mail section. He has also penciled and inked a couple of gag strips for this section.
'Donald Duck', comic strip for Donald Duck #19, 2006. © Disney. Translation: "I'm fed up with this. I've been telling you for three days that you should take a bath. And look at that mountain of dishes! You promised to do those too!" - "Happy, Uncle Donald?".
Technical know-how
Venema has always been on the forefront of technical innovations, and nowadays works completely digitally. He has worked on animated Flash pages for the Donald Duck's original website (2004-2008) and does digital editing of (older) comic stories. From 2011 onwards, Venema was also involved in the art of other Sanoma publications, such as Nickelodeon Magazine and Zo Zit Dat. He has developed Photoshop actions, detailed scan instructions and other guidelines to streamline the large comics production for Sanoma's children's magazines.
Illustration with the 'Professor Breinstein' characters for Zo Zit Dat.
Breinstein
Together with Jan-Roman Pikula, Venema oversaw the art production of the non-Disney comic 'Professor Breinstein' (2011- ) for children's science magazine Zo Zit Dat!. The back cover gag strip starring a kid and his next door professor was created by Frans Hasselaar, while the gags have been written by Jos Beekman, Bas Schuddeboom, Simone Ruitenbeek, Mirthe Niehoff, Lotte Keizer and other editors. The artwork was produced under supervision of Venema and Pikula by artists affiliated with Studio Comicup in Barcelona, subsequently Dany Fernandez, Sonia Álbert and Andrea Dotta. Venema also did the final digital editing of the colored pages. After a corporate reorganization, full production of the strip was transferred to Dutch cartoonist Roel Venderbosch in late 2017.
'Snor' (BNS Stripkrant, 2010). Pruim expresses jealousy at Banaan's mustache, until getting a beard herself.
Freelance work
Venema is additionally active as freelance illustrator and as animator for short commercials and films, including the critical acclaimed animated films 'Penguin's Christmas' (2004), 'Hard Boiled Chicken' (2006), 'Farmer Jack' (2012) and 'Sola Powers in Deadly Drive-In Disaster 3D' (2015) by Arjan Wilschut. The latter was shown as a short before the Dutch theatrical screening of the 'James Bond' film 'Spectre'. Venema has also contributed stories to the small press publications De Gedroomde Lijn (2006) and De Verslavende Lijn (2008), edited by Johan de Rooij. He has participated in several editions of 24 Hour Comics, held in comic shop Lambiek in Amsterdam.
Artwork for Keesing's 'Super Dino Doeboek'.
Since his departure from Sanoma in late 2017, Venema has worked as a freelance illustrator. He continues to do coloring work for Donald Duck magazine, and is also active with other art projects. Since 2019, he has provided the artwork for the 'Super Dino Doeboek' puzzle book series in Keesing Media's Denksport line. Viktor is married to Saskia Jonker, the former art department assistant for Donald Duck and girls' magazine Tina.
Art team members Frans Hasselaar, Wilma van den Bosch, Michel Nadorp, Jan-Roman Pikula and Viktor Venema (standing) at the farewell party of colorist Jacqueline van Oers (sitting) in 2013.