Sunny pastures

Aloys Oosterwijk is the creator of the long-running comic 'Willems Wereld' (1996-2017) for men's magazine Panorama, and is furthermore widely known as a courtroom sketch artist. Born in 1956 in Schalkhaar, he attended the Art Academy in Arnhem and began his career within the Arnhem comics scene. He published his first work in the seven issues of the amateur comics magazine De Omelet, which he filled with his friends Hanco Kolk, Ben Jansen, René Meulenbroek, Rieuwert Catz and Diederick van Kleef between 1975 and 1978. Oosterwijk additionally contributed to other underground/alternative publications of the time, such as Evert Geradts' Tante Leny Presenteert and De Vrije Balloen. When publisher Drukwerk launched the alternative comics magazine Talent in 1978, Oosterwijk was present with comic stories starring the character 'Pater Smollenbrink'. He also made comic stories about actual people, like art forger Han van Meegeren, the original Beatles drummer Pete Best, Brigitte Bardot, Phil Spector and ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn. He was eventually the first of his gang with an album to his name; Drukwerk released a collection of his Talent stories in 1979 under the title 'Een Keurig Wit Pakje Met Geen Vlekje Besmeurd'.