'Krankensteen' (Myx #44, May 2007).
Koen Hottentot is a Dutch illustrator and organizer of folk music events. He was part of the Dutch small press comics wave of the 1990s with self-published comic books like 'Necronomicon' (1994) and 'Schnuurt' (1996).
Early life
Hottentot was born in 1968 in Zaandam as the son of advertising designer Cees Hottentot. Drawing from an early age, he had his first comic strips published in his high school newspaper, working together with classmate Rob Gonggrijp. When starting his professional cartooning career in the late 1980s, he received some specialist literature and drawing material from a former colleague of his father, the retired illustrator Hans Husslage.
Hack-Tic
One of Hottentot's early clients was Rob Gonggrijp's notorious hackers' monthly Hack-Tic, for which he made all the covers and interior illustrations during its existence from 1989 to 1994. Hack-Tic labelled itself as the first magazine for "techno-anarchists", and informed the upcoming hackers' community about blunders and weaknesses in computer systems during the early years of the internet. Hottentot's involvement was solely as illustrator, claiming he himself had no knowledge of computers whatsoever. His most notable contribution was designing Hack-Tic's mascot, a wildly bearded savage dressed in a boxer short with floral pattern, checked jacket and boots, who appeared on all the magazine covers. Hottentot also provided caricatures, for instance of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Arthur Docters van Leeuwen, the head of the Dutch Homeland security. In 1993, the people behind Hack-Tic were responsible for the first public internet service in the Netherlands: XS4ALL.
Small-press comics
By the time Hack-tic came to an end, Hottentot ventured into the field of small press comics, often signing his work with "KoHo". He was present during the early stages of small press magazines like Robin Schouten's Incognito from Zaandam (1993), and Robert van der Kroft and Tonio van Vugt's Zone 5300 from Rotterdam (1994). In the mid-1990s, he also frequented Maaike Hartjes' De Zwarte Handel studio in Amsterdam. In addition, he contributed to Prima, the deliverer's magazine of newspaper De Telegraaf, and to Mens en Gevoelens, the magazine of Paul Haenen's Margreet Dolman persona.
In Incognito, Hottentot quickly stood out as one of the most talented artists, with comics in a semi-caricatural style, full of outlandish, cynical and provocative humor. His expressive, madcap style was strongly reminiscent of Fluide Glacial's Gotlib, although Hottentot has labelled André Franquin, Albert Uderzo, Windig & De Jong and Peter de Smet as his main influences. In 1994, he self-published the collection of his comic strips, 'Necronomicon', a title borrowed from the fictional "Book of the Dead" in H.P. Lovecraft stories. This first comic book was followed in 1996 by 'Schnuurt', a collection of similar despondent gags. Some of the gag ideas were contributed by Jelle Venema and Abel Schoenmaker. In the second half of the 1990s, Hottentot left the comics scene for the first time.
'Necronomicon'.
Return to comics
Hottentot didn't return to the comic medium until ten years later, when his comic 'De Avonturen van M.C.J. Pietersen: De Verkiezingskast' (2006) appeared online. The story was a protest against unreliable electronic voting machines, made on commission of his old friend Rob Gonggrijp and published on the website www.wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl. Hottentot also made new comic pages for the magazines published by René Dorenbos of Edollandia, including Sfeerie and MYX. He also contributed to Menno Kooistra's horror anthology 'Bloeddorst' (BeeDee, 2007) and in the same year, his 'Schnuurt' book was updated and re-released in color as 'Schnuurt Remastered' (Edollandia, 2007). The remaining pages of Hottentot's short stints in comics were compiled in 'Schnuurt - Epiloog' (2010), published by Peter Bonte. This marked the end (so far) of Koen Hottentot's career as comic creator.
'Schnuurt'.
Folk music
Besides his illustration career, Koen Hottentot is a well-known figure in the world of folk music. Since 1992, he has made the tour programme illustrations for the British folk rock band Fairport Convention. One of his most notable drawings was a pastiche of the Beatles' 'Sg. Peppers' album, featuring all pas and present band members, together with their associates and friends. The artwork appeared in Fairport's 1997 tour programme on the occasion of the band's 30th anniversary. In 2002, Hottentot left his hometown Koog aan de Zaan and settled in Grolloo, a small town in the province Drenthe. Together with Dick Barlage and his wife Renate Cuperus, he was the driving force behind the local event Folk Grolloo, which managed to get some of the best British folk bands to the Drenthe countryside, such as Show Of Hands and Fairport Convention. In 2007, Koen and Renate Hottentot returned to the Zaan area, where they continued to organize folk and singer-songwriter performances under the "Roots aan de Zaan" banner.
COVID-19
In 2020, Hottentot spent 42 days in the hospital when he was infected with COVID-19 during the first peak of the pandemic. He coped with his ordeal and its emotional aftermath in book format with the written chronicle 'Stapt een vrouw in de trein - Een Covid-19 ervaring' (Leessst, 2020).
