Introduction
Dick Matena (born 24 April 1943) is a Dutch comics writer and cartoonist. He has also published under the pseudonyms A. den Dooier, John Kelly and Dick Richards.
Biography
Toonder studios
At the age of 17 (in 1960) he starts working at the Toonder studios as volunteer. In the beginning he helped with the drawing projects of Tom Poes (1962–1963) and Panda (1961–1968).
In 1968 his first own drawn comic appeared in the comic magazine Pep.
Freelance period
In 1964 Dick 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 (1968–1973) and Ridder Roodhart (1969–1971). He wrote scenarios for the Macaroni's (1971–1975) and Blook (1972–1973).
During the period he worked for the cartoon magazine Eppo, he wrote four scenarios for the comic Storm (1978–1980) and under his pseudonym Dick Richards eight scenarios for the comic De Partners (1976–1984), drawn by Carry Brugman.
In 1977 Matena drew his first realistic comic Virl.
Foreign period
From 1982 until 1984 he lived in Spain and worked for Selleciones Illustrades.
For the comic magazine Titanic, he created two starship stories.
After his move to Belgium he created the comics De laatste dagen van Adgar Allan Poe, Gauguin en Van Gogh and Mozart & Casanova.
Spin-off Storm and Beyond
With stories by Martin Lodewijk Dick 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 with his own name.
In 1997 he started again with the comic Tom Poes. 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. For one of these comics he won the Bronzen Adhemar award.
Awards
- Stripschapsprijs for his complete comic work 1986
- Bronzen Adhemar for his comic work of the book De Avonden 2003
- "Winners Stripschap price". Stripschap. Retrieved 2010-10-10.
- "Stripschapprijs". Alles op een rij. Retrieved 2010-10-10.
- "Bronzen Adhemar Award winners". Strip Turnhout. Retrieved 2010-10-10.