In the series Icons every time we add a new portrait to the gallery of honor of North Holland greats. This week it is cartoonist René Windig, known for the Heinz comic that he made together with Eddie de Jong. Heinz appeared in Het Parool and the regional dailies for almost twenty years.
biography
name: René Windig
born: Amsterdam, 1951
profession: cartoonist
honors list: Stripschapprijs 1991, Stripschappenning 1984
When entering his studio, René Windig immediately apologizes: “It’s quite full. Everything from the Heinz museum is also here. I’m the only one who knows my way around here.”
Because you once had a real museum
“Yes, we drew the Heinz comic in a lot of newspapers. At one point we had so many things hanging on the wall and the rent was getting higher and higher, then we thought we could still manage with a Heinz museum. We have two lasted for a year. Then it was done. To avoid further debt, we had to wind it up. All that stuff had to go somewhere. I threw out a few things, but there are still piles of unopened boxes out there that time.”
“In order not to get into even more debt, we had to close the Heinz museum”
Were you one of those kids who spent all day drawing?
“Yes. My father loved children’s drawings. He always made us draw. I always drew with felt-tip pens. My father had the first felt-tip pens that were available. actually didn’t do anything else at all, no job or study or whatever.
I didn’t do it on my own, I did it with Eddie de Jong. I remember him from high school. After all these years we were terribly attuned to each other. We complemented each other all the time. I don’t think I could have made it on my own. And neither does he. We were both so good at drawing Heinz that if one of us was on vacation or sick, the other did it effortlessly.”
Because you both signed?
“Yes. People often think that one wrote lyrics and the other drew, but that was not the case.
“Look here they are”, says René Windig after he opens the umpteenth drawer in search of the original drawings. “Like piles of banknotes. The original strips.”
What made Heinz so much fun for you to draw?
“It’s very autobiographical. People don’t always realize that, but Heinz was actually a kind of cross between Eddie and me.”
They always say that pets start to look like their owners. but with you it was the other way around.
“Yes, exactly. At a certain point you are so into it, then you become Heinz. Then you say something and then you think: is that a joke from Heinz that we quote or should it become another joke.”
How did Heinz start?
“We drew a comic about a punk on the children’s page of The parole. Goochem, that page was called. Gerrit de Jager drew a comic strip in the cup Love and happiness. Gerrit then went to the AD and they asked if we could fill it in. We then had an appointment with Hans Hoekstra, who was about that. He asked us: do you already have an idea? Then there was a cat sleeping. Yes, we said. We’re going to make a comic about a cat.”
And you also signed for the Donald Duck.
“Yes. But not for long, we were a little too free. We used too much violence. Carl Barks was once the great cartoonist of Donald Duck. He also had a lot of violence in it. We liked that the most. We were going to do that too , but that was no longer allowed. It was a children’s magazine. Then an art director came. He then started making preliminary sketches that we could only ink. He then made a draft. We were relegated to Madam Mikmak. We didn’t feel like that at all in. We just wanted to make Donald Duck stories that we made up ourselves.”
After all these years, have you never been like: we’re going to continue with Heinz?
“No. It’s done. Every now and then we’re in the pub and suddenly we have a very good Heinz joke. The only thing we say is: too bad. Too bad then.”
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