Antoon Coolen fell out of a train. Arthur Japin and Eric J. Coolen made a graphic novel about it. “This is the best story you’ve ever written”

As a child, draftsman Eric J. Coolen heard a special story circulating in his family, about a family member who had become famous. The exact relationship between the illustrator from Haarlem and the Brabant novelist Antoon Coolen (1897-1961) is not entirely clear, but according to the stories it is certain that they are related. In October 1961, the writer was traveling by train from Amsterdam to Eindhoven, on his way home. Between Geldermalsen and Zaltbommel, Coolen fell out of a wagon and lay unconscious along the track for a while. Once he regained consciousness, he managed to reach a farm. He died a few weeks later from complications of the fall and was never able to tell what had happened.

Wim Daniëls, Harry Sacksioni and Stef Bos

The draftsman Coolen decided to invite other artists to give their interpretation of the mysterious story, for which he then provided illustrations. For example, linguist and writer Wim Daniëls wrote a story in which family ties were traced in Brabant, to which Bies van Ede wrote a poem. Guitarist Harry Sacksioni composed a piece of music and Stef Bos wrote lyrics. More than two years ago, Coolen came up with the idea of ​​approaching author Arthur Japin with the request to participate in the fourth part of the project.

He immediately responded affirmatively and enthusiastically, which led to the book How does a writer fall off the train subtitled A rail trip which was published on June 20.

‘It all came together’

“Arthur is my favorite Dutch author,” says Coolen. “So I thought: I’ll take the plunge. He replied to my email within fifteen minutes with ‘great, I’m in!’ He is a very nice man, without star allures at all. Arthur and I were both born in Haarlem. Arthur’s father, he later told me, was a reviewer for it Haarlems Dagblad and he had books by Antoon Coolen in his bookcase. Arthur lived in a place that overlooked Haarlem station, so the railways and trains also played a significant role in his life. One of Coolen’s favorite writers was Émile Zola, who wrote a book that also took place entirely in a train. So it all came together.”

Eric J. Coolen is probably one of the most prolific draftsmen in the Netherlands. For example, the Haarlemmer recently completed a major project involving The Beatles, who had to be called the ‘Fab Four’ for copyright reasons, a project that recently took him to New York and the Abbey Road Studios in London. What Coolen signed up for is too much to mention, but it brought him a lot of recognition. His style is striking, usually closely related to the rules of the ‘clear line’, of which Tintin artist Hergé is one of the most famous representatives.

No speech bubbles per se

Once in contact with Japin, they forged a plan for a graphic novel. Coolen didn’t necessarily want speech balloons in it and initially thought of the classic form in which the comics by Kapitein Rob and Ollie B. Bommel were cast: a strip of cartoon drawings with a strip of text with the story underneath. But it became a symbiosis of text and drawings that flow seamlessly into each other. Coolen: ‘My only question to those I approach for this project is: ‘How do you think Antoon Coolen fell from the train?’ Arthur has executed that very nicely.”

Japin, from France, confirms the overlaps in the family stories of Coolen and Japin, in fact, he weaved them into an entirely new story. “I liked Eric’s question and it immediately triggered all kinds of stories in me. I think Eric does very nice work and he is a nice man to work with. I am very proud of the result.”

“It immediately started rattling in my head. Because of the story of Coolen in that train and the reconstruction of what could have happened… Coolen visited the cinema that you had at the station in Utrecht at the time and I often visited it as a child. It contains many elements that also appear in my other books, such as director Fellini and the kite. And my father’s story, which I have now told in a completely different way.”

‘The best story you’ve ever written’

Without revealing too much about the course of the story, it can be concluded that Antoon Coolen’s last ride and the experience of Arthur Japin, who said goodbye to his father for the last time at Haarlem station, have an astonishing synchronicity. show. ‘Fathers are often gone before you know it’ is a moving and thought-provoking phrase.

Japin: “I have never told that story like this before, but as it is now in the book, it is in my head and in my heart. It never would have surfaced if the story hadn’t prompted us to think about trains and fathers. Fifty years later, it reappears. Lex, my partner who has also been my publisher, said, “This is the best story you’ve ever written.” I hope he’s right. But it flew out. In my stories I always try to make people go up, to let them fly. And that has also succeeded here. I wrote my first story when I was six The kite and now we are at this book and it is still about that.”

Movie ‘Village on the river’

“It has become a personal and gripping story, written in a romantic, dreamy way,” says Coolen. “I self-published the first projects, but at Arthur’s publisher, the Arbeiderspers, they asked if we couldn’t place it there. That is of course a great honor for me, especially to work with Arthur. Arthur’s story reads like a movie script. So when I got it, images immediately came to me to draw. They are all descriptions, they are not spoken. With the drawings I have often abandoned the clear line and I have sought it more in the strong contrasts. For the image of the dead writer Antoon Coolen, for example, I used an image from the film Village on the river which Fons Rademakers made in response to Coolen’s book.”

Playing with reality

Japin is lyrical about how Eric Coolen managed to capture his story in drawings. “When I see something like that, you can really carry me away. That is an enrichment for which I can only be grateful. If someone makes something based on what I’ve written, fans, but also theater makers, I always think it’s great to see how someone has put my words to work.”

What is special about the book is that Japin shares a lot about being a writer and he raises the question to what extent you can just assume what writers have to say – also in everyday life. “Playing with reality, of course I have a lot to do with that myself,” says Japin.

“It’s a strange profession. Sometimes you can get closer to the truth by fantasizing about it. By doing good archival research for historical novels, you can sometimes empathize so well with someone that you can predict what someone’s reaction might have been. It is difficult for me to answer the question of what is true and what is made up in my books. I often can’t say that anymore. The point is that it comes across to the reader, that the characters come to life.”