De arme hengelaar 1894 - 1959

This comic strip, *De arme hengelaar*, or *The Poor Fisherman*, uses simple strokes and soft washes of color to tell its story. You can see that artmaking is a process of storytelling here. The drawing feels really immediate, like the artist, known only as Monogrammist G.J., was thinking through the story as they drew. The comic is printed on fairly cheap paper, with thin washes of ink or watercolor on top of the black lines. Each tiny scene has a slightly different feel because of the hand of the artist. In the last panel, the fisherman is shocked; there’s something about the way the mouth is open and the shading around it that seems to communicate the surprise really well. This reminds me of early comics like Winsor McCay’s *Little Nemo in Slumberland*, where the artist is making it up as he goes along, embracing the uncertainty and potential of the process.