A site for sore eyes

I finally, finally redesigned my website margreetdeheer.com!

Three years ago, I half-heartedly made a WordPress site (after clinging to HTML for decades) and got so annoyed with all the confusing WP stuff that I never properly finished it.

There’s another reason I didn’t, which only dawned on me now:

I want my site to give off just the right feel of what kind of a comic artist I am, and present myself with the right focus on who I am.

For years, I did not have that focus.

I blame my stint as Comic Artist Laureate of the Netherlands. From 2017-2020 I was a sort of ambassador for Dutch comics, promoting them in the media and in schools. Until then, my comics career had mainly blossomed abroad, thanks to the success of my ‘Discoveries in Comics’-series. Suddenly, my focus shifted to National Affairs - a worthy cause, but in the years after it felt kind of hard to find a new focus.

Sure, I was still producing comics. For StripGlossy, Jump, Predikant&Samenleving, Wetenschap in Beeld, Zij aan Zij, Tina - kids comics, gag comics, science comics, queer comics - I got into crowdfunding, compiled a book of all the eclectic comics I did as Comics Laureate: educational comics, comics journalism - but what was my identity as an artist in all this?

Who am I at the core, when I make comics? Am I a story-crafter? An ambassador? An educator? A show-off? A comedian? I lost sight of who I am - probably also due to menopausal mayhem which has pervaded everything these past eight years. (Eight friggin’ years! It was about time something ‘clicked’ again.)

A year ago, I finally started to regain my sense of identity, thanks to this newsletter. I had no clear idea what I wanted to fill it with, but soon it dictated itself: autobiographical comics.

Of course!

I once started out as an autobiographical comic artist, in 1999, when I drew ‘How To Get Over Your Ex’, a poignantly analytical 30-page self-published comic which totally helped me get over my ex and made me discover the therapeutic powers of making comics. And after that I drew for years about my life as a stepmom, which helped make sense of an overwhelming new situation, not just for myself but for my stepkids as well.

I now write and draw a myriad of comics for diverse audiences and in different styles, but at heart I am and always will be an autobiographical comic artist. Drawing about myself helps me make sense of who and where I am.

So!

Suddenly I saw what my website needed to look like. Here’s the new header:

Yes, that’s a lot of little me’s. The site is about me. There’s a lot of sides to me.

Here’s the new navigation:

It’s laid out like an autobiographical comic! Me telling about me!

Choosing the different genres as the basis for my site also helped me get a focus on what I’ve done for the past 25 years. Writing a new About Me page made me put into words what the pivotal moments were in my career: finding autobiographical comics in 1999; the educational books series I started with my husband in 2010; getting elected Comic Artist Laureate in 2017; and rediscovering autobiographical comics in 2023.

Designing a site is so much more than just putting pictures online. It’s editing history and choosing to make a statement.

The statement I’m making with my new site is this:

• It’s in English, no longer in Dutch. I’m focusing on an international audience now.

• I’m linking a lot to this newsletter. I want to gather my community here on Substack.

• I completely left out Cartoons and Illustrations - even though I still do those. I want to present myself solely as a comic artist.

This feels good.

It also felt good to rediscover a few old comics in English:

• Did you enjoy the comic about Ellen last week? The full story of The Riddle of Nine can now be read on my site.

• I once participated in 24 Hour Comics Day and failed nobly! The entire comic is now on my site.

• My beloved queer comic character Mijntje should really take over the world - in English she’s called Minnie and I put up a lot of her adventures!

• I finally get to brag about the amazing interviews-in-comic-form I did for magazine Jump, with John Flanagan, Andy Griffiths and Gary Northfield!

So if you have a little time, please go check it out: margreetdeheer.com.

(And for the Dutchies: I did not completely abandon Het Vaderland! There are still some hidden Dutch pages in there - I’m not telling where!)

(Okay, I’ll reveal just this one. But no more!)