Gerrit de Jager
Gerrit de Jager (b. 2 September 1954) is a Dutch comic artist, best-known for his long-running satirical and controversial family comic De Familie Doorzon (1980-2010). He has also made more family friendly series, Roel en Zijn Beestenboel (Aristote et ses Potes in French) (1978-1996), Liefde en Geluk (1983-2005) and Zusje (1999-2026).
Frank Zappa
De Jager became a fan of Zappa after attending one of his concerts in The Netherlands in the early 1970s. He bought Just Another Band From L.A. and adapted Billy The Mountain into a comic strip. [1] The comic won an award and he was exhibited in the City Museum of Amsterdam, giving him the confidence to study at the Rietveld Academy. De Jager said that he learned three important things from Zappa: "1. everything is possible, no matter who crazy it is 2. take your work seriously, but not yourself. 3. (and the most important) don't play Zappa when you finally get that sexy chick from 5B in your room: play Marvin Gaye!" [2]
In 1979, for an illustration of comic characters whose names start with the letter "Z", published in the book Striplexicon der Lage Landen (1979), he included a Zappa album, Chunga's Revenge. [3]
In his book Songlife (2021), where he visualizes personal memories of his teenage love for rock music in the 1960s and 1970s, he also devotes attention to Zappa's music. [4] When he was interviewed about this book in the podcast Stripjournaal, Billy the Mountain was part of his Spotify playlist, accompanying his book. [5]
