Special Guest#35: TOBIAS TAK

Nuovi autori della scena inglese, purtroppo sconosciuti in Italia, si aggiungono alla più grande jam session mai esistita (se non consideriamo Miles Davis). Ladies and gentleman, Puck il Nano è lieto di annunciare la presenza di uno dei più interessanti nuovi cartoonist inglesi: al PUCK COMIC PARTY parteciperà TOBIAS TAK!

While still in high school, Tobias Tak created the characters of 'Gaboon the Wizard' and his glamorous companion 'Schlenzy', who both starred in adventures designed to entertain his sister Elise, his brother Marten and various other friends. Tobias then entered the Royal College of Art in The Hague from which he graduated five years later. Soon after his graduation in the late 1970s, his first comics were published in the underground cult magazine Talent (previously known as Tante Leny).

But at this time Tobias had already started another career as a jazz and tap dancer, singer and choreographer. During the following years, while hoofing on the stages of the USA and Europe, he continued creating his cartooney friends, but it was not until 1999 that he started dedicating most of his time to drawing again. The following year the 16-page story 'Klazeena Goes Polka Dotty' was published in the Dutch art magazine Wormhole.

In mid-air during a plane journey to Barcelona, Tobias met comic artist Lorna Miller, who encouraged him to continue drawing stories and offered him a guest spot in her magazine Witch, for which Tobias created a five page comic entitled 'Furry Tale'. In 2003, Tobias' first book of collected stories was published under the title 'Upside Down' and soon after that his work was noticed by editor Danny Hellman, who invited him to participate in his publication 'Legal Action Comics, Part Two'.

Later that year, Tobias was asked to draw for the new Fantagraphics anthology Blood Orange, and his work appeared in issues 1, 2 and 4. Tobias started working on a long story entitled 'The Land Behind the Mirror', which once again takes place in the fantastical world of the wizard Gaboon.

2011 saw the publication of 'Gaboon's Daymare', a new book of collected short stories by Tobias Tak. Here are various stories in different drawing styles but all with Tobias' usual surreal fairy tale themes, created between 2003 and 2011 for various publications.