Aimee de Jongh (1988, she/her) is an award-winning graphic novel author and animator from the Netherlands. She studied Animation at the Willem de Kooning
Academy Rotterdam, KASK Ghent and the Gobelins
Summer
School in Paris. She's part of the third generation of repatriated families from the Dutch-Indies. History, migration and human relations are recurring topics in her work.
Graphic novels
At the age of 22, Aimee's career in comics took off with the daily comic strip Snippers for the Dutch paper Metro, which ran for five years.
At 25, she published her first graphic novel The Return of the Honey Buzzard, which won
the Prix Saint-Michel
and was adapted to a live-action film. Her international breakthrough came when Blossoms in Autumn was released, written
by Belgian
comic author
Zidrou. In 2019, Aimee created the autobio TAXI!, about four intriguing taxi rides she had.
In 2021, Aimee's most well known graphic novel was released: Days of Sand. The Eisner-nominated book about the Dust Bowl was a bestseller in both the Netherlands and France. In 2022 the Eisner-nominated Sixty Years in Winter followed, written by Ingrid Chabbert. In September 2024, her graphic novel adaptation of Lord of the Flies will be published.
Animation
Through the years, Aimee has worked in the animation industry in many different roles. She directed and animated the short film Aurora, created storyboards for Amazon Prime's Undone, and animated a series of 12 music videos for De Wereld Draait Door. Her
biggest
animation project was Behind the Telescopes, a 71-minute long
theatrical film, made together with harpist
Lavinia Meijer and Arthur Antoine. In 2021, Aimee created 6 animated short films for the Rijksmuseum's exhibition Slavery.
Journalism
Aimee made her first graphic journalism work after
visiting the refugee
camps on
Lesbos in 2017. The trip resulted in the drawn report Europe's
Waiting
Room and has become the inspiration for several new projects: She drew reports of Ukrainian refugees in the Netherlands (2023) and Dutch asylum-seekers in Ter Apel (2022).
Awards
Aimee's books have been nominated for the Eisner Awards three times. She is the winner of the Stripschapprijs 2022, the Dutch lifetime achievement award for comics. She received the Japan International Manga Award twice (Gold, Silver) and her books have won awards in France, Germany, and the United States. She received the medal of honour of the city Sainte-Livrade-Sur-Lot, France.
Teaching
Aimee taught at various international arts academies, including The Animation Workshop (DK), MICA Baltimore (US), Willem de Kooning Academy (NL), ArtEZ (NL), and Merz Akademie (DE).
Clients include:
photo: Bob Bruyn