Jerry Van Amerongen
Encyclopedia
Jerry Van Amerongen is a cartoonist based in the United States
. His work includes the comic panel Ballard Street
, which has run since 1991. Before 1991 he drew a comic panel entitled The Neighborhood for ten years. He has been recognized with the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Panel Award for 2004 and 2006 for his work on Ballard Street. Van Amerongen's work is currently distributed by Creators Syndicate
.
. After seventeen years in corporate sales, marketing and product management, Van Amerongen switched to cartooning at the age of 40. Jerry Van Amerongen’s single panel cartoon The Neighborhood ran in newspapers throughout the United States from 1980-1990. The comic was similar in format and content to Gary Larson’s The Far Side
, employing a single panel gag cartoon infused with surreal humor. Van Amerongen discontinued The Neighborhood and began Ballard Street in 1991. Ballard Street ran as a multi-panel strip until 1993, when Van Amerongen reverted to the single panel format employed by The Neighborhood.
Van Amerongen's cartoon ideas come from scribbles and drawings as often as they do from preconceived ideas. The drawings themselves rely on facial expressions and body postures to give readers additional information beyond the caption, providing the motivation behind the action. Boyhood memories shaped by the ethnic influences of his Dutch and Polish heritage, images of roly-poly women in print dresses and rotund men in baggy trousers, shape the look of his characters. “Regardless of our physical appearance, we see ourselves as having wrinkles and rumples on the inside. We all perceive ourselves as having big bottoms”.
In April 2004, Van Amerongen's Giclee
prints and some original pieces were presented during a one-man show at the Every Picture Tells A Story Gallery in Santa Monica, California. His Ballard Street was awarded the Best Newspaper Cartoon Panel Of The Year Award by the National Cartoonist Society in 2004 and 2006.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. His work includes the comic panel Ballard Street
Ballard Street
Ballard Street is a comic panel created by Jerry Van Amerongen and distributed by Creators Syndicate that has run since 1991.-About the Comic:...
, which has run since 1991. Before 1991 he drew a comic panel entitled The Neighborhood for ten years. He has been recognized with the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Panel Award for 2004 and 2006 for his work on Ballard Street. Van Amerongen's work is currently distributed by Creators Syndicate
Creators Syndicate
Creators Syndicate is an independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns for daily newspapers. It was founded in 1987 by Richard S. Newcombe, and is based in Los Angeles. Creators was one of the first syndicates to allow its clients to maintain creative control of their material...
.
Biography
Van Amerongen was born and raised in Grand Rapids, MichiganGrand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
. After seventeen years in corporate sales, marketing and product management, Van Amerongen switched to cartooning at the age of 40. Jerry Van Amerongen’s single panel cartoon The Neighborhood ran in newspapers throughout the United States from 1980-1990. The comic was similar in format and content to Gary Larson’s The Far Side
The Far Side
The Far Side is a popular single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from January 1, 1980, to January 1, 1995. Its surrealistic humor is often based on uncomfortable social situations, improbable events, an anthropomorphic view of the world,...
, employing a single panel gag cartoon infused with surreal humor. Van Amerongen discontinued The Neighborhood and began Ballard Street in 1991. Ballard Street ran as a multi-panel strip until 1993, when Van Amerongen reverted to the single panel format employed by The Neighborhood.
Van Amerongen's cartoon ideas come from scribbles and drawings as often as they do from preconceived ideas. The drawings themselves rely on facial expressions and body postures to give readers additional information beyond the caption, providing the motivation behind the action. Boyhood memories shaped by the ethnic influences of his Dutch and Polish heritage, images of roly-poly women in print dresses and rotund men in baggy trousers, shape the look of his characters. “Regardless of our physical appearance, we see ourselves as having wrinkles and rumples on the inside. We all perceive ourselves as having big bottoms”.
In April 2004, Van Amerongen's Giclee
Giclée
Giclée , is a neologism coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne for fine art digital prints made on ink-jet printers. The name originally applied to fine art prints created on IRIS printers in a process invented in the late 1980s but has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print and is...
prints and some original pieces were presented during a one-man show at the Every Picture Tells A Story Gallery in Santa Monica, California. His Ballard Street was awarded the Best Newspaper Cartoon Panel Of The Year Award by the National Cartoonist Society in 2004 and 2006.
External links
- Ballard Street on Creators.com- updated daily
- Ballardstreet.com - Official site
- NCS Awards