Jan Kruis was born on June 8, 1933, and died on January 19, 2017.
He was a Dutch comics artist.
He was best known for the strip Jack, Jacky and the Juniors.
Jan started creating comics as a child. Later he worked for the Dutch comics pioneer Marten Toonder.
He started his own comics career drawing Prins Freddie for the magazine De Havenloods., but became famous thanks to his series of one-pagers called Jan, Jans en de Kinderen (“Jack, Jacky and the Juniors”).
The piece first appeared in the woman’s magazine Libelle on December 12, 1970.
Additionally, in the German-speaking Switzerland it appeared in the magazine Spick which targeted children and teenagers; and in Germany Favorit published it for some time under the name “Ulli, Ulla und die Kinder”.
He received the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 1996. Two years later he retired. Daughter Andrea Kruis has followed in her father’s footsteps.
During 2013 his career was celebrated in a one-off glossy-zine; this includes previously unpublished gags of a comic about an infant punk raised by a gay couple; hence the nickname “Jan, Jan en de Kinderen” (“Jack, Jack and the Juniors”).
Jan Kruis passed away at 83 years old.