cross comix
festival 2025

Abel Dijkstra (Amsterdam, Netherlands,1998) is a visual storyteller and funny. He makes comics and self-publishes a magazine called Lovely. It’s the most contemporary comics magazine and it’s cool and free (not free of charge but free in spirit).

Abel sees comics as truly a magical way to freeze time and put feelings and invisible things into a reading experience. He’s not bound to a single style but you cannot escape his presence in all his work. You can feel and see and smell that it’s Abel Dijkstra, or Abel or Abelknabel as he sometimes likes to call himself. He currently lives and works in Zwolle: the soon to be capital of Dutch comics.

Aimee de Jongh (1988, she/her) is an award-winning graphic novel author and animator from the Netherlands, whose books are published in more than 30 countries. With roots in the Dutch-Indies, history, migration and human relations are recurring topics in her work.

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!.

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 2022 Sixty Years in Winter followed, written by Ingrid Chabbert. In September 2024, her graphic novel adaptation of Lord of the Flies was published in more than 25 countries. A large retrospective of her work was exhibited in the Kunsthal, Rotterdam, in 2024. She published short comics in the magazines Spirou, Metal Hurlant and Fluide Glacial.

Fynn van der Ziel (1996) is een kunstenaar met een sterke hang naar het absurdisme. Met verscheidene media waaronder plasticine en risografie creërt hij een ongemakkelijke wereld waarin hij zichzelf thuis voelt.

In 2021 studeerde hij met succes af aan Academie Minerva met een film over de aardbevingsproblematiek. In het voorjaar van 2022 realiseerde hij de muurschildering van Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn in de Oude Kijk in ’t Jatstraat. In de winter daarop werkte hij samen met de band Roosbeef aan een video voor het nummer Zomer in Nederland.

Met VIS won hij in 2024 de Small Press Award

Judith Vanistendael (1974, Leuven) is a Dutch-speaking Belgian comics author, illustrator, and teacher in comics art. She also worked for a time as a children’s book illustrator.

Her break-through came in 2007 with the publication of La Jeune fille et le nègre, an autobiographical story in two volumes about the love between a young Togolese and a young Belgian. In 2012, Vanistendael published Toen David zijn stem verloor (David, women and death), whose hero is suffering from cancer and undertakes to change his life. In 2019, inspired by the character of Penelope in the Odyssey, Vanistendael delivered Les Deux Vies de Pénélope, where a doctor mother engages in humanitarian work and distances herself from her family, especially her daughter. (Wikipedia)

María Medem (1994) was born and lives in Seville, Spain. She began self-publishing fanzines after completing her fine arts studies. Her work has been published by Terry Bleu (Netherlands), Studio Fidèle (France), and Apa Apa Cómics (Spain).

Her illustrations appeared in, amongst others, The New Yorker and The New York Times. She also has made animated videos for bands such as Rival Consoles.

Merel Barends (1980) is a comic artist and illustrator. Her work has been published by several renowned publishing houses like De Bezige Bij, Uitgeverij Atlas/Contact and Uitgeverij Podium. She did commissions for a wide range of clients, such as IDFA, Vrij Nederland Magazine, Mindshakes (NRC Media), OneWorld, Amsterdam Young Academy, CPNB and Greenpeace.

Barends participates regularly in artistic group projects. Her work was exhibited both in the Netherlands and internationally, including in Burundi (1 Femme, 6 Humeurs), Tunisia  (correspondents.org) and the Czech Republic (De Inktpot). At an earlier edition of Cross Comix, she curated the exhibit-in-the-dark ‘Stripped! – A pretty dark room’, where she invited 20 female comic artists to create work inspired by Nietzsche (and his influence). 

Barends is an editor of graphic journalism platform Drawing the Times. As a graphic journalist, she found an international audience and her journalistic comics were published in Dutch, English and Arabic. She’s also part of the Medifoor team, an initiative by medical professionals to visualize complex diagnoses and treatments in a patient-friendly way.

Since 2017, together with writer/producer Jantiene de Kroon, Barends has been working on Oranova, a transmedial world building project. Within this arena, she examines new methods of storytelling, always with her own drawing style as a starting point. She developed motion comics (a mix between comic and animation) and directed an animated VR-experience, Oranova Night Market. The latter had its world premiere at Kaboom Festival, and won the second prize in the New Frontiers Competition at Future Film Fest in Bologna. 

In 2023 Barends developed a theatrical VR-performance with fusion band Zettai, Fight Your Inner Demons, which is still on tour.At the moment, she’s also working as an art director and designer on Lagos, Home For All, an XR-collab with Nigerian animators and comic artists.

In her The Hague studio Vera van Wolferen handcrafts animations, illustrations and paper art pieces, such as the trophy that belongs to the Small Press Award. She gives workshops, artist talks and guest lectures. She has worked with brands like Facebook, Heineken, Jo Malone, Bosch, Xenos & Ortec.

Her animation Down in the Dumps, about a ladybug that has her sheaths stolen, premiered at the Berlinale Film Festival in february 2025 and received a special mention in the shorts category.