Maaike Hartjes

Now this is one special episode: Dutch artist Maaike Hartjes joins us for a chat about her recent publication, the "Burn-out Diary", which has also been translated into German ("Burnout: Ein Comic-Tagebuch", Patmos). She open-heartedly talks about how she got, dealt with, and overcame her overworked situation. There's something for every reader: The ones who have experienced something like that might find similarities. And the ones who haven't can read it as a warning. Surprisingly, Maaike Hartjes has no difficulties talking about her own experience, and she always takes something good out of every crisis - that must be her superpower!

Maaike Hartjes shows us the boxes with her handicraft material, as she's been working collage-style for her recent project. And there's more to come! Her book is going through an exciting transformation...  

We're also learning something interesting about her boyfriend, fellow artist Mark Hendriks. And Maaike is even shopping for comic books at the same comic book store in Amsterdam like our part-time Dutchman, interviewer Markus Pfalzgraf.

We were also talking about how Instagram is the new newspaper. Maaike herself had been into newspaper comic strips, but is now posting new ones on Instagram frequently. You can find her there: @maaike.hartjes