Barbara Stok


Barbara Stok is a Dutch cartoonist, best known for her autobiographical comics like Barbaraal.

Biography and work

Barbara Stok wrote stories as a child, and read her brother's collection of comic books. In her twenties she discovered the American "underground" comics. She did not read non-comic books until she was in her thirties, and says the Harry Potter books were the first prose books she read. She is a member of a book club, but after proposing a Robert Crumb book and one by Daniel Clowes is no longer allowed to bring in comic books.
Much of Stok's work is autobiographical; she began drawing comics in the 1990s and self-published Barbaraal, a series of books set in Groningen, often in and around Vera, a former student organization's building and now a center for popular music. She never attended an art or design school, wary that she might lose her personal style. Her 2003 novel Je geld of je leven deals with her work as a journalist and the burn-out that followed it. She won the 2009 Stripschapprijs for the autobiographical novel Dan maak je maar zin, which deals with the death of the author/main character's brother-in-law and probes the meaning of life.
Also in 2009, Stok was commissioned by publishing company Nijgh & Van Ditmar and the Van Gogh Museum to write a book on Van Gogh. Her Vincent is a graphic novel depicting Vincent van Gogh's years in and around Arles; it is translated into a number of languages including English. James Smart, in The Guardian, praised it as "a vibrant, sad account of Van Gogh's move to Arles and his struggle with mental illness". That same year she was given a weekly slot in the national daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad.