Johan de Neef

• Born 1957-05-31

A lifelong comic book collector, De Neef won two art contests when still a teen and started doing illustrations for house magazine VVDM while in the military service. Realizing his art talents were limited, he gave up his art ambitions and became a pastry chef and eventually a comic book store owner. In his spare time, he became a contributor and later editor for the fan magazine [Comic View](app://series/79044). He also, with then-wife [Marlous Smit](app://creator/21050), published comic book collector software. With Smit, [Ramon Schenk](app://creator/14033) and [Chris Krone](app://creator/20929), he started the fan magazine [Universal Comics Magazine](app://series/79045). In 2008, he and artists [Gerard van de Werken](app://creator/13921) and [Rik van Niedek](app://creator/13922) started Windmill Comics, a publishing firm named after De Neef's comic book shop. Their debut title, [TOO - The Owl Organization](app://series/34327), came out in 2009. He has since worked on various characters and titles, including TOO - The Owl Organization (with various artists), Captain Roffa (with artist [Boy Akkerman](app://creator/14023)), De Vleermuis (with [Willem Heeman](app://creator/34283) amongst others), and Rough Riders (with Van Niedek pencils and Van de Werken inks).