Tilburg-based Studio de Leijer makes us chuckle with bonkers magazine Wobby

Ever thought that Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye would look far better adorned with a three storey-high cabbage or wanted to know what Laurie Anderson’s Superman gets up to at the weekends? If so hilarious risoprint magazine Wobby is for you.The Dutch magazine is the brainchild of Marjolein Schalk and Jeroen de Leijer, who together run Tilburg-based Studio De Leijer. Both with distinctive styles (Jeroen’s is more comics-based whereas Marjolein creates looser, more painterly works), the couple work from their home studio with cat Henk and come together to collaborate on projects like a hilarious book about what japes to get up to on your staycation and an animated and puppet-filled children’s TV series about schoolgirl Eefje Wentelteefje for national telly. “We both enjoy drawing a lot with ink and we aim for a spontaneous style, not too polished and smooth and with a lot of humour.”

The pair launched Wobby with friend S. Lloyd Trumpstein as a reaction the country’s homogenous publishing landscape where “fewer and fewer risks are taken”. The latest issue is themed around testosterone, and features a fictional macho-architect called “Le Courvoisier”, the memories of a dancing butcher’s son as well as work from artist like Aart-Jan Venema, the Stalinski sisters, Daan Botlek, Paul Faassen, Bobbi Oskam and Jip Piet. Marjolein and Jeroen describe the Wobby factor as “humorous, quirky, authentic and with a certain roughness”. Add in a good helping of naughtiness and you’ve hit the nail on the head. “Of course we have the occasional male and female pin-ups and short stories about ejaculating in public and so on.”

Next up is a special edition of the magazine that will be published at The Netherland’s biggest comics festival Stripdagen Haarlem and, drum roll please, an issue in english by the end of the year. And if you were wondering what on earth a “Wobby” is, it’s a rare Dutch first name from the north of the country that has become a colloquial verb meaning “to make work that is daring, appealing and that triggers the mind.” We could’t have put it better ourselves.