Lucky Versloot is a Dutch illustrator & artist from Amsterdam. Besides being a poster and flyer artist he has many self-published comic books and zines. He is an artist who subtly ridicules the values of modern day society through comics and drawings. Humor and accessibility are the main values for his work, but underneath it lurks a very distinct critical view on the world and how the people inhabiting it coincide and collide with each other. Lucky’s work is mostly driven by obsession over a subject that result in compulsive drawing sprees.
Life and influences
Born in 1997 in Amsterdam, he comes from a creative family. His father is an artist and his mother a fashion desiger. An avid doodler himself, he tried his luck at the Willem de Kooning Academy, but didn't feel at home there. With his fascination for underground and the non-mainstream, he found the education too commercial and schoolish. While he began his own art projects, he was also scouted as a model by The Movement Models. Since then he has worked in both professions, although he regards himself first and foremost an artist. Yet his modelling work gives him the financial security to focus on more personal art projects. He ranks among his main inspirations alternative artists like Robert Crumb, Guy Colwell and Lawrence "Raw Dog" Hubbard, but also André Franquin's 'Gaston Lagaffe'. Versloot's work is firmly rooted in the visual language of comics and films, while the pop culture of the 1980s and 1990s is also a huge inspiration.
Comics and other artwork
Professionally, Lucky Versloot illustrates flyers and album covers. He sells his more personal art through Instagram and other online outlets. One of his "muses" is the soccer player Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. At NOZUM Studios, he created an exposition in May 2019 with semi-erotic artworks about his cult hero, retold as a 21st century version of 'Romeo and Juliet'. He also envisioned Huntelaar as a superhero in the accompanying comic book. Most of Versloot's artwork takes place in a dark and sketchy dreamworld, but with a generally surreal and comical narrative. His self-published pulpy comic book 'Ria's Men's Club - Stripped & Strapped' (2019) deals with the "purity of greed and lust". After this he made another comic about his superhero Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, and is currently working on his Hat-trick. Another dutch footballer that his most recent comic was about is "Dirk Kuyt", he uses these football players because "they are the embodiment of Dutch culture, to put these characters in a very ridiculous story says a lot about the modern world we live in" and this results humoristic yet surreal stories.
His books are available at his webshop and in stores at Lambiek & WS67 in Amsterdam and at Adhemar in Ghent
