Jozef "Jef" Nys (30 January 1927 – 20 October 2009) was a Belgian comic book creator. He was best known for his comic strip Jommeke. Biography Early years Jozef Nys was born in Berchem, Belgium in 1927. His family came from Koksijde, at the Belgian coast, where his grandfather was a fisherman. Jef Nys' father Hendrik moved to Antwerp after World War I, and worked in the port. Hendrik Nys married Louise Van Den Bos on 5 August 1922. Her father was a council member in Berchem and worked as a painter. He had a great influence on the young Jef. Hendrik and Louise Nys had four children, two of which died at a young age. Hendrik Nys died in 1941 when he was run over by a car while riding his bike. When Jef Nys was 5 years old, he went to school in Berchem. He was a good student and a better artist, and when he was 11 years old, he started with drawing classes in the evening at the municipal art school. The most important of his teachers were Lode De Maeyer and Oscar Depoorter, renowned painters. Another field he excelled in at school was writing essays and stories. Aged 13, he had to choose his field of study, and decided to go the technical school of Antwerp to become a technical engineer. Because he was still too young, he first had to stay one year at the technical school of Borgerhout, where he again got very good results. He no longer had the time to go to the local art school, but continued to draw, making caricatures of the teachers, and portraits of pioneers in the field of electricity to decorate the classroom. His teachers, seeing his talent, urged him to drop his technical studies and to focus solely on his art. In 1943 he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp, led by Baron Isidoor Opsomer, where one of his teachers was Jan Van Der Loo, a portrettist. Here Nys got the background and craftmanship that would serve him throughout his career. At the same time, Jef Nys started working at AFIM, a small animation study, with his fellow student Bob de Moor and Ray Goossens. But when the Academy became aware of this, he had to quit his job at the studio to stay at the Academy. He continued his studies until