Spotlight on Toy Soldier Artist: Dermut!

Dermut is a soldier who we have seen around for years now, posting comics and graphics of us Toy Soldiers! We all enjoy them and we wanted to know more about him. He was kind enough to have an interview with us and tell us a bit more about himself.
He was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. But he didn’t live there long. His father passed away when he was 3 weeks old and his Mom moved back to Assen to be closer to her parents. He now lives in a city called Groningen which also shares the same name as the province that he lives in, up in the North of the Netherlands.

So Dermut when did you become a Toy Soldier?
I got into The doc’s work somewhere in early ’06, but I didn’t enlist right away. I’ve never been a “joiner” if you know what I mean. Then one boring day at work I got surfing the web and found out the Toy Soldiers were a real thing. So I ghosted for a bit on the activity page and the news feed of the old site, until a few days later I joined. That was February 23, 2011. I got sucked in by you all, now I can’t think of leaving really. Like so many I found a home here, friends that mean a lot to me.

At what point in your life did you become interested in art/comics?
I grew up with comics. When my parents decided I was too old to be read too each night (still love them for that), they bought me comics. Primarily things like Tarzan, Korak Son of Tarzan and such, but I also remember a few Batmans and Spidermans amongst the lot. This was in the late ’70 to early 80’s mostly. It stimulated my reading ability and my love for graphic storytelling. That spark never really died.

When was it that you started creating things yourself?
I got into drawing at a very early age as well. It wasn’t long before I drew my first comic, A horrid little thing I drew somewhere in the mid ’80’s. I progress slowly and even got into a amateur publication, in the late ’80’s early 90’s. I even got a taste of the Convention circuit with that. It’s a bit weird sitting amongst your heroes and the big named up and comers when your just starting out, but they were willing to dispense some great advice. When the magazine went belly up I hung up my hat for a while, doing more artsy work, mostly for myself. That got me into art school. One of my friends at art school asked me to work on a collage one day. While going through his magazines and newspapers, looking for pics and cuttings I happened to stumble upon the magazine I had worked for, I even signed it and remembered him asking me too. That was a very surprising and good day.
I did some work after I got let go from art school and for a while real life took over. You know how it is. I did some drawings for my roleplaying groups and such, but comic weren’t really on my mind. When I stumbled across the soldier funnies I decided to get back to comics and you can all see the results.

We all want to know, what motivates you to keep creating?
The feedback I get from you all and some non soldiers out there who read my stuff and comment that it is amazing. It keeps me going, lifts me up when I’m down and just is a great buzz. Although it does put a little pressure to preform on me, something I’m not really that good with, it does motivate me to excel a little more each time.

Is there any advice could you give to others who would like to be more creative?
I don’t like advertisements, but on this occasion I’d quote the Nike motto: “Just do it” There is truly nothing to fear from trying. And who knows…. you may succeed? If not… You have put a bit of yourself out there for eternity, a little piece of immortality for the ages. Find your talent. Trust me, it’ll make you a happier person. Oh… and don’t listen to naysayers. Just keep at it, even if only to shut them up one day.

So what is in the works for you right now?
I’m working on several. I’m developing a board game for TSU, something I hope will make it to the convention booths one day. There is talk of maybe printing my comics, but that’s really up in the air right now and I’m working on a project for TSU-TV. There are also a few other seeds of ideas for projects, but that is what I’m working on right now. Hope to bring them to fruition and not go all Da Vinci on them (He also had great trouble finishing projects).

Thank you so much Dermut for taking the time to tell us your story. We are always excited to see what you come up with next. (no pressure though ;) *salutes*

If you would like to see more of Dermut’s work you can check out his Flicker Album:
Dermuts Flicker Album
Also he has started a thread on TSU in which many of his and others comics can be seen:
TSU Comics (the drawn kind, not the funny people kind)