I am a comic artist and illustrator. Growing up, I lived in the Hague, Bucharest, New York and a small Dutch suburb town and early on became an attentive observer of people. As a child, to know how to behave, I studied other people. I now write stories to try to make sense of the world.

I studied visual arts in Amsterdam and Rhode Island, and since 2003 I live in Berlin, Germany. I have co-founded and worked for long periods in the art collectives Palatti and Chicks on Comics. Starting 2013, Nettmann and me told nothing but the truth about parenting in our webcomic Familienjuwelen, published in bookform by Jaja Verlag in 2018.

I used to make a monthly cartoon for transmagazine.nl which appeared in Englilsh and Dutch.

My graphic novel, Küsse für Jet, first came out in German in 2020 and in English as Kisses for Jet in a newly edited version by Nobrow Press in 2022.
It’s a coming-of-gender story about a teenager finding themselves without the internet to guide them. Set in the late 1990s, between Kurt Cobain’s death and the supposed end of the world at the turn of the millennium.

I am currently working on a new graphic novel that will be published in German, spring 2026. You can follow me at my bluesky page where I might sporadically document my working process and will share announcements for talks or presentations. Write me at basbacker (at) posteo.de.

(Pronouns: He / Him)

Selected Grants / Awards:
2024 Berliner Senat Stipendium /DE
2024 Schreibzeit Stipendium, Stiftung Niedersachsen /DE
2022 Shortlisted for British Book Design and Production Awards (BBD&PAs) 2022/ UK
2022 Work grant ,Vormgeving van de Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie /NL
2022 Shortlisted for GINCO award, category webcomic / DE
2021 Shortlisted for short story award Plastieken Plunk / BE
2020 Förderung Entwicklungsvorhaben von Stiftung Kulturwerk der VG Bild-Kunst /DE
2020 Startsubsidie Vormgeving van de Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie /NL
2017 Grantee artist loan, Fonds Kwadraat /NL