Jakob Martin Strid is a Danish cartoonist, who is known throughout Denmark for his successful series Strid in the Danish newspaper Politiken.
Like all the very best tellers of fantastic stories, he can unlock the imagination of both children and adults – and this is usually done by using refined humour as the key. Strid is familiar with the classics of the genre, such as Robinson Crusoe, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh, Donald Duck, Marsupilami, The Forest of Huckybucky, the writings of Sven Nordqvist and Ole Lund Kirkegaard, Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films, and of course Tove Jansson’s Moomins and their universe. He draws upon these sources and blends them into his very own, original universe, giving the reader access to a wondrous, twisted, disturbing and fantastic world that both provides grounding and liberates the imagination.
His first children’s books were populated by people in strange surroundings, but lately the animals have taken over; not cutesy little characters like those of Richard Scarry, but animals with real human edge and character. These are collected in the stories of the little blue elephant Mimbo Jimbo and his friends.