Nikoline Werdelin

Nikoline Werdelin blev født i 1960. Hun gennemgik en uddannelse på Skolen for Brugskunst i København og fik her på et tidspunkt af skolen stemplet "useriøs, kan ikke tegne" - fordi hun hellere ville tegne sine egne figurer end efter model.
I 1984 deltog hun i dagbladet Politiken's tegneseriekonkurrence og vandt med sin spidsfindige dagstrip Café - selvom hun aldrig havde læst tegneserier eller været på café!
Strip'en startede kort efter i Politiken. Her fortsatte den - fra starten af 1987 også som søndagsside - indtil oktober 1988, hvor den blev afløst af vinderen af Politiken's næste tegneseriekonkurrence, Phillip Steins Simple striber.
Ved at henlægge sine daglige humoristiske forløb til café-miljøet kunne Werdelin undgå et fast persongalleri. Med undtagelse af to faste servitricer og den enes excentriske mor kunne hun sætte alverdens forskellige mennesketyper på rollelisten efter behov. Hendes enkle, udtryksfulde streg blev da også brugt til at satirisere over og kommentere alle mulige forhold i det danske samfund - lige fra dagligdags banaliteter til nationalpolitik, -kultur o.a. mediebegivenheder. Det var på en gang både gjort elegant og besk og med en aldrig svigtende iderigdom.
Nikoline Werdelin stoppede da heller ikke serien, fordi hun var løbet tør for ideer, men fordi hun blev gift i september 1988!
Parallelt med Café leverede hun fra 1986 en ugentlig side, Rose, til ugebladet Alt for damerne. Den blev udgivet som album i 1988 med følgende bagsidetekst: "Nikoline Werdelin har formået at skabe en figur, som er gået i alles hjerter. Sikkert fordi Rose er kvinde med stort F - for feminin. Hun står og blafrer med alle de sanser, følelser og det normalliv, vi kender - og Rose bliver spejlbillede af os selv og alle kvinder med stort F!"
Både Rose og Café-søndagssiden var i farver. Ligesom i anvendelsen af sort/hvid viste Werdelin sig også her suveræn.
November-december 1989 leverede Nikoline Werdelin seks 2-sides jule-tegneserier til Alt for damerne. Titlen var Laura og Nugga. Denne farveserie om en enlig mor og hendes "håbløse" datter blev i 1991 en fast ugentlig foreteelse i bladet.
I foråret 1994 vendte Nikoline Werdelin tilbage til Politiken, hvor hendes bidende satiriske dagstrip Homo Metropolis fik en bemærkelsesværdig plads på bagsiden af 1. sektion. Ligesom i Café hudfletter hun her storbymennesket og tidens "trends" og frustrationer, men denne gang med hele storbyen som scene. 2003 udkom seriens syvende samling af årets strips. Tidligere udkom også I storbyens havn med strips fra perioden 1995-99.
Ud over denne er også Café, Laura og Nugga og Rose udgivet i albumformat.
Ved siden af sit tegneseriearbejde har Nikoline Werdelin skrevet noveller og fået stor påskønnelse som dramatiker. Desuden har hun påtaget sig et væld af illustrationsopgaver til diverse publikationer og reklamekampagner, bl.a. for DSB og Tivoli.

Litt.: Inger Holst: De frigjorte og de levende (i: Information 960827)

Nikoline Werdelin was born in 1960. She graduated from the School of Applied Art in Copenhagen and at one time was labeled by the school as "not serious, cannot draw", because she would rather draw her own figures than draw from the model.
In 1984 she took part in the newspaper Politiken’s comics competition and won with her subtle daily strip Café - even though she had never read comics or been in a café! The strip began to appear in Politiken shortly afterwards, also as a Sunday page from the beginning of 1987. It continued until October 1988, when it was replaced by the winner of Politiken’s next comics competition, Phillip Stein’s Simple Strips (Simple striber).
By placing the humourous daily events in a café milieu, Werdelin could dispense with a regular gallery of characters. With the exception of two regular waitresses and the eccentric mother of one of them, she could introduce whatever type of person that was required into the cast. She also used her simple, expressive style to satirize and comment upon all possible situations in Danish society - from everyday banalities to national politics, culture and other media events. The strip was both elegant and bitter, with an unfailing wealth of ideas. Nikoline Werdelin stopped the strip, not because she had run out of ideas, but because she was married in September, 1988.
Along with Café, from 1986 she also produced Rose, a weekly page for the magazine Everything for Women (Alt for damerne). It was published as an album in 1988, with following description on the back cover: "Nikoline Werdelin has been able to create a character who has captured everyone’s heart. Surely because Rose is a woman with a capital F - for feminine. She is aflutter with all the senses, feelings and the normal life we know – and Rose becomes a mirror image of ourselves and of all women with a capital F!"
Both Rose and the Café Sunday page were in color. Just as in her use of black-and -white, Werdelin showed herself to be unparalleled in the use of color.
From November to December, 1989, Nikoline Werdelin created six 2-page Christmas comics for Alt for damerne. The title was Laura and Nugga (Laura og Nugga). This color series about a single mother and her "hopeless" daughter became a regular weekly phenomenon in the magazine in 1991.
In the spring of 1994, Nikoline Werdelin returned to Politiken, where the biting satire of her daily strip Homo Metropolis found a noteworthy place on the back page of the first section. As in Café, here she pours scorn on the frustrated big-city person and on the trends of the times, but this time with the entire city as the setting.
All Rose, Café, Laura and Nugga, and Homo Metropolis have been published in album format.
Besides her work in comics, Nikoline Werdelin has written short stories and plays, as well as undertaken a wealth of illustration assignments for various publications and advertising campaigns.