Jacques Pels

To build his own collection, Jacques stands with his own stand at the legendary comic book fair in Breda even as a child. He soon turned his hobby into his profession. For 45 years, Jacques has been professionally active in the world of comics.

He starts his career as a job student in a comic book store. In 1985-86 he writes the script of the audiovisual reportage for the 9th Art exhibition at the Ghent Museum of Contemporary Art (now known as the SMAK).

He works for 20 years for Standard Publishing, where he also represents some forty other comic publishers. During this period, he invents numerous special editions and gadgets. Then, as project manager for the Lagardère Group, he handles the distribution of weekly magazines in Belgium.

At the request of the Ghent Comic Book Fair, Jacques writes scenarios and biographies for comic books, the entire proceeds of which go to the Children's Cancer Fund. In between, he collaborates on several reference works on comics.

To expand his extraordinary old comic book curio collection, he visits comic book stores, fairs, auctions and flea markets in a radius of 800 km. Since the late 1990s, he has been active worldwide on the Internet. Thanks to these many contacts, he amasses an enormous knowledge about comics and builds a large network in the Dutch-French comics world. He is recruited by Catawiki to open up the French comics market and works there for almost 11 years as Senior Expert Comics.

In 2024, he made the move to Heritage Auctions.