The free cultural paper Amsterdam Weekly publishes its 100th issue on Wednesday in a special comics issue exploring ‘The Past, Present and Future of Amsterdam’.

Contributors include some of the city’s top cartoonists, including Femke Hiemstra (with the paper’s cover image), Erik Kriek, Wasco, Milan Hulsing, Maaike Hartjes, Mark Hendriks, Farida Laan, Floor de Goede and Peter van Dongen. The issue is being curated by Tonio van Vugt, one of the founders of the influential Dutch comics journal Zone 5300. Over the years Zone 5300 has premiered some of the most innovative cartoonists working today.

One of the cartoon views of the future, drawn by Amsterdam artist Wasco, is a mock tourist board poster hyping “The Drowned City of Amsterdam.”

In just 100 issues, the English-language paper has achieved both popular and critical success. Readers seek it out enthusiastically each week, and it is read by a mix of cosmopolitan Dutch readers and international residents. Amsterdam Weekly was just recently awarded three European Newspaper Awards, and last year it was exhibited at London’s Design Museum as “one of the most innovative and interesting designs” in Europe in the past two years.

Amsterdam Weekly was launched in March 2004 as something new in the city: a free paper offering quality journalism and a critical guide to arts and entertainment. The independent paper is made in Amsterdam, but inspired by such free alternative weekly papers as the Chicago Reader and New York’s Village Voice.

The paper is distributed to nearly 600 locations in both the centre and outlying areas such as Amstelveen and Zuid-oost, including cafés and restaurants, train stations, international companies, bars, bookshops, record stores, fitness clubs, and the Amsterdam Uitburo.