Dutch comics
Dutch comics are comics made in the Netherlands. In Dutch the most common designation for the whole art form is "strip", whereas the word "comic" is used for the soft cover American style comic book format and its derivatives, typically containing translated US superhero material. This use in colloquial Dutch of the adopted English word for that format can cause confusion in English language texts.
Since the Netherlands share the same language with Flanders, many Belgian comics and Franco-Belgian comics have also been published there, the latter in translation. But while French language publications are habitually translated into Dutch/Flemish, the opposite is not true: Dutch/Flemish publications are less commonly translated into French, possibly due to the different cultures in Flanders/Netherlands and Wallonia/France. Likewise and though available, Flemish comic books are not doing that well in the Netherlands and vice versa, save for some notable exceptions, especially the Willy Vandersteen creation Suske en Wiske which is as popular in the Netherlands as it is in native Flanders. Concurrently, the cultural idiosyncrasies contained within Dutch/Flemish comics also mean that these comics have seen far fewer translations into other languages – excepting French to some extent, due to the bi-lingual nature of Belgium – than their French-language counterparts have.
History
Earliest examples
Dutch comics, like many European comics, have their prototypical forerunners in the form of medieval manuscripts, which often used sequential pictures accompanied by text, or sometimes even used speech balloons for captions. The "mannekesprenten" are also an early forerunner, usually depicting the lives of Christian saints or fables. In the 19th century several Dutch political cartoonists made use of sequential pictures, caricatures and humoristic situations that can be seen as the predecessors of comics. In 1858 the Swiss comic strip Monsieur Cryptogame by Rodolphe Töpffer was translated in Dutch by J.J.A. Gouverneur as Meester Prikkebeen and was a huge success in the Netherlands. It was published in the text comics format, with written text published underneath the pictures. This type of comics would remain the dominant form in the Netherlands until the mid-1960s, because Dutch moral guardians felt that these comics at least motivated children to actually read written sentences instead of merely looking at the pictures. While translations of comic strips remained popular no actual Dutch comics artists emerged until the late 19th century. One of the earliest artists to be considered a comic artist was Jan Linse. He drew several humoristic scenes in sequential form and wrote the text beneath the pictures. Another pioneer was Daniël Hoeksema, who drew a spin-off series inspired by Monsieur Cryptogame called De Neef van Prikkebeen However, most Dutch comics during the 1880s, 1890s, 1900s and 1910s were satirical illustrations and cartoons about Dutch politics and society or moralistic stories for the youth.Interbellum: The true beginnings of Dutch comics
The first proper Dutch comic strips were published after World War I. Many Dutch newspapers and magazines now imported translations of popular American, British and French comics, such as The Katzenjammer Kids, Rupert Bear, Perry and the Rinkydinks, Mickey Mouse and Billy Bimbo and Peter Porker which were all immediate successes. As a result, Dutch newspapers started hiring Dutch artists to create comic strips of their own. Among the most notable were Yoebje en Achmed and Tripje en Liezebertha by,Bulletje en Boonestaak by Dutch writer and artist George van Raemdonck – actually of Flemish descent and an ex-pat refugee from war-torn Belgium, considered to be the first Flemish comic artist though he created his comic in the Netherlands – and Snuffelgraag en Knagelijntje by Gerrit Th. Rotman and Arie Pleysier. Of all these comics Bulletje en Boonestaak had the most success in translations, becoming the first Dutch comic to see translations into German and French. At the same time it also caused outrage among moral guardians because of anti-authoritian behaviour, frequent nudity, violence and gross-out humor, such as vomiting. Backer's Tripje and Liezebertha was popular enough to inspire a lot of merchandising.The early example of a Dutch comics magazine was Kleuterblaadje published in 1915 and had a weekly comic strip, often translations and even plagiarism from foreign language magazines. Many children's magazines began to devote one or more of their page to comics, but the first actual full-fledged Dutch comics magazine was published in 1922: Het Dubbeltje. It only lasted two-and-a-half years, but other more successful ones followed in its wake, such as Doe Mee , Olijk en Vrolijk
The 1930s saw P. Koenen's "De Lotgevallen van Pijpje Drop", "Flipje" by Harmsen van der Beek and Gijsje Goochem by Jac Grosman. In 1932 Frans Piët also created a newspaper comic strip called Wo-Wang en Simmy, which was a predecessor to his more successful series Sjors en Sjimmie. Piët based his character Sjors directly on Perry from Martin Branner's Perry and the Rinkydinks. Sjors also inspired a comics magazine of his own in 1936. Another influential Dutch comics artist who made his debut in 1934 was Marten Toonder. He created a comic strip called "Thijs IJs", which was a substitute for Rupert Bear after the newspaper lost the publication rights. By far the most popular Dutch comic strip of this era was Flippie Flink by Louis Raemaekers and Clinge Doorenbos. A stage adaptation was produced, with the actor playing the part of Flippie greeting hundreds of children in the streets.
World War II
The German occupation in 1940 prevented further Anglo-American imports and led initially to a greater production of native material. Nazi censorship and paper shortage worked to the detriment of the comics field. At the same the embargo against American and British comic strips also meant that Dutch comics artists received more chances to publish their own material, even if it meant becoming a member of the Kulturkammer, the Nazi cultural watchdog. The most notable Dutch comic strips to debut during the Nazi occupation were Alfred Mazure's Dick Bos and Marten Toonder's influential Tom Poes . Willy Smit and Herman Looman's Tijs Wijs de Torenwachter and Wim Meuldijk's Sneeuwvlok de Eskimo were popular enough at the time to be adapted into stage plays, but are completely forgotten today.After 1945: The two great Dutch comic classics come into being
After the liberation the publication of comics boomed, with many successful series being published in newspapers, such as 's Kapitein Rob, Hans G. Kresse's Eric de Noorman, Phiny Dick's ', Marten Toonder's Kappie, Panda and Koning Hollewijn, Godfried Bomans and Carol Voges's De Avonturen van Pa Pinkelman, Jean Dulieu's Paulus de Boskabouter, Henk Sprenger's Kick Wilstra, Bob van den Born's Professor Pi, Willy Lohmann's Kraaienhove, Peter van Straaten's Vader & Zoon. The most successful and productive Dutch comics studio were the ', renamed as such by Marten Toonder in 1945, who both made comics as well as animated cartoons, already during the war years. They also launched the short-lived comics magazine Tom Poes Weekblad.The Toonder Studio's was not created by its namesake, but actually had its origins in the Diana Edition agency, established by the Jewish-Austrian refugee Fritz Gottesmann in the 1930s and where Toonder started to work in 1939. Gottesmann had to go into hiding during the war and left the company into the care of his by then partner Toonder from 1941 onward, but was later captured and died in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, de facto bequeathing the company to Toonder, who successfully made the company into what it became, starting in the war years and in the process renaming the company after himself. The Toonder Studio's turned out to be a fruitful breeding ground for post-war Dutch comic talents, born before or during the war, as the majority of them started out their careers at the company in one way or another, which included such names as, Lo Hartog van Banda, Thé Tjong-Khing, Dick Matena and Piet Wijn. Even Dutch great Hans. G. Kresse, while not formally working for the Studio's, started out his career during the war in close cooperation with the company.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s educators in a conservative society the Netherlands still was at the time, highly discouraged young people reading comics, because they felt it was a bad influence on them. Many magazines and newspapers went across their censorship and moral objections by publishing their series in a text comics format. This allowed children to at least read some sentences and could guide them to "real literature". Yet, it was partly for these reasons that the Dutch text comic enjoyed its golden age in the era 1945–1960, with Tom Poes, Eric de Noorman and Kapitein Rob as its standard bearers.
Of these latter three, it were Tom Poes, Eric de Noorman and their two creators in particular who went on to conquer a special place in Dutch popular awareness, in the process becoming the two personifications of the classic Dutch comics, eclipsing all the others, which are increasingly becoming dim memories only. Though obviously fondly remembered by the older Dutch generations, their renown have become such that even the younger native generations, even though the vast majority of them has never read a single title of these two creations, still recognize the names Tom Poes en Oliver B. Bommel and Eric de Noorman. The memory and cultural heritage of its two creators, Toonder and Kresse respectively, is actively kept alive by its two respective private foundations "Toonder Compagnie BV", and the "Stichting Hans G. Kresse", until 2009 the only such organizations specifically dedicated to the work of individual Dutch comic artists, after which they were joined by "Stichting Jan Kruis Museum". Predominately run by heirs and sympathetic professionals, the two foundations in their goal of maintaining the cultural legacy of both artists – aside from safeguarding and maintaining their original art collections – organize exhibitions on a regular basis at the various cultural institutions, publish bibliographical book publications of for example biographies and rare, unknown and previously unpublished works, as well as providing information and illustrations to media interested in reporting on the two comic artists and their work. The Kresse foundation though, appears to dialed down its activities around 2018 when its official "Eric de Noorman" website went dark. Exemplary of the continued presence in Dutch popular awareness of Tom Poes en Oliver B. Bommel was Dutch collector Pim Oosterheert, who possesses one of the largest private collections of Toonder materials. Oosterheert decided to turn his home in Zoeterwoude into a bonafide museum, Museum de Bommelzolder, whose opening in 1998 was presided by Toonder's son in the presence of Dutch comic scene alumni and local dignitaries, and enjoys the full backing of the Toonder Compagnie. A well visited museum, enlarged and as of 2017 still in existence, Oosterheert expanded his activities with the publication of a semi-regular newsletter and reference books, as well as traveling lectures. For the main bodies of work of both artists, their two respective foundations closely cooperate with, a figure of note in the Dutch comic scene from the mid-1970s onward, whose publishing house Uitgeverij Panda releases bibliographical/bibliophilic limited "integrale" editions of these works, helping to keep the memory alive.
While Pieter Kuhn's Kapitein Rob was every bit as renowned as its two counterparts by Toonder and Kresse were at the time, he eventually failed to become the third "Dutch great" and both he and his creation are as of 2020 all but forgotten, only fondly remembered by the oldest still living generations. Recently though, comics publisher became a latter-day Dutch publisher to tap into this nostalgia, by reprinting the complete Kapitein Rob series, starting in 2021.