Piet Broos

Piet Broos was born Petrus Jozef Broos in Zevenbergen in 1910. He was a productive writer and illustrator of children's books, as well as a comic artist. He has always worked as a freelancer and much of his work has been translated for publication abroad.

Broos had his first job in the Govers bookshop in The Hague around 1929. He focused on a career as an illustrator in 1933. During his career he has made illustrations for a great many coloring, picture and children's books, as well as schoolbooks for Catholic schools.

In the pre-war years, he contributed to a great many Roman-Catholic magazines, such as Roomsche Jeugd, Onze Krant, De Engelbewaarder, Sjors, Okki and Panorama, for which he created comics like 'Professor Pienterbult', 'Knobbeltje Knop' and 'Tommie's Avonturen'. He also made the illustrations for three books in the series 'Alles in Beeld' by the publishing house Helmond, and for 'Het Kleine Prentenboek', a series of 8 booklets published during the war.

Broos continued to draw for magazines after the Liberation in 1945. One of his first post-war comics was 'Kees Holland', that was about the war in Holland, and was written in May 1945. Then came 'Knoes en zijn wonderlijke avonturen' (1945) and 'Professor Snip Snap' for the St. Antoniusalmanak (1946-47). He was editor-in-chief for Onze Krant, a magazine for the Roman-Catholic youth, from 1946 to 1948. For this magazine he also made the comics 'De daverende dingen van Daniël', 'Okkie en Knokkie' and 'Kuif, de onverschrokkene'.

Piet Broos made many strips for Maas en Roerbode between 1946 and 1956, such as 'Jan Pierewiet', 'Stroppie', 'Reintje de Vos', 'Toon Okkernoot', 'Knoest', 'Kwikkie Kwiek', 'Slimpie', 'Poef, het Indiaantje' and 'Van Kneuteren en zijn tonnetje'. He was additionally present in Beatrijs ('Reintje de Vos', 'Jaap, Brom en Annemieke', 'Wiebeltje'), Jeugdjuweel ('De blauwvingers van Zwolle', 'Piet Poef, het indiaantje') and Kinderkompas ('Avonturen van Brom, Ping en Ming', 'Kees en Karel').

From 1956 until his death in 1964 he made 'Ali Baba' for Okki. He made 'De trompetter van de koning' for Taptoe in 1953-54. This comic was also published in Kalle, the children's supplement of the German edition of Libelle magazine. His other 1950s creations include 'Johanna Droedel' and twee stories starring 'Flip en Flop' for Katholieke Missiën.

Among his final works from the 1960s are 'Abdoel' for the newspaper Helmondse Courant and 8 oneshot stories for Hartentroef. One of his English publications was 'Gnomie Longnose'. He died in 1964, at the age of 54.