'Het Nieuwe Avonturenboek'.
Wim Meuldijk is best known for his work in television, as the creator of the popular children's show 'Pipo de Clown', but he is also the artist and writer of the classic comic series 'Ketelbinkie'. Born in 1922 in Rotterdam, Meuldijk started his career during World War II with the text comic 'Sneeuwvlok Eskimo', in the newspapers Het Volk and Voorwaarts.
'Sneeuwvlok De Eskimo'.
Starting on 14 July 1942, the comic lasted for 1253 episodes until 30 December 1944. After the war, Meuldijk and Ton van Heusden launched the magazine Sneeuwvlok appeared, of which ten issues appeared in 1945-46. Besides a new episode of 'Sneeuwvlok', Meuldijk made 'Pirandello' and 'Plukkie Buksjek' for the magazine.
'Ketelbinkie'.
In 1945, Meuldijk began his popular 'Ketelbinkie' strip in the local newspaper Rotterdamsch Parool. The strip, about a boy from Rotterdam, soon appeared in many other Dutch newspapers. Because of the character's popularity, Meuldijk and Van Heusden renamed the Rotterdam edition of Sneeuwvlok magazine to Ketelbinkiekrant. In 1952, Ketelbinkiekrant also appeared in the rest of the Netherlands, under the title Rob's Vrienden, after the popular comic 'Kapitein Rob' by Pieter Kuhn. Meuldijk remained his position as editor, and made a speech balloon version of 'Ketelbinkie' for the magazine, of which the final issue was printed in 1957.
'Sneeuwvlok de Eskimo'.
In the late 1950s, Meuldijk made an important move in his career. He began a fruitful career as a writer for television, which resulted in among others the creation of the television series 'Pipo de Clown'. The show was also adapted into a balloon strip, which was drawn by Jan van der Voo and written by Meuldijk for the Donald Duck weekly in 1969. Also for Donald Duck, Meuldijk wrote new adventures with 'Ketelbinkie', this time drawn by Van der Voo and Jan van Haasteren.
'Ketelbinkie en het Schaduwvolk' (1956).
When the 'Pipo de Clown' show was cancelled, Meuldijk settled in Spain, where he continued to write for the television show 'Sesamstraat'. On 18-19 October 2003, during the Stripdagen in Alphen aan den Rijn, he, Henk Sprenger and Gerrit Stapel won the Bulletje en Boonestaakschaal. Wim Meuldijk passed away in December 2007.
In the Dutch city Almere a street was named after Ketelbinkie, while an avenue was named after Meuldijk. Both are part of the "Comics Heroes" district.
'Ketelbinkie'.