'Porna Zeldenrust - De Vrouw Die Nimmer Klaarkwam'.
Karel van Rooijen was a Dutch fine artist from Rotterdam, who gained notoriety in the early 1970s as the creator of the pornographic comic story 'Porna Zeldenrust - De Vrouw Die Nimmer Klaarkwam'. Some sources write his name erroneously as "Karel de Rooy" or "Carel van Rooijen".
Early life and career
Born in Rotterdam in 1945, Karel van Rooijen grew up in a Roman Catholic family. Although he showed early graphic talent, his family was far from amused when as a youngster he painted a portrait of Jesus Christ, as Van Rooijen recalled in a 10 March 1973 interview with Het Vrije Volk. At age 21, he graduated from the Rotterdam Art Academy, after which he did all kinds of odd jobs. As making art was his goal, he eventually joined the Artist Subsidy program, in which creators exchanged their artworks to the organization in return for cash subsidies. However, he hated the construction, felt like a public servant, and quickly left again. After that, he was an independent artist, specializing in portraits, nudes and sex-themed paintings and drawings, often with a humorous streak.
For a 1973 writing contest of the newspaper Het Vrije Volk, a portrait painting by Van Rooijen was the first prize. Of the 400 contestants, the writer of the winning story was 23-year old Sonja de Vet, as the paper reported on 16 June 1973.
1983 painting by Karel van Rooijen.
Porna Zeldenrust
Besides painting, Karel van Rooijen also tried his luck at making comics, creating the pornographic parody 'Porna Zeldenrust - De Vrouw Die Nimmer Klaarkwam'. Failing to reach an orgasm, the main heroine goes on a quest for sexual satisfaction, leading her to such diverse bed partners as the artist Van Rooijen himself and a lesbian Adolf Hitler. In another episode, she is examined by a Dr. Siphilius, who got so aroused that he succumbed to it.
In 1971, the first installments of the 'Porna Zeldenrust' comic were serialized in issues of the sci-fi monthly IF. With the help of a friend, the Rotterdam architect Willem Brinkman, Van Rooijen then set out to distribute his comic stories on a mail-order basis in a limited print run. According to an article in Stripschrift #47 (1972), subscribers were to receive one new page on a large sheet each month. The price was six guilders (2.70 euros or 3.20 dollars), quite hefty for the time. It is unknown how many episodes Van Rooijen managed to distribute this way. The 10 March 1973 article in Het Vrije Volk still mentioned this business.
In 1979, Van Rooijen's full 'Porna' story was released as issue #11 in a series of pornographic comic books by the publisher Biofot. By then, the story consisted of two chapters of respectively eight and sixteen pages.
Karel van Rooijen (Het Vrije Volk, 10 March 1973).