'Hedebyxorna', a parody of the popular Swedish TV series 'Hedebyborna', from the Swedish version of Mad Magazine, issue #5, 1982.
Torvald Sundbaum was a Swedish comic artist best known for his work for the Swedish edition of Mad magazine from the 1960s through the 1990s. Other work includes 'Buster Perk', which he took over from Göte Göransson in Dick vid Radiopolisen between 1954 and 1956. He also made a celebrity comic based on Gunnel Linde's radio series 'Osynliga Klubben' in Åhlén och Åkerlund (1959).
'Osynliga Klubben'.
Early life and career
Torvald Sundbaum was born in 1928 as Sven Sundbaum in Linköping, in southern Sweden.
Buster Perk
In 1954 Sundbaum took over the 'Buster Perk' (1953-1956) comic from Göte Göransson. Göransson had launched the comic in Buffalo Bill in 1953, and Sundbaum took over when the strip moved to the landscape format-shaped comic book Dick vid Radiopolisen and its successors Mysteriemagasinet and Stjärn-Magasinet, all published under Bonnier's Serieförlaget imprint. The comedy series about a crime-solving journalist and his photographer Plåt-Pelle also inspired its own "Buster Perks Deckarklubb" ("Buster Perk's Detective Club"), which had 35,000 members at the top of its popularity in 1960. At this point, the 'Buster Perk' strip was already cancelled and the club operated as a general detective club. The final 'Buster Perk' comic was published in the 19th issue of Fantomen magazine in 1956. It was by then replaced by the American comic 'Jet Scott' by Jerry Robinson and Sheldon Stark, which ironically enough continued the series' title 'Buster Perk'.
Osynliga Klubben
Sundbaum subsequently drew the comic based on the radio series 'Osynliga Klubben' ("The Invisible Club") by Swedish children's author Gunnel Linde. It dealt with a group of kids solving crimes. Bonnier published a total of six comic books in 1959.
Mad Magazine
The Swedish edition of the American satirical comic magazine MAD was launched by Rolf Janson and Williams Förlag in 1960. Besides material from the American original, "Svenska MAD" also ran humorous work by local artists in order to satirize typically Swedish phenomena. Sundbaum was present from the first issue in 1960, and remained a prominent contributor until the end of the magazine's original run in 1993. Among the other local cartoonists were Bowen, Bengt Sahlberg, Alf Woxnerud and Folke Hallin, who were later joined by David Liljemark, Daniel Ahlgren and Johan Wanloo.
Death
Torvald Sundbaum passed away in Stockholm on 25 January 2018, at the age of 89.
'Osynliga Klubben'.