'De Liefhebbers'.
Toon van Driel is one of the most productive humorous cartoonists in the Netherlands. His signature works consist of two long-running gag series, 'F.C Knudde' (1973- ) and 'De Stamgasten' (1978- ). 'F.C. Knudde' centers around the worst fictional football team of the Netherlands. The comic strip spawned a huge merchandise and has become somewhat of an institution in its home country. 'De Stamgasten' is a more humble gag comic about bar visitors telling each another obscene jokes. Van Driel wrote and drew various other gag comics, including a celebrity comic strip about Dutch comedian André van Duin (1987). While the artist has occasionally been criticized for the low-brow level of his work, his most famous series have proven to be remarkably enduring.
André van Duin-strip from De Telegraaf. Translation: "Hello, with Van Duin. I recently bought a fake Christmas tree from you. And the needles fall off. What do you mean: "Can you reckon how good it has been faked?!!".
Early life
Antonie Marcel van Driel was born in 1945 in Amsterdam. His father was a simple worker who didn't really like his wife and vice versa. As a result, Van Driel felt emotionally neglected, but had more fun with his grandfather, who was a former advertising illustrator and background designer for operas and comedy revues. During his youth, the boy grew up with all the familiar classic Dutch comic series, including those by Marten Toonder. Graphically his work is more reminiscent of the minimal and instantly readable work of Jean-Marc Reiser, while the artist has also expressed his admiration for the humor of Peter de Smet. Van Driel married early, at the age of 18, but this relationship didn't last long. He moved to the American West Coast, where he enjoyed the hippie lifestyle. His career started at an advertising agency, but eventually Van Driel became a steward for the Dutch aviation company KLM for three and a half years.
At the turn of the 1960s into the 1970s, he was also active as a bass player and songwriter for the Dutch rock band Shocking Blue, most famous for their international number one-hit 'Venus' (1969). The young man wrote the B-side of this single, 'Hot Sand', and four other songs, none of which charted. Since he wrote all songs under a pseudonym, Van Driel never earned any royalties from the band's worldwide success. He later tried a musical career of his own under the name Marchal, but his single 'My Jenny' only sold 17 copies. Van Driel later joked: "My family wasn't larger than 17 people."
Early 'FC Knudde' comic strip.
F.C. Knudde
In 1973, Van Driel fell unemployed again and decided to become a comic artist. He had no graphic experience whatsoever, but was determined to give it a try. He applied for a job at the Toonder Studios and met Marten Toonder in person. The maestro asked the young amateur whether he could draw "a bear attacking a helicopter"? Van Driel naturally couldn't pull this off from the top of his head. Toonder predictably turned him down, but was nice enough to give the young artist some support and useful guidelines. He told him that he had talent, but advised to "just keep it simple", rather than try out illustration work that he couldn't handle. Van Driel always kept these words in mind. His drawings and comedy are very basic, but effective in communicating their stories and gags in an understandable way. The same year he went to the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, where he showed the staff his drawings and instantly told them that he "wanted to create a comic strip for them, despite the fact that I can't draw." The editors took sympathy on him and thus, on 19 March 1973, Van Driel's comic strip 'F.C. Knudde' (1973- ) made its debut. He signed it with his first name: "Toon".
'F.C. Knudde'.
'F.C. Knudde' is a comic strip about an incompetent association football team, hence the name ("knudde" is a Dutch expression for "worthlessness"). All characters are near indistinguishable chalk white men and women with huge bulbous noses and an overall goofy expression. The two main protagonists are goal keeper Dirk and defender Jaap. Most of the time Jaap loses his ball to the opposing team, has accidents on the field or, if he scores, it's usually an own goal. Despite being utter losers, 'F.C. Knudde' has played matches all over the country. Somehow they managed to travel and play in our other countries too. The team has travelled to Argentina, Iceland, France, the United States (in a double-parter), Africa, Russia, Romania and even into space! 'F.C. Knudde' is mostly known as a gag comic and therefore most episodes are short stories. But Van Driel has also created longer adventures with his anti-heroes. References to popular media phenomena are rampant, including popular TV soaps such as 'Dallas', 'Dynasty', 'Falcon Crest' and people like The Rolling Stones and Laurel & Hardy. The latter duo inspired much of Van Driel's own slapstick, since he has a fondness for comedies about losers. Naturally, famous (Dutch) football champions and trainers have occasionally had cameos in the series over the years. One of the most thrilling moments in Van Driel's life happened when he travelled by plane, while Dutch football star Ruud Gullit was on board. He observed Gullit reading 'F.C. Knudde' in the papers and laughing out loud when he recognized himself in that day's episode.
'F.C. Knudde Naar Argentinië'.
'F.C. Knudde' originally ran three times a week, but readers of Algemeen Dagblad loved it enough that it soon appeared on a daily basis. The catchphrase "Tikkie terug, Jaap!" ("Pass it back to me, Jaap!") soon became a familiar line to many. Dutch football comics had existed before, like Henk Sprenger's 'Kick Wilstra', but most had been realistic and serious in nature. 'F.C. Knudde' was more cartoony in its execution. The comic also appeared at the right time. Dutch-language readers were in the mood for a comic strip about a bad football team, since the opposite was true in real life. In the early 1970s, Dutch football stood in the center of international attention thanks to its star champion Johan Cruijff, the three consecutive victories of AFC Ajax during the Europacup and the Dutch national team making it to the final match during the World Cup of 1972 (which they lost). 'F.C. Knudde' reached a wider audience from 26 September 1975 on, when its cartoons were shown in the weekly TV broadcast 'AVRO's Sportpanorama'. This was only the third time that a Dutch comic series was featured on a regularly broadcast TV series, the first time being Jean Dulieu's puppet TV series 'Paulus de Boskabouter' (1967) and the second Peter van Straaten's 'Vader en Zoon', which in 1972 was adapted into a short-lived TV sitcom.
'F.C. Knudde'.
'F.C. Knudde' continued scoring with audiences in the next decades. From 1976 on, it appeared in the comic magazine Eppo, while longer stories ran in Nieuwe Revu the year after. In 1979, Van Driel sold the rights to his comic series to publisher De Vrijbuiter, whereupon he left most of the drawing in hands of his assistant Ray Nicholson. In 1981, 'F.C. Knudde' was popular enough to become its own magazine, simply called Knudde. Each issue came with a huge fold-out poster. Nevertheless, it only lasted nine issues, the last one published in 1984. But the comic strip kept selling. De Vrijbuiter released 35 albums between 1978 and 1998. After that, Van Driel refused to work for De Vrijbuiter and its mother corporation Audax following a long-running disagreement, although the daily 'Knudde' strip kept appearing in Algemeen Dagblad and regional papers like Het Limburgs Dagblad, Het Brabants Dagblad and De Stentor. Van Driel managed to create a "sequel" strip for Nieuwsblad van het Noorden called 'FC Tammo 80' (1998), but it took several lawsuits until he reacquired the full rights to his characters in 2008.
The first new story, 'Knudski' (2008), was a striking parody of the soccer world and appeared in the men's magazine Aktueel Sportief. From 2008, new episodes were featured daily on the website Nusport of the news website Nu.nl, which gave Van Driel the opportunity to directly comment on current affairs in the world of soccer. The strip made its appearance in the free newspaper Metro in 2010, and additionally in regional papers of the Wegener group, like Brabants Dagblad.
'F.C. Tammo 80'.
F.C. Knudde: merchandise
'F.C. Knudde' inspired a huge flood of merchandise over the years. Its gags have been compiled in various book specials, several of which coincided with the quadrennial World Championships Association Football. To celebrate the 1998 championship, the Dutch postal service let Van Driel design a special stamp. The characters appeared on a wide variety of products over the years, including cups, pillows, calendars, pocket books, plates, shirts and naturally soccer balls. In 2013, the anniversary book '40 Jaar FC Knudde' was published to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the series. It had a foreword by Dutch national football trainer Louis van Gaal, who wrote the dubious compliment: "Everyone who knows the national football trainer a bit is aware that he makes an effort for people with a handicap, so that's why I enjoy doing something for Toon." In 2016, trainer Guus Hiddink opened an exhibition of Van Driel's cartoons in Haarlem. The same year, Van Driel also illustrated the cover of the football magazine Voetbal International.
'De Stamgasten'.
De Stamgasten
In 1978, Van Driel's other well-known gag comic, 'De Stamgasten' (1978- ) debuted in Algemeen Dagblad and later appeared in Eppo and Panorama too. The series is built around a simple but effective premise. Since many people enjoy jokes and most of them are told in bars, 'De Stamgasten' features bar hoppers telling jokes. All episodes take place in the bar "De Stam" (a pun on the Dutch expression "stamkroeg" for "favorite bar"). Like one would expect from jokes told in a bar, most are corny and vulgar in nature, let alone the fact that you might have heard many of them before. The originality of 'De Stamgasten' centers on the location and its characters. The bar can be found in the weirdest of places, including the desert, the South Pole and even in trees. All clients are anthropomorphic animals. The bar keeper is a no-nonsense dog who frequently has to force his guests to pay for their drinks or leave home when its closing time.
'Felis Leo'. Translation: "You'll see, time and time again, whenever you want to catch a deer, you have to wait for a passing herd."
Other characters in 'De Stamgasten' all have their own individual running gags. Bertus the crocodile always trips when he enters the place. The bespectacled bird Ome Jan often tries to manoeuver inflatable dolls, while the Siamese cats (and twins) Tjap & Tjoy act different from one another. A nameless pheasant with a bow-tie frequently insults female visitors, only to be beaten up by them afterwards. A condor who works as an airline pilot can never fly without being scooped by a Boeing. Felis Leo the lion is a failure as a hunter and Stanley the black dog frequent victim of racial prejudice, despite the fact that he is the only person in the bar who actually works for a living. Other pub crawlers are a donkey waiter, a drunk pig, a group of oversexed penguins, a snake frustrated by his lack of paws and an elephant who feels insecure about his small organ. Van Driel's favorite character in 'De Stamgasten' was Kierewiet, a canary with an elephant's trunk and incomprehensible speech. One of the best-known characters is Ab Normaal, a pink rabbit who enjoys having sex with other animals and telling jokes.
'Het Vreemdelingenlegioen'. Translation: "Achoo!" - "There, dirtbag!".
De Stamgasten: success and spin-offs
'De Stamgasten' aimed at a much broader audience than 'FC Knudde' and effectively gained huge commercial success. Van Driel attributed this to the fact that he spent many hours in the pub. The series provided enough material to create spin-offs about some of the individual pub crawlers. 'Ab Normaal' ran in Panorama, while 'Felis Leo' appeared in Robbedoes (1984-1985). 'De Stamgasten' inspired advertising comics for Duyvis crisps and Amstel Beer. The pub setting was dropped for the spin-off 'Het Vreemdelingenlegioen' (1985-1994), which appeared in Eppo/Sjors en Sjimmie Stripblad, while the love life of his favorite animal characters was chronicled in 'De Liefhebbers' (1987).
'Ab Normaal'.
De Stamgasten: TV and radio adaptations ('Ab Normaal')
In 2001-2003, 'De Stamgasten' was adapted into a TV show: 'Ab Normaal' (2001-2003). While the format of the comic strip wasn't exactly complicated, the TV adaptation simplified it even further. It only took one character, Ab Normaal the rabbit, and placed him in a real-life bar with a live audience. Ab was performed as a hand puppet, voiced by Rob Ronalds, while a real-life attractive young woman (Jennifer van Groeningen) acted as his dumb blonde sidekick. Each episode had Ab telling bawdy jokes to the audience. The self-described "Dutch king of the jokes" always laughed out loud with his own punchlines, aided by a laugh track pepping up the audiences' reactions. 'Ab Normaal' ran on the Dutch commercial TV channel Yorin at first, but eventually channel-hopped to RTL5, V8 and Veronica. The pink rabbit even recorded two novelty songs, the cover 'Kleine Blonde Mariandel' (2001) and another cover, 'Schudden Met Je Tieten' (which took the melody of Las Ketchup's 'The Ketchup Song' and added lyrics about girls shaking their breasts, 2002).
In 2003, 'Ab Normaal' ended its run on Veronica, but five years later Ab returned to the airwaves, albeit in a similar show with a different title: 'Komt Een Man Bij De Dokter' (2007) on the channel Tien (which later changed its name to RTL 8). The show has also been broadcast on TV73 and Comedy Central. Ab Normaal also terrorized radio emissions in Patrick Kicken's morning radio show 'PK @Veronica' (2010-2011). The formula was copied in Flanders too, where a local version of 'Ab Normaal' (2002) ran on the commercial channel VT4. His sidekick was played by a local actress, Vanessa Hoefkens, but otherwise nothing was changed. This Flemish adaptation never caught on, since most viewers weren't familiar with the original comic strip and thus couldn't take a puppet seriously.
'De Stuntels' (1978).
De Stuntels
Over the decades, Toon drew several other, more short-lived comics. Together with Jan van Haasteren Van Driel drew 'De Stuntels' (1978-1979) for Eppo, but published it under the collective pseudonym "ToJo". Like the title implies, 'De Stuntels' are two clumsy idiots, comparable to Laurel & Hardy. Each episode casts them in a different job, but they always utterly fail in whatever they do. 'De Stuntels' is build around longer stories, but they are nevertheless still very gag-based. Many episodes were first published in Eppo and Knudde magazine. Van Haasteren later dismissed the strip, largely because of Van Driel's reckless inking over Van Haasteren's pencil work. Nevertheless, some new episodes appeared in Knudde magazine until 1983. Van Driel briefly revived the project in Eppo under the title 'De Sukkels' (1985) with artist Bart Slyp. The final episodes were written by Patty Klein.
'Knetter' (Eppo/Wordt Vervolgd #2, 1985). The idiots try to make their dachshund "fly", but the dog crashes to the ground. They conclude: "That's the problem with dachshunds: great flyers, but they can't listen!"
Short-lived 1980s comics
Among Van Driel's other comics for Eppo (and its follow-ups Eppo/Wordt Vervolgd and Sjors en Sjimmie Stripblad) were the funny animal strip 'Rokus en de Rest' (1980-1985), the absurd gag comic 'Knetter' (1985-1987, under the pseudonym Glob) and 'Jan' (1994). Van Driel was also co-creator of a comic series generally attributed to Eric Schreurs: 'Joop Klepzeiker' (1982-1990, 1993-2003). When the first episodes of the comic strip appeared in Nieuwe Revu he wrote the scripts under the collective pseudonym "S. Treurschoon". After only a year Van Driel left to join Panorama and Schreurs continued the series on his own. In this men's weekly, Van Driel chronicled his own family life in 'De Nakomertjes', while he also wrote the strip about the two monkeys 'Piet P. & Arie O.' (1990-1991) for Mark de Jonge. He tried his hand at another soccer comic, this time with both people and funny animals, under the title 'De Kanjers' (1987). Algemeen Dagblad also ran the more experimental and philosophical strip 'Hullie' (1981-31 December 2001), which Van Driel produced under the pseudonym John Myshkin in a linear drawing style. The gags have later appeared on a couple of calendars. Another contribution to Algemeen Dagblad were his 'Goedemorgen' cartoons.
'De Nakomertjes'. The father has an important phone call, but accidentally yells at his young son "to wipe his ass himself", which the caller misinterprets as an insult.
André van Duin
Since 1987, Van Driel has been present on a daily base in newspaper De Telegraaf. He became the second artist to create a celebrity comic about Dutch comedian André van Duin for this newspaper, 'Van Duin & Zo' (1987). New episodes were made for Veronica magazine as well. In 1975-1976, Fred Julsing had already drawn the gag comic 'André', but this wasn't much of a success. In 1984, the Belgians Dirk Stallaert and Patrick Vermeir also considered creating a comic based on Van Duin, but dropped their plans to make a comic about the Antwerp comedy band De Strangers instead.
'Hullie'. Translation: "Jaap, it was very nice of you, but may I ask you why you brought flowers?" - "Just because." - "Just because?" - "Just because."
Not worried about these previous attempts in the slightest, Van Driel created his own graphic interpretation of the famous humorist, this time with actual involvement of Van Duin. Their version lasted a lot longer, though was eventually terminated again. In 1990, the Dutch TV station TROS broadcast the TV series 'Lach Mee met André', which compiled all of Van Duin's stage shows and TV appearances on their channel. The intro to each episode showed clips from these broadcasts, but also a gag page from Van Driel's comic strip about Van Duin. In 2023, publisher Cliché published the first volume of the complete re-edition of Toon van Driel's 'André van Duin' comics. When Van Driel grew tired of the Van Duin strip, he moved on to create a spin-off strip about Van Duin's dogs, 'Wibo & Gorp'.
'André van Duin' strip from Veronica-blad.
De Familie Weltevree / De Reiziger
Another strip by Van Duinfor De Telegraaf is 'De Familie Weltevree' (since 2005), which deals with the everyday life of the loveless couple John and Von Weltevree. Van Driel jokingly remarked he gets his inspiration from his own three marriages, and that there are only two types of marriages: bad ones and very bad ones. For the free public transport newspaper Spits, Van Driel created the gag strip 'De Reiziger' in 1999.
'Wibo & Gorp'.
Online activities
Most of Van Driel's non-Knudde work has been published in book format since 1986, by Toon's own imprint Land Productions. Since the 2000s, he has presented his topical cartoons and comic strips online as well. Toonvandriel.nl is a portal for all his activities, including the e-cards site tooncards.nl, the funny animal joke site lachendierenbrullen.nl, the family humor spot vaderitis.nl and websites featuring episodes of his current strips 'Knudde', 'De Stamgasten', 'Wibo & Gorp' and 'De Familie Weltevree'.
'Gijpvogel'. Translation: "All I said was: "I can keep two balls up." "
During the 2010 World Championship Association Football, a special app named 'MyKnudde' was launched. Readers were able to fill in their own speech balloons next to a caricature of sports journalist and commentator Johan Derksen. More than 10.000 comments were written! The concept was repeated at the occasion of the European Championships 2012 and the World Championships 2014, with respectively former professional soccer player and commentator René van der Gijp ('Gijpvogel'), and Dutch singer and media personality Gordon ('Goordraaitdoor'nl'). The best submissions were published in the free public transport newspapers Metro and Spits. A long 'Knudde' story, 'Knudde naar 't WK' (2018) was released at the occasion of the 2018 World Championships. It is the first album in which Toon's assistant Ray Nicholson is credited on the cover. The artist displays his paintings and new works in Gallery De Toonzaal on Zijlweg 62 in Haarlem.
'De Familie Weltevree'. Translation: "You're never excited again."
Style
Van Driel works in a very simple art style and uses jokes on the same level. At the height of his production, he drew about eight strips per day, five of which based on current affairs. Van Driel calls it his "professional ethics" to be able to crank out a piece of work within several minutes. To come up with the ideas, he just has to follow the news. In the evenings he manages to make oil paintings, all with the same absurd and typical humor. This nevertheless doesn't mean that his job is easy. Once his assistant Ray Nicholson was faced with a deadline: whip out eleven pages of material before dawn, while he already booked a holiday the next day. Nicholson phoned Van Driel that he would never be able to reach his deadline. However, Van Driel came up with a clever solution to make the job go faster. For four pages, F.C. Knudde's football match took place in heavy fog...
Toon van Driel "evaluates" one of his jokes in a comic strip called 'Wat is leuk?'
Recognition
On 4-6 November 1988, during the Stripdagen in The Hague, Van Driel received the Stripschapprijs for his groundbreaking body of work. While Van Driel had always craved for the most important Dutch comics award he infamously called it a "tasteless and far too heavy monstrosity", which he "would love to give away too." At the same time he was quite grumpy because he "deserved this honour many years before." On 7 November 2023, Van Driel was knighted in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Legacy
Because of his loose graphic style and low-brow comedy, Van Driel has occasionally been victim of criticism and disdain. Yet he has always put his own work into perspective. The artist has referred to himself as a "mediocre and awkward draftsman" and a "bad businessman." However, at the same time he's always been proud that he managed to build a succesful and enduring career on his characters. The artist attributes his immense production to an urge to prove himself, because he always felt misunderstood. With his popular and down-to-earth humor, Van Driel managed to reach the common man with a drawing style which would otherwise only reach an alternative readership. Van Driel warmed up a mainstream audience for other self made authors, like Hein de Kort, Eric Schreurs, Windig & De Jong, Gerrit de Jager, Wim Stevenhagen and Willem Ritstier. The success of 'Knudde' has also been instrumental in the popularity of the gag strip in Dutch newspapers.
For those interested in Van Driel's life and career, the biography 'Knudde. Het Bizarre Levensverhaal van Toon van Driel, schepper van F.C. Knudde en De Stamgasten' (Ambo/Anthos, 2023) by Alexander Brandenburg and Jaap van de Venis is highly recommended.
Self-portrait.