Comics History
Lambiek at Koningsstraat 27 (2019-2023)
Boris Kousemaker at Lambiek on 13 July 2023. Photo © Patrick Coerse.
It has been five years since we celebrated Lambiek's 50th anniversary, in November 2018. In the meantime, the world faced challenges it hadn't seen before. Exciting times, also for our comic store. But lo and behold, here we are, in 2023, still going strong after 55 years.
Finishing up 2018
After the festivities subsided, Lambiek got back to business as usual. On 14 December 2018, Ben Westervoorde came by to sign the second volume of his comics biography about Dutch singer André Hazes, which he made with writer Jan-Willem de Vries. We ended the year nostalgically, when the classic comic series 'Blake & Mortimer' was the center of our attention. That day, our own Peter van Dongen signed the latest adventure of the deadly serious duo, 'De Laatste Zwaardvis'. By Jove!
Events in 2019
On 4 January 2019, we had an early carnival thanks to Kiki Weerts, who presented her graphic journal covering the tour she and her band De Giletjes had in the land of samba, lambada and favelas: 'De Giletjes in Brazil'. When De Giletjes picked up their guitars, Lambiek suddenly seemed to change from a comic store to nightclub with a punk-tropical theme. Later that month, on 25 January, the anarchists of Kutlul came by to present issue #9 of their underground magazine. The Dutch-German collective, built around Joost Halbertsma and Dirk Verschure, returned to present new issues on 4 October 2019 and 23 October 2021, most of the time accompanied by handmade cardboard displays in our window display. On 9 June 2023, the release party of Kutlul #15 also heralded in the end of this highly original magazine, as the authors moved on to other projects.
Invitation for the book presentation of 'De Giletjes in Brazil' by Kiki Weerts (2019).
On 29 March 2019, Gwen Stok chirped by to sign 'De Genezing van de Krekel', her adaptation of Toon Tellegen's famous cricket fables. The SOTU (Sounds of the Underground) festival returned to our quarters, when on 12 April this music festival/artist collective presented their latest magazine. Just recovered from this counter-cultural experience, we welcomed Robert Deutsch on the following day. This German graphic novelist came by to sign copies of his book 'Turing', about the tragic life of computer scientist Alan Turing.
On 19 May, Lambiek's Jurrien de Vries was wanted at the Amsterdam public library OBA, where the Belgian journalist Geert De Weyer interviewed current 'Lucky Luke' artist Achdé about the latest installment in this funny western series. Faster than his own shadow, Jurrien was there to sell copies of the book to the crowd. From the Far West we went to the Far North when on 22 June Erik Kriek visited Lambiek to sign his Viking graphic novel 'De Balling'. Aimée de Jongh joined us on 12 July to sign copies of her autobiographical graphic novel 'Taxi'. Her meter was ticking nicely that day.
Actor Jan Bijvoet appeared in the film 'Bloody Marie' with one of Lambiek's plastic bags. Director Guido van Driel made this painting at the occasion of the store's 50th anniversary in 2018. Both Guido van Driel and Lambiek's owner Boris Kousemaker also appeared as extras in the film.
Media attention
The March 2019 release of Guido van Driel's film 'Bloody Mary' meant some free publicity for Lambiek. The movie not only had cameos of our own Boris Kousemaker and comic artist/director Van Driel, but in one particular scene our iconic plastic bag with ZIP-logo was prominently featured. We haven't quite decided yet which of these three had the best screen presence. For now, we are still hoping for our first Palme d'Or. That same month, a group of American expat students, spearheaded by Lambiek regular Gibson Bernath, made a mini-documentary about 50 years of Lambiek. The Comiclopedia's Bas Schuddeboom took the crew to all of Lambiek's Kerkstraat locations, sharing comprehensible insights and hilarious anecdotes about our illustrious past. Unfortunately, bad weather and merciless street noise made an end to his 15 minutes of fame, as no one ever heard what he said. So instead, Gibson himself retold the history of Lambiek, accompanied by beautiful animations, based on the info and images from the Story of Lambiek on this website. After their Kerkstraat journey, Bas and the film crew joined Boris in Lambiek's current store in the Koningsstraat, where, luckily, an audible interview was recorded. This lovely tribute to our days of yore can still be watched on Lambiek's YouTube channel.
Klaas Knol during the 45th anniversary party of Lambiek in 2013. Photo: Marco Buddingh.
Death of Klaas Knol
On 12 July 2019, we received sad news. Our beloved Klaas Knol, who had been with Lambiek since the 1980s, had died at age 64. Klaas' health had been a matter of concern ever since he had to retire from his store activities. But while he was struggling with emphysema, Klaas remained involved with Lambiek until the very end, doing chores like ordering new comic book titles, writing event announcements and answering email from his Lelystad home. In his final years, Klaas' visits to Lambiek became more sporadic as the trip from Lelystad to Amsterdam became too tiring for him. But still he kept his infectious enthusiasm and sense of humor, when he told us about the difficulty of traveling by train with a mobility scooter. Unfortunately, Klaas had to miss our November 2018 anniversary party, but still played an important role in the festivities. He wrote the foreword to our '50 Years of Lambiek' anniversary book, and supplied Bas with invaluable anecdotes about the history of the store.
Farewell to Klaas by Jeroen Funke.
Klaas was a familiar face to almost four generations of Lambiek visitors. His knowledge, humor and pleasant personality were highly appreciated by customers, staff and practically everyone who came by. His death was commemorated in the newspaper Het Parool, as well as the local history magazine Ons Amsterdam. Klaas' funeral took place on 17 July, in a private circle for family, close friends and colleagues. As an ultimate expression of his dedication to Lambiek, Klaas lay in state in his Lambiek T-shirt. Two days later, on 19 July, we organized a larger commemoration for Klaas Knol in the store. The event was attended by Lambiek regulars of past and present, including former employees, comic creators, customers and other members of our entourage. During this mourning reunion, all present held a minute of silence for our legendary counter cashier.
Little comic strip by Maaike Hartjes about the minute of silence in honor of Klaas Knol on 19 July 2019. Poor Menno Kooistra was in the bathroom when this was spontaneously initiated, and had no idea what he was walking into when he returned to the store.
Employees
In the post-Klaas period, the Lambiek store team has been going steady with the "Bearded Three": Boris Kousemaker, Jurrien de Vries and Arie Plas. Especially Jurrien's importance for the store has grown considerably. He works many hours, and is actively involved in ordering new books, organizing events and doing the finances. In September 2019, comic artist Dace Sietina briefly joined our ranks to help with our social media promotion and sales on eBay and Amazon. In the following year, the Comiclopedia editors Bas Schuddeboom and Kjell Knudde were reinforced by an old friend from California, Dan Schiff, who rejoined the team as final editor and overseas consultant.
On 25 July 2023, we were shocked to hear of the death of another former Lambiek employee, Loes van Alphen (1945-2023), who also had been ill for a while. Loes had been with Lambiek during the 1970s and 1980s, working in the store and helping Kees with projects like the Lambiek Bulletin. In 2008, Loes penned down her memories of her time at Lambiek, which can be read here (in Dutch only). We also learned of the death on 7 October 2023 of Tony Leeuwenburgh (1963-2023), better known as Tony Slug, a Danish-Dutch punk rock musician who had helped us back in 2007 with setting up a webshop and Comiclopedia database.
Fall 2019
Irene Berbee made her appearance on 11 October 2019, signing her graphic novel 'Ulfberht'. This book about a magical Viking sword was originally going to be published by the American Rats & Crows imprint, but when the deal fell through, Berbee self-published it. Apart from being one of our most regular visitors, Guido van Driel is also one of our favorite comic artists. On 1 November, we were happy to welcome him with both a presentation and mini expo of volume 1 of his graphic novel 'In Hollandia Suburbia', about a pop band confronted with UFOs, the Virgin Mary and other strange phenomena. Three weeks later, on 22 November, we opened our doors to Stijn Schenk, who presented his latest collective Real Comics project 'Wortels in Nederlands-Indië', collecting stories from the former Dutch colony.
On 1 December, Sasha Jovanovich signed his dystopian graphic novel 'Het Konijn'. As chilling as his vision of the future might read, we were happy that in our reality things looked far more promising. Just like the previous December month, Peter van Dongen returned to our store on 20 December 2019 to present a new 'Blake & Mortimer' adventure, 'De Vallei der Onsterfelijken'. Sometimes it's reassuring that some things don't change. And as far as many of us were concerned, 2020 would be a year like any other, without many surprises.
The Anus team at Lambiek on 31 January.
2020: Silence before the storm
During the first three months of 2020, there didn't seem to be a speck of dirt, let alone a virus, in the air. Freshly into the new year, Victor Meijer honored us with a visit to sign his latest, Moebius-inspired, graphic novel, 'Hondsdol'. On 31 January, Gabriel Kousbroek and Martyn F. Overweel (in his Kaiser Kütlipp II persona) came by to celebrate the fifth issue ánd anniversary of their underground comic Anus with speeches, performances and music. On 3 March 2020, we were honored to receive the freebooter cartoonist Willem, most famous for his anarchic political drawings in Libération and Charlie Hebdo. The Dutch-born renegade came all the way from his current home country France to sign his most recent book, 'Les Aventures de l'Art', a series of provocative biographical comics about famous artists. Only three days later, Vick DeBergh was at Lambiek to sign his comic book 'Blook', a sequel to Johnn Bakker's classic 1970s superhero. The project was a collaboration between DeBergh and Babiche Bakker, the daughter of the illustrious beatnik artist, who had died in 2006. A couple of weeks later, Babiche returned to Lambiek with TV host Jaap Jongbloed to film a segment about her father for an episode of the TV show 'Het Mooiste Meisje van de Klas' ("The Most Beautiful Girl In The Classroom"). The episode was broadcast on 6 July.
In the early months of 2020, our store's oldest and toughest adversary was an old acquaintance: the rising water. On 2 March, our basement flooded, causing severe damage to the floor and many books. Luckily, we could temporarily house our foreign stock in an empty store space across the street. In vain, Boris tried to get the damage reimbursed by our insurance company... But we went through more complicated floods before, so 2020 couldn't possibly get worse. Or could it?
3 March 2020: Willem at Lambiek!
2020-2022: the COVID-19 pandemic
A new spring usually heralds feelings of joy and sunny weather. Not in 2020, when the COVID-19 coronavirus slowly but surely became a global pandemic. The disease had been causing victims in China since late 2019, but by March it had spread to the rest of the globe. Many governments were forced to take strict quarantine measures. On 12 March 2020, the Netherlands entered a state of "intelligent lockdown". To keep the number of infections under control, the population was expected to stay indoors as much as possible and after a while all non-essential stores also had to close their doors. And although many would consider comics essential necessities, we could not use this excuse. Like many Dutch stores, Lambiek operated at half speed, surviving on online orders and closing the doors at 2 PM. This short period of time was mainly used by Boris to monitor the water damage and arrange administrative matters, while accepting the occasional customer at the door to pick up an order. Large gatherings were completely out of the question, so we had to survive without our regular signing sessions and traditional "Friday afternoon drinks". Planned events with the Limburg collective behind the comic book 'Bevrijd', the punk rock poster artist Vlerk and the Kutlul crew had to be canceled.
Corona-time advertisement for the Lambiek webshop by Larie Cook (2020).
It was overall a depressing time, something right out of a dramatic comic book. Some of us compared the situation to the 'Tintin' story 'The Shooting Star', where everybody fears the world will be destroyed by a meteor and all public life comes to a standstill. The empty streets reminded us of the zombie apocalypse in 'The Walking Dead' or the ghost towns that poor lonesome cowboy Lucky Luke often encounters. But contrary to a comic book, there were no mad scientists or superheroes to help us: we all had to get through this together. During a period of two years, restrictions were generally relaxed during the Summer months, when infections decreased, and then reinforced in the Fall and Winter, when the flu season took off. Despite our limited financial margins, Lambiek managed to survive, all thanks to our loyal customers and the generous attitude of our housing corporation Stadgenoot, who cut down our rent because of the water damage.
Favorite pastime during the quieter Friday drinks festivities: watching the rain fall from the sky. From left to right: neighbor Bajka, Bas, Boris and Jurrien (June 2021).
P. Hans Frankfurther Prize for the Comiclopedia
During all those months at home, many people decided to take care of some overdue maintenance on their house. Since the Comiclopedia team is all fingers and thumbs, they cleaned up the website. Bas Schuddeboom and Kjell Knudde, later joined by Dan Schiff, created a "Comiclopedia Manifest" in which they documented substantive and stylistic rules for writing their biographies. With an American back in the team, we learned more and more about the English language and the necessity of adding context and explanations in our articles to keep them understandable for readers from all over the world. Deciding to fully focus on the English biography pages, Bas and Kjell made the decision to cut certain outdated and less popular pages, like the articles about newspaper strips and webcomics, and the section with Dutch-language biographies. All these efforts happened to coincide with a great honor: the 2020 P. Hans Frankfurther Prize for special merits was awarded to our Comiclopedia writers.
On 8 February 2020, Stripjournaal podcast host Robin Vinck asked Bas if he could call him during the episode to ask him some questions. Since Bas had been a guest in the podcast only a couple of weeks earlier to talk about his work for the comic weeklies Donald Duck and Tina, he expected it to be a follow-up to previously discussed topics. But by the time he was in the broadcast, the episode's main guest, Stripschap chairman Meerten Welleman, informed him that he and Kjell were the winners of that year's P. Hans Frankfurther Prize. To Bas and Kjell, this was the crown on their work, and also the perfect opportunity to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Comiclopedia.
The Comiclopedia team is awarded the P. Hans Frankfurther Prize on 2 October 2020. From left to right: Margreet de Heer, Bas Schuddeboom, Kjell Knudde and Tamar Frankfurther, daughter of Stripschap founder P. Hans Frankfurther.
Unfortunately, the corona pandemic threw a spanner in the works. The award ceremony had to be postponed for months. And since the borders were temporarily closed, Kjell, as a Belgian, could not travel to the Netherlands. Plans to have the ceremony take place virtually were rejected, largely because Kjell was plagued by a lousy internet connection at the time. And with many specialized stores closed, it was difficult to get this fixed. Ultimately, the lockdown measures were temporarily relaxed in September 2020, allowing the Belgian-Dutch borders to reopen and the ceremony to finally take place. And even though the Dutch Railways made sure to make the passage from Antwerp to Amsterdam take as long as possible, Kjell was shocked on arrival to realize that he had completely forgotten to prepare a speech!
Taking the lead in the event was none other than Margreet de Heer, herself a former Comiclopedia editor and at the time in function as the Comic Artist Laureate of the Netherlands. Organized in a hall in Haarlem, the award ceremony could only be attended by a small number of guests, with enough distance between the chairs. After giving a lovely speech, Margreet showed a recently digitized film of Kees Kousemaker's acceptance speech of his P. Hans Frankfurther Prize in 1999, followed by a newly recorded film with congratulations from the Lambiek entourage and a masterfully animated timeline of the Comiclopedia history. Bas and Kjell then each held a speech, while Kjell had to improvise and luckily wrapped everything up before a stereotypical stage hook had to yank him away. The entire event was also filmed by Jan-Willem Winter, but unfortunately the cameraman fell ill three days afterwards, which delayed the editing and broadcast for two more months. No prizes for guessing what illness befell on him…
Hand-lettered certificate by Frits Jonker, handed to Bas Schuddeboom and Kjell Knudde during the award ceremony for the P. Hans Frankfurther Prize on 2 October 2020. Even though the text mentions 14,000 artist biographies, it took until 15 December 2020 before that amount was reached in the Comiclopedia.
Comiclopedia exposure
Overall, the exposure of the Comiclopedia and its editors expanded after receiving the prize. While Bas was already known as an editor for Donald Duck and Tina, Kjell's fascination for comics became more apparent to the outside world when he began posting daily Facebook articles about his favorite comic pages during every single day of the pandemic. He built up a steady fanbase of readers, who enjoyed these daily comics as a welcome escapism during seemingly endless lockdowns and bans on public meetings. The project landed him invitations to write texts for comic-related exhibitions in Belgium, and also for pop culture articles in the Dutch magazines Brul and Zone 5300. Bas, in the meantime, has been co-curating exhibitions for the new Museum of Comic Art (MoCA) in the Dutch coastal town Noordwijk, and writing his regular "Columnclopedia" column in Stripglossy magazine, about his experiences with Comiclopedia research. In November 2022, the Comiclopedia was unexpectedly highlighted in an article on the website Openculture.org, which led to a diaspora of similar articles appearing on other cultural websites across the world.
Edwin Hagendoorn, taking a break from his signing session (3 September 2021).
Fall 2021: new events!
As said, the ongoing lockdowns made it difficult to organize events. The first Lambiek signing session since the corona outbreak took place on 13 August 2021. That day, Boris Peeters arrived to present his book 'Wie Is Die Vogel?', a comically illustrated overview of no less than 250 bird species and specific information about our feathered friends. In terms of chatter, Lambiek that day was almost an aviary. Many came by to attend this first event in months. Regular customers and sympathizers, including all the other members of the Lamelos team. Luckily, this pleasant day caused no additional corona patients, only new hobby ornithologists.
Painter Edwin Hagendoorn proved that you are never too old to make your first comic book. At age 53, he published his graphic novel with Concerto Books, presenting this book in our store on 3 September. Despite the bird-like title, 'Uiltje Engnek', this book unfolded disturbing events in a 19th-century Spanish nunnery, inspired by Francisco de Goya's grim engravings. A more idealistic vision of humanity came from Isa Grütter. On 8 October, she came by to present her experimental book 'Werktitel: Mens', which speculates on what we might have looked like if the Creator had put a little more effort into his creation. The contributors to Kutlul magazine have always been advocates of originality. That's why we welcomed them back to the store on 23 October to celebrate the 11th edition of their magazine.
Boris Peeters had his 'Kayeko' character visit Lambiek in Brul issue #12 (2022).
The assassination of John F. Kennedy is now more than half a century behind us. Probably, there is more written about J.F.K. than any other US president. Erik Varekamp and Mick Peet, however, examined J.F.K.'s father in the third installment of their graphic novel series 'De Kennedy Files', made public in Lambiek on 30 October. After all, Joseph P. Kennedy was a shady figure, with countless questionable connections and activities. Fortunately, the C.I.A. didn't organize a raid to confiscate the copies. Back in our midst on 4 November was Victor Meijer, who didn't delve into the past, but the future. That Friday, Lambiek customers were presented his graphic novel 'De Mensheid Volgens Crocodile Charley' ("Humanity According to Crocodile Charley"), a book depicting a post-apocalyptic world in which crocodiles have become the dominant species. Talk about bite-sized entertainment! Even more madness awaited us on 12 November, when the musical duo Wanderwelle and cartoonist Floor van het Nederend were present to promote their collaborative graphic novel 'De Duizendpoot' ("The Centipede"), about a seismologist who wakes up on a deserted island and falls prey to mysterious tremors and questions of conscience.
For a moment it seemed like everything was back to normal. The book presentations at Lambiek were well attended, with everyone enjoying the good old atmosphere. But the pandemic wasn't over, and by the end of November 2021, the corona measures were tightened again. Because our small store couldn't make social distancing possible, the presentation of Guido van Driel's second 'In Hollandia Suburbia' graphic novel had to be relocated to the Perdu Foundation, 700 meters further, on the Kloveniersburgwal. As the Netherlands were plunged into a new lockdown, complete with curfew, our store was closed again for months and all orders were placed virtually. It almost made us nostalgic for the days when simple floods seemed our biggest problem.
Event invitation for Frenk Meeuwsen's signing session on 29 April 2022. From left to right one can spot cameos from Luc Cromheecke's Plunk, Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, Albert Uderzo's Obelix, Peyo's Smurf, Jean Giraud (A.K.A. Moebius)' Major Fatale, E.C. Segar's Popeye, André Franquin's Marsupilami, Charles M. Schulz' Snoopy and Jack Kirby's The Incredible Hulk.
Back to business in 2022
It took until the Spring of 2022 for the lockdown to be lifted and things to return to normal. On 29 April, Frenk Meeuwsen brought the ideal book for such a solemn start: 'Het Jaar Nul' ("The Year Zero"). This semi-autobiographical graphic novel offers a look at a man whose life is about to change as he will soon become a father. On 27 May, Lambiek welcomed Peter Arends with his highly detailed and surreal horror prints. While Chad Bilyeu has been a Lambiek regular with his 'Chad in Amsterdam' series, on 10 June he passed by with a completely new project. Together with illustrator Juliette de Wit, he launched the comic book series 'The Re-Up', which looked back on his student years as a marijuana dealer in Washington D.C. Once again, Lambiek proved to be the ultimate network location. While she was signing a copy of 'The Re-Up' for Bas Schuddeboom, Juliette mentioned that she had always wanted to make a comic for Tina one day. Within a couple of days, Bas had Juliette team up with Margreet de Heer, and their Tina comic 'Ryoko' was born!
On 17 June, Lambiek was thrown back into the Middle Ages when Remco Polman and Wilfred Ottenheijm presented the third album of their humorous knight comic 'Floris van Dondermonde'. Two months later, on 12 August, Maurice Hof signed his two-part graphic novel about the sex industry, 'Amateur'. A month later, Michiel van de Pol focused on amateurs within his industry, although rather to inspire them. On 16 September, he presented us with his latest book, with the exciting title: 'Hoe Ik Mijn Fortuin Maakte Als Live-Cartoonist' ("How I Made My Fortune as a Live Cartoonist"). The work offers an amusing look at the do's and don'ts of drawing for an audience, an activity he was able to demonstrate on our Lambiek drawing board that very day.
Victor Meijer returned to our business on 23 September, this time to present his book 'Penisnijd' ("Penis Envy"), a reflection on the social pressure to give your sexuality a very specific, narrow-minded label. Apparently, everyone present decided to think about their genital preferences afterwards, because no major events took place in Lambiek for the rest of the year.
Event invitation for Maurice Hof's signing session on 12 August 2022.
Events in 2023
On 6 January 2023, Lambiek decided to organize a New Year's drink, combined with Schwantz's presentation of his latest book, 'Cardboard à Gogo', a collection of drawings made on pieces of cardboard. From Gogo to Gordo: our salesman Larie Cook (and creator of the piglet Gordo) hadn't wasted his time during the lockdown. During those lonely months, he had drawn an improvised superhero comic in ballpoint, starring himself and his friends (which includes comic editor Stijn Schenk). Through a homemade crowdfunding campaign, he could publish it on 13 January 2023 as a book, under the title 'Where Are Those Real Guys?' Two months later, on 17 March, we learned the answer. That day, Chad Bilyeu and Juliette de Wit were present to show our visitors the second part of their book 'The Re-Up', while on 24 March Stephan Louwes brought the closing volume of his 'Limbo' trilogy with him.
April brought us none other than Erik Kriek, who came by on the 28th to sign 'De Kuil', a graphic novel about a couple who try to cope with the loss of their son in a traffic accident and gradually find themselves in a more disturbing situation. On 26 May, we had a double signing session of Charles Guthrie and Berend Vonk, who both had collections of their idiosyncratic comics released. All the way from Finland, on 1 June, came Tommi Musturi, creator of the surreal and inventive one-man underground comic anthology Future. On 16 June, Margreet de Heer returned to her old homebase to sign 'Jij Gaat Dood', a gripping graphic novel about the childhood ordeals of Nina Blom, who was made ill by her mother for fourteen years and a victim of Munchausen by Proxy syndrome.
Pier Dola with Jurrien de Vries on 27 October 2023.
New talent
Ever since our start 55 years ago, Lambiek has been at the vanguard of promoting alternative comic art. From our import of underground comix in the 1970s, to our support of upcoming indie artists like Peter Pontiac Pascal Doury and Chris Ware, we are always looking for new, original talent outside of the mainstream. In 2023, our major "discovery" was Pier Dola, a Rotterdam-based artist of mysterious origins, who has spent years making at least one grotesque and surreal piece of art a day. Out of the blue, he debuted at Fantagraphics Books with the massive comic books 'From Granada to Cordoba' (2021) and 'Corona Bible' (2022). Original art by Pier Dola is for sale and for show at Lambiek, while the artist honored us with a visit to make over-the-top caricatures of our customers on 27 October 2023.
In the December 2023 issue of the Swiss-German comic anthology Strapazin, seven prominent European comic shops were portrayed, among them Lambiek. Each store was offered six pages to fill with art by comic creators to their liking. Handpicking the artists that had best represented the spirit of Lambiek in the recent Koningsstraat years, Boris asked Larie Cook, Edwin Hagendoorn, Victor Meijer, Joost Halbertsma, Pier Dola and Guido van Driel to provide either old or new work.
Event invitation for Pier Dola's signing session.