Comics History
Dutch Comics 1950-1967
By the 1950s, Holland had recovered from the War and started to enjoy a better state of welfare. This was characterized by the emergence of many different political parties, and a strong connection with their voters, who all subscribed to different newspapers which promoted their own visions. More newspapers meant more room for comics, and newspaper strips became a booming business.
Many of these comic strips came from the famous Marten Toonder Studios, such as the strip 'Koning Hollewijn' above. But other artists also found their way into the newspapers, for example, Siem Praamsma with 'Ootje Teur'.
Carol Voges, also known for 'Pa Pinkelman' and his work on the Dutch Donald Duck Weekly Magazine, wrote and drew 'Jimmy Brown', which appeared in several newspapers and later in album form.
Comics appeared not only in newspapers, but also directly in album form, such as the series 'Pinkie Pienter', started by J.H. Koeleman Jr., and later taken over by Lex Overeijnder and Berend Dam.
Bob van den Born earned international fame for his "silent" strip 'Professor Pi', about a philosophical and sometimes absurd little professor.
Another newspaper strip from this period that is fondly remembered by many, is 'Tante Patent' ('Aunt Patent'), not in the least because it was written by famous Dutch children's books writer Annie M.G. Schmidt, but also because of the visual credit of the drawings of Fiep Westendorp.
With the ban on overseas comics gone, there was a renewed interest in comic strips and movies that came from America in the early 1950s.
In 1952, Walt Disney's Donald Duck, already known through animations, introduced the first dutch Donald Duck weekly magazine. The first issue was distributed for free on 25 October 1952, and immediately became a great success. Donald Duck Weekly is still going strong and has celebrated its 50th birthday in 2002. Many Dutch artists have contributed to it over time, including Daan Jippes, Ben Verhagen, Carol Voges, Piet Wijn, Patty Klein, Henk Albers, Marten Toonder, Dick Matena and Mau Heymans.
The imported 'Tarzan' comics made a very big impact here and were copied by many comic artists, especially Dick Vlottes, who drew a 'Tarzan' series from 1955 until 1960.
Another comics feature that was imported from America was the 'Illustrated Classics' series, which retold classical stories such as 'Midsummernights Dream', 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Around the World in 80 Days' in comic form. Each story ended with a strong appeal to read the actual book. The first Dutch 'Illustrated Classics' came out in 1956, and the series ended in 1966.
In July 1964 the first issue of the Dutch MAD magazine appeared. It mostly featured the translated work of Don Martin, Harvey Kurtzmann, Will Elder, Sergio Aragones en Jack Davis, but also Dutch artists like Willy Lohmann and Gub contributed their work.