Dutch comics
Dutch comics | |
---|---|
Earliest publications | 1858 |
Languages | Franco-Belgian comics European comics |
Part of a series on the |
Culture of the Netherlands |
---|
History |
People |
Languages |
Folklore |
Cuisine |
Festivals |
Religion |
Art |
Music |
Sport |
Dutch comics are
Since the Netherlands share the same language with
History
Earliest examples
Dutch comics, like many European comics, have their prototypical forerunners in the form of medieval manuscripts, which often used sequential pictures accompanied by text, or sometimes even used speech balloons for captions.[1] The "mannekesprenten" ("little men drawings") are also an early forerunner, usually depicting the lives of Christian saints or fables.[1] In the 19th century several Dutch political cartoonists made use of sequential pictures, caricatures and humoristic situations that can be seen as the predecessors of comics. In 1858 the Swiss comic strip Monsieur Cryptogame by Rodolphe Töpffer was translated in Dutch by J.J.A. Gouverneur as Meester Prikkebeen (Mister Prick-a-leg) and was a huge success in the Netherlands. It was published in the text comics format, with written text published underneath the pictures. This type of comics would remain the dominant form in the Netherlands until the mid-1960s, because Dutch moral guardians felt that these comics at least motivated children to actually read written sentences instead of merely looking at the pictures. While translations of comic strips remained popular no actual Dutch comics artists emerged until the late 19th century. One of the earliest artists to be considered a comic artist was Jan Linse. He drew several humoristic scenes in sequential form and wrote the text beneath the pictures.[1] Another pioneer was Daniël Hoeksema, who drew a spin-off series inspired by Monsieur Cryptogame called De Neef van Prikkebeen (1909) (Prikkebeen's Cousin)[1][2] However, most Dutch comics during the 1880s, 1890s, 1900s and 1910s were satirical illustrations and cartoons about Dutch politics and society or moralistic stories for the youth.[3]
Interbellum: The true beginnings of Dutch comics
The first proper Dutch comic strips were published after
The early example of a Dutch comics magazine was Kleuterblaadje (Toddler Magazine) published in 1915 and had a weekly comic strip, often translations and even plagiarism from foreign language magazines. Many children's magazines began to devote one or more of their page to comics, but the first actual full-fledged Dutch comics magazine was published in 1922: Het Dubbeltje. It only lasted two-and-a-half years, but other more successful ones followed in its wake, such as Doe Mee (1936-1942) (1946-1949), Olijk en Vrolijk (1937-1941) [7]
The 1930s saw P. Koenen's "De Lotgevallen van Pijpje Drop" ("The Adventures of Pijpje Drop" (1930), "Flipje" (1935) by
World War II
The
After 1945: The two great Dutch comic classics come into being
After the liberation the publication of comics boomed, with many successful series being published in newspapers, such as
The Toonder Studio's was not created by its namesake, but actually had its origins in the Diana Edition agency, established by the Jewish-Austrian refugee Fritz Gottesmann in the 1930s and where Toonder started to work in 1939. Gottesmann had to go into hiding during the war and left the company into the care of his by then partner Toonder from 1941 onward, but was later captured and died in the
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s educators in a conservative society the Netherlands still was at the time, highly discouraged young people reading comics, because they felt it was a bad influence on them. Many magazines and newspapers went across their censorship and moral objections by publishing their series in a text comics format. This allowed children to at least read some sentences and could guide them to "real literature".[11] Yet, it was partly for these reasons that the Dutch text comic enjoyed its golden age in the era 1945–1960, with Tom Poes, Eric de Noorman and Kapitein Rob as its standard bearers.
Of these latter three, it were Tom Poes, Eric de Noorman and their two creators in particular who went on to conquer a special place in Dutch popular awareness, in the process becoming the two personifications of the classic Dutch comics, eclipsing all the others, which are increasingly becoming dim memories only. Though obviously fondly remembered by the older Dutch generations, their renown have become such that even the younger native generations, even though the vast majority of them has never read a single title of these two creations, still recognize the names Tom Poes en Oliver B. Bommel and Eric de Noorman. The memory and cultural heritage of its two creators, Toonder and Kresse respectively, is actively kept alive by its two respective private foundations "Toonder Compagnie BV" (actually started in 2000 as the "Stichting Het Toonder Auteursrecht" by Toonder himself, as he was keenly aware of the impact his creations had made in Dutch cultural awareness),
While Pieter Kuhn's Kapitein Rob was every bit as renowned as its two counterparts by Toonder and Kresse were at the time, he eventually failed to become the third "Dutch great" and both he and his creation are as of 2020 all but forgotten, only fondly remembered by the oldest still living generations. Recently though, comics publisher Uitgeverij Personalia became a latter-day Dutch publisher to tap into this nostalgia, by reprinting the complete Kapitein Rob series, starting in 2021.[22]
1946: Advent of the Franco-Belgian comic
Tom Poes Weekblad, featuring the for the Netherlands traditional text comics, had to compete right from the start with Belgian weekly competitors
It was through Kuifje, where the series ran from 1948 to 1959, that Dutch readership was introduced to Suske en Wiske and where the series started its journey to become one of Holland's most all-time popular comic series.
1948: Crisis
Late 1948 turned out to be a seminal moment in time for the Dutch comic world when Dutch Minister of Education Theo Rutten had his official letter, dated 19 October 1948, published in the October 25, 1948 issue of the newspaper Het Parool, directly addressing educational institutions and local government bodies, advocating the prohibition of comics, or rather the below mentioned "beeldromans". He stated, "These booklets, which contain a series of illustrations with accompanying text, are generally sensational in character, without any other value. It is not possible to proceed in a legal manner against printers, publishers or distributors of these novels, nor can anything be achieved by not making paper available to them, since this for those publications necessary paper, is available on the free market," further implying that it became the civil duty of parents, teachers and civil servants, including policemen, to confiscate and destroy comic books wherever they found them,[30] or as he had put it, "If you would like to point out, unnecessarily perhaps, to your school personnel that it is desirable to ensure that the students do not bring the graphic novels into school or distribute them to their comrades.(...) Where the circumstances make this desirable, the students are to be pointed out the very superficial nature of this literature, and the numerous books that are more worthy of their attention."[31] Less than a month later, a 16-year-old girl was murdered in a bizarre manner on November 19 in the small town of Enkhuizen by her 15-year old boyfriend, who had tied her down to railroad tracks where she was killed by a passing train. An initially mystified police subsequently uncovered that both had been ravenous readers of comic books of the kind that were in concordance with Rutten's definition in his letter.[31] Taken as validation, a moral outcry ensued, causing not only "beeldromans", but all comic books being en masse confiscated and destroyed around the country by parents and educators, with all comic publications being suspended and public libraries removing and destroying any comic books they might have had in their collections. On the occasion, and in an effort to outdo other contemporary media statements of indignation, libraries went even as far as coining comic books in a public statement, "an atrocious sickness of the times, ready for suicide of the soul in its despondency".[31] It nearly destroyed the comic phenomenon in the Netherlands, which had only just begun recovering from the war years. The only exceptions were made for a small number of "healthy" comic productions from the Toonder Studio's, which included the by then considered literary comic strip Tom Poes.[32] Reactions to the incident were not state-sanctioned initiatives, but rather spontaneous, popular responses.
Despite the upheaval the incident has caused in the Netherlands, Dutch authorities have refrained from ever passing laws or instituting agencies of the restrictive kind France, Germany and Canada – which had purely by chance experienced a
1954: Tom Poes becomes Dutch literature
While being considered "healthy" and thus exempted from the purge resulting from the 1948 incident, Marten Toonder was not that confident that his Tom Poes (or any other from his studios for that matter) was out of the woods yet,[30] and as a result he too, like Bomans, took a stand against the hysteria engulfing the country at the time, expressing his concerns in the 1949 Tom Poes story "Horror, de ademloze " through the words of Tom Poes' faithful friend, sidekick, companion, and all around gentleman Oliver B. Bommel (Oliver B. Bumble). In hindsight however, Toonder needed not to have worried personally. Tom Poes actually started out as a children's comic with the first six stories being written by Toonder's wife Phiny Dick; And indeed Toonder based his characters Tom Poes en Oliver B. Bommel – who made his first appearance in the third story – on the characters his wife had created for a children's book trilogy she had written and illustrated in the period 1939-1941: the (female) kitten "Miezelijntje"', she herself considered the younger sister of Tom Poes, and the boy bear "Wol de Beer".[33] Yet, from the moment Toonder made Tom Poes truly his own, his eloquent mastery of the Dutch language was quite early on recognized by critics as bonafide Dutch literature, only emphasized by the fact that several recurrent utterances by Oliver Bommel (who was such a popular figure, that he actually took over the series, retitled "Heer Bommel" – "Gentleman Bommel" – as the main protagonist in the later speech balloon versions[34]) have percolated over the years into colloquial Dutch, such as "Als U begrijpt wat ik bedoel" ("If you know what I mean") and "Als U mij wilt verschonen" ("If you will excuse me"), and which was very much met with the approval of the conservative educators mentioned above, and the primary reason why his studio productions became exempt from the 1948/49 purge.[35][32]
Toonder's growing renown as a literary author was formalized when he was invited to become a fellow of the prestigious "
The elevation of Tom Poes into "official" literature has also sparked a decades long
Yet, the literary status of Tom Poes also came at a cost; Toonder making the fullest use of the intricacies of the Dutch language – in the process actually inventing some new Dutch language[43] – also meant that the appeal of his creations remained mostly limited to Dutch-Europe, as translation in foreign languages was bedevilishly difficult to achieve without having much of its nuances and subtleties, having become the corner stones for Tom Poes in the first place, being lost in translation. This was especially pertinent for the Romance languages, including French, where very few Toonder creations are known to exist in translation, contrary to the Germanic languages – including English as Toonder, having acquired the language skills during his world travels before the war, had actually created some original Tom Puss stories in English for the British market[44] – , particularly the Scandinavian ones due to their grammatical similarities.[45] Of the two Dutch greats, Hans G. Kresse therefore became the more translated one,[46] but who is otherwise shunned by the Dutch cultural authorities.
The 1950s and 1960s: Recovery
In the wake of the 1948 upheaval, the Dutch comic world initially relied predominantly on "healthy" imports, apart from their own Toonder Studios productions and the already established Robbedoes and Kuifje magazines which resumed distribution after the short-lived suspension, with 1952 marking the introduction of the most popular Dutch comics magazine, when
In the wake of Donald Duck, other comics from American origin, which were immensely popular in the country in the interbellum era (as indeed they were in the rest of Europe) made their reappearance in the country as well, when National Periodical Publications (the later DC Comics) opened a local branch in 1956 in the town of Huizen, Classics Lektuur , made responsible for the Dutch translations and distribution of their comic productions. With what was originally named Classics Nederland (later rechristened Williams Nederland before its final name), the Netherlands had actually received its first specialized comic book publisher, though care was taken with the sensibilities still present in the country as the company initially started out with the publication of predominantly "safe" series, the most conspicuous one having been the translated version of Classics Illustrated, and after which the Dutch subsidiary was named to begin with. Regaining the popularity they had before the war (contrary to France and Belgium, where American comics failed to make a comeback, the Disney productions excepted), particularly in mid-1960s to early 1970s era after attitudes towards the medium had relaxed when comic series of a less edifying nature were added to the array, American style comics went out of vogue in translation by the end of the 1970s,[48] being increasingly supplanted in popularity by the Franco-Belgian style comics, both native and in translation from their originating countries, which also resulted in the demise of the company itself.
Still, exemplary of the cautious course the Dutch comic scene embarked upon after the 1948 incident was the advent of the magazines
Yet, hard on the heels of these edifying publications, came the first purely Dutch initiated comic magazines aimed at an adolescent readership without the edifying nature of the Catholic magazines, which included
Pep magazine
However, it was Pep in particular that turned out to be an emancipating force for the Dutch comic world, freeing it from the shackles of 1948 while coaching on the winds of the
But more importantly, and in imitation of its French example, it was Pep who provided ample opportunity – even more so than the Spaarnestad competitors – for native comic talent, not few of them having started out at the Toonder Studio's, to burst unto the Dutch comic scene with their own original – and more free-spirited – creations in the Franco-Belgian inspired balloon comics format. It was that magazine (and its successor Eppo) that saw such first-time original publications of Dutch comic world mainstays, like Martin Lodewijk's Agent 327 (1967-1985; 2000- ... ), Dick Matena and Lo Hartog van Banda's De Argonautjes (1970-1980), Gideon Brugman's Ambrosius (1970-1974), Fred Julsink's Wellington Wish (1971-1973), Peter de Smet's De Generaal (1971-2003), Jan Steeman and Andries Brandt's Roel Dijkstra (1977-1995), Henk Kuijpers's Franka (1974-...), originally as Het Misdaadmuseum) and Hanco Kolk and Peter de Wit's Gilles de Geus (1985-2003), to name but a few.[52][53][54]
It was not only the young generation of Dutch comic artists who found a fruitful platform for their creations in the magazine, Pep also provided the veteran Hans G. Kresse with a venue for what can be considered his second comics career. Attached to the magazine from the very start, Kresse not only provided illustrations for the magazine's editorials and short prose stories as well as magazine covers on behalf of the other magazine artists in the early years, but also started to create his early magazine comic series in the increasingly popular speech balloon format (thereby abandoning the text comic format in which he had achieved fame) of which Zorro (1964-1967) was the best known at that time. Together with the Asterix artists, Kresse was one of the very few magazine artists who survived the radical formula change Pep implemented a few years into its existence, and major series he created for the magazine afterwards were the aforementioned Vidocq and Erwin, de zoon van Eric de Noorman (spinoff series of Eric de Noorman, centered around his son Erwin). During his tenure at the magazine, Kresse started to take a keen interest in the plight of the
Despite its relatively short lifespan in comparison to its Flemish counterparts, but like its main inspiration Pilote has had on its, Pep magazine has left an indelible impression on an entire generation of young Dutch comic readers and future comic artists, but considerably less so on their Flemish contemporaries, they having traditionally been more oriented on their own Robbedoes and Kuifje magazines.
Post-Pep-era comics artists, very popular in the Netherlands themselves, but who found the appeal of their bodies of work predominantly limited to the native market for the same reasons, included such artists as Gerrit de Jager (De familie Doorzon ), Theo van den Boogaard (Sjef van Oekel), Eric Schreurs (Joop Klepzeiker ), and Marnix Rueb (Haagse Harry ), as remains the case with Martin Lodewijk (even though German translations of his Agent 327 have been attempted) and Peter de Smet. Incidentally and concurrently, the same holds conversely true for Dutch-Belgium, whose comic artists, like Marc Sleen or Jef Nys for example, find the appeal of their work mostly limited to native Flanders.
The 1970s and 1980s: Heyday
In the field of adult comics magazines Tante Leny presenteert! (1970-1978), Modern Papier (1971-1972) and De Vrije Balloen (1975-1983) were the most notable. (1975-1985), subsequently renamed as Eppo Wordt Vervolgd (1985-1988), Sjors en Sjimmie Maandblad (1988-1994), SjoSjii (1994-1998), Striparazzi (1998-1999) and again as Eppo in 2009.
It's notable that the Netherlands were one of the few European countries to still publish text comics well into the 1960s, when the attitude towards comics began to change. In 1967 a center for comics fans, Het Stripschap , was founded, with their own specialized subject magazine Stripschrift . In 1968 the oldest comics store in the world, Lambiek was founded,[57] with the country receiving its own comics museum in Groningen, "Het Nederlands Stripmuseum", in 2004.
Formats
Text comics and oblongs
A format not unique to the Netherlands but once so common there that it got the designation "Hollandse school". Text comics consist of a series of illustrations with a block of text underneath the images telling the story. Famous Dutch series in this format are: Bulletje en Boonestaak, Tom Puss, Oliver B. Bumble, Kapitein Rob, Eric de Noorman, Panda, De Avonturen van Pa Pinkelman and Paulus the woodgnome. These comics were prepublished in newspapers, after which they were collected and made available in small rectangular booklets, called "oblongs" for their shape, or on occasion referred to as "Italian Format" for its laying or landscape oriented paper format (meaning the booklet is larger in width than it is in height). Oblongs enjoyed their heyday in the Netherlands in the late 1940s-early 1960s, Tom Poes, Kapitein Rob and Erik de Noorman in particular. As Dutch newspapers are as of 2017 still publishing comic strips, albeit it currently in the speech balloon format only and in a far lower quantity than they used to, the oblong format is still being used as the designated book format (as is the case with the above-mentioned Toonder publications from De Bezige Bij), if it is decided to publish the comic as such after the fact, which is not always the case, though it has as a comic book format been completely eclipsed by the far more popular album format, mentioned below.
As a comic format, text comics rapidly became all but defunct by the mid-1960s, the format lingering on for a little while longer in newspapers (in which the format had blossomed), due to the increasing popularity of speech balloon comics introduced to Dutch readership through post-war Flemish, Franco-Belgian, American and British imports, published in translation in such magazines such as Donald Duck, Sjors, and Pep in particular. Even Dutch mainstays like Marten Toonder and Hans G. Kresse had by the early 1970s switched over to the speech balloon format themselves for their work, including their respective main creations Tom Poes and Eric de Noorman (retitled Erwin, the son of the titular hero, as later series outings increasingly concentrated on him), with which they had achieved fame in the text comic format.
Picture novels ("Beeldromans")
A format born out of paper scarcity in WW II. The booklets are small (about the size of a box of cigarettes) and have usually one picture on every page. The first, most famous, longest running and last series in this format is
The Dutch name of the format has been resurrected in the 1980s as translation for the English-derived "graphic novel" expression in the literary world as explained above. Mazure's Dick Bos has been given a temporary second lease on life, when Panda Uitgeverij form Hans Matla, who considers the series a Dutch comic classic (as did his clientele apparently, as his expensive deluxe edition had rapidly sold out), reissued the entire series in a limited bibliophilic 19-volume edition in the period 2005–2014.[58][59]
Comic Magazines ("Strip bladen")
Dutch comics magazines used to have covers of the same paper as the rest of the magazine, they tended to be rather anthology like, with several short stories and/or episodes from long ones. Many of those stories were collected and reprinted in the below-mentioned album format. It was rather common for the magazines to contain a mix of Dutch material and imported stories, though the few surviving ones, such as Tina, (new) Eppo and StripGlossy currently almost exclusively feature native creations.
As it has in the rest of comic reading western Europe, the comic magazine format, started to wane in popularity from the second half of the 1970s onward after the heyday of the format in the 1950s-1960s, made visible by steadily decreasing circulation numbers experienced by all comic magazines. The breakout success of the album format from the early 1970s onward was actually one of the reasons of the decline, as readers increasingly preferred to have their titles presented to them in whole, with fans more and more unwilling to pay for their favorite series twice, as they were by now invariably released as albums after magazine publication, or as editor-in-chief Dirk Snoodijk has worded it in 1999, when his magazine Striparazzi – the penultimate reincarnation of Eppo magazine – went defunct, "The youth is more preoccupied than ever. However, the biggest competitor of the comic magazine is the comic album. We have in effect dug our own grave. Over the years, more and more albums were being published; Readers rather want to spend their money on albums than on magazines."[60] Furthermore, the entire comic phenomenon had to increasingly compete with an ever-expanding alternative range of pass-time options, most conspicuously television and home media formats, later augmented with the various products and services of the digital age. A series of economic crises in the last four decades only aggravated the situation for the comic magazine format. Exemplary of the trend was not only the very short lifespan of such magazines as Wham, Titanic, MYX, the various revitalization attempts of the original Eppo magazine and others conceived in the late 1970s-1990s, but also the demise of one of the longest surviving Dutch-language comic magazines, Robbedoes. When the magazine finally threw in the towel in 2005, circulation had dwindled to a mere 2000-3000 subscription only copies for both Flanders and the Netherlands, with the publisher not even been able to find a distributor for newsstand sales in its final years, having even been removed from their selections by the Dutch "leesmap" companies as explained below.[61]
Of the older Dutch-language comic magazines, it has been
The "Leesmap" phenomenon
The early-1960s saw the advent of a typical Dutch dissemination phenomenon called the "Leesmap " or the "Leesportefeuille", which in English loosely translates as "Reading portfolio". Vaguely reminiscent of the public library system, the phenomenon concerned a lending format, entailing a number of weekly magazines, collected in a folder – hence the "portefeuille" or "map" (both translating into "portfolio") designation – that could be borrowed on subscription basis for a week from a company providing the service, of which there were many in the country. Home delivered and collected by a dedicated "Bladenman" ("Magazineman", effectively a newly invented job), employed by the magazine lending company, the typically one to two dozen magazines included in the portfolio, were composed with the at the time typical composition of the average Dutch household in mind, to wit, father, mother and children. The format turned out to be immensely popular in the Netherlands, becoming a staple in Dutch households and waiting rooms for decades to come, as it meant that households could take out a simultaneous subscription on a substantial number of magazines at a hugely reduced rate when compared to individual magazine subscriptions, and turned out to be a solution for those households not able or willing to take out individual magazine subscriptions. The subscription fees were highest for the most current magazine issues, but diminished as they became older – subscribers being offered the age option – with the oldest ones (typically when they were three months or so in circulation) offered for keepsake at a sharply reduced rate to the last borrowers in line.[64]
With the children of a household in mind, there were as standard in all reading portfolios, regardless which company they originated from, four comic magazines included; Donald Duck for the very (pre-adolescent) young, Tina for the girls, and either Robbedoes and Kuifje (typically for the Catholic south of the country) or Pep and Sjors (typically for the Protestant north of the country) for the boys, but never any other combination of the latter two pairings for copyright reasons. That being said and often overlooked by Dutch comic scholars themselves, the "leesmap" phenomenon, because of its widespread dissemination, has been of critical importance for the Dutch comic scene as it had introduced entire generations to the world of Franco-Belgian inspired comics, a market penetration it would not have achieved had it had been solely reliant on individual magazine subscriptions and/or newsstand sales only, and in the process negating much of the lingering negative impression of the medium the 1948 incident had left on popular awareness as a happy aside by Pep in particular, as related above. The phenomenon is still quite popular in the country, though not as much as it had been in the 1960s-1980s, and an important reason why Tina and Donald Duck magazines still exist in the Dutch language and the primary reason why Kuifje and Robbedoes magazines held out for so long as they did, the general downward trend from the 1980s onward notwithstanding, because of the assured turnover from the "leesmap" companies. The latter two magazines actually enjoyed an extended lease of life, when Sjors and Pep were merged into Eppo in 1975 because their publishers themselves had merged three years earlier. As most "leesmap" companies were loath to break the mold of having four comic magazines included for the children in the household, they henceforth decided to proceed with Robbedoes and Kuifje for the most part, until Kuifje became defunct itself in 1993, resulting in the removal of Robbedoes – which managed to linger on until 2005 on its own – from the magazine selections as well. Illustrative of the Dutch magazines losing their place in the "leesmap", were their circulation numbers; Sjors and Pep had circulations of 156,172 and 128,824 copies respectively in 1974, Eppo featured a sharply reduced circulation of 197,069 copies in 1977 one year into its existence.
Currently, Tina and Donald Duck magazines are the only comics magazines still included in the "leesmaps",[64] which goes a long way explaining their longevity, despite being confronted with a sharply diminishing circulation as well, in effect keeping pace with the gradual diminishing popularity of the "leesmap".
Comic books
"Comic book" translates into Dutch as "stripboek", and has as such been in use in colloquial Dutch in the 1960s through the 1970s for the standard US format derived comic book format. It however has as translation become obsolete for the format thereafter as the Dutch expression is currently exclusively reserved for the hereafter mentioned album format and the aforementioned, albeit less common, oblong format. The directly from the US format derived comic book, came into being in the late 1950s for Dutch comics when the picture novels had disappeared as a result of the craze against them. It lasted for some time, enjoying its heyday as a translated format in the early 1970s – the publications of Classics Lektuur having been the prime example, with Juniorpress coming in second to a lesser extent – , but has all but disappeared in translation since then, supplanted by the more popular native and Franco-Belgian comic albums. Aside from this, there was actually a second reason for the demise of the translated versions; After the war, English became increasingly the preferred choice as second language in the Netherlands (exemplified by the fact that many primary schools and colleges in the country currently offer their students bi-lingual courses), replacing German and especially French as such, and with the vast majority of the population having nowadays at least a basic understanding of English, readers prefer to read their American (and British) comic books in the original language. Consequently, comic books, the adopted English expression now exclusively in use for the original format, are therefore still being read and sold in the Netherlands, but these are predominantly untranslated US and, to a lesser degree, British imports. Translations on behalf of younger readers are still in vogue for the comic adaptations of popular movie franchises, the Marvel Comics and Star Wars franchises in particular, as currently released by publishers Standaard Uitgeverij and relative newcomer Dark Dragon Books (Dutch despite English name) respectively. But, while the dimensions of their releases approximate those of the classic US comic book the page count invariably far exceeds the traditional 32 page format, aside from lacking any and all forms of advertising, and should therefore be considered as translations of what is currently understood the US graphic novel format.
Comic pocket books ("Strip pockets") and pulp comics
A format that was particularly popular in the Netherlands in the 1970s were the so-called "strip pockets", introduced in the late 1960s and originally conceived in Great Britain and Italy. As the name already implies it was a
Comic albums ("Stripboeken" or "Stripalbums")
The "
That Lombard and Dargaud had to align themselves with Dutch, or Dutch-based publishers for their album releases, instead of releasing them directly themselves, had partly to do with the then applicable copyrights laws as the European Single Market was not yet in place at the time, and partly to do with the fact that neither as relative newcomers had yet their own international distribution networks in place, explaining their close cooperation in the era on the Francophone market as well. The far older and more established publishers Dupuis and Casterman (both originally book publishers) on the other hand, had already circumvented legalities by establishing local subsidiaries in the Dutch towns of Sittard (Uitgeverij Dupuis NV) and Dronten (Casterman Nederland BV) respectively, which were made defunct as soon as the single market came into being at the start of 1993. Previously, Lombard and Dargaud had already severed the ties with their respective Dutch partners a decade earlier, by making use of the provisions embedded in the Benelux treaty, a localized preamble of the single market, comprising Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (hence the Benelux acronym), with Dargaud establishing a subsidiary in the Belgian capital Brussels as Dargaud Benelux NV (Dutch)/SA (French, and thus circumventing the fact that Dargaud was a French publisher), already the seat of Lombard, currently known as Dargaud-Lombard NV/SA after both companies were acquired and subsequently merged by French holding company Média-Participations. Nonetheless, the four Franco-Belgian publishers were alongside Oberon, the predominant album publishers in the country in the 1970s-1980s era, at the time occasionally referred to as "The Big Five" by the reporters of comic journal Stripschrift. Yet, the earliest known releases recognizable as modern comic albums, as in modeled after the early Tintin albums, were neither imports from Casterman nor those from Dupuis, but rather those of Spaarnestad who already started to release native Sjors & Sjimmie comic albums from the mid-1930s onward.[67] Spaarnestad incidentally, released its albums predominantly as hardcovers before becoming Oberon, unlike De Geïllustreerde Pers, after which the softcover format became the Dutch album norm for decades to come.
Most published comics are nowadays published in the album format, like their Franco-Belgian counterparts, the majority of album titles currently released in the Netherlands actually still being translations of the latter. And while the 48 page-count is still the norm, aberrant page-count publications, especially for the European-style graphic novels, have become more commonplace as well, again like their Franco-Belgian counterparts. Having become the dominant publication format for comics, albums came to be considered the equivalents of books from the late 1970s onward when comic albums too started to receive ISBN numbers, their status a decade later reinforced with the slowly increasing acceptance of the hardcover comic album format, the Franco-Belgian album standard, alongside the hitherto Dutch album norm, the softcover format, as customer option. Unlike magazines, they have no cover date and are often reprinted. They, when part of a series, also follow a specific chronological order and are thus collectable. Like it has in the originating world of Franco-Belgian comics, the vast majority of new titles are currently released directly in album format without prior magazine publication, as the serialized magazine publication format has sharply waned in popularity due to changing tastes and preferences of readership, as well as for other socio-economic reasons. It has been observed by European comics studies scholars that Americans originally used the expression "graphic novel" to describe everything that deviated from their standard, 32-page comic book format, meaning that as a format, all European larger-sized, longer comic albums, regardless of their contents, fell under the heading as far as Americans were concerned.[68]
Current status
Nowadays the Dutch market is fragmented: there are always the imports, the
As an art form, the comic phenomenon in the Netherlands was never able to fully escape from under the long shadow the 1948 incident had cast (see Hanco Kolk's below quoted 2016 remark) – even though the specifics of said incident, both cause and fall-out, are nowadays all but forgotten by contemporaries. It therefore has neither achieved the revered status of "Le Neuvième Art", the medium has in its southern neighbors Belgium and France, nor has it been accorded the formal recognition as such by cultural authorities – the creations of Marten Toonder and Joost Swarte excepted to some extent, as both men have received royal knighthoods, albeit only for (illustrated) literature and visual arts (its strips origins notwithstanding) manifestation respectively, instead as being awarded for comics – , or seen as such by Dutch society at large. Exemplary of the latter, was the television series Wordt Vervolgd (television) (not affiliated in any way with the 1980s-1990s graphic novel magazine of the same title), which ran from 1983 through 1993 on Dutch television. Intended by its conceivers (which included Dutch comic scholar Kees de Bree) to become a serious, mature program on comics, it was quickly whittled down by broadcaster AVRO, that aired it, into a children's program, changing the focus from comics to cartoons. Also, the Stripmuseum – conceived as Holland's answer to Brussels' prestigious Belgisch Centrum voor het Beeldverhaal – already ran into trouble in 2014, threatened with bankruptcy and closure, date of closure already fixed on May 1, 2014.[70] The Stripmuseum has never come close to the visitor numbers its Belgian counterpart achieved (less than 50,000 and dwindling[71] v.s. a steady 200,000 annually[72]). The museum's demise was temporarily averted for three years with eleventh-hour emergency funding from local authorities, though the museum has been notified to move in 2017 to smaller premises, having to share it with other institutions.[73] Additionally, after the 1970s-1980s boom years, the number of both comic magazines as well as comic book outlets started to dwindle noticeably from 2000 onward[74] – seriously curtailing the development of, and publication opportunities for, Dutch comic talent as comic creators Hanco Kolk and Jean-Marc van Tol warned for in an urgent open letter, published in the newspaper NRC Handelsblad of September 27, 2008 – , though socio-economic factors were mostly in play for that trend, the 2007-2011 Great Recession becoming the most obvious one.[75]
Despite the reluctance of cultural authorities to become engaged with comics – who in effect have never formally rescinded Rutten's 1948 missive,
Recent developments
In this light, Dutch television has made amends for Wordt Vervolgd by on occasion broadcasting mature documentaries on Dutch comic creators such as Peter Pontiac (VPRO, January 8, 2003[80] and Avrotros, June 1, 2014[81]), Dick Matena (NPO, November 13, 2014[82]) and Martin Lodewijk (NTR, April 23, 2015[83]). Yet, it was Jean-Marc van Tol himself who to a large extent fulfilled the vision the conceivers of Wordt Vervolgd originally had for their television production with his own 2011 Beeldverhaal series, he produced and presented for public broadcaster VPRO as a spin-off of their own literary VPRO Boeken series. The series, which aired from 17 October to 17 December 2011, consisted of fifteen 35-minute weekly episodes, exploring the comic phenomenon in the Netherlands, including the outside influences it had undergone, in particular from US, and Franco-Belgian comics in two separate episodes.[84] Still, the number of these comic related documentaries are still in no comparison with the numbers as aired in France and Belgium.[69]
There was even a second Dutch comic museum in the making, which opened its doors on September 3, 2016 as "Strips! Museum " in the city of Rotterdam with Rotterdam native Martin Lodewijk presiding the opening ceremony.[85] February 2016 saw the launch of the quarterly magazine StripGlossy from publisher Uitgeverij Personalia.[86] As the name already suggests, the magazine is executed as a glossy lifestyle-like publication with space exclusively reserved for Dutch comic talents, both old and new, and the first of its kind in decades, somewhat alleviating the concerns Kolk and van Tol had expressed back in 2008.[87] While these developments are in themselves hopeful, it is as of 2017 still too soon to speak of a resurgence in the Dutch comic world, only exemplified by the Rotterdam comic museum already having to file for bankruptcy on July 25, 2017, less than a year after its opening.[88]
Famous series and artists
- Agent 327 (Martin Lodewijk)
- De Argonautjes (Dick Matena)
- Barbaraal (Barbara Stok)
- Baron van Tast (Jan van Haasteren)
- Bernard Voorzichtig (Daan Jippes)
- Birre Beer (Phiny Dick, Ton Beek, Andries Brandt, Eiso Toonder)
- Boes (Wil Raymakers, Thijs Wilms)
- Burkababes (Peter de Wit)
- Claire (Wilbert Plijnaar, Jan van Die, Robert van der Kroft)
- Dick Bos (Alfred Mazure)
- DirkJan (Mark Retera)
- Douwe Dabbert (Piet Wijn, Thom Roep)
- Eric de Noorman (Hans G. Kresse)
- F.C. Knudde (Toon van Driel)
- De Familie Doorzon (Gerrit de Jager)
- De Familie Fortuin (Peter de Wit)
- Flipje (Harmsen van der Beek)
- Flippie Flink (Clinge Doorenbos, Robert Raemaekers)
- Fokke & Sukke (Bastiaan Geleijnse, John Reid, Jean-Marc Tol)
- Franka (Henk Kuijpers)
- De Generaal (Peter de Smet)
- Gilles de Geus (Hanco Kolk, Peter de Wit)
- Gutsman (Erik Kriek)
- Haagse Harry (Marnix Rueb)
- Heinz (René Windig, Eddie de Jong)
- Holle Pinkel (Andries Brandt, Piet Wijn)
- Jan, Jans en de kinderen (English: Jack, Jacky and the Juniors) (Jan Kruis)
- Johnny Goodbye (Martin Lodewijk, Patty Klein (art by Italian-Belgian artist Dino Attanasio)
- Joop Klepzeiker (Eric Schreurs)
- Kapitein Rob (Pieter Kuhn)
- Kappie (Marten Toonder, Phiny Dick, Harry van den Eerenbeemt, Paul Biegel, Andries Brandt, Lo Hartog van Banda, Joop Hillenius, Dick Vlottes, Ton Beek, Fred Julsing, Jan van Haasteren, Piet Wijn, Terrt Willers, Richard Klokker)
- Ketelbinkie (Wim Meuldijk)
- Kick Wilstra (Henk Sprenger)
- Koning Hollewijn (Marten Toonder, Eiso Toonder, Andries Brandt, Ben van Voorn, Ton Beek, Ben van 't Klooster, Jan Wesseling, Harry van de Eerenbeemt, Fred Julsing, Thé Tjong-Khing, Frits Godhelp, Richard Klokkers, Lo Hartog van Banda, Piet Wijn)
- Kraaienhove (Willy Lohmann)
- Oktoknopie (Gerard Leever)
- Olle Kapoen (Phiny Dick)
- Meccano (Hanco Kolk)
- Minter en Hinter (Paul Biegel, Dick Vlottes)
- De Avonturen van Pa Pinkelman (Carol Voges, Godfried Bomans)
- Panda (Marten Toonder)
- Jan van Oort)
- Pinkie Pienter (J.H. Koeleman)
- Piloot Storm (Henk Sprenger)
- Professor Pi (Bob van den Born)
- Roel Dijkstra - (Jan Steeman, Andries Brandt)
- Roel en zijn beestenboel - (Gerrit de Jager, Wim Stevenhagen, Wim Schaasberg)
- Scribbly (Jan-Paul Arends)
- Sigmund (Peter de Wit)
- S1NGLE (Hanco Kolk, Peter de Wit)
- Sjef van Oekel (Theo van den Boogaard, Wim T. Schippers)
- )
- Storm (Don Lawrence)
- Tekko Taks (Henk Kabos
- Tom Poes (Marten Toonder)
- Tripje en Liezebertha (Henk Backer)
- Ukkie (Fred Julsing)
- Vader & Zoon (Peter van Straaten)
- Van Nul tot Nu (Co Loerakker, Thom Roep)
- Yoebje en Achmed (Henk Backer)
- Zusje (Gerrit de Jager)
References
- ^ a b c d "Early Dutch Comics". www.lambiek.net.
- ^ "Strips in de periode 1900-1920". www.lambiek.net.
- ^ "Strips in de periode 1850-1900". www.lambiek.net.
- ^ a b c "1920-1930 Krantenstrips". www.lambiek.net.
- ^ "Disney in Nederland". www.lambiek.net.
- ^ "Dutch Comics 1920-1940". www.lambiek.net.
- ^ a b "1930-1940 Tijdschriften". www.lambiek.net.
- ^ a b "1930-1940 Krantenstrip". www.lambiek.net.
- ^ a b c d "Stripgeschiedenis 1945-1950 Beeldromans", Lambiek.net (in Dutch)
- ^ a b "Stripgeschiedenis 1940-1945 Krantenstrip", Lambiek.net (in Dutch)
- ^ a b "Stripgeschiedenis 1945-1950 Krantenstrip". Lambiek.net (in Dutch).
- ^ "Stripgeschiedenis 1950-1960 Krantenstrip". Lambiek.net (in Dutch).
- ^ "Stripgeschiedenis 1960-1970 Krantenstrip". Lambiek.net (in Dutch).
- ^ a b "Stripgeschiedenis: De Toonder Studio's". Lambiek.net (in Dutch).
- ^ "Toonder Compagnie BV". Toonder Compagnie.nl (in Dutch). – official site
- ^ "Eric de Noorman.nl" (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 29 August 2017. Retrieved 13 August 2017. – official site, but as of 2018 defunct
- ^ "Stichting Jan Kruis Museum". Drimble.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ "Museum de Bommelzolder". Bommelzolder.nl (in Dutch). – official site
- ^ "De Bommelzolder". Toondercompagnie.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ The original publisher logo actually featured Toonder's creation at first, but this had led to a copyright conflict with Toonder himself, after which Matla decided to replace the Toonder version with the real-world animal.
- ^ "Uitgeverij Panda". Uitgeverij-Panda.nl (in Dutch). – official site
- ^ "Kapitein Rob". UitgeverijPersonalia.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ The first Dutch price indication already on the cover of Kuifje, issue 9, 21 November 1946.
- ^ The first Dutch price indication on the cover of Robbedoes, issue 353, 2 January 1947, the first issue of that year.
- ^ a b "Stripgeschiedenis 1945-1950 Tijdschriften". Lambiek.net (in Dutch).
- ^ "Vidocq". Eric de Noorman.nl (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 3 October 2016.
- ^ "Erwin". Eric de Noorman.nl (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 25 March 2016.
- ^ "De Indianen-Reeks". stripINFO.be (in Dutch).; "De Indianenreeks". Eric de Noorman.nl (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 4 April 2016. – includes other language editions
- ^ "Douwe Dabbert". stripINFO.be (in Dutch). – includes other language editions
- ^ a b c Welsink, Dick (2012). "'Als u mij wilt verschonen' / 'If you will excuse me': Marten Toonder (1912-2005)". Nieuw Letterkundig Magazijn / New Literary Magazine (in Dutch). Netherlands. p. 38. Archived from the original on June 30, 2016. Retrieved May 27, 2017.
'Deze boekjes, die een samenhangende reeks tekeningen met een begeleidende tekst bevatten, zijn over het algemeen van sensationeel karakter zonder enige andere waarde. Het is niet mogelijk tegen de drukkers, uitgevers of verspreiders van deze romans strafrechtelijk op te treden, terwijl evenmin iets kan worden bereikt door geen papier beschikbaar te stellen aangezien het voor deze uitgaven benodigde papier op de vrije markt verkrijgbaar is.
- ^ a b c d e "De beeldroman, een langzaam, maar zeer werkend vergif". Dickbos.info (in Dutch).
- ^ Lambiek Comiclopedia. Archivedfrom the original on September 15, 2016. Retrieved May 27, 2017.
- ^ "Phiny Dick". Lambiek.net (in Dutch).; "Het leven van Marten Toonder tot 1941". Literatuurmuseum.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ "Heer Bommel Volledige Werken: De dagbladpublicaties". Uitgeverij-Panda.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ "Comics History: Dutch Comics around WW II". Lambiek.net.
- ^ "Marten Toonder". DeBezigeBij.nl (in Dutch). – official site
- ^ "Van Tom Poes tot de Bommelsaga". Literatuurmuseum.nl (in Dutch). – official site
- ^ "Ontwikkeling van de Avonturen van Tom Poes tot de 'Bommel-saga". Literatuurmuseum.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ de Bree et al, 1978, p. 60
- ^ "Stripgeschiedenis 2000-2010: Graphic novels", Lambiek.nl (in Dutch)
- ^ "De avonturen van Panda", "De belevenissen van koning Hollewijn', "De Avonturen van Tom Poes" and "Heer Bommel Volledige Werken: De dagbladpublicaties". Uitgeverij-Panda.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ "Uitgeverij Panda". stripINFO.be (in Dutch).
- ^ "Bommel Profiel: Begrippen". NRC Webpagina's (in Dutch). Netherlands. 2 April 1998. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
- ^ "Engelse Tom Poes-avonturen voor het eerst in het Nederland". Toondercompagnie.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ "Marten Toonder". Lambiek.net.
- ^ "Vertalingen". Eric de Noorman.nl (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 29 August 2017.
- ^ "Stripgeschiedenis: 1950-1960 Tijdschriften". Lambiek.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ a b "Stripgeschiedenis: 1960-1970 Import". Lambiek.net (in Dutch).
- ^ a b "Stripgeschiedenis: Okki, Jippo en Taptoe - De schoolbladen van De Spaarnestad/Malmberg". Lambiek.net (in Dutch).
- ^ ISBN 9064218536), a variation of his most famous comic De Generaal.
- ^ "Comics History: Spirou, the modern period (1970-present)". Lambiek.nl.
- ^ a b c "Stripgeschiedenis: 1960-1970 Tijdschriften". Lambiek.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ a b "Stripgeschiedenis: 1970-1980 Tijdschriften". Lambiek.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ "Pep auteurs". Depepsite.nl (in Dutch).
- ISBN 9073836026.
van Eijck editorial: Wetamo historisch belicht, pp. 3-18
- ^ "De jaren Pep: De opkomst en ondergang van een stripweekblad 1962-1975", 2014
- ^ "1960-1970 Herwaardering". www.lambiek.net.
- ^ a b "Dick Bos - Alle Avonturen", Uitgeverij-Panda.nl (in Dutch); official site
- ^ "Dick Bos", stripINFO.be (in Dutch)
- ^ Joost, Pollman (1 April 1999). "De sluipmoord op Spekkie Big". Volkskrant.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ Sahadat, Lanthe (9 July 2005). "Heel spijtig: jonge jongensblad Robbedoes houdt op te bestaan". Volkskrant.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ "Donald Duck Zoekresultaten". HOI, Instituut voor Media Auditing .: Dutch print media statistics bureau, as of 2015 "NOM, Nationaal Onderzoek Multimedia". (subscription required)
- ^ "Tina Zoekresultaten". HOI, Instituut voor Media Auditing.[nl]: Dutch print media statistics bureau, as of 2015 "NOM, Nationaal Onderzoek Multimedia (subscription required)
- ^ a b "Gezins leesmap bestellen". Heerlijkthuis.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ "De Vrijbuiter", "De Schorpioen", "Baldakijn Boeken", stripINFO.be (in Dutch)
- ^ Steenhuyse, David (October 2014). "TEX WILLER CLASSICS 1-2: 1. De Laatste Rebel - 2. Dodemansrit". Stripspeciaalzaak.be (in Dutch).
- ^ "Sjors & Sjimmie". stripINFO.be (in Dutch).
- ^ Geeraerts, K. (2011). "Wat is een graphic novel?" (PDF). Stripspeciaal-Zaak.be (in Dutch). p. 25.; Kurt Geeraerts teaches philosophy at high-school level in Halle, Belgium, and holds University of Brussels degrees in the moral, and culture sciences.
- ^ a b c d Ron Rijghard: "Nederlandse strip beleeft schrale jaren", NRC, June 2, 2016 (in Dutch)
- ^ "Het Nederlands Stripmuseum in Groningen sluit de deuren op 1 mei 2014", Boekendingen.nl (in Dutch)
- ^ "Groninger musea goed bezocht in 2014", RTVnoord.nl (in Dutch)
- ^ "About Us—In Short". Brussels, Belgium: Belgian Comic Strip Center. Retrieved 4 July 2011. (in English)
- ^ "Stripmuseum Groningen blijft open", NOS.nl; "Huur Nederlands Stripmuseum opgezegd", DVHN.nl (in Dutch)
- Suske en Wiske. Yet, comic website Stripspeciaalzaak.behas observed the number of Dutch comic stores to have dwindled to around two dozen by 2016, the slack has in recent years been somewhat taken up by specialized web stores.
- ^ Hanco Kolk & Jean-Marc van Tol: "Red de Nederlandse strips", NRC, September 27, 2008; "De Nederlandse stripmarkt - Tussen vertwijfeling en hoop", Stripschrift , issue 397, February 2009 (in Dutch)
- ^ "Gert Jan Pos wordt stripintendant", De Volkskrant, April 14, 2009 (in Dutch)
- ^ "Comic Design", ArtEZ.nl (in Dutch)
- ^ "Beeldverhaal", Luca-Arts.be (in Dutch)
- ^ "Stripgeschiedenis Dick Matena", Lambiek.net (in Dutch)
- ^ VPRO-documentary "Peter Pontiac" in the cultural series 'Het Uur van de Wolf', NPO.nl (in Dutch)
- ^ Avrotros-documentary "Graphic Novel - Peter Pontiac" in the cultural series 'Kunstuur', AvroTros.nl (in Dutch); the same broadcaster that had aired Wordt Vervolgd.
- ^ NPO-documentary "Dick is boos" in the cultural series 'Het Uur van de Wolf', NPO.nl (in Dutch)
- ^ NTR-documentary "Martin Lodewijk en de laatste pagina" in the cultural series 'Het Uur van de Wolf', NPO.nl (in Dutch)
- ^ "Beeldverhaal" and "Programmas Beeldverhaal", VPRO.nl (in Dutch)
- ^ "Stripmuseum Rotterdam dit weekend open", Stripjournaal.com (in Dutch)
- ^ "Recensie Strip Glossy Nummer 1", stripINFO.be (in Dutch)
- ^ "StripGlossy", official site (in Dutch)
- ^ "Wegens faillissement van Stichting Strips is het museum tot nader bericht gesloten.", official museum site; "Stripmuseum Rotterdam failliet", Rijnmond.nl (in Dutch)
Further reading
- OCLC 899040953.
- de Bree, Kees; van Eijck, Rob; Washington, M. (1978). Harren, H. (ed.). Strip dossier (in Dutch). Amsterdam: OCLC 65684045.
- Kousemaker, Kees; Kousemaker, Evelien (1979). Wordt Vervolgd: stripleksikon der Lage Landen (in Dutch). ISBN 9027489408. (no ISBN for the concurrently released hardcover edition)
- de Bree, Kees; ISBN 9066670401hardcover edition); From the makers of the eponymous 1980s television program and, as a serious treatise, an attempt to counteract the detrimental effects the downgrading of their program into a children's program by the broadcaster had in popular awareness.
- ISBN 9064381119. (9th and last edition of the Matla comics catalog)
- Matla (Chapter 3), Hans (2000). Dongelmans, B.M.P. (ed.). Tot volle waschdom: bijdragen aan de geschiedenis van de kinder- en jeugdliteratuur (in Dutch). The Hague: Biblion Uitgeverij. p. 286. ISBN 9054832266..
Chapter 3: Van centprint tot album
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link); Published on behalf of Tilburg University - Kousemaker, Kees; de Heer, Margreet (June 2005). De Wereld van de Nederlandse Strip (in Dutch). ISBN 9058972607.
- Pos, Gert Jan; Plusquin, Mourice (2008). Strip en kunst (in Dutch). ISBN 9789089100344.
- van Helden, Willem; van Eijck, Rob; van Waterschoot, Jos; Pollman, Joost (September 2013). Strips! : 200 jaar Nederlands beeldverhaal (in Dutch). ISBN 9789462260191.; Published on behalf of the Museum Meermanno-Huis van het Boek.
- ISBN 9789088861437hardcover edition)
- de Weyer, Geert (November 2015). België gestript: het ultieme naslagwerk over de Belgische strip (in Dutch). ISBN 9789462102026.
- Apeldoorn, Ger (June 2018). De jaren Eppo: 35 jaar de allerbeste strips 1975-2018 (in Dutch). Oosterhout: Don Lawrence Collection [nl]. p. 160. ISBN 9789088864384hardcover edition)
External links
- Comics Database (in Dutch); Concerns the Dutch-language releases of American and British comic book series, and includes pocket (pulp) comics of other origins.
- Dutch characters on International Catalogue of Superheroes
- History of Dutch comics on Lambiek Comiclopedia
- stripINFO.be (in Dutch); Generic, all-encompassing comics database, including other language editions, but with emphasis on the Dutch-language publications.
- StripSpeciaalzaak.be (in Dutch); Comics news site with emphasis on the Dutch-language publications.