Because the weather Pogo's I showed yesterday were already reprinted in one of Bill Crouch's books, I will share something for the Pogo fans today that no one will have seen outside of Holland. It is a rare early strip by Dutch artist Dick Matena. Although he is now mostly know for his realistic work, he started his career at the Dutch Toonder Studio's, where he drew the newspaper strip Panda for several years in the sixties. He branched out with a strip of his own for a woman's magazine, called Polletje Pluim. A funny strip about a group of animals living in a forest, which shows a definite Walt Kelly influence. Like many of his contemporaries he was an admirer of Pogo. I think he even translated a couple of stips for the Dutch fanzine Stripschrift later on. Anyway, Martin Toonder himself had been influenced by kelly as well, but more in a sideways sort of way. Toonder had started his most famous creation Tom Poes before Kelly got going, but at some point he picked up some of Kelly's way of doing Disney. Or he started working with collaborators who did.
Anyway, Polletje Pluim is a long forgotten strip that has never been properly collected. Back when the Okefenokee Star was still being published I toyed with the idea of doing a piece on all European Pogo influenced strips and artists and hommages. Because Polletje Pluim is only the tip of the iceberg. I scanned these from my wn collection, which is not the complete story (and at least missing page 10). But I guess y'all won't be readin' it anyways.