Normal Services Will Resume

Saturday Apology Day.

I have not posted for a long time, because I am working on a new book here in Holland. It's about the Dutch comics magazine Eppo and if has strips like this one by my friend Peter de Wit. If you want to follow what I am doing, you can try the Facebook page De Jaren Eppo. I have to do a lot ofscanning for that book, which is why the scanning for this blog is lagging behind. And especially the cleaning up. I have so many more raw scans waiting to be prepared...

Covering Beetle

Wednesday Illustration Day.

Beetle Bailey was eprinted in the Dutch magazine Pep almost fom the beginning of it's weekly life, in 1963. It ran in Pep using dailies until it changed format in 1970, when Sundays were used as well. After Pep folded in 1975, Beetl dailies and Sundays were printed in it's successor Eppo for all of it's run as well, ending in 1998. When Eppo restarted in 2008, Beetle Bailey was again added to the new two-weekly line-up. I joined Eppo in 2010 as a news editor and occasional feature writer. Three years ago, I wrote a book covering the history of Pep, which gave Beetle it's due. This year I am finishing a book about Eppo and again Beetle will be in it. In both cases I could not only use samples of the strip itself, but also one of the many covers that were made for all of the magazines and the many book reprints that were done by Pep and Eppo's publsher VNU as well. These covers were initially done by Daan Jippes, one of Holland's great artists, who went on to work for Disney in the US (before coming back and starting a whole new career here). In the eighties, his job as Mort Walker imitator was taken over by Peter de Wit, who was a huge Mort Walker fan (as well as being a fan of Parker and Hart's Wizard of Id). He ended up blening all of his influences into a unqiue style of his own when he started his own newspaper strip Sigmund, about a frustrated little psychiatrist. When he visited Mort Walker in the nineties, he had showed him his early samples of Sigmund and Mort told him it would never work, because he had just the one character and not a whole cast.

Anyway, in showing you a lot of Mort Walker material this wek, I though I should include a sampling of the Ditch made Betle Bailey covers, all with original jokes. The one with then is by a third Dutch artist who did a lot of covers, but not so many of Beetle Bailey, Gerard Leever.

Kurtzman Linings

Saturday Leftover Day.

So here I was on the yearly Dutch comic book convention, getting compliments from everyone for keeping up the daily uploads. And they only thing I could think was, I was missing jmy regular saturday post. So, a day later here is a quick extra. When any artist first encounters Harvey Kurtman's Hey Look, they want to try ir for them selves. These two samples by dutch cartoonist Peter de Wit are from the mid eighties (so they must be from the Dutch weekly Eppo). He also did a four page story which is even more completely and succesully in Kurtzman's style. I'll try to find and show it some day. If you follow the tag, you should find some of Peter's regular work these days (in English too).

If you are an artist and tried something like this yourself, I would like to show it. I think I'll start with Bill Wray.

Dutch treat

I have known the Dutch newspaper strip artist Peter de Wit for the better part of my life. We actually attended the same high school only one year apart, but we didn't meet there. He was one year above me (which makes him fifty this year) and although I was quite visible in several school activities we managed to escape each other's attention.

I met Peter when I found an early issue of the fanzine Striprofiel in the local library. Peter had set up this cheaply printed fanzine with his friend Gerard Aertsen as an extension of their hobby. According to his biography, Peter knew he wanted to be a comic strip artist when he was fourteen, so this probably was a fun way to learn more about it and meet professionals. I had always loved comic books and periodicals and had decided when I was twelve that I was going to be a writer. Finding a new fanzine, which looked unprofessional enough for me to try and join was a great find. I contacted Gerard and was invited along to one of their interviews with dutch artist Martin Lodewijk. Meeting Martin Lodewijk was a huge moment in my life... he had walls full of comic books and collections, which impressed me so much that my private room now pretty much looks like his did back then. He also introduced me to Pogo and lend me part of his collection of early sixties Mad magazines. Three years later I was writing the rough version of the American Comics chapter of the first Dutch Comic Book Encyclopedia.

I joined the monthly meetings of the Striprofiel editors and became one of their core group of writers over the next ten years, interviewing such greats such as Will Eisner, Jeff Jones and Jean Giraud when they visited Holland. Peter de Wit left Striprofiel when I joined it, to concentrate more on his career as a comic artist. For a year or so, I did meet privately with Peter at his parents farm half an hours bike ride from my house. I don't know why we struck up a friendship or why it ended after that year, but I guess we felt a connection, which we still did when we met up again a couple of years ago. Maybe it is true that you share more than a common language with those who are born close to you. We do seem to have a similar outlook on life.

Peter introduced me to B.C. and the Wizard of Id and together we tried to do something similar. He had already tried to set up a gag strip set in ancient Egypt, possibly about Cleopatra. At one point I had a whole sheet of sketches he did for that, but seems to have been lost in time. I suggested a series in ancient Greece with Odysseus as the main character. I don't know if he ever did any actual drawing for it or if it was just something I liked myself. Strange thing about my memory is that I have a better recollection of places than of the things that happened. I can still tell you how to bike from my parent's home to his... or how the inside of their farm looked. But I am fuzzy about how many times we met or what we did.

Anyway, Peter went on to immediate success while I struggled on to find my path in life ten years later. He joined the staff of the Dutch comic weekly Eppo and did a great number of successful strips for them, as well as a lot of specialty drawings. He developed a quick cartoony style, varying between his own version of the Hart/Parker school and a rounder Mort Walker inspired style. At one point he had a successful short story strip which was drawn in a variation of Don Martin's style. All 'modern' cartoon styles I like to cover in this blog.

Finally, he started a newspaper strip of his own called Sigmund, about a diminutive cantankerous psychiatric. He has been doing that the last fifteen years with enough success for him to not have to do anything else. Which is quite an achievement in a small country such as ours. When I decided that I wanted to show the work of a couple of Dutch artists on this blog, I knew he had to be the first one. I have translated and badly lettered a couple of Sigmund gags. Sigmund has his own website, where you can even see some more strips translated into English... but I like my own selection and translation better.





The last year Peter has had a lot of succes with a series of strips about his Burka Babes. A book of gags about burka wearing women sold out several printings. Religion is the last remaining taboo and hot button subject in comedy (as John Stewart and cartoonists all over the world will confirm). Those who believe are always good for a laugh.