Dutch Courage

Friday Comic Book Day.

Today I was happy to announce my new project, a Dutch language book about the Dutch comics magazine Eppo, that was published between 1975 and 1999. My previous and similar book about Pep (1962-1975) was a big succes, so this is a logical (and highly anticipated) next step. The covre was made by Martin Lodewijk, one of the major artists/writers here in Holland and despite the fact that he is well into his seventies he can come up with and execute a cover design like no one I know.

The Rise And Fall Of A Tremendous Empire

Friday Comic Book Day.

I am working on a new book for the Dutch audience, a history of the Dutch comics weekly Eppo, which ran (under various titles) from 1975 to 1999. Like the famous French-Belgian magazines Spirou, Tintin and Pilote, it mostly ran short installments of various serialized series which were later collected in 44 page albums. De Jaren Eppo is a continuation of De Jaren Pep, a similar book I wrote three years ago about Eppo's predecessor Pep. That was well received and I am hoping for a similar (and possibly better) reaction.

For the book I am deep into all sorts of European strips, most of which I can't share because of the language barrier. But here is one that ran in Eppo (and in Sjors before that, for those of you keeping track) which you can read; the famous british series about the Trigan Empire, illustrated by none other than Don Lawrence. He left Trigan because he was asked to work on a similar but less kryptofascistic strip called Storm for Eppo.

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.

Jippiekayee!

Saturday Leftover Day.

Working on an article for the upcoing 70th birthday of Dutch artist Daan Jippes, I gathered all of the single page Pep Spotter gags he did for Pep weekly in 1970/1973. At that same time he was working on his first (and for a long time only) strip Bernard Voorzichtig and here we see the same shift in style that occurred in the early seventies when he discovered his love for Disney (and especially Floyd Gottfredson and Carl Barks). These mildly satirical gags are in Dutch, so you just have to admire the variety of styles Daan put down even then. I added to that an interview that was done with him at the start of Berbard Voorzichtig, showing a selfportrait and a couple of images of that great first strip.

Jippe-ayeeh!

Tuesday Comic Strip Day.

I know some of you guys are fans of the work of Daan Jippes. Apart from loads of terrific stories and covers for various Disney magazines (up to this day), doing both the Micey Mouse and the Donald Duck strips for a period in the seventies and eighties, he also had a career in Dutch comics before and after his Disney period, which include his lauded Bernard Voorzichtig strip, satiric pieces and cover for Pep magazine and most recently two albums for his own Franquin influenced Havank series. I have tried to convince Twomorrows to do a book on Daan's remarkable career in comics, but I guess he is too unknown for that (even though some of the characters he worked on aren't). If such a bok would ever be made, it would certainly include the small anouncment illustration se did for Pep in 1973. A remarkable run of very wild graphic masterpieces. I have used some n my book on the Dutch Pep magazine, De Jaren Pep, but today I got out some more to share with my Dutch Facebook friends. And then I though.. why not show them here as well?