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A Year in Comics - May 2nd

Tom Poes and Olivier B. Bommel - The Adventures of Tom Puss (also known as 'The Bommelsaga')

Marten Toonder (jr.) was born on May 2nd 1912 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The son of a maritime captain, Toonder first encountered the phenomenon of comics thanks to his father, who brought them from his journeys to the United States. After finishing his education, Toonder traveled with his father to Argentina in 1931, where he encountered the American comic artist Jim Davis, assistent to Disney artist Dante Quinterno, and former assistant to Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer, the creators of Felix the Cat (not to be confused with Jim Davis of Garfield fame). Davis taught Toonder the basics of drawing comics, and inspired him to become a comic artist. After returning to the Netherlands, Toonder started art education at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Art, but soon dropped out.

In 1935, Toonder married Afine Kornélie Dik, who wrote and published comics and childrens' books under the name Phiny Dick. She soon started working with her husband, writing the text for his comics. Toonder soon founded the Toonder Studio's, which published comics but also did advertising work and even animated films.

With the outbreak of World War II, the Netherlands were occupied by Nazi Germany in May of 1940, and soon the Nazi authorities started to prohibit the publication of a number of foreign comic strips. One such prohibited strips was Mickey Mouse, which had run in De Telegraaf. Toonder was asked to replace the strip, and in March of 1941 he started with the funny animal text strip Tom Puss, originally written by his wife (who also named the character after the local Tompouce pastry). However, soon Phiny handed the comic to Toonder, telling him that Tom Puss was entirely his.

Two months into its publication, the young cat Tom was suddenly joined by an eloquent, though not always coherent, gentleman bear by the name of Olivier B. Bommel, originally only a supporting character, but gradually growing into a second (and even main) protagonist. Whereas Tom Puss is a clean-cut, flawless hero, Bommel is a flawed antihero, blundering blindly through life, forced by fate, villains or civil servants, to make decisions which greatly influence his world. Over time this made him more interesting - and popular - than the comparably boring Tom Puss, who eventually became Bommel's sidekick in the stories (a dynamic which can be compared to that between Hergé's Tintin and Captain Haddock)

In November of 1944, the publication of Tom Puss suddenly ceased, as the situation in the occupied Netherlands changed. After the end of the War in May of 1945, Toonder was initially accused of collaborating with the Germans - until it turned out that, using the cover of his legal activities for German-published newspapers, Toonder had used his studios to do work for the Dutch Resistance, such as forging German stamps and drawing cartoons for Resistance-published newspapers. As such, all accusations against Toonder were withdrawn, and he was eventually awarded the Dutch Resistance memorial Cross for his resistance work.

In 1947, Toonder resumed his Tom Puss comic, now in the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and the Volkskrant, still retaining the format of a text comic. While originally intended as a simple children's story without any references to actual events, Tom Puss gradually became a more layered series, transitioning from being a text comic to being an illustrated literary novel. In his work, Toonder proved himself to be a wordsmith, and several words and expressions he launched in Tom Puss were eventually accepted as neologisms in the Dutch language.

Eventually, Toonder would write 177 Tom Puss text comics between 1941 and 1986, as well as an additional 77 balloon comics, published between 1950 and 1969, between 1980 and 1988. While they were his most famous work, he also published other comics: Panda, a text comic which ran from 1946 until 1991 and of which Toonder wrote 199 installments; King Hollewijn, a text comic that Toonder wrote for De Telegraaf between 1947 and 1971 and of which he wrote 73 installments; and Kappie, a text comic conceived by Toonder, but mainly made by his assistants between 1945 and 1972, of which 141 installments were written.

In 1964, Toonder moved to Greystones, Ireland with his wife; the pair would live there until Phiny's death in 1990. In 1996 Toonder remarried, but unfortunately his second wife Tera de Marez Oyens died later the same year; after this, Toonder returned to the Netherlands where he would live his last years. On July 27th 2005, aged 93, Marten Toonder passed away in his sleep.

For his work, Marten Toonder was made an Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau.

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155th entry of ?

<- Back to May 1st ----- other May 2nd entry
----- Forward to May 3rd ->

Description
A Year in Comics - May 2nd

Tom Poes and Olivier B. Bommel - The Adventures of Tom Puss (also known as 'The Bommelsaga')

Marten Toonder (jr.) was born on May 2nd 1912 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The son of a maritime captain, Toonder first encountered the phenomenon of comics thanks to his father, who brought them from his journeys to the United States. After finishing his education, Toonder traveled with his father to Argentina in 1931, where he encountered the American comic artist Jim Davis, assistent to Disney artist Dante Quinterno, and former assistant to Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer, the creators of Felix the Cat (not to be confused with Jim Davis of Garfield fame). Davis taught Toonder the basics of drawing comics, and inspired him to become a comic artist. After returning to the Netherlands, Toonder started art education at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Art, but soon dropped out.

In 1935, Toonder married Afine Kornélie Dik, who wrote and published comics and childrens' books under the name Phiny Dick. She soon started working with her husband, writing the text for his comics. Toonder soon founded the Toonder Studio's, which published comics but also did advertising work and even animated films.

With the outbreak of World War II, the Netherlands were occupied by Nazi Germany in May of 1940, and soon the Nazi authorities started to prohibit the publication of a number of foreign comic strips. One such prohibited strips was Mickey Mouse, which had run in De Telegraaf. Toonder was asked to replace the strip, and in March of 1941 he started with the funny animal text strip Tom Puss, originally written by his wife (who also named the character after the local Tompouce pastry). However, soon Phiny handed the comic to Toonder, telling him that Tom Puss was entirely his.

Two months into its publication, the young cat Tom was suddenly joined by an eloquent, though not always coherent, gentleman bear by the name of Olivier B. Bommel, originally only a supporting character, but gradually growing into a second (and even main) protagonist. Whereas Tom Puss is a clean-cut, flawless hero, Bommel is a flawed antihero, blundering blindly through life, forced by fate, villains or civil servants, to make decisions which greatly influence his world. Over time this made him more interesting - and popular - than the comparably boring Tom Puss, who eventually became Bommel's sidekick in the stories (a dynamic which can be compared to that between Hergé's Tintin and Captain Haddock)

In November of 1944, the publication of Tom Puss suddenly ceased, as the situation in the occupied Netherlands changed. After the end of the War in May of 1945, Toonder was initially accused of collaborating with the Germans - until it turned out that, using the cover of his legal activities for German-published newspapers, Toonder had used his studios to do work for the Dutch Resistance, such as forging German stamps and drawing cartoons for Resistance-published newspapers. As such, all accusations against Toonder were withdrawn, and he was eventually awarded the Dutch Resistance memorial Cross for his resistance work.

In 1947, Toonder resumed his Tom Puss comic, now in the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and the Volkskrant, still retaining the format of a text comic. While originally intended as a simple children's story without any references to actual events, Tom Puss gradually became a more layered series, transitioning from being a text comic to being an illustrated literary novel. In his work, Toonder proved himself to be a wordsmith, and several words and expressions he launched in Tom Puss were eventually accepted as neologisms in the Dutch language.

Eventually, Toonder would write 177 Tom Puss text comics between 1941 and 1986, as well as an additional 77 balloon comics, published between 1950 and 1969, between 1980 and 1988. While they were his most famous work, he also published other comics: Panda, a text comic which ran from 1946 until 1991 and of which Toonder wrote 199 installments; King Hollewijn, a text comic that Toonder wrote for De Telegraaf between 1947 and 1971 and of which he wrote 73 installments; and Kappie, a text comic conceived by Toonder, but mainly made by his assistants between 1945 and 1972, of which 141 installments were written.

In 1964, Toonder moved to Greystones, Ireland with his wife; the pair would live there until Phiny's death in 1990. In 1996 Toonder remarried, but unfortunately his second wife Tera de Marez Oyens died later the same year; after this, Toonder returned to the Netherlands where he would live his last years. On July 27th 2005, aged 93, Marten Toonder passed away in his sleep.

For his work, Marten Toonder was made an Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau.

----------

155th entry of ?

<- Back to May 1st ----- other May 2nd entry
----- Forward to May 3rd ->