dusty comics in the attic
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Never
took the opportunity to learn the Dutch language?
Then let me explain what can be found on these pages.
What's it all about?
The
title "Pagina's In Beeld" (Illustrated Pages)
refers to a line of text that's printed on many of the
so-called mini-strips that appeared in the Netherlands
(and Belgium) during the sixties, seventies and early
eighties. Small, cheap comic books, mainly from Publisher
Nooitgedacht ("Never-thought-of"). Series about
war (Victoria), romance (Vicky), the wild west (Lasso)
and crime (Geheim Agent).
The site was build by me
(Ben Kamphuis), trying to get rid of some of these mini-strips
I've carried around for years. The new owner (Edward Voorn)
showed me his collection, wich inspired me to build a
a gallery site, because to my surprise hardly any information
about these comics could be found on the internet, not
even about its foreign origins. The site is not gallery-only,
but also features some remarkable and strange facts about
the books, its origins and its publisher(s). Facts that
lead me to produce handmade copies of two mini-strips (Victoria 1
and 216), as collector's issues (2005). In 2011 I produced 5 reprints of the first issues of some series, also as non-profit collector's editions. Not handmade any more, but On Demand Print (via www.blurb.com).
Are these Dutch comics?
The origins of these Dutch comics are mainly
English, from series like War Picture Librarie and Western
Picture Library, published by Fleetway. They were created
by a lot of different artist, from all over the world.
The quality varies a lot, but also top-artists like Hugo
Pratt, John Severin and Victor de la Fuente contributed
their part. The books had their time, as televison, colour
print and multimedia entertainment took over. Only Commando
is still going strong, now around 3500 issues, adding
8 new titles every month.
Not much is documented about
the history of these comics, but for the non-english market
(Europe) spanish editor Josip Toutain produced most of
them (including the bulk of the Dutch versions). It looks
like the covers often had a make-over: a lot of them appear
to be re-drawn or altered. It is very likely that this happened when the material was being adapted for the European market, but we don't know any details about it.
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Altered
cover.
In the Dutch version the soldier wears a baret, and
some kind of space machinegun. Possibly the soldier had
to be de-englished to appeal to a wider audience.
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On this
website
This website consists of an general part, and a part for
each series. Every series has the same buttons: a short
introduction to the series (button "Over de serie"),
access to cover scans (button "Alle covers"),
and a page with remarkable facts (button "Trivia").
Cover scans can be clicked to reveil bigger versions and
extra information (where available).
You can jump to the different sections directly from the
links below.
The general part of the site consists
of:
Next to the general part, there are now
7 series, each with its own Introduction, Cover Gallery
and Trivia pages. Each series has its own homepage that
features a cover detail blow-up.
In the past there were five reprints of 4 nr. 1 issues and a bundle, but they're all sold out.
Future
plans
I am currently (still) working an a guide to the Dutch war pocket comics.
But I am also interested in finding out more of the original
publications and its makers. For that reason I got myself
copy's of Art of War 1 & 2 (war comic cover art book) and Steve Holland's Fleetway Picture Library Index Volume 1.
