'Sjors en Sjimmie bij de Arabieren'.
Frans Piët was the long-time artist of 'Sjors van de Rebellenclub', one of the most iconic children's comics in the Netherlands. Drawing this Dutch rendition of Martin Branner's Sunday comic 'Perry and the Rinkydinks' from 1938 until 1969, Piët turned this typically American kids' gang comic into an adventure strip for Dutch audiences. He introduced many secondary characters, such as Dikkie, Sally, the Colonel and, most importantly, Sjimmie. From 1949 on, the 'Sjors' comic continued under the title 'Sjors & Sjimmie', with both the blond-haired Sjors and his black friend Sjimmie as lead characters. After the artist's retirement, 'Sjors & Sjimmie' continued in more modernized versions by Piët's successors until 1999, making it the Dutch comic series with the longest continuous circulation. The comic also inspired his own magazines, Sjors, running between 1930-1931, 1935-1941 and 1947-1975, sometimes under the name "Rebellenclub". Followed by Sjors & Sjimmie Stripblad (1988-1994) and SjoSji (1994-1998), this was the longest-running magazine based on a Dutch comic character. Besides their serialization in the magazines Panorama and Sjors, the adventures of Sjors and Sjimmie have also been collected in a series of highly popular books by De Spaarnestad. Although Piët's version is heavily dated and, to modern standards, full of racial stereotyping, generations of Dutch children have grown up with his exciting stories. There is no relation between this artist and the other comic artist Frans Piët (1925-1996), who published under the name Francis Paid.
French-language version of 'Wo-Wang & Simmy'. 'Bassie! Het Verhaal van den Zeeman'.
Early life and influences
Franciscus Antonius Henricus Piët was born in 1905 in Haarlem as the son of a butcher. With no intention of following in his father's footsteps, he decided to further pursue his talents for music and art. He played both the violin and the saxophone, and for a while, he was a member of Pi Scheffer's jazz/swing combo The Blue Ramblers. Piët took a correspondence course from the Press Art School in London, and also got lessons in sketching and portrait painting from the local painter Herman Moerkerk. Besides Moerkerk, Piët ranked the American newspaper cartoonists Harold Foster ('Prince Valiant') and Chic Young ('Blondie') among his main graphic influences.
'De Avonturen van Wo-Wang en Simmy'.
Early comics
Starting in 1928, Frans Piët made illustrations and cartoons for Libelle, De Humorist and other magazines of the Haarlem-based publisher De Spaarnestad. In 1932, he created the newspaper comic 'De Avonturen van Wo-Wang en Simmy', distributed by the Pax press agency in Amsterdam. The accompanying texts were written by his wife Mary. This stereotypical comic strip about a Chinese and a black kid was published in local newspapers like Leidsche Courant, Haarlems Dagblad and Utrechts Nieuwsblad from April/May 1933, and also ran in the magazine Zonneschijn (1936-1939). In this first comic, Piët already used a black sidekick character, with a name very similar to Sjimmie. Although not the same character, Simmy shares many similar traits, including his naïvité and bad Dutch speech.
Simmie also appeared in an illustration for Okki, the children's supplement of De Spaarnestad's magazine Katholieke Illustratie. The caption says: "Where did you get that white eye, Simmie? Have you been fighting again?"
In 1933, the Piët family headed for Paris, France, where Piët studied at the Academy of Montparnasse. He continued to send his drawings to De Spaarnestad by mail. When he returned to the Netherlands, Piët resumed his activities as newspaper cartoonist throughout the rest of the 1930s. Since the 1920s, the Dutch newspaper comic strip had grown in popularity through artists like Henk Backer, George van Raemdonck, Henricus Kannegieter, Gerrit Rotman and Albert Funke Küpper and the demand for new strips increased. Like all Dutch newspaper strips of the time, Piët's creations were text comics, with no use of speech balloons. Among his serialized stories were 'De Luchtrovers van Hoitika' (1936, several papers and in book format), 'De Gebroeders Goochem' (1935-1936, Amersfoortse Courant, De Volkskrant), and 'De Lotgevallen van Piet Krent en Jan Oliebol' (1937, Amersfoortse Courant and 1940, Haarlem's Dagblad).
'De Luchtroovers van Hoitika' (Provinciale Drentsche en Asser Courant, 18 June 1936).
Perry Winkle in Europe
In 1936, the Belgian publisher Protin et Vuidar from Liège printed a French translation of Piët's 'Wo-Wang en Simmy' comic in book format. This album gave Spaarnestad editor Lou Vierhout the idea to let Frans Piët create a Dutch version of Martin Branner's American comic strip 'Perry and the Rinkydinks' for the Sjors supplement of Panorama magazine. At that point, 'Perry and the Rinkydinks' already had an interesting publication history. The original comic appeared in U.S. Sunday newspapers from 1923 as a spin-off of Branner's daily comic 'Winnie Winkle', about Perry's older sister. In the Netherlands, the weekly gags about the rebellious Perry and his friends caught on ever since they first appeared in De Spaarnestad's humor magazine De Humorist under the title 'Sjors van de Rebellenclub' in December 1927. The Dutch publisher traced the pages from their publication in the French weekly Dimanche-Illustré, where the character was known as 'Bicot'. The Dutch name "Sjors" was inspired by a friend of Vierhout, the painter Georges Gussenhoven.
In 1930-1931, De Spaarnestad gave the 'Sjors van de Rebellenclub' feature (literally: "Sjors of the Rebels' Club") its own weekly paper as a supplement of the family magazine Panorama. Because of copyright issues, this supplement only lasted 26 issues. Around the same time, rights owner The Chicago Tribune had given an official license to a competing publisher, the Nederlandse Rotogravure Maatschappij in Leiden, to publish the strip under the title 'Ukkie Wappie' in their new weekly Het Weekblad Voor U. De Spaarnestad's illegally copied version was discovered and had to disappear. In May 1932, however, the 'Sjors' strip returned in De Spaarnestad's magazine De Humorist with material coming directly from the USA. In 1935, De Spaarnestad did another publishing effort with a Sjors supplement, this time with consent of the copyright owner. It appears that these pages were also traced, presumably by staff artist Jacques Bouwman.
The Dutch Sjors with his aunt and uncle.
By January 1932, the Leiden-based Rotogravure had a collaboration with the Brussels-based publisher Jan Meuwissen, who published the 'Perry Winkle' comic in the Flemish magazine ABC (also as 'Ukkie Wappie') and its Walloon edition A-Z (in French as 'Jean-Jean et ses Amis'). ABC published American material until issue #42 of 1932, after which the strip was handed over to several unidentified local artists. This version came to an end in October/November 1933, when 'Ukkie Wappie' was replaced by 'De Avonturen van Uk en Puk' (AKA 'De Avonturen van Fik en Fok') by Marten Toonder. In France, the 'Perry Winkle' comic knew a local version as well. Between 1959 and 1961, scriptwriter Raymond Maric created three comic books with 'Bicot' for the publishing house Azur. The artwork was done by José Antonio Serna Ramos (1959) and Jean-Claude Forest (1960-1961). Eventually, the 'Perry Winkle' version in the Spaarnestad magazines proved to have the most longevity.
'Sjors'. First appearance of the Colonel and Sally.
Frans Piët's 'Sjors van de Rebellenclub'
In the United States, the 'Perry Winkle' Sunday page returned to printing the adventures of Winnie Winkle herself. As a result, publisher De Spaarnestad was running out of material to print in their Panorama supplement. The Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate agreed to Lou Vierhout's request for a local production of 'Perry Winkle' comics in the Netherlands. In 1938, Frans Piët was hired by De Spaarnestad as a staff artist, and the first 'Sjors' page with his initials appeared in print on 31 March of that year. Initially, he continued 'Sjors van de Rebellenclub' in Branner's gag set-up, with the help from his wife Mary for the texts. However, Piët eventually removed nearly all of Branner's characters, including Winnie Winkle, Perry's parents and his entire Rinkydinks club. Only Perry (Sjors) remained, but he was remodeled to have a more Dutch look and environment.
'Sjors'. The new all-Dutch "Rebel's club".
To give the comic a Dutch locale, Piët sent Sjors away to live with his uncle Teunis and aunt Rika in the fictional village of Natteveen. The artist came up with more cast members of his own, including Sjors' friend Dikkie, a chubby farmer's son with cap, smock, knee-piece and clogs. He also met the retired colonel Snork and his handsome and fashionable daughter Sally. Last but not least, the entire scenery was localized. The American skyscrapers and city streets were replaced by windmills, willows and a more standard Dutch village look. From that point on, Piët basically had an entirely new and original comic strip, of which only the title character vaguely resembled Branner's original.
In early 1942, the war-time paper shortage and a decree by the Nazi oppressor led to the end of the Panorama supplement Sjors van de Rebellenclub, and the Piët strip was transferred to Panorama's regular pages. During the war years, Frans Piët additionally created the gag comic about the pretty girl 'Jossie Jovel' (1941-1942) for De Humorist. For publisher Keesmaat, Piët created the illustrated storybook 'Bassie, Het Verhaal van Den Zeeman' (1943).
'Jossie Jovel'.
Sjors... and Sjimmie!
After World War II, editor and writer Lou Vierhout had the idea to turn the 'Sjors van de Rebellenclub' gag strip into an adventure serial, with longer and exciting stories. Characters like the colonel, Sally and Dikkie disappeared and didn't return until Piët's successors in the 1960s and 1970s created their version of the comic. Appearing in the back pages of Panorama, the new 'Sjors' comic quickly attracted a large audience, and captivated an entire generation. In January 1949, Piët and Vierhout's first story, starring Sjors as a circus performer, began publication in Panorama. After a couple of episodes, Sjors found a new sidekick in the black boy Jimmy, the son of the circus' painter and cook. Piët modeled the character after Simmy from his earlier 1930s comic strip. Jimmy, who quickly became known as Sjimmie, was modeled as a stereotypical black kid, with curly hair, earrings and thick lips. Strangely enough, he originally spoke perfect Dutch, but in later episodes he started using crooked speech. As a result, the character appeared to be far more simple-minded and helpless than in his debut adventure.
From a modern perspective, Piët's version of Sjimmie looks racially offensive. The character was clearly a product of a different era. It wasn't until halfway through the 1960s when attitudes changed, and it took until 1969 before Sjimmie was redesigned and restyled by Piët's successors. However, in the Piët stories Sjors always treated Sjimmie as his equal and considered him his best friend. In that sense, Sjors and Sjimmie show the same inseparable companionship as the similar comic book duo Blondin and Cirage by the Belgian pioneer Jijé.
First appearance of Jimmy/Sjimmie in 'Sjors als Circusartiest'.
Piët and Vierhout sent their heroes to places the average Dutchman of the 1950s had only vaguely heard of. Like most comic authors of the time, they didn't bother to spend much time on documentation, which resulted in a series of exciting but also naïve adventures featuring Native Americans, tigers, smugglers and other crooks. Sjors and Sjimmie traveled through Europe, America and Arabia, and eventually headed for the fictitious North American country Minasoussa. Minasoussa was only North American in name, as the country basically looked Dutch. It might explain why Sjors and Sjimmie decided to settle there in 1954, after receiving a large sum of money as a reward for uncovering a couple of gold smugglers. They moved in with doctor Theodoor Sikkema, Sjors' cousin Sally and a stuttering kid named Knebbeltje. The exact family relations were left in the middle. By then, scriptwriter Vierhout was replaced by Piët's second cousin Hans Keller, who focused more on human relations instead of exotic locations. This new direction suited Piët's drawings better, as he was stronger in character expressions than drawing backgrounds.
Sjors en Sjimmie - 'Op Zoek naar de Zwarte Ridder' (1959).
In the second half of the 1950s, magical elements were introduced into the comic's narratives. In the story 'Sjors en Sjimmie in Wonderland' (1958), a soap bubble man fulfilling wishes sent the heroes to the year 3000. Piët revived a couple of knights in 'Op Zoek naar de Zwarte Ridder' (1959, written by Toon Kortooms) and he sent his characters to a Stone Age with both dinosaurs and cavemen in 'De Tijdmachine' (1960). Later in that story, Sjors and Sjimmie travel to America with Columbus, where they encounter Native Americans and even tigers. In 'Sjors en Sjimmie in de Rimboe' (1961), the characters go to Africa, which Piët presents as one big country with one language. In a later adventure from the mid-1960s, they even ventured into outer space, when they traveled to the so-called Pintoplanet.
'Sjors en Sjimmie in Wonderland' (1958).
Rebellenclub magazine
While Piët and his writers made the 'Sjors' comic for Panorama magazine, another bi-weekly supplement called Sjors was published by De Spaarnestad between June 1947 and January 1948. Two years later, on 15 September 1950, yet another supplement was launched, this time named Rebellenclub. Because of Piët's workload - he produced two weekly pages for Panorama - he could only contribute the gag strip 'Uit de Luierjaren van Sjors' (1950-1954) to this publication. The strip, which dealt with Sjors' younger years, also appeared in Grabbelton under the title 'Streken van een Kleine Strop' in Grabbelton. Grabbelton was the supplement of Katholieke Illustratie, and had nearly the same content as Rebellenclub. Another remarkable strip published in Rebellenclub was 'Pier Paniek en Suzie Rebel, Het Zusje van Sjors' by Jacques Bouwman. It dealt with the adventures of Sjors' sister Suzie, who should technically be the same character as Martin Branner's 'Winnie Winkle'. However, both the 'Luierjaren van Sjors' and 'Pier Paniek' features were presumably British comics, traced for their Dutch publication by Piët and Bouwman, respectively. The names of the main characters were picked to fit in with the Sjors universe.
'Uit De Luierjaren van Sjors', possibly traced from a British strip.
De Spaarnestad art studio
After Jacques Bouwman's departure from the company in 1952, Frans Piët became head of De Spaarnestad's in-house art studio at the Nassauplein in Haarlem. There, other staff artists like Harry Balm, Bert Bus, Nico van Dam, Jan Giling and Ab Schatorjé were responsible for most of the illustrations in the publisher's many magazines. Schatorjé later succeeded Piët in the role of studio chief. In September 1954, the children's supplements Rebellenclub, Grabbelton and Tombola were continued as the independent magazine Sjors van de Rebellenclub. However, Frans Piët remained attached to the 'Sjors en Sjimmie' comic in Panorama, so other artists were brought in to produce the title comic for the new magazine. The Sjors magazine kicked off with the story 'Sjors en de Verschrikkelijke Sneeuwman', an adventure serial made by Hans Ducro. After that, Sjors van de Rebellenclub featured Sjors, without Sjimmie, in a new gag strip by Carol Voges.
Sjors leaves Sjimmie with another Sjors in Sjors #39, 1964.
A new Sjors
By 1963, Panorama magazine had changed its overall look, with the title becoming more modern and sensational. As a result, Frans Piët's 'Sjors en Sjimmie' felt out of place in its pages and was transferred to Sjors magazine that same year. The transfer coincided with one of the oddest restylings in comic history. In an October 1964 episode, Sjors, still in Minasoussa, receives a letter from his parents, asking him to return home. Sjimmie, oddly enough, receives no such letter from his own parents and stays behind. As Sjimmie sadly says his goodbyes to his friend, Sjors comforts him that Sjimmie "can now have new adventures with the boy next door", who coincidentally was also called Sjors, but looked completely different. While the first Sjors had a blonde hairdo, the new Sjors had plucky orange hair and a bonnet. Nothing else was changed about the series and the new-born Sjors continued to be Sjimmie's co-star until Frans Piët retirement in 1969. It is believed that the editors felt that Sjors' "long" haircut looked too much like the "filthy" Beatle haircuts that were in fashion around that time. In hindsight, this censorship was actually amazing, considering the fact that Sjors had his haircut ever since his debut 26 years earlier, without anyone complaining about it before.
'Sjors en Sjimmie' after Piët's retirement
Piët's final story ended in Sjors issue #23 of 1969, and in the following issue, his successor Jan Kruis presented his modernized version of the comic. Both the original Sally and the Colonel, created by Piët in the 1930s, returned and the setting was changed to the fictional Frisian island of Schiermeeuwenoog. After creating two stories, Kruis in turn was succeeded by Jan Steeman and scriptwriters like Frans Buissink, who continued the 'Sjors & Sjimmie' adventure serial until the final issue of Sjors magazine in 1975. When Sjors and competing magazine Pep were merged into the new weekly Eppo, the 'Sjors & Sjimmie' comic received the biggest restyling of all time. Drawn by Robert van der Kroft and written by Wilbert Plijnaar and Jan van Die (also known as the "Wiroja" team), it became a contemporary comic of high quality, completely focused on teenage life in the 1980s and 1990s. This rendition of the comic continued to appear in all of Eppo's successor magazines, Sjors & Sjimmie Stripblad, SjoSji and Striparazzi. When in 1999 the final issue of Striparazzi rolled from the presses, the series seemed to permanently discontinued. However, since 2019 new episodes have been made by the Wirojas in each issue of the comics news magazine Stripglossy.
Frans Piët (right) hands his characters over to Jan Kruis (left) during his farewell party in 1969.
Final years and death
Although officially retired, Piët drew the 'Ti Ta Tovenaar' comic for Televizier magazine in 1974. The strip was based on the 1972-1974 TV series created by Lo Hartog van Banda, about a magician and his daughter, starring Ton Lensink and Maroesja Lacunes. Frans Piët died in 1997 as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 91 years old.
Recognition
In 1991, Frans Piët received a royal decoration for his artistic accomplishments. Since 2003, the Dutch city of Almere has a street named after Frans Piët (the Frans Piëtstraat) in its comics district and two streets after both Sjors and Sjimmie (the Sjorsstraat and the Sjimmiestraat).
'Nieuwe avonturen van Sjors en Sjimmie' (1954).
Legacy and influence
Frans Piët was one of the classic Dutch comic artists, and a pioneer of the medium in the Netherlands. 'Sjors en Sjimmie' was one of the earliest Dutch comics to become and stay popular among generations of readers for decades on end. Of all the Dutch comic series launched before World War II, it is one of the few that still remains familiar and beloved to this day. With 60 years of nearly uninterrupted run, 'Sjors' remains the longest-running Dutch comic series of all time. Even if one only starts counting from Sjimmie's introduction in 1949 it still shows a great durability, with fifty years of running time. After Willy Vandersteen's 'Suske en Wiske' (1945- ) and Jef Nys' 'Jommeke' (1955- ) in Belgium, it is the third-longest running Dutch-language comic series of all time. Frans Piët was an influence on Dutch comic artist Henk Groeneveld and Belgian comic artist Eduard De Rop.
Lambiek will always be grateful to Frans Piët for illustrating the letter "S" in our encyclopedia book 'Wordt Vervolgd - Stripleksikon der Lage Landen' (1979).
Self-portrait made for an article in Panorama #32, 1975.