Literary classics as comic strips
Comics based on existing books are also called 'comic classics'. You can see it as a translation of Illustrated Classics, a series of magazines that was very popular in the Netherlands between 1956 and 1976. In that series, classic stories from world literature were illustrated by American and English illustrators.
But in the Netherlands there were also early adopters. Piet Wijn, who later achieved great success with Douwe Dabbert, already threw himself into a comic version of the story De schipjongens van Bontekoe by Johan Fabricius in 1957. The comic was published in daily episodes in the daily newspaper Het Vrije Volk. When this series was over, Piet Wijn drew a comic based on the book Nobody's boy by Hector Malot.
Foreign novels
The attention of Dutch comic strip artists was initially mainly drawn by foreign novels at first. Henk Rotgans drew comic strip versions of The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss for the magazine Sjors between 1963 and 1967.
In 1965, Bert Bus drew Huckleberry Finns Avonturen, based on the famous books by Mark Twain. His adaptation was pre-published in the comic weekly Sjors and released in album form in 1979.
Eric Schreurs was inspired in 1983 by George Orwell's 1984. In his story, Orwell visits the year 1984 and ends up in the harsh world of paid sex (colder and more impersonal than he himself ever described), is confronted with racism and eventually leaves in a hurry.
The literary graphic novel received a strong boost from an original story: Maus by the American Art Spiegelman, a title that also sold well in the Netherlands. The realization grew that 'serious' stories could also be told in comic albums. And so a subgenre gradually emerged: literary classics reworked into comics.
-
Bert Bus, Huckleberry Finns Avonturen, part 1. Request number: KW RE 254/32-1
-
Bert Bus, Huckleberry Finns Avonturen, part 2. Request number: KW RE 254/34-1
-
Eric Schreurs!, George Orwell?, Wim Hanssen!, 1984, 1983. Request number: KW SE 1985/68
Dick Matena
Dick Matena, De Avonden (part 1), 2002. Request number: KW 5177086.
In the Netherlands, Dick Matena is one of the best-known practitioners of creating graphic novels based on literary works. A first exercise was his series of comics based on the ‘forgotten writer’ A. den Dooier (pseudonym of Matena himself), about life in the countryside. The stories seem to be a parody of naturalistic novels from the early twentieth century.
In 2002, he started on a comic version of Gerard Reve’s De Avonden, which eventually ran to four volumes. He received the Bronze Adhemar for it in Flanders. Comic versions of Kaas by Willem Elsschot, Jan Wolkers’ Kort Amerikaanse and Turks Fruit and Theo Thijssen’s Kees de Jongen followed. He also ventured into a number of Kronkels, Simon Carmiggelt's regular column in Het Parool.
In 2021, he published a comic strip version of Saïdjah and Adinda, using the full text of Multatuli.
-
Dick Matena; Theo Thijssen, Kees de Jongen, 2012. Request number: 4305400
-
Dick Matena; Simon Carmiggelt, Kronkels, 2019. Request number: 14069421
-
Dick Matena; Multatuli, Saïdjah en Adinda, 2021. Request number: 17005620
Eric Heuvel; Multatuli, Max Havelaar – De graphic novel, 2020. Request number: KW GW A118660
Eric Heuvel
Multatuli's best-known work is of course Max Havelaar, and that book was also cast in comic strip form. The version drawn by Eric Heuvel was pre-published in the comic strip magazine Eppo during the Multatuli year 2020. The text was edited by Jos van Waterschoot, former curator of the Multatuli Museum. Remarkably enough, the story of Saïdjah and Adinda was also presented in this book, but in a shortened form.
In short
It can be even shorter: in the book Mooi is dat!, published in 2010, 57 literary classics such as Lucifer by Vondel, Camera obscura by Hildebrand and Knielen op een bed violen by Jan Siebelink were presented in comic strip form, on one page. With contributions from well-known creators such as Maaike Hartjes, Gerrit de Jager, Joost Swarte and Gerben Valkema, the compilers presented the book as a cross section of Dutch literature and a calling card of the most gifted Dutch and Belgian comic strip creators.
Milan Hulsing
Milan Hulsing, De Aanslag, 2015. Request number: 16013637
Speaking of literary classics: in 2015, The Assault by Harry Mulisch was adapted into a comic strip by Milan Hulsing. In his adaptation, he takes more liberties: not only does he not use the entire text, he also tinkers with the story structure. Where Mulisch starts his novel with the murder, in Hulsing's first scene we see the main character Anton in the police cell after that fateful evening. Hulsing whimsically draws the story in surreal yellow, red and brown.
For the time being, there are still plenty of classics to be translated into comic strip form. In 2024, Aimée de Jongh received much praise for her thumb-thick comic book based on Lord of the Flies, and in 2025, a comic strip adaptation of the Dutch classic Bartje by Anco Dijkman was published.
Literature
- Gert Meesters, 'De lat-relatie tussen strip en literatuur: Over de ‘verstripping’ van literaire werken'. In: Ons Erfdeel, February 2003.
- Aimée de Jongh over de verstripping van Lord of the flies. De Poort, 11 September 2024.
- Op bezoek bij Dick Matena. Podcast Stripjournaal, 30 June 2019.
