013 #blogjune 2020 - Dossier: Secret Agent Man

013 #blogjune 2020

 "Good grief! What a secret agent has to do nowadays to get to his office in secret."
- Agent 327


Song of the Blog:
"Secret agent man, secret agent man
They've given you a number and taken away your name."
 - JOHNNY RIVERS

Back in 1980, the year I became a true teenager at 13, EPPO magazine was celebrating big time. They had their 250th issue and a special edition for their fifth year in existence! That year the 9th adventure ( or should I say dossier) of Agent 327 started as well.

One of my favourite comics, I have the Volvo truck poster on the wall in my office. Last month a good friend from my old high school in Leiden posted on Instagram about an Agent 327 book he was reading, he was kind enough to send me a copy across the world and it finally arrived yesterday. Just in time for my Agent 327 blog.
Time for a coffee and a read!

Comic books have always played a big role in my life, I like to write about them - I like to draw them and I even have an account on Instagram where I post pictures of #newspapersincomics.  In the 9th book of Agent 327 there is a frame of him reading a newspaper.  The Dutch paper, 'DE TELEGRAAF' - renamed; 'De Telegraf'. In the late 80s I actually delivered this paper, in the early mornings in Amsterdam. I tell you, 'good grief' it was such a thick paper back then that it was really hard to get the whole edition into the small mail slots in the doors. They were mostly high up slippery stone stairways as well. What a paperboy had to do to get the paper delivered those days.

There are plenty of 'fun' Easter eggs, little hidden jokes and cameos in dossier 9: 'De gesel of Rotterdam'; like the captain Allan Thompson from Tintin's 'Crab with the Golden Claws' to the appearance of Fuora, from the Franka comics. It's part of what makes this book one of my favourite Agent 327 stories... that and the massive spider that turns up!

All in all, I really do love most of Martin Lodewijk's work. From his earlier advertising material and illustrations in the NVSH magazine 'Sekstant' (I still have some of those) to his writing for other comics, like Storm. But Agent 327 will always be up there with the great comic books from my younger years that were shaped by the pages of the EPPO magazine.