036 - Happy MOON day ! - 20th July

“M-O-O-N Spells moon” -  Stephen King

Song of the day:
"Hey baby, are you having fun?
If you believed they put a man on the moon,
man on the moon..."
- REM

Tintin landed on the moon in 1950! WAY before the official moonlandin!!!

In one of my older #blogjune posts I mentioned the special Tintin book that belonged to my father (here is is) - within it are the two moon related albums, which today are topical again because it is 50 years since the moon landing. In 1969 the Apollo 11 lunar module, carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins landed on the surface of the Moon; with Buzz and Armstrong walking on the moon seven hours later. I was one years old, nearly two - so I really can't remember anything. But I have however been fascinated with the moon and space travel from a very early age. I believe Tintin had a large role to play, having read his adventures about going to the moon. Plus the Jules Verne novel, "From the Earth to the Moon" that was the inspiration for the iconic image from "A Trip to the Moon" (a 1902 French adventure film by Georges Méliès).

From a 1902 movie to a 2019 Emoji - progress....

The Classics Illustrated #144- "First Men In The Moon" was based on the H. G. Wells story. It's quite weird in its portrayal of the moon. With plant life, creatures and AIR ...and their vessel, some moon-like sphere is not the most exciting design, although - ET's space ship has a lot to answer for as well.


I came across an online image of an awesome French copy of "Destination Moon" (the Tintin book, not to be confused with the SF movie by George Pal). It has the following quotes from some of the atronauts with their autographs:

Buzz Aldrin: "First moonwalker after Tintin"
Alan Bean: "I might see footprints of Neil and Buzz but I am not sure about Tintin's".
James Lovell: "Houston, we've had a problem like Tintin."
Al Worden: "When returning from the moon, I took the farthest out space walk!! including Tintin's"
Charlie Duke: "The youngest man after Tintin to explore the moon"



I would still like to have a little rocket statue from Tintin for my collection, but for now I am really happy with the one of him, sitting on the rocks looking at the map from the same "Destination Moon" book. Oh, and look BEARS!!!

035 - The bear necessities - PART II: Electric Baloo

 “Never mind those failures till yesterday.
Each new day is a sequel of a wonderful life; gifted with hopes to succeed."
- Aniruddha Sastikar

SONG OF THE DAY: 

"Look for the bare necessities

The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
That's why a bear can rest at ease, with just the bare necessities of life"
- Baloo,  Jungle Book

 

I was ecstatic when I found this electric bookie!

Captain Jeroen in his 1st boat, "Pol".

There were some nice reactions to the first POL page, enough to dig a bit deeper into the history of this beloved bear. One of my friends loved Pol so much that he named his first boat after the character! Also, as I was looking for another bear related book (that I didn't find), another Pol book popped up in between some other comics. A second book did made it around the world after all!

The handsome Hansen couple, bjørn to be famous!

The little bear could almost have been called "Bjørnen Rasmus" (Rasmus the Bear). But Danish writer Carla Hansen protested against it, arguing that we all have a surname and so should the bear. Thus, the surname became "Klump", named after a Golden Retriever that lived in the apartment under Carla and Vilhelm Hansen in Copenhagen. FUN FACT: Another one of my favourite characters, Indiana Jones, was also named after a dog! Not just in the movie, but George Lucas named him after his own Alaskan malamute.

I did also LOVE the Colargol bear, but please don't confuse him with Pol!

 
After digging a bit further, I found that one of the English names seems to have been "Barnaby Bear", which confusingly enough was also the English version of Colargol, another famous bear from the 70's that could sing! (There's also an unrelated  "Becky and Barnaby Bear" tv series). I am always intrigued how names of characters are changed throughout the world. Our beloved POL is known in France and Germany as PETZI - and in China people know him as Pipi Xiong!!!

Danish, French and German - look at some of the colour changes.

After more research I found that, in some of the earlier English newspaper versions, he was called "Bruin the Bear" (which is funny, because Bruin is Dutch for Brown). The "Glasgow Evening Times" (1954) even had a special club for the bear comic. You could cut out the comic strips and paste them in a special booklet that you could order and create your own comic book!

How cool to be able to cut out the comic strips and paste them in your own book! (1954)

The comic book series also played a major role in the introduction of comics into public libraries. In the fifties and sixties a discussion similar to the one in USA leading to the Comic Code Authority was going on in Denmark. Comics were not considered literature and were by some referred to as gutter literature. Despite the efforts of the cultural elite to make kids read books instead of comics, they became even more popular. In the end, the libraries had to accept comics on the shelves. The first comic to be accepted in the Danish libraries was "Rasmus Klump".

Thierry Capezzone, in the running for best Pol artist!

Over time there have been other artists who have picked up the character. Most recently, since 2017/2018,  a new comic (WITH speech bubbles!) has been written by Per Sanderhage and drawn by Thierry Capezzone (born in France, living in Denmark since 1993. I managed to find him on Facebook and I am following his work closely!

I almost screamed when I found out we have so much in common!

Earlier, in the 1990s,  Josep Maria Cardona has also created his version of the characters. He is well known for illustrating books of TV shows like Rugrats and his Disney related comic book work. So I thought it would be nice to end with his drawing of another favourite bear of mine, Baloo! After all, that's my nickname these days!

The simple BEAR necessities!!!

034 - The bear necessities - PART I

“Words and pictures are yin and yang. Married, they produce a progeny more interesting than either parent.”  - Dr. Seuss

Song of the day:
"Does the noise in my head bother you
Something's gotta give
Comic books are comin' true."
- "Something's Gotta Give" - Aerosmith


As part of a new series of blogs, I thought it would be nice to look back at some of the comic books in my bookcase. The ones that have been important to me over the years. One book that jumped out at me was POL ALS DUIKER (translation: "Pol as diver"). I remember having more of these books of Pol at a very young age. This one is the only one that has made it across the world. The Casterman copyright dates the book back to the year 1962. That's five years before I was even born.
There's sticker in the front of the book, with its price: 2.25 guilders, with I believe is roughly a Euro. So, that would have been NZ$1.67. It's probably not worth much more now. 

But the book IS extra special to me, because my father at the time wrote my name and our address in the front of the book. This also dates it because we moved from there in 1979. For a 57 year old comic book, it's still in pretty good condition, even though the staples have rusted over the years. But than, so have I.

The books, like the daily strip, did not have word balloons (speech bubbles) but text written below. This was a fairly common way of making comics at the time. Having the text under the pictures was supposed to make the series easier to read for kids. In the case of POL, they used the heads of the characters to show who was saying what. Like little avatars!



Above is an example of the actual Danish comic strip series that was created by the Danish wife and husband team Carla and Vilhelm Hansen in 1951. The books tell tells the adventures of the bear cub, that I knew as POL and his friends: Pingo (a penguin), Pel (a pelican) and many others. Later in life I found out their original names... the main character wasn't even called POL. It was originally called RASMUS KLUMP!

(TO BE CONTINUED...)

 

033 - July 17 - SPONGEBLOG: The 20th anniversary of SpongeBob.

"It's not about winning, it's about fun! " -  SpongeBob Squarepants

Song of the day:
"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
Absorbent and yellow and porous is he
If nautical nonsense be something you wish!
Then drop on the deck and flop like a fish!"
- SpongeBob SquarePants!

Visiting the Spongebob Storepants at Universal Orlando.

Today is the 20th anniversary of "SpongeBob," which premiered on Nickelodeon July 17, 1999.  Sadly last year, Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, passed away at the age of 57. His characters were always a big part of the TV culture at the Q-household in the weekends that my son QQ stayed with us. The show, with its classic theme, is really fun and totally absurd most of the time. From the sponge itself, with his silly best friend the starfish to the squid, the squirrel and the infamous crabby patty! Fun memories of watching the movie when it came out and playing the game that we reviewed for the paper.


One summer at Papamoa Beach we entered a sand sculpting competition and made it into the local paper with our SpongeBob creation.  We also got to meet the great Sponge Bobber at Universal studios a few times. The yellow fellow has really become a permanent part of popular culture.


You know you're famous when you make it as a noun in a TV show, like in The Big Bang Theory when Howard said "I'd like to SpongeBob her SquarePants." Even in other animated series there have been mentions, the Simpsons has a lot of references to SpongeBob. For instance in "Treehouse of Horror XXIX", in the opening sequence, the sea captain asks Homer if he knows the most evil creature in the sea, and Homer replies "SpongeBob?".  I have seen a SpongeBob SCREAM image and there are crazy costumes you can buy. Who is keen to go as SpongeBob this Halloween?! 

 

All over the world Spongee has been translated and his character has brought joy across the world. Just look at all the crazy translated movie posters! If you haven't soaked up enough of l'eponge, besides the TV show, movies, merc and the character meet and greets you can also head down to the comic book store for some action!

032 - One year later: Minnebook

“It was a year that, like all years, a lot of things happened in.”
- Carrie Fisher, The Princess Diarist

Song of the day:"Still crazy after all these years
Oh Still crazy after all these years
I'm not the kind of man
Who tends to socialise"
- Paul Simon

Last year around this time I had been through a long time of anxiety and a mild form of depression, following the death of my mother-in-law (Happy Birthday Betty- today is her b-day). Betty had lived with us for five years. I was looking for some things to cheer me up and came across the vlogs of Michael Minneboo.  He is a journalist and blogger. As a longtime Spider-Man-fan , he wrote the book 'Mijn vriend Spider-Man: Superhelden, geeks en fancultuur' (My Buddy Spider-Man: Superheroes, geeks and fan culture). He still blogs and vlogs about comics and popular culture and he inspired me to write again. On one of his vlogs he reviewed an amazing book by Ger Apeldoorn about the comic magazine EPPO, that I grew up with. Thanks to my best friend and soul-sister, Renske, I managed to get a copy send to New Zealand and it was very helpful in those darker months to establish a stability in my mind again. By the way, go check out Renske's awesome drawings, she is VERY talented: Renske Art and Crafts.

The book and Michael's vlogs were truly inspiring - and once we were settled in again in our new home (and new area) I slowly got back into writing and managed to do the the whole #Blogjune experience. This also helped keeping me focused on what I enjoy. I have even done a few vlogs myself, but found them to take up a lot of time and things didn't quite go as planned in that direction. I might continue later, changing the content a bit. In the meantime, over the last year I have been communicating with Michael, via comments on social media and think I could call him a friend now. Heck, if he can call Spider-man his friend - I can call him that as well :) ! Michael even writes for EPPO magazine now, spotting his name on the cover the other day. He takes an image from a comic and creates an article around it. Of course it then ends up on his blog/vlog as well.  

The other day Michael asked me if I was going to vlog again and maybe show some of my comic book collection. It will be nice to highlight some of my favourite comic books and I might actually start with some short blogs on here, themed around specific items from my bookcase. Then, maybe - if I conquer my initial fear of speaking on camera - I will end up making some videos again.

031 JULY - Happy Canada Day!

"Canada is the essence of not being. Not English, not American, it is the mathematic of not being. And a subtle flavour - we're more like celery as a flavour." -  Mike Myers

Song of the day:
"O Canada!, .... Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all of us command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,"
- Canadian Anthem

My Canadian Family in Vancouver.

Happy Canada Day! My auntie and uncle Van Zuijlekom left Holland to live in Canada before I was born. They would sometimes come back for a visit and later some of my cousins even came over to stay with family. In 1977, I was lucky to join my grandmother (oma) on one of your regular trips to her daughter and grandchildren. I have great memories of this time, I got to explore parts of Vancouver and the surrounding area - before going on our big trip around the USA.



In 1981, my parents decided they wanted to see it all for themselves. So I got to go back to my Canadian family and enjoy the beauty of the country once more. I thought I would end up in Canada one day, I loved the nature and the fact that it was so close to the USA to visit Disneyland etc. But my first wife didn't like the idea of living so close to America. She was thinking of Australia, but in the end we settled on New Zealand.

In 1981 we all got into a moterhome and traveled from Vancouver through the USA.

 
I have since been back to America a few times, but never returned to Canada. Later in life there were plans of once doing an Alaskan cruise and combining it with a trip to Canada. But, after our trip in 2017 to Florida, we decided to put a hold on travel. Flying just isn't much fun anymore - everything is so crowded ... there's enough nature to enjoy right here in New Zealand and sometimes it even reminds me of the time spend in Canada! In the mean time I will just enjoy Canada through movies and comics. The Canadian flag is still my favourite flag of the whole world!

030 - #blogjune - All's Well That Ends Well

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies,
but the silence of our friends."  - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Song of the day:
"This is the end
Hold your breath and count to ten
Feel the earth move and then
Hear my heart burst again"
- Skyfall Sountrack, Adele



Well, I have done it! We have reached the end of #blogjune, a little experiment of daily blogging that rekindled my love for writing and creating blogs about things that I am passionate about. Some people say; "it doesn't really matter if you have a large number of people following your page or not", but it does make a difference in knowing at least some people have been reading my little daily scribbles.





Thirty times I sat down behind my desk, on these cold kiwi winter mornings, thinking about a topic. Some came easily, I just looked around my office at all my stuff and started typing away. Others were a bit deeper, dealing with memories from my past, using my old journals. I believe these blogs should have a personal value, but should also entertain the reader. If I can reach out to just a few people and put a smile on their face or make them think or remember something from their life, than I have done my duty and can go home and sleep well.

People really seem to like the Shortest Blog!

Will this be the end of my blogs? The end of #blogjune, YES. But, I still have enough to write about and showcase from my 50+ years of adventures from across the world. So stay tuned, subscribe, find me on twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube and see what comes out of my crazy Dutch Kiwi brain!