Sjors en Sjimmie
Encyclopedia
Sjors & Sjimmie is a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 adaptation of US-comic Perry Winkle. Difference is that Sjors (Perry) forms a duo with Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

-born Sjimmie. They're raised by Sally and the Colonel who regularly finds himself on the receiving end of their pranks. In return Sjors & Sjimmie are outsmarted by their scheming classmate Dikkie, although they manage to stay the best of friends.

Early years

The comic began life in 1902 as the US newspaper-cartoon Buster Brown
Buster Brown
Buster Brown was a comic strip character created in 1902 by Richard Felton Outcault who was known for his association with the Brown Shoe Company. This mischievous young boy was loosely based on a boy near Outcault's home in Flushing, New York...

. Its success triggered off a huge amount of publicity about the boy stuff, like clothes, toys and whiskey.

Follow-up Perry Winkle was published in the Netherlands and eventually given a Dutch-made version (Sjors en de Rebellenclub by Frans Piët) when the original US comics shifted back focus on Perry's sister Winnie. Sjors found, after a publication stop during WW II, a companion in Sjimmie, a negroid boy who was part of the visiting circus, and had originally very stereotypical features, including the broken language. In 1969 Jan Kruis
Jan Kruis
Jan Kruis is a Dutch comics artist.He began creating comics as a child. Later he worked for the Dutch comics pioneer Marten Toonder....

 took over the comic from the retired Frans Piët; he made Sjimmie look normal and speak properly Dutch.
Kruis produced two 44-page stories before deciding that he couldn't meet the demand; he went on to find fame with his one-page comic Jack, Jacky and the Juniors in which Sjors & Sjimmie were given one cameo-appearance. Jan Steeman continued Sjors & Sjimmie during the first half of the 1970s.

1975-99; the Wiroja-years

In 1975 the Sjors and Pep magazines merged to Eppo
Eppo
Eppo may refer to:* Australian surfer Michael Eppelstun * European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization * ICAO code for Poznań-Ławica Airport* Eppo A Dutch comic magazine....

; Sjors & Sjimmie were re-invented as one-page gags drawn by Robert van der Kroft. Initial responses were tepid, but that changed once scriptwriter Patty Klein was replaced by Wilbert Plijnaar and Jan van Die. Collectively known as Wiroja, the threesome turned the comic into one of Eppo's household names.

During the 1980s Sjors & Sjimmie grew into teenagers pursuing like-minded interests (soccer, computer-games) and chasing girls to varying results while modern-day trends, celebrities and political developments are ridiculed.

For example; Sjors & Sjimmie were huge fans of Michael Claxon
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

 and Madonna, eschewing their mundane cheese-sandwiches for spare-time lunches at McMickey's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...

.

In 1988 Eppo magazine was renamed "Sjors & Sjimmie" after its successful comic. It lasted till 1999 and contained multipage stories besides the regular one-pagers. Wiroja couldn't cope with so much work and had themselves offloaded by a Spanish art studio, although they were still on hand for cover-designs and quality-control. Meanwhile, Wiroja gained a new audience by producing gag strip Claire for women's magazine Flair.

In 1992 Sjors & Sjimmie appeared in an animated rap-video for the No Shobo-campaign, detesting showoff-behaviour.

The magazine was revived in 2009 as Eppo
Eppo
Eppo may refer to:* Australian surfer Michael Eppelstun * European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization * ICAO code for Poznań-Ławica Airport* Eppo A Dutch comic magazine....

; Sjors & Sjimmie are not included in the roster of household names from the past. Robert van der Kroft now resides in Italy but still works on new Claire-gags with Jan van Die and Evert Gerets. Wilbert Plijnaar lives and works in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 since 1995.

Movies

Seven Sjors & Sjimmie movies were made between 1955 and 1977 by Henk van der Linden.
  • Sjors en Sjimmie en het Zwaard van Krijn (1977)
  • Sjors en Sjimmie en de Rebellen (1972)
  • Sjors en Sjimmie en de Toverring (1971)
  • Sjors en Sjimmie in het Land der Reuzen (1968)
  • Sjors en Sjimmie en de Gorilla (1966)
  • Sjors en Sjimmie op het Pirateneiland (1962)
  • Sjors van de Rebellenclub (1955)


There was talk of an eighth movie starring comedians Paul de Leeuw and Eric van Sauers as Sjors & Sjimmie in their 40s, but it didn't happen.

Artists

  • Martin Branner
    Martin Branner
    Martin Michael Branner , known to his friends as Mike Branner, was a cartoonist who created the popular comic strip Winnie Winkle...

  • Frans Piët
  • Hans Ducro
  • Carol Voges
  • Jan Kruis
    Jan Kruis
    Jan Kruis is a Dutch comics artist.He began creating comics as a child. Later he worked for the Dutch comics pioneer Marten Toonder....

  • Jan Steeman
  • Robert van der Kroft
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