Marten Toonder

Dutch writer of comic strips, creator of Tom Puss and Oliver B. Bumble.

Toonder (his name means "show it") became famous for his Tom Puss and Oliver B. Bumble series (1941-1990). As he wrote them for influential news papers like the "Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant" (NRC), he had a great influence on the Dutch language by introducing genial new words and expressions. Neologisms like "Minkukel", "zielknijper", "denkraam" and "kommer en kwel" were introduced by his strip heroes and enriched the Dutch language. "Ziel knijper" for shrink translates as "soul squeezer". Because of his original, typically Jungian symbolic word use, his work is difficult to translate.

Toonders father Marten Toonder (16 Nov 1879, Warffum - 24 May 1965, Leiden ) was a sea captain of The Holland America Line. He brought home comics from America for his children. As the father was absent and the mother Trijntje Huizinga (2 March 1886, Uithuizen - 5 February 1970, Leiden) left the kids with strips alone, both Marten and his brother Jan Gerhard Toonder, could develop a vivid imagination. They shared an interest in mystery and the occult. Jan Gerhard would become a prolific writer and professional astrologer and Marten Toonders strips had always an adventurous and mysterious mood.

After finishing the HBS-A school, he travelled with his father to South America (July 1931). In Buenos Aires he met a cartoonist who had worked for Felix the Cat in Disney Studio's. From end 1931 till 1932 he had military service, for him a boring time. After a short visit to the Rotterdam art academy (1932) Toonder worked as an illustrator (1933). From 1934-38, he illustrates for the "Nieuwsblad van het Noorden" (newspaper of the Nord) the for children meant strip "Thijs IJs, de ijsbeer" about an ice-bear for which his brother Jan Gerhard wrote the text.

In 1941 the Dutch paper De Telegraaf looked for a replacement for the strip "Mickey Mouse", that could not be imported from the US, because of the war.