Den Bosch (Dutch comic con)

[H.W.Fluks@kpn.com]

Daniël wrote:

> Yesterday, I've visited the "Stripdagen" in Den Bosch, The 
> Netherlands.
> With comic book fellows Harry Fluks and Arthur de Wolf.

Indeed. Let me give a short (?) summary of the past Saturday.
(I guess there also will be reports of what happened in Norway this
weekend?)

"Den Bosch" is the annual Dutch comic convention. Last year, it was very
small and un-cozy. Lots of empty spaces; lots of people boycotting the
convention because of its high prices (for hiring a booth), and maybe
because of other problems.

The organisers were all sacked last year, and the new team promised to make
a better convention this year.
They only partly succeeded: all events and booths were in one hall, a bit
closer to each other. So there were less painfully empty spaces. But still
the convention had very few visitors, compared to the crowded conventions
that we remember from the 1980s and 1990s.

Anyway, this year they announced a special convention because of 50 years of
Donald Duck weekly. So we *had* to go there. For us (Arthur, Daniël and me)
it was also a kind of reunion, since the three of us hadn't been together
since the previous Den Bosch happening, 12 months ago.

There was the usual booth of the Dutch Disney publisher. With artists making
drawings and signing autographs. Artists present were Maarten Janssens,
Sander Gulien, Wilma van den Bosch, and Daan Jippes. (Mau and Bas Heymans
would be there on Sunday.)

Wilma van den Bosch won a prize for the best youth album of the year
("Prinses Aster": non-Disney, but the story was published in Donald Duck).
Her partner Pascal Oost was there too.
Other people who were there include editors Thom Roep and Frans Hasselaar,
writer Frank Jonker, and fan Andreas Gammel.

And there were two special guests from Finland: AKU ANKKA editors Elina
Toppari and Antti Hulkkonen. We had a nice talk about Inducks, Finland, and
Disney comics in general.
They had brought Jippes some Finnish comics with his work in it (and his
name on the cover!), including the cover and school agenda that Jippes did
on special Finnish request. Unfortunately, I can't read a word of Finnish...
8-)

There was a small exhibition of Dutch Disney writers and artists.
Interesting stuff. These exhibitions are always too small for my taste 8-).

After the convention closed, we had a very "luxurious" dinner (self service
8-) with Arthur, Daniël, Frank, Pascal and Wilma and their daughter. Arthur,
Daniël and I went into the city afterwards, to have a drink (and loong
talks).

Then, after driving 1.5 hours to get home, we could look back on a day with
interesting conversations, inside news, and even some comics and fan
drawings.

--Harry.
(In mail addresses: 's-Gravenhage, 's-Hertogenbosch.
On road signs: Den Haag, 's-Hertogenbosch.
In normal speech: Den Haag, Den Bosch.
The Dutch are quite crazy sometimes...)