''Plunk'' is a Belgian comic series created by

Luc Cromheecke Luc Cromheecke (born 2 August 1961), is a Belgium, Belgian comics artist best known for the comic series ''Tom Carbon'', ''Taco Zip'', ''Roboboy'' and ''Plunk''. Biography Luc Cromheecke was born in Antwerp in 1961.De Weyer, Geert (2005). "Luc Cr ...

and Laurent Letzer, and published by Dupuis. So far three albums have appeared. The comics are pantomime comic/

gag-a-day A gag-a-day comic strip is the style of writing comic cartoons such that every installment of a strip delivers a complete joke or some other kind of artistic statement. It is opposed to story or continuity strips, which rely on the development of ...

short stories (most often between one and four pages long) about the misadventures of Plunk, a little pink alien with green trousers and a green hat from the planet Smurk.

History

Plunk was first created in the late 1980s for the

Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art The Belgian Comic Strip Center (french: Centre belge de la Bande dessinée; nl, Belgisch Stripcentrum) is a museum in Brussels, Belgium, dedicated to Belgian comics. It is located at 20, /, in an Art Nouveau building designed by Victor Horta, ...

as a fictional example of the merchandising that can be produced with successful comic figures like ''

The Smurfs ''The Smurfs'' (french: Les Schtroumpfs; nl, De Smurfen) is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony of small, blue, humanoid creatures who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest. ''The Smurfs'' was first created and in ...

'' or ''

Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...

''. In 1990, he became a character in ''Taco Zip'', the comic strip by Cromheecke which appeared at the time in the Dutch newspaper ''

De Volkskrant ''de Volkskrant'' (; ''The People's Paper'') is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium-sized c ...

''. These comic strips were later reprinted in four albums and twenty years later in one collection. A decade later, Plunk became the central figure in a series of very short animated movies, commissioned by VTM, the major Flemish commercial TV station. The plan abandoned before any of these shorts were ever broadcast though. In 2007, Plunk was again revived, this time to get his own series. The Plunk stories are prepublished in '' Spirou'' magazine (French language), in ''

Gazet van Antwerpen The ''Gazet van Antwerpen'' (Antwerp Gazette, popularly named ''De Frut'', "sour head cheese") is a Belgian newspaper in Antwerp and Flanders, published by Concentra. History and profile ''Gazet van Antwerpen'' was established in 1891. Its edit ...

'' and ''

Het Belang van Limburg ''Het Belang van Limburg'' (Dutch; literally ''The Interest of Limburg'') is a Dutch language regional newspaper in Belgium. History and profile ''Het Belang van Limburg'' was founded in 1933 as a merger of several weekly magazines. The paper ...

'' (Dutch language), and sometimes on the Plunk-blog maintained by Cromheecke. The first two albums of ''Plunk'' were nominated at the Stripschapprizes (the major comics awards in the Netherlands) for the Award for Best Dutch Language Youth Comic in 2007 and 2008. Since 2008, Plunk is the mascotte of the award for the best Dutch language short comic story, the ''Plastieken Plunk'', awarded by the comics magazines ''Plots'' and ''Pulp Deluxe''. From 2004 until 2007 this award was given by ''Pulp Deluxe'' alone, but it was renamed after ''Plots'' joined.

Plastieken Plunk winners

*2004:

Steven Dupré Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; h ...

*2005:

Brecht Evens Brecht Evens (born 1986)Brecht Evens, De Liefhebbers, Ed. Oogachtend 2011, p.219 is a Belgian graphic novel artist and illustrator. Early life Brecht graduated from ''Sint-Lucas Fine Arts'' in Ghent in 2008 with a specialization in Illustrati ...

*2006: Filip Strubbe and Ivan Claeys *2007: Kristof Spaey and Steven Dupré *2008:

Pinda Pinda may refer to: People * Emmanuel Pinda (born 1961), French karate practitioner * Kingsley Pinda (born 1992), French basketball player * Mizengo Pinda (born 1948), Prime Minister of Tanzania Other uses * Pinda (riceball), rice balls offered t ...

*2009: Brecht Evens *2010: Erwin Kho *2011: Frederik Van Den Stock *2012: Martijn Van Santen *2013: Leslie Saurus *2014: Thijs Desmet *2015: Jan van Doornspeek *2016: Jonas Sysmans

Plastieken Plunk audience award

*2008: Swahili and Peter Moerenhout *2009: Pieter Rosseel and Peter Moerenhout *2010: Bartosz Sztybor and others *2011: Merel Cremers *2012: Mathias van den Berge en Bram Vaassen *2013: Jeroen Funke *2014: Bram Algoed *2015: Floris De Smedt *2016: Dennis Marien

Notes

{{reflist

External links

The Plunk Blog
mainly in English
Example
of a Plunk comic, at the Dupuis website

with the StripSpeciaalZaak website
Plastieken Plunk
1989 comics debuts Belgian comic strips Comics about extraterrestrial life Dupuis titles Gag-a-day comics Pantomime comics