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

Luc Cromheecke Luc Cromheecke (born 2 August 1961), is a 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 Cromheecke ...

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 A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary 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 (; ) is a museum in central Brussels, Belgium, dedicated to Belgian comics. It is located at 20, /, in an Art Nouveau building designed by Victor Horta, and can be accessed from Brussels-Congress railway station ...

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

The Smurfs ''The Smurfs'' (; ) 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 created and introduced as a series of comic characters by ...

'' or ''

Peanuts ''Peanuts'' (briefly subtitled ''featuring Good ol' Charlie Brown'') 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 ext ...

''. 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'' (; ), stylized as de Volkskrant, 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- ...

''. 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 (; ; popularly named ''De Frut'') is a Belgian newspaper in Antwerp and Flanders, published by Concentra. History and profile was established in 1891. Its editor was Jan Baptist Napolitaan Van Os, a Catholic. Shortly afterwards, the compa ...

'' and ''

Het Belang van Limburg (; "The Interest of Limburg") is a Dutch language regional newspaper in Belgium. History and profile was founded in 1933 as a merger of several weekly magazines. The paper is owned and published by Concentra. It is published in tabloid forma ...

'' (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 an English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is widely regarded as the firs ...

*2005:

Brecht Evens Brecht Evens (born 1986)Brecht Evens, De Liefhebbers, Ed. Oogachtend 2011, p.219 is a Belgian graphic novel artist and illustrator living in Paris. Several of his graphic novels have been translated into French, English, German, Spanish, Danish, ...

*2006: Filip Strubbe and Ivan Claeys *2007: Kristof Spaey and Steven Dupré *2008: Pinda *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 Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language officially used in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes. * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa. * Swahili culture, the culture of the Swahili p ...

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