''Sjors & Sjimmie'' (''George & Jimmy'') is a Dutch adaptation of the

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 comics terminology#Captio ...

Winnie Winkle ''Winnie Winkle'' is an American comic strip published during a 76-year span (1920–1996). Ten film adaptations were also made. Its premise was conceived by Joseph Medill Patterson, but the stories and artwork were by Martin Branner, who wrote t ...

'', specifically the character Perry Winkle from that strip. The difference between the American original and the Dutch adaptation is that Sjors (Perry) forms a duo with

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

-born Sjimmie. They are raised by Sally and the Colonel. The Colonel 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.

Publication history

Early years

The popularity of the newspaper strip ''

Buster Brown Buster Brown is a comic strip character created in 1902 by Richard F. Outcault that was adopted as the mascot of the Brown Shoe Company in 1904. The characters of Buster Brown, Mary Jane, and his dog Tige became well known to the American publ ...

'' (debuting in 1902) spawned many imitators, including the Perry Winkle character (Winnie's adopted younger brother) in

Martin Branner Martin Michael Branner (December 28, 1888 – May 19, 1970), known to his friends as Mike Branner, was a cartoonist who created the comic strip ''Winnie Winkle''. Early life Branner was born in Manhattan, New York City on December 28, 1888. ...

's long-running strip ''

'' (debuting in 1920). Perry's adventures were translated and published in Dutch newspapers; and in

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

given a Dutch-made version (''Sjors en de Rebellenclub'' by

Frans Piët Frans Piët (17 February 1905, Haarlem – 5 January 1997) was a Dutch comics artist, most famous as the original creator of the longest-running Dutch comics series of all time: ''Sjors & Sjimmie''. Biography He was born in 1905 as the son of a ...

) after the original US strip shifted focus back on to Perry's sister Winnie. After the strip took a hiatus during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the protagonist Sjors found a companion in Sjimmie, an African boy who was part of the visiting circus. Sjimmie was originally portrayed in

blackface Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a glo ...

stereotypical ways such as speaking in broken language. In 1969

Jan Kruis Johannes Andries "Jan" Kruis (; 8 June 1933 – 19 January 2017) was a Dutch comics artist best known for the family strip '' Jack, Jacky and the Juniors'' (''Jan, Jans en de Kinderen''). Biography He began creating comics as a child. Later he ...

took over the comic from the retired Frans Piët; he reinvented Sjimmie as a normal-looking, properly speaking teenager, and introduced the Colonel (Sally's father) as a grumpy war-veteran. Kruis produced two 44-page stories, but eventually chose to work on his one-page comic '' Jack, Jacky and the Juniors'' in which Sjors & Sjimmie made 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 Pep is energy or high spirits; it may refer to: * Pep band, an ensemble of instrumentalists * Pep (dog) (c. 1923–1930), Labrador Retriever sent to the Eastern State Penitentiary * Pep, the dog in Putt-Putt (series), ''Putt-Putt'' (series) * Pep ...

'' magazines merged into '' Eppo''; ''Sjors & Sjimmie'' were re-invented as one-page gags drawn by Robert van der Kroft. The initial response was tepid, but things improved when scriptwriter Patty Klein was replaced by the duo of Wilbert Plijnaar and Jan van Die. Collectively known as the Wirojas, the threesome of van der Kroft, Plijnaar, and van Die turned ''Sjors & Sjimmie'' into one of ''Eppo'''s most popular features. During the 1980s Sjors & Sjimmie grew into teenagers pursuing like-minded interests (soccer, computer games) and chasing girls with varying results, while modern-day trends, celebrities, and political developments were ridiculed. For example; Sjors & Sjimmie were huge fans of "Michael Claxon" ("claxon" meaning "

car horn A horn is a sound-making device installed on motor vehicles, trains, boats, and other types of vehicles. The sound it makes usually resembles a “honk” (older vehicles) or a “beep” (modern vehicles). The driver uses the horn to warn other ...

" in Dutch) and "Madomma" ("dom" meaning "dumb" or "stupid" in Dutch), and preferred off-time lunches at McMickey's over mundane cheese-sandwiches.

''Sjors & Sjimmie'' magazine

In 1988 ''Eppo'' magazine was renamed ''Sjors & Sjimmie'' after its most successful comic. It lasted until 1999 and contained multi-page stories besides the regular one-pagers. The Wirojas couldn't cope with the amount of work, which was outsourced to a Spanish art studio; the Wirojas stayed on hand for cover designs and quality control whilst producing the gag strip '' Claire'' for the women's magazine ''

Flair Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) is a magnetic resonance imaging sequence with an inversion recovery set to null fluids. For example, it can be used in brain imaging to suppress cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) effects on the image, so as to ...

''. The first years of "Sjors & Sjimmie" were still successful, but in 1994 the name was shortened to ''Sjosji'' in an unsuccessful attempt to reach a younger generation. In 1999 ''Sjosji'' ceased publication.

Cancellation and possible comeback

The magazine was revived in 2009 as '' Eppo'', but due to legal issues Sjors & Sjimmie were not included. Robert van der Kroft worked on ''Claire''-gags with Jan van Die and

Evert Geradts Evert Geradts (born 9 June 1943, The Hague) is a Dutch comics artist and former underground comics artist. He later became a prolific Disney comics writer and artist too. He is the winner with Leny Zwalve of the 1977 Stripschapprijs. Influenc ...

. The latter replaced Wilbert Plijnaar, who moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 1995 where he enjoyed a successful career in animation and continues to live. In 2019, the Wiroja's reunited to produce new gags for quarterly magazine '' StripGlossy''.

In other media

*''Sjors van de Rebellenclub met vacantie'' (1940) Seven live-action ''Sjors & Sjimmie'' movies were made between 1955 and 1977 by Henk van der Linden. *''

Sjors van de Rebellenclub '' Sjors van de Rebellenclub '' is a 1955 Dutch adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Co ...

'' (1955) *''Sjors en Sjimmie op het Pirateneiland'' (1962) *' (1966) *''Sjors en Sjimmie in het Land der Reuzen'' (1968) *''Sjors en Sjimmie en de Toverring'' (1971) *''Sjors en Sjimmie en de Rebellen'' (1972) *''Sjors en Sjimmie en het Zwaard van Krijn'' (1977) An anticipated eighth movie was planned, but eventually cancelled. It would have starred comedians

Paul de Leeuw Paul Henri de Leeuw (born 26 March 1962) is a Dutch television comedian, singer and actor. De Leeuw gained national fame in the late eighties and early nineties with television shows for broadcasting company VARA. He often came into publicity ...

and Eric van Sauers as Sjors & Sjimmie in their forties. In 1992 Sjors & Sjimmie appeared in an animated rap video for the ''No Shobo'' campaign (''shobo'' being contemporary slang for showoffs).

Artists

* Hans Ducro *

* Jan Steeman * Robert van der Kroft * Carol Voges

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sjors and Sjimmie Dutch comic strips Dutch comics characters Male characters in comics Male characters in advertising Comic strip duos Fictional Dutch people Fictional African people Black people in comics 1938 comics debuts Comics characters introduced in 1938 Mascots introduced in 1938 Child characters in comics Child characters in advertising Comics about children Humor comics Adventure comics Dutch mascots Magazine mascots Comics set in the Netherlands Dutch comics adapted into films