Michael Minneboo blogs about a new Dutch documentary series on comics, to be broadcast in October. Eight parts long, each episode will take a different comics character to symbolise a specific genre or style of comics. SoSuperman will represent superhero comics and why they never quite made it here, while longrunning family strip Jan, Jans en de Kinderen will symbolise the slice of life (auto)biographical strip. The presenter of the series is Jean-Marc van Tol, one of the people behind the runaway succes of Fokke & Sukke and somebody who always seemed interested in not just making strips, but in thinking and writing about them as well; iirc he used to be active on the old Comix e-mail list as well.
The series is going to be called Beeldverhaal (picture story), something of a pune or play on words, as it’s both an old Dutch synonym for comics and in this context, the history of pictures. Those interviewed for it include Barbara Stok, Maaike Hartjes and Michiel Pol — who reported about it in his cartoon diary — so it looks like the documentary makers have taken the time and effort to get to know and understand contemporary Dutch comics and its history. Good or bad, it’s about time Dutch television paid some attention to the ninth art, other than through the annual “look at the weirdos” reports from the big comics cons.