All about Douwe Dabbert

Piet Wijn, (May 17, 1929 - Oct. 6, 2010, Netherlands)

Piet Wijn was a versatile Dutch cartoonist known for his poetic style. His stories are set in historical time periods or in fantasy worlds, but in most cases a combination of the two. He is best known for co-devising the magical dwarf 'Douwe Dabbert' (1975-2001) with Thom Roep for Donald Duck, but already made his mark in the decades before with series such as 'Aram van de Eilanden' (1951-1960) and 'Puk and Poppedijn' (1964-1974). For years he was an anonymous ghost artist for Marten Toonder with series like 'King Hollewijn' (1959-1971), 'Panda' (1970-1986) and 'Tom Poes' (1971-1986).

It is not my intention to go into great detail on my website. Other websites such as https://www.lambiek.net/artists/w/wijn.htm are much better at that. From this website I even borrowed the necessary text.

I only want to discuss Wijn's relationship with Douwe Dabbert.

Douwe Dabbert

His best-known work for Donald Duck, however, was an original creation. In 1974, he was approached by editor Thom Roep about some fairy-tale illustrations he had once sent to the preschool magazine Bobo. The drawings had never been used, but Roep saw something in a white-bearded dwarf character that Wine drew on those pages. Wijn and Roep made a one-off story about The Pampered Princess Pauline ("The Pampered Princess," 1975), in which this dwarf had a supporting role. It was so well received that "Douwe Dabbert," as the character was called, got his own series. 

Old Dabbert is a wise dwarf who possesses a magical knapsack. His alliterative name was chosen to match the name Donald Duck. Although somewhat rooted in older Dutch gnome stories, such as Dick Laan and Rein van Looy's "Pinkeltje," Jean Dulieu's "Paulus de Boskabouter" and Phiny Dick's "Olle Kapoen," Roep and Wine's creation was something else. Most of the adventures breathe the atmosphere of the 17th century, during Holland's Golden Age. Some stories are historically realistic, others have a more fantastical slant, with witches, anthropomorphic animals and evil wizards. Wine brought everything to life in highly detailed and atmospheric drawings that take Douwe to all corners of the earth. 

The creative collaboration between Wine and Roep was remarkable, since Roep was only 22 at the time, while Wine was already 45. Despite their age difference, they easily found common ground in their love of fantasy, history and works such as Mary Tourtel's "Bear Rupert," novels by W.G. van de Hulst and artwork by Carl von Spitzweg, Nicolas Dear and Wilhelm Hauff. 'Douwe Dabbert' proved popular with readers and remains the best remembered comic series about Donald Duck, apart from the Disney comics, of course. It managed to gain popularity even in translation, another rare achievement for a non-Disney comic in a Disney magazine. 

As mentioned earlier on this website, "Douwe Dabbert" was translated into English ("Danny Doodle"), German ("Timpe Tampert"), Luxembourgish ("Nicky Bommel"), Swedish ("Teobald"), Spanish ("Bermudillo"), Portuguese, Polish ("Daniel Dudek"), but was nowhere as popular as in Denmark. Unlike other countries, all albums of "Douwe Dabbert" were translated into Danish, where the character is known as "Gammelpot. Several bootleg comics starring Douwe Dabbert ('Pak Janggut') appeared in Indonesia, of which the Roep and Wijn heirs only became aware when the Internet site Catawiki alerted them to their existence. 

Photo 1 and 2: Publisher Olivier Sterk, 1999. Print run 40. Survey book on Piet Wijn, compiled and 1999 self-published by Olivier Sterk in Drachten. With a preface by Marten Toonder. Photo 2 shows the letter sent to people who expressed interest.

Photo 3 and 4: Publisher Le Chat Mort, 2001. Circulation 270. ISBN 90-75013-40-X. Number of pages 172. Size 21.7 x 30.3 cm. Bibliography of the work of Piet Wine. The book contains a wealth of information and includes more than two hundred drawings in black and white and color.