Jommeke and his friends
Jommeke is a long-running (since 1955) Flemish comic book series, originally drawn by Jef Nys, but after his death in 2009, it was continued by other artists. Along with Suske en Wiske, Nero, Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber and De Kiekeboes, Jommeke is one of the most famous and popular comic strips in Flanders.
The series tells the adventures of a 10- or 11-year-old boy, Jommeke, and his talkative parrot, Flip. The rest of the cast consists of the playful Filiberke, twin sisters Annemieke and Rozemieke and Absent-Minded Professor Gobelijn.
The stories are exclusively for children and an institution in Flanders, but virtually unknown over the borders.
Some of the many tropes in Jommeke:
- Abnormal Ammo: Madam Pepermunt shoots peppermints instead of bullets, hence her nickname.
- Absent-Minded Professor: Professor Gobelijn, who is such an expert in everything that he frequently does and says the opposite of what he means.
- Alien Invasion: Friendly aliens pass by in De Kikiwikies and Opstand in Kokowoko.
- Americans Are Cowboys: Madam Pepermunt, an American woman, who carries a revolver wherever she goes.
- Antiquated Linguistics: For a very long time, from its creation in 1955 until 1989, the characters all spoke the Flemish dialect. And this while other comics already spoke the Dutch standard language since the 1960s.
- Asian Speekee Engrish: Or Dutch for that matter. Asians in this comic strip all have trouble pronouncing the letter "r".
- Babies Make Everything Better: Jommeke and Flip discover a baby in Het Hemelhuis and decide to take care of him with the aid of Annemieke and Rozemieke.
- Big Bad: Anatool and the thieves Kwak and Boemel, who are yet nowhere as diabolically evil as the crazy Koningin van Onderland ("Queen of Underland").
- Big Friendly Dog: Fifi, a huge bobtail the size of a horse.
- Bound and Gagged: Happens to Jommeke in Jommeke in de Knel.
- The Cameo: Flemish singer Bobbejaan Schoepen makes a cameo in the album Jommeke in Bobbejaanland.
- Canine Companion:
- Filiberke has a dog, Pekkie.
- The Duchess of Stiepelteen and her husband have two dogs, Tobias and Fifi.
- The Captain: Kapitein Jan Haring.
- Celibate Hero: Well, Jommeke is a child, of course.
- Child Prodigy: In Kinderen Baas every child becomes a prodigy for an entire album.
- Children Raise You: The children raise the adults who became child-like in Kinderen Baas.
- Christianity is Catholic: Jef Nys was a pious Catholic and Jommeke was published in Catholic magazines and newspapers. So naturally a lot of Catholic imagery is referenced and seen. At the time many people in Flanders were still very Catholic too.
- Comic-Book Time: Nobody ages.
- Cool Boat: Jan Haring's steam boat De Plank.
- Crossing the Desert: Happens in a few albums, like Wie Zoekt Die Vindt.
- Deserted Island: Paradise Island.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- When Jommeke made his first appearance in the Catholic newspaper Kerk en Leven he behaved as a bad boy. Later this was toned down to innocent naughtiness and later to bland kindness.
- Kwak and Boemel originally looked nothing like their later incarnations.
- Ear Trumpet: Both the head sister of the Begijntjes and Baron van Huppelvoet are deaf people who use ear trumpets.
- Easily Forgiven: Many villains are easily forgiven.
- El Spanisho: In this series Spanish sounds a lot like Dutch, only with the suffix '-os''.
- Everyone Meets Everyone: In the 100th Jommeke album, Het Jubilee, all the cast members come together to celebrate this moment.
- Father Neptune: Jan Haring, who is every sea captain cliché you can imagine.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: All women are destined to be sweet housewives who stay home, cook dinner and raise children.
- Fictional Country: Onderland, Pimpeltjesland, Paradijseiland, Het Verkeerde Land,...
- Funny Foreigner:
- Madam Pepermunt is an American woman who uses the word "Okay" as a Verbal Tic and shoots her gun a lot.
- Mic Mac Jampudding is a Thrifty Scot with a red moustache and walks around in a kilt.
- The Native Americans Dikke Springmuis and his tribe members are all primitive Indians who speak in Tonto Talk.
- The Good Captain: Captain Jan Haring, who always helps out Jommeke and his friends.
- Heroic Dog: Pekkie, Filiberke's dog.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: The thieves Kwak and Boemel live together in the forest.
- Home Base: All adventures are based in the village Zonnedorp.
- House Wife: Every woman in this very traditional comic strip is a house wife.
- Hypnotic Eyes: The Koningin van Onderland is able to hypnotize people.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Jommeke, Annemieke en Rozemieke.
- Just Woke Up That Way: In a few albums professor Gobelijn accidentally puts something in the water or the air that transforms everybody in Zonnedorp (or sometimes the entire world) into a strange mutation, shape or different way of thinking.
- In Kinderen Baas all the children become as smart as adults and the adults start acting like children.
- In De Lustige Slurfers everybody gets an elephant's trunk.
- In Het Staartendorp everybody grows an animal's tail.
- In De Luchtzwemmers everybody floats up into the air and is able to fly.
- In Neuzen bij de Vleet everybody's nose grows large.
- In De Vruchtenmakers everybody grows a tree on their head.
- In De Samsons everybody's hair grows and they become super strong.
- In De Grote Knoeiboel everybody becomes a weird shaped character.
- Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: In the album De Vampier van Drakenburg Filiberke watches a vampire movie while being home alone at night. He is so scared that he actually goes to Jommeke's home to stay over for the night.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice:
- Subverted with Kwak, who has a large pointy chin.
- Implied with the good character Arabella.
- Limited Wardrobe: The characters virtually always wear the same clothes. Jef Nys specifically demanded this in his testament.
- Man in a Kilt: Mic Mac Jampudding.
- Meaningful Name:
- Madam Pepermunt, who shoots peppermints instead of bullets, hence her nickname.
- Boemel, a tramp who always carries a bottle in his back pocket (boemelen is Flemish for drinking large quantities of alcohol)
- Choco the chimpansee is named that way, because he likes to eat chocolate paste.
- The witches Haakneus ("Hook nose"), Pierehaar ("Long thin hair") and Steketand ("Tooth that sticks out") also have their physical appearances hinted at in their names.
- Jan Haring is a sailor, so having a fish species ("herring") as your last name is logical.
- Mind-Control Device: The Koningin van Onderland hypnotizes a police man in De Koningin van Onderland so he can kidnap children to her castle.
- Moses in the Bulrushes: In Het Hemelhuis a little baby is found floating by in a basket of reeds. Jommeke even says it's like the story of Moses. They adopt the kid until his real parents come to take him with them.
- The Movie: In 1965 a very low-budget live-action film was made, De Schat van de Zeerover: It wasn't a success and is almost forgotten today.
- Name and Name: Kwak and Boemel, Annemieke and Rozemieke, Jommeke and Filiberke, Mic Mac Jampudding and Arabella.
- Narrating the Obvious: Since this is a comic strip aimed at children a lot of things are explained in this way.
- National Stereotypes:
- All Scotsmen are thrifty.
- All Native Americans are dressed like in the 19th century and speak in Tonto Talk.
- Spaniards add "-os" at the end of each noun.
- Black Africans are helpless children.
- All Asians are unable to say the letter "r".
- Every non-Western country is primitive.
- Madam Pepermunt is an American woman who enjoys shooting her revolver and adds "Okay?" at the end of all her sentences.
- Mic Mac Jampudding is a Scot who walks around in a kilt and is grouchy and thrifty.
- Non-Human Sidekick:
- Jommeke and Flip, his parrot.
- Filiberke and Pekkie, his black poodle.
- Annemieke and Rozemieke have a chimpansee named Choco.
- Omni Disciplinary Scientist: Professor Gobelijn describes himself as "professor in everything".
- Poirot Speak: All foreign characters mix Dutch with loan words from their own language.
- Polly Wants a Microphone: Flip the parrot is very articulate for a bird of his species. He can conversate fluently with humans and all other parrots share the same gift.
- Print Long-Runners: This comic strip has been in syndication and production since 1955.
- Product Placement: Happened only once, in the album "De Muzikale Bella" where Jommeke's father advices Jommeke to put his money on the bank BAC. This scene was removed in later album versions.
- Rip Van Winkle: Jommeke in De Slaapkop keeps falling asleep, because he was poisoned by some villains.
- The Role Player: Filiberke has a tendency for playing somebody or something else for the entire album, even in emergency situations.
- Running Gag: Rather repetitive gags: Several jokes occur in every album and always in the same predictable way.
- Seadog Beard: Jan Haring, the sea captain, has a beard.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: In Wie Zoekt Die Vindt, Jommeke and his friends travel to several places on Earth to search for a treasure, only to find out that it is buried in their own village, where it all turns out to be a simple All for Nothing joke.
- Shouldn T We Be In School Right Now: Jommeke and the other children always have spare time to go on adventure.
- Single Malt Vision: A running gag in the series is that everyone who first encounters the twin girls Annemieke and Rozemieke thinks he's seeing double.
- Single-Minded Twins: Annemieke and Rozemieke.
- Sinister Schnoz: Anatool has a hook nose.
- The Sky Is an Ocean: People in the album De Luchtzwemmers float in the sky, but manoeuvre themselves by swimming, hence the title De Luchtzwemmers ("The Air Swimmers").
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Professor Gobelijn.
- Spaghetti Kiss: Done by two dogs near the end of the album Tobias Snuffel.
- Stock Animal Name: Bella, the musical cow.
- Sudden Intelligence: Happens to all the children in Kinderen Baas, but at the same time all the adults act childlike.
- Superhero Episode: Jommeke's moeder, Marie, becomes superintelligent and superstrong in De Supervrouw thanks to a potion by professor Gobelijn.
- Talking Animal: Everybody is able to talk with Flip, the parrot. In some albums other animals also are able to speak.
- Talk Like a Pirate: Jan Haring, a sea captain, uses a lot of maritime phrases.
- Thrifty Scot: The character Mic Mac Jampudding is a very stereotypical thrifty Scotsman in a kilt.
- Tonto Talk: All the Native Americans talk this way.
- Treasure Map: Plot device in Wie Zoekt Die Vindt, Schildpaddeneiland and De Schat van de Zeerover.
- Verbal Tic:
- Kwak always adds the letter h in front of every syllable. Boemel changes the letter 'b' into a 'p' and a 'd' into a 't'.
- Professor Gobelijn, because of his absent mindedness will use the exact opposite words and phrases of what he means in his sentences.
- Madam Pepermunt adds Okay to the end of all her sentences.
- Wicked Witch: Haakneus, Pierehaar and Steketand, who also appear in creator Jef Nys' other series, Langteen & Schommelbuik.
- Witch Hunt: The plot of Op Heksenjacht.
- Yellow Peril: In De Gele Spin and De Stenen Aapjes, a Chinese gang is a threat to society.
