Piet Pienter (left) and Bert Bibber (right)
Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber was a Belgian/Flemish comic book series drawn by Jozef Van Hove (1919-2014) under the pseudonym "Pom". It ran from 1950 until 1995 and featured the adventures of two good friends, Piet Pienter and Bert Bibber.
Piet is the clever one, as his name indicates (pienter is a Dutch synonym for being smart). He often smokes a pipe and is generally a normal human being. Bert is the Anti-Hero. He is clumsy, naïve, impulsive, not very bright, frequently overestimates his own powers and often bad-tempered when his luck runs out. When danger is about he has a tendency to be easily frightened, thus his name (bibber means shiver in Dutch). But in general he has a good heart and sometimes shows moments of pure genius, courage and craftiness. Other important main characters are:
- Susan: the young and pretty daughter of an American millionaire. She often comes to aid when Piet and Bert have financial troubles or need stuff that regular folks cannot afford. Bert has a secret crush on her.
- Theo Flitser: a young and enthusiastic photographer who works for a newspaper and always searches for a sensational scoop. Susan admires his professionalism and therefore Bert Bibber envies Theo.
- Professor Kumulus and Professor Snuffel: two very smart and absent-minded professors.
- Commissaris Knobbel: The unsympathetic and useless head of the police whose actions only make things worse. Still, whenever Piet and Bert solve a case, he pretends he solved them solely by himself.
This work provides examples of:
- Absent-Minded Professor:
- The series even has two: professor Kumulus and professor Snuffel.
- Professor Warwinkel can be considered a third.
- Action Girl: Susan.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Piet Pienter and Bert Bibber.
- The Alcoholic: Professor Hilarius Warwinkel is frequently drunk.
- Alliterative Name and Alliterative Title: Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber.
- Anti-Hero: Bert Bibber.
- Antiquated Linguistics: Pom enjoyed playing with language. His characters often mispronounce certain words.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Many people who behave nice and friendly at first turn out to be villains who cannot be trusted.
- Blank White Eyes: Piet, Bert and Susan have these kinds of eyes.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Happens ALL the time. Small captions or notes often give ironic comments about the plot developments.
- Butt-Monkey: Bert Bibber.
- Camera Fiend: Theo Flitser, who is always on the search for a scoop.
- Comic-Book Time: A very strange example. The characters themselves don't age, but the backgrounds, fashions and expressions always kept a 1950s look. This is even more astonishing considering this comic strip was published until 1995.
- Crapsack World
- Creator Cameo:
- Pom sometimes gives himself a cameo.
- The character Theo Flitser is a young version of himself.
- Cultural Translation: The comic strip always remained a Flemish phenomenon.
- Defector from Commie Land: The Eastern Bloc is often visited and usually full with Cold War stereotypes.
- Deliberately Monochrome: For many years albums were published in black-and-white, because author Pom refused to publish in color!
- Deus ex Machina: Susan, the rich and attractive young woman, who always helps out Bert and Piet when they have financial troubles.
- Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Piet Pienter.
- Distressed Damsel: Susan plays this part a number of times — often via Knockout Ambush or Instant Sedation, whereupon she'll spend much of the story asleep.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: See below.
- Fictional Country: San Doremi, Buldarije,...
- Fiery Redhead: Downplayed. Piet is normally way calmer than Bert, but he gets easily annoyed by his friends and is not afraid to use his fists and swear words when needed.
- Frozen in Time: The characters always seemed to remain in The '50s.
- Funny Background Event: Pom loved to draw amusing advertising boards in the backgrounds.
- The '50s: Originated in the decade and remained Frozen in Time until the very last album in 1995.
- Gratuitous Iambic Pentameter: Many names are Flemish dialect expressions.
- Gravity Screw: In De Anti-Zwaartekracht Generator professor Kumulus invents a device that makes people float in the air when you aim it at them.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Bert is very jealous of Theo Flitser who frequently impresses his love interest Susan.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Piet and Bert share the same house together, but are definitely not gay since Bert has a secret crush on Susan. Near the end of the series Susan moves in with Piet and Bert.
- Idea Bulb: Used now and then.
- Knockout Ambush: A trademark tactic for the bad guys of the series when they want to kidnap or incapacitate the good guys. Knockout Gas is a favorite, but any kind of Instant Sedation might be employed.
- Lemony Narrator: Pom enjoyed giving ironic commentary on the plot developments in his stories.
- Limited Wardrobe: Characters always wear the same outfits.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: Author Pom, who was reluctant to meet the press and refused to talk about his comic strip career. He preferred to be left alone.
- Meaningful Name:
- Piet Pienter ("pienter" is Dutch for "smart". Piet is clever.)
- Bert Bibber ("bibber" means "shiver". Bert is a coward.)
- Professor Kumulus
- Theo Flitser is a photographer. A "flitser" is the device used to flash the camera.
- Police Are Useless: Commissaris Knobbel is the local head of the police who doesn't like the fact that Piet and Bert always solve his cases. He always makes wrong decisions that cause the villains to escape. Knobbel only appears on the scene when a case is closed and STILL has the nerve to take all the credit. Policemen in general are very incompetent in this comic strip, always there to draw the wrong conclusions and let the villains go, instead of arresting them.
- Print Long-Runners: From 1950 until 1995.
- Punny Name: Many characters have names that are puns of Flemish dialect expressions.
- Slapstick: Several moments.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Both professor Kumulus and Snuffel wear glasses.
- Smoking Is Cool: Pom himself smoked pipe and thus Piet Pienter shares the same habit.
- Time Machine: Plot element in the album De Tijdmachine.
