After the Netherlands were freed from German occupation in 1945
Godfried Bomans became chief of the cultural department of
De Volkskrant. Together with illustrator
Carol Voges he made a newspaper comic strip about an old man with magical powers, Pa Pinkelman ("Father Pinkelman") and his jolly wife Tante Pollewop ("Aunt Pollewop"). They help a young boy, Kareltje Flens, who lives a rich and spoiled life, to get away from his luxury life and have some exotic adventures in the
Zuiderzee,
Urk,
Schokland,
Africa, the
North Pole, the
Sahara Desert, the
United States of America and the
Moon (later stories also bring them to
Tibet,
China and
Japan). Pinkelman, Pollewop, Kareltje and his little black slave, Flop, travel together in all kinds of ways, but are constantly followed by three of Kareltje's servants who try to bring him back. The stories have an absurd atmosphere, complete with jokes that break the
fourth wall. In some episodes Pinkelman also meets famous politicians of the late 1940s and early 1950s, such as
Winston Churchill,
Mohammad Mosaddegh, the
Shah of Persia,
Carl Romme,
Joseph Stalin,
Harry S. Truman,
Dwight Eisenhower and
Vyacheslav Molotov. Other stories make allusions on post-war situations, such as the
collaboration and the
atomic bomb. Bomans himself also made appearances in the strip. The story was an immediate success, and Bomans was asked to write more sequels. After three more installments the series finally came to a close in 1952, because the author felt it took up too much of his time.
Pa Pinkelman has been made available in
novel format, with only a few of the images used as illustrations. Complete versions of the entire comic strip are also available. ==Adaptations==