''Agent 327'' is a Dutch action/comedy

comic series This page provides lists of best-selling comic book series to date. It includes Japanese manga, American comic books, and European comics. This list includes comic books that have sold at least 100million copies. There are three separate lists, ...

by cartoonist

Martin Lodewijk Martinus Spyridon Johannes Lodewijk (born 30 April 1939) is a Dutch comics writer and cartoonist, and advertising adviser. Martin Lodewijk was born in Rotterdam. He dropped out of high school in 1957, and started drawing cartoons, notably of spac ...

. It was a regular feature from

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

until 1983, and again from 2000 to the present.Royal Dutch Library
/ref> The eponymous Agent 327 is a

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

Maxwell Smart ''Get Smart'' is an American comedy television series parodying the secret agent genre that had become widely popular in the first half of the 1960s, with the release of the ''James Bond'' films. It was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, an ...

-like Dutch secret agent who fights for "Righteousness and World Peace"; his looks are based on the character of

Peter Gunn ''Peter Gunn'' is an American private eye television series, starring Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn with Lola Albright as his girlfriend, Edie Hart. The series aired on NBC from September 22, 1958, to 1960 and on ABC in 1960–1961. The seri ...

. Often partnered with the junoesque Olga Lawina (an agent of the

Swiss Secret Service The Swiss intelligence community is a group of agencies with responsibilities to protect the interests and infrastructure of Switzerland. History The first federal military secret service was established in 1937-1939 as Büro Ha by Hans H ...

), his adventures take him around

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the rest of the world as he battles numerous villains, both fictional and parodies of real people. The song "Denk toch altijd met liefd' aan je moeder" by Gerda en Herman Timmerhout is a common feature in the comic, and is often used to hideously torture someone or provide a plot-turning emotional reaction.

Publication history

''Agent 327'' debuted in 1966 as a feature in ''

Pep Pep is energy or high spirits; it may refer to: * Pep band, an ensemble of instrumentalists * Pep, the dog in ''Putt-Putt'' (series) * Neilson Dairy confectionery brand * Pep, New Mexico * Pep, Texas * Pep Cereal, by Kellogg * Pep Comics, by MLJ ...

'' magazine #21, written and drawn by

and published by Geïllustreerde Pers. ''Agent 327'' ran in ''Pep'' as a weekly 4-8-page feature until 1975, when ''Pep'' and the comics magazine ''

Sjors Sjors is a Dutch version of the given name George. Persons bearing the name include * Sjors van Driem (born George van Driem, 1957), Dutch linguist at Leiden University * Sjors Scheres (born 1975), Dutch scientist * Sjors Verdellen (born 1981), Du ...

'' merged into '' Eppo'', published by

Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fair ...

. Meanwhile, in 1970 Geïllustreerde Pers published the first ''Agent 327'' album, titled '' Dossier Stemkwadrater''. Further albums followed every few years, continuing under Oberon after ''Peps acquisition. ''Agent 327'' was cancelled as a feature in ''Eppo'' in 1983, but returned in 2000 as a regular feature. In 2009, Agent 327 returned to ''Eppo'' as a regular feature.

Characters

Main characters

;Agent 327: Initiated into the world of espionage in the Dutch resistance, his creative and elaborate disguises just to get to work in the morning form a

running gag A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are not ...

and

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

: ''Grrrutjes-nog-aan-toe, wat een geheim agent toch allemaal niet moet doen om incognito op zijn werk te verschijnen'' (translation:''"Heavens above, what a secret agent has to do these days to arrive at his job without being recognized.''). Agent 327's real name, Hendrik IJzerbroot, is derived from the Dutch political figure Hendrik Koekoek and an allusion to the Dutch resistance fighter

Bernardus IJzerdraat Bernardus IJzerdraat (1891 – 13 March 1941) was a Dutch resistance fighter in the Second World War. A tapestry restorer from Rotterdam, he became involved as early as 1936 in the ''Eenheid door Democratie'' movement which opposed Fascism and C ...

. The character's physical features were modelled after actor Craig Stevens who played in ''

''. ;The Chief: One of his main concerns is to keep the costs down. ;Willemse: The doorman. When Agent 327 wants to enter the premises they exchange pass words. ;Miss Betsy: The secretary of the office. Obviously modelled after

Miss Moneypenny Miss Moneypenny, later assigned the first names of Eve or Jane, is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. She is secretary to M (James Bond), M, who is Bond's superior officer and head of the British Secret Intelligence Serv ...

. ;Olga Lawina: A Swiss secret agent partnered with Agent 327 in a wide variety of adventures. Her good looks often present both an advantage and a liability.

Recurring villains

;Boris Kloris: Ruthless spy with paper white skin. ;Dr. Maybe: Brother of Dr. Yes and Dr. No. With his assistant Fi Doh, and sometimes Herr Dr. Vonvonderstein. ;Colonel Bauer: German officer who held many war secrets.

Minor (real life) characters

;

: Member of several

jug band A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovepipe, ...

s. First appearing with the badly-received Endatteme Jugband, he now plays with Chickenfeed. ; Jan Tromp: Struggling painter who was drafted by Boris Kloris to forge

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

's ''

The Night Watch ''Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq'', also known as ''The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch'', but commonly referred to as ''The Night Watch'' ( nl, De Nachtwacht), i ...

''. After being exposed he confessed that he'd turned down an offer to draw a one-page family comic for a women's magazine.

Adaptations

Albums

*1 ''

Dossier Heksenkring & Dossier Onderwater A dossier is a collection of papers or other sources, containing detailed information about a particular person or subject. Dossier can also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Dossier 51'', a 1978 film based on a book of the same name ...

'' (1975) *2 ''

Dossier Zondagskind A dossier is a collection of papers or other sources, containing detailed information about a particular person or subject. Dossier can also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Dossier 51'', a 1978 film based on a book of the same name ...

'' (1976) *3 '' Dossier Zevenslaper'' (1977) *4 '' Dossier Stemkwadrater'' (1970, 1979) *5 '' Dossier Leeuwenkuil'' (1973, 1979) *6 '' Dossier Dozijn Min Eén'' (1980) *7 '' Dossier Nachtwacht'' (1980) *8 '' Dossier Dozijn Min Twee'' (1981) *9 '' De gesel van Rotterdam'' (1981) *10 '' Drie avonturen'' (1982) *11 '' De ogen van Wu Manchu'' (1983) *12 '' De vergeten bom'' (2000) *13 '' Het pad van de schildpad'' (2001) *14 '' Cacoïne en commando's'' (2001) *15 '' De golem van Antwerpen'' (2002) *16 '' De wet van alles'' (2002) *17 ''

Hotel New York ''Hotel New York'' is the fourth studio album recorded by the Dutch pop/ rock singer Anouk and released on December 3, 2004, in the Netherlands. The album is named for the location where Anouk wrote all its songs: Hotel New York in Rotterdam. De ...

'' (2002) *18 '' Het oor Van Gogh'' (2003) *19 '' De vlucht van vroeger'' (2005) *20 '' De Daddy Vinci-code'' (2015) *21 '' Drie avonturen'' (to be published) *'' Dossier Minimum Bug'' (1999) (not an element of the official series)

Other versions

Agent 327: Operation Barbershop

On May 15, 2017, the

Blender Foundation The Blender Foundation is a Dutch nonprofit organization (Stichting) responsible for the development of Blender, an open source 3D content-creation program. The foundation has distributed the animated films '' Elephants Dream'' (2006), ''Big Bu ...

released a teaser trailer that was almost four minutes long, for an upcoming computer-animated feature film based on the comic. It stars 327 as he investigates a barbershop, battles his nemesis Boris, and learns the dangerous truth about the shop. The 3-minute film was released online as a proof of concept to attract funding for a feature-length adaptation.{{cite web, last1=Foundation, first1=Blender, title=Teaser for Agent 327: Operation Barbershop - blender.org, url=https://www.blender.org/press/teaser-for-agent-327-operation-barbershop/, website=blender.org, publisher=Blender Foundation, language=en

Tribute stories

Between 2017 and 2019, ''Eppo'' pre-published twenty-one shorties drawn and scripted by others. They were released as two volumes.

Translation

The agent's name has been changed in several languages: * Danish: ''Hans Harkhoost'' * German: ''Otto Otto (O.O.) Eisenbrot'' * Norwegian: ''Henrik Eisenbrot'' * Spanish: ''Enrique Panférreo'' * Swedish: ''Otto Otto Gärning''

References

Agent 327
, blender.org. Retrieved 17 April 2017. Dutch comics characters Comics characters introduced in 1966 Male characters in comics Dutch comic strips 1966 comics debuts Spy comics James Bond parodies Humor comics Adventure comics Satirical comics Fictional secret agents and spies Fictional Dutch people Comics set in the Netherlands