''Ferd'nand'' was a Danish pantomime comic notable for its lack of

word balloons Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a charac ...

and captions and its longevity (over seven decades). It was first published in 1937 and is still published regularly in several countries around the globe.

Background

''Ferd'nand'' was first published in 1937 by the Presse-Illustrations-Bureau of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

. Created by

Henning Dahl Mikkelsen Henning Dahl Mikkelsen (1915 – June 4, 1982) was a Danish cartoonist, best known for creation of the long running newspaper comic strip '' Ferd'nand'', which he signed as Mik. He was born in Skive, Denmark, and began the pantomime humor strip ...

, ''Ferd'nand'' features the adventures of the title character, his unnamed wife, unnamed son and family dog. Like Carl Anderson's ''

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

'' and

Otto Soglow Otto Soglow (December 23, 1900 – April 3, 1975) was an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip ''The Little King ''The Little King'' is a 1930-1975 American gag-a-day comic strip created by Otto Soglow, telling its stories in a ...

's ''

The Little King ''The Little King'' is a 1930-1975 American gag-a-day comic strip created by Otto Soglow, telling its stories in a style using images and very few words, as in pantomime. Publication history Soglow's character first appeared on June 7, 1930, i ...

'', there is no dialogue in the strip, although there is the rare exception. While the characters usually speak via the occasional set of exclamation points or question marks, Ferd'nand has been seen to say "Africa," "Paris," and even with a word balloon
"Ok, James."
This enabled the strip to achieve a wide distribution throughout Europe and, starting November 10, 1947, in the United States via

United Feature Syndicate United Feature Syndicate (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media (along ...

. Since ''Ferd'nand'' is pantomime, translation is not a problem, so the strip has been published in 30 countries.

Author

Mikkelsen, or "Mik" as he preferred to be known, moved to the United States in 1946, becoming a citizen in 1954. Mikkelsen turned over the strip to others, including Frank Thomas (no relation to Disney's Frank Thomas) for a time from 1955 until the mid-1960s. He then drew it until his death in 1982, after which

Al Plastino Alfred John Plastino (December 15, 1921 – November 25, 2013) was an American comics artist best known as one of the most prolific Superman artists of the 1950s, along with his DC Comics colleague Wayne Boring. Plastino also worked as a comics ...

, drew it until 1989. Plastino's strips were signed "Al + Mik". Henrik Rehr, a Danish illustrator and painter, took over the strip in 1989, and was the final author. Rehr's strips are signed "Rehr.Mik".

Characters and story

The main character, presumably named Ferd'nand, is a round, mustachioed, middle-aged father and husband, recognized by his conical hat. Ferd'nand's son sports a similar hat, while his wife and dog are rather unremarkable in appearance. Ferd'nand's father also appeared in one strip, looking and being dressed like his son except for the white hair and mustache and wearing eyeglasses. Unlike most strips, ''Ferd'nand'' lacks basic continuity or any cast of recurring characters other than the immediate Ferd'nand family. Ferd'nand himself has been seen working in nearly every occupation and in any location imaginable. Similarly, each strip stands alone; no story spans multiple strips. This lends a rather fantasy-like, ephemeral air to the strip.

Films

Two Ferd'nand animated cartoons were produced, both directed by H. Dahl Mikkelsen: * ''Ferd'nand på fisketur'' (Ferd'nand's fishing trip) (1944) * ''Ferd'nand på bjørnejagt'' (Ferd'nand's bear hunting) (1945)

End

New entries of "Ferd'nand" are no longer being published. The strip ended its run on January 8, 2012 (although Yahoo has now re-dated that strip May 6, 2012).

References

External links

''Ferd'nand''
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on July 25, 2016. {{United Media Comics Danish comic strips Fictional Danish people Gag-a-day comics Pantomime comics 1937 comics debuts 2012 comics endings Comics characters introduced in 1937 Male characters in comics Comics adapted into films Comics adapted into animated series