Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, –

Bussum Bussum () is a commuter town and former municipality in the Gooi region in the south east of the province of North Holland in the Netherlands near Hilversum. Since 2016, Bussum has been part of the new municipality of Gooise Meren. Bussum had ...

, ), though since 2007, his son Boris Kousemaker is the current owner. From 1968 to 2015, it was located in the Kerkstraat, but in November 2015, the store moved to the Koningsstraat 27. As of 2018, Lambiek is the oldest comics store in Europe, and the oldest worldwide still in existence. The name "Lambiek" originated as a misspelling of the name of the comics character

Lambik Lambik is a Flemish comic book character from the Belgian comic strip series '' Spike and Suzy'' by Willy Vandersteen. In the English translations he is known as ''Orville'' or ''Ambrose''. Lambik is the breakout character of the franchise and ...

, from the popular

Suske & Wiske ''Spike and Suzy'' (British title), ''Willy and Wanda'' (American title) or ''Luke and Lucy'' (in a 2009 film and video game) (Dutch: ''Suske en Wiske'', french: link=no, Bob et Bobette) is a Belgian comics series created by the comics author W ...

comic book series created by

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

artist

Willy Vandersteen Willy Vandersteen (15 February 1913 – 28 August 1990) was a Belgian creator of comic books. In a career spanning 50 years, he created a large studio and published more than 1,000 comic albums in over 25 series, selling more than 200 million c ...

. The logo of the shop is an image from the ''Suske en Wiske'' album ''Prinses Zagemeel'' (''Princess Sawdust'').

History

Only two earlier comic bookstores are known to have opened their doors on the North-American continent (or anywhere else on the world for that matter) prior to the one founded by Kousemaker; George Henderson's Canadian, Toronto-based Memory Lane Books opened in May 1967, (itself a continuation of the Viking Bookshop he had already opened on another city location in the spring of 1966), followed by

Gary Arlington Gary Edson Arlington (October 7, 1938 – January 16, 2014) was an American retailer, artist, editor, and publisher, who became a key figure in the underground comix movement of the 1960s and 1970s.Yardley, William"Gary Arlington, a Force in Unde ...

's San Francisco Comic Book Company which was established in April 1968 in the US namesake city, making Lambiek the worldwide third oldest comic book store in history. What the three stores had in common was that they all started out with a strong focus on underground comics. Memory Lane Books closed its doors in the 1980s however, whereas Arlington's store went defunct in 2002, leaving Lambiek as of 2023 the worldwide oldest surviving comic book store. Kees Kousemaker and his wife Evelien also published two encyclopedic books about comics, titled ''Strip voor Strip'' (1970) and ''Wordt Vervolgd'' (1979). He and Margreet de Heer also wrote the book ''De Nederlandse Stripgeschiedenis'' (2001) and ''De Wereld van de Nederlandse Strip'' (2005) about

Dutch comics Dutch comics are comics made in the Netherlands. In Dutch the most common designation for the whole art form is "strip" (short for "stripverhaal" – "strip story" – , though the old-fashioned expression "beeldverhaal" – "picture ...

and their history. From 1986 on, the store gained fame by holding art exhibitions and book signings by numerous comic authors, including

Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contem ...

Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series '' The Spirit'' (1940–1952) was no ...

André Franquin André Franquin (; 3 January 1924 – 5 January 1997) was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best-known creations are '' Gaston'' and ''Marsupilami''. He also produced the ''Spirou et Fantasio'' comic strip from 1946 to 1968, a period s ...

Joost Swarte Joost Swarte (born 24 December 1947 in Heemstede) is a Dutch cartoonist and graphic designer. He is best known for his ligne claire or ''clear line'' style of drawing, a term he coined. Comic series and characters by Swarte include ''Katoen en ...

, Charles Burns,

Chris Ware Franklin Christenson "Chris" Ware (born December 28, 1967) is an American cartoonist known for his '' Acme Novelty Library'' series (begun 1994) and the graphic novels ''Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth'' (2000), ''Building Stories'' (201 ...

Daniel Clowes Daniel Gillespie Clowes (; born April 14, 1961) is an American cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter. Most of Clowes's work first appeared in '' Eightball'', a solo anthology comic book series. An ''Eightball'' issue typi ...

, François Avril and

Art Spiegelman Art Spiegelman (; born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel '' Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines ''Arcade'' and '' Ra ...

. In 2010, Lambiek's founder, Kees Kousemaker, died.

Comiclopedia

Since 1 November 1999, Lambiek also hosts the Comiclopedia, a digital encyclopaedia featuring biographies of more than 14.000 international comics authors.

Awards

* In 1979, Kees Kousemaker won the Zilveren Dolfijn Award. * Kousemaker received the

Spirit of Comics Retailer Award in 1995. * On 9–10 October 1999, Kousemaker won the annual P. Hans Frankfurther Prize. * In 2006, Kousemaker was the recipient of the

Order of Orange-Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau ( nl, Orde van Oranje-Nassau, links=no) is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has ...

medal from the Netherlands for his special dedication to the history of comic books. * In 2010, Lambiek employee Klaas Knol won the Hal Foster Award for his client friendly and knowledgeable presence. * On 8 February 2020, Bas Schuddeboom and Kjell Knudde, editors of the comics encyclopedia website ''Comiclopedia'', connected to Lambiek, won the annual P. Hans Frankfurther Prize, which they received on 13 November of that year.

References

External links

* *
History of the comics store Lambiek.
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*

*

{{Authority control 1968 establishments in the Netherlands 1968 in comics Art galleries established in 1968 Art museums and galleries in the Netherlands Cartooning museums Comics retailers Comics-related organizations Dutch comics Dutch online encyclopedias Knights of the Order of Orange-Nassau Media museums in the Netherlands Online comic databases Online person databases Retail companies established in 1968 Shops in Amsterdam Websites about comics

History

Comiclopedia

Awards

See also

References

External links