Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch
comic book store
The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for American comic books. The concept of the direct market was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling. The network currently consists of:
* four major comic distributors:
** Lunar D ...
and art gallery in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, –
Bussum, ), 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, from the popular
Suske & Wiske comic book series created by
Belgian artist
Willy Vandersteen.
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'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 and their history. From 1986 on, the store gained fame by holding art exhibitions and book signings by numerous comic authors, including
Robert Crumb,
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 not ...
,
André Franquin,
Joost Swarte,
Charles Burns,
Chris Ware,
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 typic ...
, François Avril and
Art Spiegelman.
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
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 not ...
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.
See also
*
List of online encyclopedias
References
External links
*
*
History of the comics store Lambiek.*
*
*
{{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