Dick Bos was a Dutch detective comics series, published between 1940 and 1967 on irregular basis by

Alfred Mazure Alfred Leonardus Mazure (8 September 1914 – 16 February 1974) was a Dutch comics artist, novelist and film director, best known for his detective comic '' Dick Bos'', which was one of the most popular comics series in the Netherlands during the 1 ...

. It was one of the most popular comic series in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in the 1940s and still highly regarded as a classic.Rich Thomassen, ''En Maz creëerde Dick Bos'', Aspekt, 2014.

Concept

Dick Bos is a brave private investigator who is a master in

jiujitsu Jujutsu ( ; ja, link=no, 柔術 , ), also known as jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu, is a family of Japanese martial arts and a system of close combat (unarmed or with a minor weapon) that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdu ...

and therefore used his fists a lot. Many stories follow him as he solves cases and has lengthy fight sequences in which thieves and crooks are beaten up.

History

In 1940

created ''Dick Bos'', which he signed with ''Maz''. The comics were very popular with the youth because during the Nazi occupation all American and British comics were banned and therefore Dutch magazines had to rely on home-made comics to sustain reader's interest. Yet in 1942 even ''Dick Bos'' got banned because Mazure refused to turn the comic into a Nazi propaganda strip, despite requests of the Nazi publishing company Ullstein. Mazure also made five low-budget films based on ''Dick Bos'', which were shot and edited between 1942 and 1946. Two of these were '' Inbraak'' (1942) and '' Moord in het Modehuis'' (1946). After the Netherlands were liberated in 1944 ''Dick Bos'' was allowed publication again. Yet they caused a severe media scare over their rather violent content. Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science Theo Rutten eventually sent a circular among schools to discourage distribution of "violent comics". As a result, many comics in the Netherlands were only allowed if they were published in

text comics Text comics or a text comic is a form of comics where the stories are told in captions below the images and without the use of speech balloons. It is the oldest form of comics and was especially dominant in European comics from the 19th century ...

format (which still allowed children to read more) and if the content was child-friendly. Mazure was therefore forced to quit ''Dick Bos'', since magazines and newspapers were no longer willing to publish violent comics. Between 1963 and 1967, when media censorship against comics loosened, Mazure drew new adventures of ''Dick Bos'' and made two animated short films based on the character.

Parody

René Windig and Eddie de Jong parodied ''Dick Bos'' as ''Dick Bosch''.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Dutch comic strips 1940 comics debuts 1967 comics endings Detective comics Drama comics Action-adventure comics Bos, Dick Bos, Dick Bos, Dick Bos, Dick Bos, Dick Censored comics Censorship in the Netherlands Comics controversies Controversies in the Netherlands Comics set in the Netherlands Comics set in the 1940s Dutch comics adapted into films