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''Franka'' is a popular
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
series drawn and written since the mid-1970s by the graphic artist
Henk Kuijpers Henk Kuijpers (born 10 December 1946 in Haarlem, Netherlands) is a comics artist most famous for his ''Franka'' series. Comics *Franka, 23 comic albums *Bars, 2 albums Kuijpers' ''Franka'' comics work features a strong model-like female sleuth ...
. The principal character is a strong female Dutch sleuth who solves mysteries in exotic locales. ''Franka'' has been translated into a variety of languages, including Danish, German, French and Spanish.


Principal character

Franka (Francesca Victoria), the lead character that the series is named after, is a young, attractive and adventurous female
private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI; also known as a private detective, an inquiry agent or informally a wikt:private eye, private eye) is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. ...
.''Note that some references incorrectly describe her as an
archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
, though she has no professional training, nor is interest in archeology a major element. She does however start the series working for a criminology museum (Album #1, 'Misdaadmuseum'), and later on has her own PI agency, supporting the private investigator assessment.''
She lives in a slightly fictionalised version of the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
, and since 1993's ''Flight of the Atlantis'' has clearly been revealed as a resident of
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
(before, she lived in the fictional 'Groterdam'). The cases she solves often take place in the worlds of art, antiquities, fashion and film, and also often feature exotic locales full of smugglers, pirates and other shady businessmen. Dominant women are a recurring theme of the series, similar to Franco-Belgian comics series such as ''
Yoko Tsuno ''Yoko Tsuno'' is a comics album series created by the Belgian writer Roger Leloup published by Dupuis in '' Spirou'' magazine since its debut in 1970. Through thirty volumes, the series tell the adventures of Yoko Tsuno, a female electrical e ...
''. A single woman for long time, Franka acquired a male partner and love interest in the later volumes, the reformed art thief Rix. More often than not she is also accompanied by her dog Bars. Franka was ''not'' the main character in the very first adventure of the series (an eight-page story which makes up the first part of Volume #1, ''Het Misdaadmuseum''). Instead, Jarko (who is an increasingly minor character in all later volumes) played the central role, and Franka is only a secretary in the Criminology Museum. However, by the second (main) story of the first volume, Franka has become a central character, though not yet as exclusively so as in the later volumes.


Drawing style

''Franka'' is an example of the
ligne claire ''Ligne claire'' (; ; both meaning "clear line") is a style of drawing created and pioneered by Hergé, the Belgian cartoonist and creator of ''The Adventures of Tintin''. It uses clear strong lines sometimes of varied width and no hatching, w ...
style frequently associated with bande desinée comics, and Kuijpers' drawing style is noted for its high artistic standards, particularly clarity of line and accurate detail of elements like cars and buildings. The panels often contain additional little interesting or humorous details not relevant to the main storyline. The style of drawing has developed significantly from the early comics, in which for example the characters had large eyes and squat proportions, to the more realistic figure drawing of the middle volumes to the slightly more stylized, 'fashion-designer' look of the latest issues. Also changed were the visual depiction of females - the Franka of the later volumes is a much more sexual creature than in the early volumes, where she only had friends, but never partners. While the early volumes rarely show nakedness, all volumes play with erotic poses and later volumes show Franka and other characters naked. Sexual acts, however, are generally only hinted at, though, again, this becomes more explicit in the later volumes.


Publications


Publication history

''Franka'' originally appeared in the weekly
comic magazine Comic magazine or comics magazine may refer to: * A comic book * A comics anthology * ''Comic Magazine'', a 1986 Japanese film * Comic Magazines, the parent company of Quality Comics * British comics * List of Franco-Belgian comics magazines, Franc ...
''
Pep Pep is energy or high spirits; it may refer to: * Pep band, an ensemble of instrumentalists * Pep (dog) (c. 1923–1930), Labrador Retriever sent to the Eastern State Penitentiary * Pep, the dog in Putt-Putt (series), ''Putt-Putt'' (series) * Pep ...
'' which, in 1975, merged with ''
Sjors Sjors is a Dutch version of the given name George. Notable people with the name include: * George "Sjors" van Driem (born 1957), Dutch linguist at Leiden University * Sjors van Iwaarden (born 1969), Dutch rower * Sjors Kramer (born 2000), Dutch fo ...
'' into '' Eppo''. ''Franka'' became one of the magazine's fixtures for the next eleven years (1984 being her one sabbatical-year). In 1988, ''Eppo'' became ''Sjors & Sjimmie'' but it took another year before ''Franka'' made her comeback. In 1992, she returned to annual appearances starting at the beginning of the year. After ''Sjors & Sjimmie'' (or ''Sjosji'' as it was known since 1994) ceased publication in 1999 ''Franka'' went on to become the subject of her own online magazine. In February 2009, ''Eppo'' was revived as a forthnightly magazine appealing to original readers as well as their offspring; ''Franka'' is one of several household names to be included. In January 2010, she was voted Dutch comic strip heroine of all time. From the 1990s onwards, ''Franka'' was also serialised in ''
Veronica Magazine Veronica is a brand name of successive Dutch commercial and public radio and television broadcasters. It began its life as an offshore radio station, Radio Veronica, on 17 May 1960. The name comes from its first name VRON – . "Free" was a refe ...
'', the magazine of
Veronica TV Veronica is a Dutch free-to-air commercial television channel currently a part of Talpa TV (Talpa Network). The channel was launched as TV10 Gold on 1 May 1995, then became TV10, Fox, Fox 8 and V8, before becoming Veronica on 20 September 200 ...
, which with weekly sales of over 1,000,000 was among the most widely circulated Dutch periodicals. ''Franka'' has also been published in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
,
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
, Catalan, Galician,
Scandinavian languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is al ...
, as well as in
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
('' Spirou)''. Incidents from previous volumes are often referred to in the subsequent ones, although they can be read independently.


Albums in the official series

The following are the
Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the List of languages by total number of speak ...
editions. From volume 1 to volume 8 the publisher was Oberon, from volume 9 to 15, Big Balloon, and from volume 16 Franka BV. 1. ''Het Misdaadmuseum'' (''Criminology Museum'') (1978) 2. ''Het Meesterwerk'' (''The Masterpiece'') (1978) 3. ''De Terugkeer van de Noorderzon'' (''The Return of the Noorderzon'') (1978) 4. ''De Wraak van het Vrachtschip'' (''The Revenge of the Freighter'') (1979) *''De Terugkeer van de Noorderzon'' and ''De Wraak van het Vrachtschip'' together form one episode. 5. ''Circus Santekraam'' (1981) (includes the episode ''Animal Day''). 6. ''Het Monster van de Moerplaat'' (''The Swamp Monster'') (1982) *also includes the episodes ''Pyromaniac'' and ''Saboteur''. 7. ''De Tanden van de Draak'' (''The Dragon's Teeth'') (1984) 8. ''De Ondergang van de Donderdraak'' (''The Dragon's Downfall'') (1986) *''De Tanden van de Draak'' and ''De Ondergang van de Donderdraak'' together form one episode. 9. ''Moordende Concurrentie'' (''Murderous Competition'') (1990) 10. ''Gangsterfilm'' (''Gangster Movie'') (1992) 11. ''De Vlucht van de Atlantis'' (''Flight of the Atlantis'') (1993) 12. ''De Blauwe Venus'' (''The Blue Venus'') (1994) 13. ''De Dertiende Letter'' (''The Thirteenth Letter'') (1995) 14. ''Het Portugese Goudschip'' (''The Portuguese Gold Ship'') (1996) 15. ''De Ogen van de Roerganger'' (''The Eyes of the Oarsman'') (1997) *''Het Portugese Goudschip'' and ''De Ogen van de Roerganger'' together form one episode. 16. ''Succes Verzekerd'' (''Success Guaranteed'') (1999) 17. ''Eigen risico'' (''At Your Own Risk'') (2001) *''Succes Verzekerd'' and ''Eigen Risico'' together form one episode. 18. ''Kidnap'' (2004) 19. ''Het zwaard van Iskander'' (''The Sword of Iskander'') (2006) 20. ''De Witte Godin'' (''The White Goddess'') (2009) 21. ''Het Zilveren Vuur'' (''The Silver Fire'') (2010) *''Het zwaard van Iskander'', ''De Witte Godin'' and ''Het Zilveren Vuur'' together form the trilogy ''De reis van de Ishtar'' (''The Journey of Ishtar'') 22. ''Onderwereld'' (''Underworld'') (2012) 23. ''Geheim 1948'' (''Secret 1948'') (2016) 24. ''Operatie Roofmoord'' (''Operation Robbery and Murder'') (2019)


Albums not in the main series

*''The Cadillac Club'' (1988) *''Harley Collection'' (1998) *''Kerstkaarten'', ''Overschakelen'' and ''Aquarellen'' (2000) ** These three volumes ("Christmas Cards", "Dust Jackets" and "Watercolours") appeared in the "kill them pirates" edition produced by Franka BV as a reaction to pirated publications of Franka items after a quantity of Kuijpers' drawings had been stolen. *''Felle Flitsen'' (2002), specially produced for strip cartoon week by the publishing house Silvester of
's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...
. *''Het geheim van de archiefkast'' (''"The Secret of the Muniment Chest"'') (1989) *''Het halssnoer'' (''The Noose'') (date of publication unknown) - early version of ''Moordende Concurrentie''. *''Technicolor Widescreen'' (1990)


Trivia

*Exponents of Amsterdam's public transport company (trams in particular) make regular cameo-appearances. *In 1985 Eppo placed an April Fool's joke suggesting that
Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...
would turn ''Dragon's Teeth'' into a
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...
blockbuster movie. *The same year, shortly before the publishing of ''Dragon's Fall'', a fake advert emerged telling Franka was busy removing every forged
Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...
antiquity in existence. *Work on ''Murderous Competition'' already started before ''Dragon's Teeth''; it took seven years to complete before it was serialised late 1989 in the forthnightly ''
Sjors & Sjimmie ''Sjors & Sjimmie'' (''George & Jimmy'') is a Dutch adaptation of the comic strip '' Winnie Winkle'', specifically the character Perry Winkle from that strip. The difference between the American original and the Dutch adaptation is that Sjors (Per ...
''. ''The Saboteur'' (1979/1981) was republished as a prequel to introduce Laura Lava to the younger readers. *In issue 22/2009 of Eppo Franka is lined up in an identity parade of possible offenders who brutally robbed the young girl '' Elsje'' (from another comic series) of her copy of Eppo. Other suspects include Agent 327 and
Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English language, English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate from the Old High German ''Leonhard'' containing the prefix ''levon'' ("lion") from the Greek wikt:Λέων#Greek, Λ ...
.


References


External links


Franka official site
at Uitgeverij Franka BV
Comic House portfolio of Henk Kuijpers



Fansite
De Franka Index {{Portal bar, Comics 1975 comics debuts Dutch comics titles Dutch comic strips Fictional private investigators Fictional Dutch people Comics characters introduced in 1975 Dutch comics characters Feminist comics Adventure comics Humor comics Comics about women Comics set in the Netherlands Female characters in comics 1975 establishments in the Netherlands