'Okki Bokki Boef'.
Ton Beek was a Dutch comic artist, active for the Toonder Studios, Dutch Hanna-Barbera comics and various magazines for young children, for instance Okki and Bobo. His best-known series at the Toonder Studio's was the funny animal newspaper comic strip 'Birre Beer' (1954-1959), written by Phiny Dick. Beek also drew advertising comics, and with writer Patty Klein, he was responsible for creating Okki magazine's 1970s mascot 'Okki Bokki Boef'.
Early life and career
Ton Beek was born in 1926 in the Oud-West neighborhood of Amsterdam. After a couple of years in high school, he enrolled at the Amsterdam Graphic Arts School, where he studied until 1943. During World War II, the young apprentice Henk Albers helped Beek getting hired by the Toonder Studio's in Amsterdam, where he started out washing film cells. His employment with Marten Toonder's animation and comics studio lasted only a half year, as he turned ill and had to stay in a health resort in the Gooi region until after the war.
'Avonturen van Klaas Volvet' (Het Rotterdamsch Parool, 9 July 1955), presumably drawn by Ton Beek.
Toonder Studio's
Between 1946 and 1960, Beek was again affiliated with the Toonder Studios, where he started out collaborating either as penciler or inker on Toonder's newspaper comics 'Koning Hollewijn', 'Panda' and 'Kappie' during their early years. He also made illustrations for the studio's weekly magazine Tom Poes Weekblad. Replacing Joop Hillenius between November 1957 and August 1960, Beek had another run on the 'Kappie' strip with inker Richard Klokkers, penciling stories 72 through 83.
Through the Toonder Studio's, Ton Beek also worked as an artist on many adverising comics, most notably 'De Avonturen van Klaas Volvet en zijn Knechtje Plus', about a chubby cheesemonger and his helper, who go on a treasure hunt around the world. A promotional strip for cheese published in newspapers like Algemeen Handelsblad between April 1954 and October 1955, the 'Klaas Volvet' strips were also collected in two booklets by the Dutch Dairy Agency (Nederlands Zuivelbureau).
'De Avonturen van Goudrekeltje' (Leidsch Dagblad, 17 December 1955).
Another promotional newspaper comic strip by Ton Beek was 'De Avonturen van Goudrekeltje' for Maggi clear soup (1955). For AssuMij fire insurances, he illustrated the 1958 booklets 'De Kroon op het Werk' and 'Hendrik Hamster's Hachelijke Avonturen'. In addition, Beek drew the cartoony booklet 'De Wondere Werken van Prof. S. Have' for Philips, and possibly also the mini comic book 'Raddraaierij en Deszelven Bijverschijnselen' (1961), a humorous take on the invention of the bike, set in the Stone Age, issued by the Batavus bicycle factories.
'Birre Beer'.
Birre Beer
At the Toonder Studio's, Ton Beek was also the artist of the funny animal newspaper 'Birre Beer', which ran in the newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad between 27 December 1954 and 28 March 1959. Created and written by Marten Toonder's wife Phiny Dick, the comic stood out graphically for Beek's distinctive drawings with stylized black-and-white. A week before its publication, the editors introduced their upcoming comic star Birre Beer as "the son of Mary Tourtel's 'Rupert Bear', whose adventures had appeared earlier in this newspaper. The 'Birre Beer' text comic told the adventures of a little bear named Birre whose naïvité always gets him in trouble. He is a good friend of Mirre, the daughter of a woodsman, and Socratov the mouse, who both frequently help him out whenever the need is highest. The first episodes of the strip were by written Dick, later episodes were written by Andries Brandt and Eiso Toonder.
'Birre Beer'.
While Beek's working method was labor-intensive and costly, the comic could not meet with much popularity among readers. In 1959, the 'Birre Beer' strip was cancelled aftter 35 stories. During the 1960s and 1970s, 'Birre Beer' continued to run as reprints in the Dutch newspaper Trouw and the Belgian children's paper 't Kapoentje. With his main comic gone, Ton Beek continued to draw Toonder's 'Kappie' comic for another year and then left the studio. During the 1960s, he continued to work on assignments from the Toonder Studio's on a freelance basis.
'Yogi Beer en Dokter Peter Selie' (De Flintstones #66, 1969), artwork by Beek, script by Patty Klein & Andries Brandt.
Advertising and TV-based comics
Between 1959 and 1967, Ton Beek was mainly working for several advertising agencies, doing commercial work and no comics. In 1967, he joined Joop Geesink's Dollywood studios, where he was an inker for pencilers Jan van Haasteren and Frits Kloezeman on a comic based on the TV puppet show 'Rick de Kikker' (1967), which appeared in the Heintje children's paper of the Albert Heijn supermarket chain. Through the Toonder Studio's, Beek was also a freelance artist on stories with Hanna-Barbera's 'Yogi Bear' for the De Flintstones comic book by De Geïllustreerde Pers. The scripts were provided by Patty Klein and Andries Brandt.
Cover illustrations for Okki, respectively from 24 February 1973 and 13 January 1973.
Children's magazines
As an illustrator, Beek worked for magazines like Donald Duck (1965-1969), Liselotje, and Wij En Onze Kinderen. In the 1970s, Beek was a regular artist for the educational children's magazines by publisher Malmberg. In 1971, he developed a new mascot for the pre-school magazine Okki, a giant pink ball with arms and legs, wearing a cap and bells. Between 1973 and 1975, this character also starred in the comic strip 'Okki Bokki Boef', drawn by Beek and written by Patty Klein. With Klein, Beek was also present in Jippo with 'Flip en Flossie' (1973-1974), a comic about a boy and a girl. The character of Flossie was modelled after the artist's daughter Marla.
'Flip en Flossie' (Jippo #1, 1974).
Also a regular illustrator for the pre-school magazine Bobo, Ton Beek worked with Rolf Hartog van Banda on the artwork of comics and text stories based on the puppet series 'De Bereboot' (1976-1978), originally created for television by Rolf and Lo Hartog van Banda. Together with Rolf Hartog van Banda, Beek also illustrated the children's booklet 'Wendy Wiebel Leert Vliegen', written by Rolf's sister Helen Arends. In this collaboration, Beek was mainly tasked with inking and coloring duties.
Final years and death
Ton Beek lived in his birth town Amsterdam until 1969. From 1974 on, he lived and worked in the city of Zwolle. His last known comics work were stories starring Friz Freleng's 'The Pink Panther', produced in the 1980s for the Swedish publisher Semic Press. Ton Beek passed away on 27 October 2016. He was 90 years old.
Ton Beek.