Sjors & Sjimmie is a Dutch adaptation of the comic stripWinnie Winkle, specifically the character Perry Winkle from that strip. The difference between the American original and the Dutch adaptation is that Sjors forms a duo with Africa-born Sjimmie. They are raised by Sally and the Colonel. The Colonel regularly finds himself on the receiving end of their pranks. In return Sjors & Sjimmie are outsmarted by their scheming classmate Dikkie, although they manage to stay the best of friends.
Publication history
Early years
The popularity of the newspaper stripBuster Brown spawned many imitators, including the Perry Winkle character in Martin Branner's long-running strip Winnie Winkle. Perry's adventures were translated and published in Dutch newspapers; and in 1938 given a Dutch-made version after the original US strip shifted focus back on to Perry's sister Winnie. After the strip took a hiatus during World War II, the protagonist Sjors found a companion in Sjimmie, an African boy who was part of the visiting circus. Sjimmie was originally portrayed in blackface stereotypical ways such as speaking in broken language. In 1969 Jan Kruis took over the comic from the retired Frans Piët; he reinvented Sjimmie as a normal-looking, properly speaking teenager, and introduced the Colonel as a grumpy war-veteran. Kruis produced two 44-page stories, but eventually chose to work on his one-page comic Jack, Jacky and the Juniors in which Sjors & Sjimmie made one cameo appearance. Jan Steeman continued Sjors & Sjimmie during the first half of the 1970s.
1975-99; the Wiroja-years
In 1975 the Sjors and Pep magazines merged into Eppo; Sjors & Sjimmie were re-invented as one-page gags drawn by Robert van der Kroft. Initial respons was tepid, but things improved when scriptwriter Patty Klein was replaced by the duo of Wilbert Plijnaar and Jan van Die. Collectively known as the Wirojas, the threesome of van der Kroft, Plijnaar, and van Die turned Sjors & Sjimmie into one of Eppo's most popular features. During the 1980s Sjors & Sjimmie grew into teenagers pursuing like-minded interests and chasing girls with varying results, while modern-day trends, celebrities, and political developments were ridiculed. For example; Sjors & Sjimmie were huge fans of "Michael Claxon" and "Madomma", and preferred off-time lunches at McMickey's over mundane cheese-sandwiches.
''Sjors & Sjimmie'' magazine
In 1988 Eppo magazine was renamed Sjors & Sjimmie after its most successful comic. It lasted until 1999 and contained multi-page stories besides the regular one-pagers. The Wirojas couldn't cope with the amount of work, which was outsourced to a Spanish art studio; the Wirojas stayed on hand for cover designs and quality control whilst producing the gag stripClaire for the women's magazineFlair. The first years of "Sjors & Sjimmie" were still successful, but in 1994 the name was shortened to Sjosji in an unsuccessful attempt to reach a younger generation. In 1999 Sjosji ceased publication.
Cancellation and possible comeback
The magazine was revived in 2009 as Eppo, but due to legal issues Sjors & Sjimmie were not included. Robert van der Kroft worked on Claire-gags with Jan van Die and Evert Geradts. The latter replaced Wilbert Plijnaar, who moved to Los Angeles in 1995 where he enjoyed a successful career in animation and continues to live. In 2019, the Wiroja's reunited to produce new gags for quarterly magazine StripGlossy.
An anticipated eighth movie was planned, but eventually cancelled. It would have starred comedians Paul de Leeuw and Eric van Sauers as Sjors & Sjimmie in their forties. In 1992 Sjors & Sjimmie appeared in an animated rap video for the No Shobo campaign.
