Dutch writer of comic strips, creator of Tom Puss and Oliver B. Bumble.

Toonder (his name means “show it”) became famous for his Tom Puss and Oliver B. Bumble series (1941-1990). As he wrote them for influential news papers like the “Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant” (NRC), he had a great influence on the Dutch language by introducing genial new words and expressions. Neologisms like “Minkukel”, “zielknijper”, “denkraam” and “kommer en kwel” were introduced by his strip heroes and enriched the Dutch language. “Ziel knijper” for shrink translates as “soul squeezer”. Because of his original, typically Jungian symbolic word use, his work is difficult to translate.
Toonders father Marten Toonder (16 Nov 1879, Warffum – 24 May 1965, Leiden ) was a sea captain of The Holland America Line. He brought home comics from America for his children. As the father was absent and the mother Trijntje Huizinga (2 March 1886, Uithuizen – 5 February 1970, Leiden) left the kids with strips alone, both Marten and his brother Jan Gerhard Toonder, could develop a vivid imagination. They shared an interest in mystery and the occult. Jan Gerhard would become a prolific writer and professional astrologer and Marten Toonders strips had always an adventurous and mysterious mood.
After finishing the HBS-A school, he travelled with his father to South America (July 1931). In Buenos Aires he met a cartoonist who had worked for Felix the Cat in Disney Studio’s. From end 1931 till 1932 he had military service, for him a boring time. After a short visit to the Rotterdam art academy (1932) Toonder worked as an illustrator (1933). From 1934-38, he illustrates for the “Nieuwsblad van het Noorden” (newspaper of the Nord) the for children meant strip “Thijs IJs, de ijsbeer” about an ice-bear for which his brother Jan Gerhard wrote the text.
In 1941 the Dutch paper De Telegraaf looked for a replacement for the strip “Mickey Mouse”, that could not be imported from the US, because of the war. He then wrote his first strip “Tom Poes ontdekt het geheim van de blauwe aarde” ((Tom Puss discovers the secret of the blue earth, 1941). He stopped with it in 1944 under the guise of having manic depressive illness, but actually because of the fact that an annoying him SS man became his Telegraaf editor-in-chief.
From 1943 on, after a meeting with Dick van Veen, Toonder stated to work for the Dutch resistance. Het started with the falsification of food distribution charts. He risked his life by doing this. End 1944 the Toonder Studio’s in Amsterdam hosted illegal press of De Algemene Vrije Illegale Drukkerij or D.A.V.I.D. But not long after the war Toonder was being accused of having collaborated with the Germans. The Toonder Studio’s were closed. Meantime he worked as an editor of for Metro and made strips like Kappie. Kappie, short for kapitein was a see captain with a large moustache like his father. On 11 July 1946 his name was cleared.
After the war, the Toonder studio published Tom Puss and Oliver B. Bumble strips for national and international papers. The writers content deepened to adult and above level and even intellectuals admitted that they eagerly awaited the next NRC strip. In Holland, Bumble strips were at last seen as literature, allowed even for the Dutch book lists of the higher education levels. In 1954 he became a member of the Dutch Academy of letters.
Marten Toonder’s work is now part of the Digital Library of Dutch Letters (DBNL). As is his brother’s work (Jan Gerhard Toonder DBNL), who was a prolific writer like him. But their shared interest in astrology is seldom mentioned in the official writings about Dutch Letters.
In 1967, 140 Bommel (Bumble ) stories appeared in pocket edition (48 parts) from the publishing house De Bezige Bij. Millions were sold. In 1986, he wrote the last Bumle, for nrc-Handelsblad, by having Olivier Bommel marry and settle for a comfortable future devoid of adventure.
Toonder lived in countryside of Ireland from 1965 till the early 1990s. He was a private person who disliked the rumour of the city. The Dutch Toonder studio’s were since 1966 located in Nederhort castle, or Bommelstein as people later would call it. In 1971 it burned down. Much of Toonders paintings, as well as the unique watch collection of the owner of the castle, Jan Jonker, were lost.
On 31 May 1935 he married the cartoonist Alfine Kornélie Dik (14 September 1912, Rotterdam – 7 August 1990, Blackrock), artist name Phiny Dick, who was once his neighbour. They got two sons: Eiso Jan Gerhard and Onno Maarten Toonder. End 1965 they emigrated to Greystones, Ireland.
On 23 May 1996 he married the Dutch composer Tera de Marez Oyens, born as Woltera Gerharda Wensink (5 August 1932, Velsen – 29 August 1996, Hilversum). She was already gravely ill (most likely cause cancer) and both knew it. She was the widow of a Holocaust survivor and Jewish philosopher and professor of political science Menachem Arnoni (1922-1985), and also a fan of his work and after contacting him, their friendship became love.
In 2001 Toonder returned to the Netherlands. Toonder died in his sleep on July 27, 2005 in the retirement home for artists Rosa Spier in Laren.
Link to Wikepedia biograhy