Lo Hartog van Banda was one of Holland's most prolific scriptwriters. His career took off when he started a science-fiction magazine together with Ben Abas. Unfortunately, this magazine only lasted a short while. In 1952, he joined the Marten Toonder Studios, where he soon became one of the main scenario writers of the factory. Until 1965, he worked on comics like 'Aram', 'Kappie', 'Koning Hollewijn', 'Panda' and 'Tom Poes.'
He also set up the philosophical newspaper strip 'Student Tijloos' with at first Gerrit Stapel and later Thé Tjong-Khing. Hartog van Banda left the famous Dutch studio in 1965, upon Marten Toonder's departure to Ireland. He worked as a copywriter for two years, before he began a collaboration with the magazine Pep, where he created series like 'De Argonautjes' (with Dick Matena), 'Ambrosius' (with Gideon Brugman), 'Blook' (with Johnn Bakker) and 'Arad en Maya' (with Jan Steeman). In 1968, he made the colorful comic 'Iris', with Thé Tjong-Khing. Also with Khing, he created the newspaper strip 'Arman en Ilva'.
Lo Hartog van Banda eventually left the comics field in the 1970s, and went on to write successful children's television shows like 'Tita Tovenaar' and 'De Berenboot'. During the 1980s, he wrote three episodes of the 'Lucky Luke' series by Morris, of which the first one, 'Fingers', is generally considered the best 'Lucky Luke' album since Goscinny's death. Lo Hartog van Banda died in February 2006, at the age of 89. One of his final projects was the script for a 'Tita Tovenaar' musical.
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