Patty Klein being portrayed as Noortje by Jan Steeman. Artwork by Jan Steeman.
Patty Klein was a Dutch comic scriptwriter and poet whose career spanned over fifty years, and is by right called the "grande dame of Dutch comics". Starting off in 1966, she was one of the few people in the Netherlands who wrote comics on a full time basis. She was also the first woman with a full time job in the Dutch comic industry. Klein has worked with many important comic artists, and wrote stories for nearly every Dutch comic magazine. She is mostly associated with the girls' magazine Tina, for which she has written a great many series since 1973. Her most famous creation is the clumsy girl 'Noortje', which she created with Jan Steeman. Between 1975 and 2016, it was with its 41 years the longest-running comic strip in the Netherlands made continuously by the same team. Besides comics, she has written poetry under her married name Patty Scholten.
Early life
Patricia Cecilia Klein was born in The Hague in 1946. Her parents had lived and worked in Berlin, Germany, but fled back to their home country when the Russian army approached the city at the end of World War II. As a tribute to their repatriation, they named their daughter Patricia. Klein grew up in Amsterdam, where she developed a fascination for animals and reading. With her stories and poems, Klein filled many pages of her high school newspaper. From the age of 16, she spent all of her spare time as a volunteer in the Artis zoo, where she helped the zookeeper take care of the animals. Much like the comic industry, working in a zoo was men's work at the time, and the zoo's director was not aware of her presence. Klein recalled that whenever he walked by, she had to hide in the reptile house.
Toonder Studio's
At age 20, Klein applied for a job at the Toonder Studios, the major Dutch comics and animation production house at the time, located at the Geldersekade in Amsterdam. Studio founder Marten Toonder had just moved to Ireland and lead scriptwriter Lo Hartog van Banda had also left the studio, so additional writers were needed. Klein became an apprentice of studio chief Andries Brandt and within a short time, participated in almost every production. At first, she combined doing freelance studio work with her biology studies, but after a year, she canceled her studies and became a ful ltime writer. In her spare time, she enjoyed the Amsterdam hippie life. She later joined the studios at its new location in the castle of Nederhorst den Berg.
One of the Patty Klein's 'Panda' gags with art by Piet Wijn.
At the studio, Klein's test assignment was the plot of the 'Tom Poes' balloon comic story 'Tom Poes en de Woelwater' (1966, art by Wim Lensen and Frits Godhelp), which appeared in the weekly Dutch-language Disney magazine Donald Duck. After submitting her plot, the finished script was however written by Brandt, with whom she worked on a steady basis during her time with the Toonder Studios. However, Klein felt uncomfortable with the typical language of Marten Toonder's personal comic creations. The author was renowned for his highly sophisticated, cultivated and eccentric use of language, which was difficult to mimic, let alone surpass. As a result, Klein didn't work with the typical Toonder characters that much, apart from the advertising story 'Tom Poes en de Wiekschieters' (1970) for Alete-Molenaar porridge and about 20 gag strips starring 'Panda', which appeared on the wrappers of Bolletje biscuit rusk (1972). The latter were drawn by Piet Wijn. The rest of her Toonder Studio's work was dedicated to the many other comics the team created for newspapers and magazines.
Left: Script for a 'Big Bad Wolf' story by Patty Klein and Andries Brandt. Right: The same story, drawn by Jan Steeman in Donald Duck #33, 1968.
Disney comics
Between 1966 and 1969, Patty Klein and Andries Brandt's main body of work for the Toonder Studios was plotting and scripting stories with the Disney characters 'Big Bad Wolf' and 'Little Hiawatha'. The original American material had run out, and the Toonder Studios were commissioned to provide the weekly back-up feature for Donald Duck weekly, with both characters appearing every other week. Klein and Brandt added many new elements to the series. The Big Bad Wolf and his Foul Fellows' Club regularly ran into trouble with Miss Schaapkens and her "Brave Damesbond" ("Descent Ladies Union"). The little Native American Hiawatha received a dog called Humpie, and his tribe's medicine man got a more prominent role in the stories. Patty Klein was also responsible for the Dutch name of Hiawatha's tribe, De Rondbuiken ("The Roundbellies"). Most stories were drawn by Jan Steeman ('Big Bad Wolf') and Jan van Haasteren ('Hiawatha'), but at times, Dick Matena and Piet Wijn were also involved in the production. One of Klein's fellow university students was Dutch biologist Midas Dekkers, who by then still went by his own name Wandert. Since he disliked this name, he took inspiration from Klein's 'Big Bad Wolf' stories to choose his new first name (the wolf is called Midas in Dutch).
Patty Klein and Andries Brandt.
Collaboration with Andries Brandt
In the late 1960s, Klein and Andries Brandt additionally wrote stories with the Hanna-Barbera characters 'Yogi Bear', 'Cave Kids' and 'The Flintstones' for the monthly De Flintstones comic book published by De Geïllustreerde Pers. The artwork was done by Ton Beek, Ed van Schuijlenburg, Jan van Haasteren and Jan Steeman. Between 1968 and 1972, Klein and Brandt wrote the funny animal comic 'Polletje Pluim' for the back cover of the Christian women's weekly Prinses. The comic was originally written and drawn by Dick Matena, but continued by the Klein-Brandt team with Jan van Haasteren and then Frits Godhelp as artists. Patty Klein also assisted Andries Brandt with the plots for his own comic creations for newspaper De Telegraaf. The first was the supernatural and absurd text comic 'Horre, Harm en Hella' (1968-1971), with artwork subsequently by Juan Escandell, Jan van Haasteren (with Thé Tjong-Khing) and Georges Mazure. Between 1971 and 1973, she participated in the newspaper comic about 'Aafje Anders', whose adventures were set in Amsterdam and were always loosely based on current affairs. The first stories had art by Jan van Haasteren, then Robert Hamilton and Richard Klokkers took over. Another project was 'Toef de Tiller', a comic strip set in the Stone Age with art by Van Haasteren. Klein provided much of the comic's wordplay and puns, but the project was never completed nor published. Other collaborations with Van Haasteren were 'Ole en Kreutel' for the dairy company Vecomij, and 'Bartje en Opa' in the free local Amsterdam paper Aspect (1967-1971). The latter comic was about a boy and his grandfather, a former sailor, and can be considered the first Dutch family comic, three years before Jan Kruis created 'Jan, Jans en de Kinderen' (1970).
Synopsis for a 'Pelle Svanslös' story from one of Patty Klein's notebooks.
While most ongoing comic productions of the Toonder Studio's came to an end in the early 1970s, the comics division managed to survive through orders from foreign publishers. For the German market, Patty Klein and Andries Brandt wrote stories with characters like 'Fix und Foxi', 'Pauli', 'Tom und Biber' and 'Die Pichelsteiner' for Rolf Kauka's publications, and a story for the western comic 'Silberpfeil' for Bastei Verlag, originally a creation of Frank Sels and his Belgian studio. Patty Klein also wrote about 200 gags and a couple of longer stories about the anthropomorphic cat 'Pelle Svanslös' (a creation of Gösta Knutsson) for Semic Press in Sweden. The artwork was provided by Wim Lensen, Frits Godhelp and Børge and Joanika Ring. In 1973, the comics department of the Toonder Studios eventually closed its doors, and Patty Klein had to apply for work elsewhere. Later in life, Patty Klein was openly critical about Marten Toonder and how he treated his artists, especially regarding their financial compensation and Toonder's lack in giving credit where credit is due.
Final panels of the 'Distel' comic, with the authors bidding their farewell (Pep #5, 1974).
Sjors & Pep magazines
It didn't take long before Patty Klein found work with the leading Dutch comic magazines of the time. Prominent Dutch scriptwriter Lo Hartog van Banda needed all of his time to work on the TV series 'Ti-Ta Tovenaar' (1972-1974), and proposed Klein to succeed him on his comics projects for publisher Oberon. He even managed to get her the same page rate he had, instantly making her one of the best paid comic writers, even though she wasn't a household name yet, since most of her Toonder work was done anonymously. One of her first assignments was the funny animal comic 'Distel' in Sjors magazine, drawn by Børge and Joannika Ring. She succeeded Banda in late 1972, and wrote the stories 'Distel en de Wenswurm', 'Distel en Boem-Boem', 'Distel en Sloffie' and 'Distel en Henkie' until early 1974. In Pep magazine, Patty Klein and Jan van Haasteren succeeded Lo Hartog van Banda and Dick Matena as the authors of 'De Argonautjes', a series based on Greek mythology. They made one story, 'Het Water van de Styx' (1974). For the same publication, Klein wrote gags for Jan van Haasteren's absurd humor comics 'Baron van Tast' and 'Tinus Trotyl' in 1974 and 1975. For the gangster comic 'Johnny Goodbye', she replaced original scriptwriter Martin Lodewijk and wrote the episodes 'Gangsters en grafkransen', 'Hanky Panky' and 'Klopjacht op een kleuter' for artist Dino Attanasio (1973-1975).
'Erik en Opa' (Jippo #9, 1977-1978), art by Jan van Haasteren.
Malmberg magazines
Patty Klein also became a regular writer for Okki, Jippo and Taptoe, the educational children's magazines of the publishing house Malmberg. In Okki, she published short stories and poems, and also created the title comic 'Okki Bokki Boef' (1971-1975) with art by Ton Beek and 'Joep, Jolleke en Pots' (1976) with Jan van der Voo. For Jippo magazine, Klein and Beek also collaborated on the comic series about the boy Flip and the girl Flossie (1973-1974). In this same magazine, Klein and Jan van Haasteren revived 'Bartje and Opa' under the title 'Erik en Opa' (1974-1980). Another notable creation was the poetic pantomime comic strip 'Annemoon' (1980-1982), drawn by Piet Wijn for Okki magazine. In addition, Patty Klein and Piet Wijn also created text stories with trolls for Jippo. In Taptoe magazine, Klein wrote the puzzle comic about private investigator 'Sulle Hooms' (1978-1981), with artwork provided by the Prutswerk duo (Gerrit de Jager and Wim Stevenhagen). Klein also contributed to Paul Bodoni's Jippo feature, 'Het Verhaal Van...', of which the end of the story always returned to the beginning. Klein's final work for Malmberg was the gag strip 'Marloes' (1991-1992), created with Fred de Heij in Taptoe. The strip was canceled after only one year, largely because De Heij's artwork was deemed too realistic for the young readership.
'Sulle Hooms', by Patty Klein and Prutswerk (Taptoe issue #29, 1981-1982).
Eppo
When in 1975 Sjors and Eppo merged into the new comic magazine Eppo, Patty Klein was assigned to write the classic 'Sjors en Sjimmie' comic, by then drawn by Robert van der Kroft. The editors wanted a return to the comic's original 1930s set-up, when Frans Piët drew gag pages in a typically Dutch setting, instead of the science fiction adventures by Jan Steeman of the previous years. Patty Klein wrote the comic until mid 1977, when Wilbert Plijnaar and Jan van Die "hijacked" the comic away from her. The new writers had turned to the editors and claimed they could do a better job. After a couple of test pages, the editors were convinced and unceremoniously took Klein off the comic. In the following years, she anonymously wrote some stories of 'De Leukebroeders' for Uco Egmond and Peer Coolen, and also succeeded Toon van Driel as scriptwriter of 'De Sukkels' (1985-1986) for artist Bart Slijp.
Additional scriptwork of the 1970s
Further comics work of the 1970s included advertising comics for the 3 Musketeers chocolate bars of Mars, two political comics for Groningen Nu, short stories and quizzes for Tina Club, cartoons for Ryam notebooks, an instruction booklet for the Nieuw Rotterdam Groep insurance company, and some plots for the 'Jan, Jans en de Kinderen' comic by Jan Kruis in Libelle magazine. In 1974, Klein also wrote plots for 'Moeps Pepernoot', a comic strip developed by Jan Kruis and Jan van der Voo for the society magazine Story. In addition to comics, Klein wrote episodes for Lo Hartog van Banda's TV series 'Ti Ta Tovenaar', as well as an audio play adaptation, released on a vinyl record. With Eli Asser, she wrote comical anecdotes about Dutch history for the section 'Zij maakten geschiedenis' of the TV show 'NOS-Kiosk', a production of Joop Geesink. A compilation book of the feature was published in 1973 with illustrations by Frits Kloezeman and Jan van Haasteren.
'Jong Geluk', a story by Patty Klein and Thé Tjong Khing for De Vrije Balloen #2.
De Vrije Balloen
The 1970s also heralded in the creation of more adult-oriented and experimental comics. Inspired by new French magazines like Hara-Kiri and L'Écho des Savanes, Patty Klein and Jan van Haasteren wanted to establish a new comic magazine with full artistic freedom for its contributors. The initiative was largely fueled by the insecurities following the cancellation of the magazines Sjors and Pep, and the limitations of working for children's magazines. The first edition of De Vrije Balloen was published in 1975 and truly a group effort with no hierarchy. Patty Klein, Robert van der Kroft, Jan Steeman, Thé Tjong-Khing, Andries Brandt and Jan van Haasteren indulged in a variety of graphical exercises, saucy stories and other rowdy experiments. The team was aided by Van Haasteren's brother Herman for the production, Hans van den Boom for the finances, and by Patty's husband Huub Scholten for all sorts of additional chores. Later on, a new generation of artists joined De Vrije Balloen, including Gerrit de Jager, Wim Stevenhagen, Eric Schreurs, Paul Schindeler and Paul Bodoni. After doing the publishing and distribution of their magazine themselves, the team turned to publishers like Theo van den Broek, De Vrijbuiter and eventually Ger van Wulften for the production. The final issue appeared in 1981, after which the magazine continued as De Balloen through Van Wulften's publishing house Espee until 1984.
'Vera van de Risico' (1974), art by Nico van Dam.
Tina
At the VNU division Oberon, which published most of the mainstream comic magazines at the time, they weren't all too happy with the new Vrije Balloen project. Especially when newspaper articles focused on the artists' dissatisfaction with the work atmosphere at the children's magazines, Oberon felt that Klein had "bitten the hand that fed her". Her side of the story is that the publisher urged his editors to boycott her as a result. Truth of the matter is that she still maintained a steady presence in both Eppo and Tina, even increasing her production during the next decades. In the 1980s, almost half of Tina magazine was filled with her features. Patty Klein's long association with this girls' magazine had begun in 1973. Her first work was the gag strip about madcap office girl 'Fleurtje' (1973-1974), which appeared on the back cover with art by Børge and Joannika Ring. Her first serial for Tina was 'Conny Wildschut' (1973) with art by Dino Attanasio, about a girl who does volunteer work in an animal shelter. The melodramatic tone of this series was similar to most of the British girls' comics that Tina ran in translation at the time. Another early adventure serial by Patty Klein was 'Vera van de Risico', about inland navigation. Drawn by Nico van Dam, the four stories were well-documented, since Klein had a friend with an inland ship. Further early work for Tina was a 1976 comic adaptation of Johanna Spyri's 'Heidi' novel, which appeared with artwork by Piet Wijn. In the following year, the sequel 'Heidi en Peter' commenced serialization.
First 'Noortje gag', published in Tina #39, 26 September 1975 (art by Jan Steeman).
Noortje
In 1975, Patty Klein also developed a gag comic for Tina, centering on a goofing, red-headed teenage girl named Noortje. She brought in Jan Steeman as the artist. First introduced to Tina's readers on 12 September 1975 (issue #37), Noortje Visser is a young high school girl, who enjoys typical teenage interests like fashion, pop music and boys. In a 1978 gag, she celebrates her 16th birthday, but in later interviews, she is usually referred to as being fifteen. At home, Noortje has to deal with her parents, Jan and Marga, and her annoying brother Sander. Her best friend is Marlies, who lives on a farm. Another recurring character is Noortje's elderly and old-fashioned aunt Amalia.
The weekly gags portray recognizable situations for teenage girls, like lovesickness, boring school lessons, worries about personal beauty, a quest for independence and parents who just don't understand. However, Noortje herself is more of an anti-hero. She is incredibly clumsy, naïve and impulsive. She often says or does things she didn't quite think through, getting into embarrassing but funny trouble. Despite being a young adult, Noortje is still very child-like in her thinking and behavior. She is scared of spiders, keeps a teddy bear in her bedroom and has a tendency to cry heavily when things don't turn out the way she expected. Her interest in boys tends to be superficial and often motivated by unrealistic romantic fantasies and expectations. But she is such an adorable innocent that she easily won the readers' sympathy. More importantly, sometimes she actually amazes her environment with her inventive and creative ways to solve problems.
Although Noortje gets gooey over boyfriends, Klein and Steeman always kept her love life chaste. She is sometimes seen dating, embracing or kissing attractive boys, but her parents are very protective of her. Journalists often sometimes asked the authors whether Noortje was sexually active, but they always dismissed these claims. A key to the feature's success was always Noortje's warm, wholesome family environment. Her parents may be strict and sometimes come across as bumbling, they still love Noortje, while she also feels safe and comfortable at home. Noortje's father was modeled after Steeman himself, down to his first name Jan.
Just like Patty Klein, Noortje has also taken care of zoo animals! (1993).
'Noortje' is a typical example of Patty Klein's rich imagination. She uses everyday situations and settings for a teenage girl, and gives them an absurd twist. For instance, when Noortje goes out to borrow a cup of sugar, she ends up at the door of a sugar factory instead of a nextdoor neighbor. When she reads about a tip to enjoy a bath with Coca Cola and potato chips, Noortje actually fills the bath with coke, and is then puzzled about what the fuss is all about. And when she goes to a sleepover party, she misses the entire thing because she actually fell asleep right away. Klein stated that much of Noortje's crazy ideas and illogical thinking came from her own puberty years, and that the character can be considered her alter ego.
When 'Noortje' took off in Tina during the mid-1970s, the comic was a remarkable, but welcome change. Up to that point, most comics in the magazine were melodramatic boarding school stories, imported from British girls' magazines. 'Noortje' was distinctively Dutch in its setting. For years, it was also Tina's only gag comic. Artist Jan Steeman deliberately worked in a semi-realistic drawing style, because he was advised that the magazine's target audience wouldn't like cartoony depictions of girls their age. Whether this theory was correct or not, the realistic drawings did make Noortje's bad luck more recognizable and relatable. And when Tina eventually started to include more caricatural comics, 'Noortje' still stood out as the only realistically-drawn humor comic in its pages. The series ran for more than four decades, surviving all of Tina's restylings and incarnations, and becoming an unofficial mascot for the magazine. Browsing through decades of 'Noortje' pages gives a good impression of the changing fashions, media stars, trends and all the other important stuff in a teenage girl's life throughout the years. Still, Noortje's basic personality traits and cast never changed.
Jan Steeman and Patty Klein.
In the 1976 Christmas issue of Tina, readers were invited to design a dress for Noortje. Two years later, a door-size 'Noortje' poster was given to new Tina subscribers. The poor girl celebrated her 500th blunder in 1986, her 1000th in 1996 and when the 1500th gag came about in 2005, a look-a-like contest was held. In 2000, Noortje's 25th anniversary led to a 'Noortje'-themed special issue. For her 40th anniversary in 2015, a special issue of Tina was released with tribute comics by Gerard Leever ('Suus & Sas'), Jan Vriends ('Roos'), Rene Bergmans ('SfinX'), Bas Schuddeboom ('Tina', 'Jan, Jans en de Kinderen') and Thom Roep ('Madelief'), combined with a lot of editorial attention for to Tina's oldest serving character.
In 2005, Noortje's publication rhythm changed from weekly to bi-weekly. A new gag alternated with a reprint every other week. Although the comic has appeared since 1975, and some book collections had appeared in the 'Tina Topstrip' series, it took until 1994 before a regular album series was launched, published over the years by VNU/Sanoma, Strip2000 and Personalia.
For 41 years, from 1975 until 2016, Patty Klein and Jan Steeman remained the sole creative forces behind the feature's success, making 'Noortje' the longest-running Dutch comic series made continuously by one and the same team. When health issues forced Jan Steeman to retire at age 83 in 2016, his son Lucas Steeman took over as artist for two additional years. However, after Jan Steeman's death in 2018 and scriptwriter Patty Klein's sudden stroke a few months later, the future of the series seemed uncertain. Frank Jonker stepped in as a scriptwriter until Klein would recover, but unfortunately she was never quite the same again until her death in 2019. Out of respect for Klein and Steeman, Tina's editors decided not to continue the series, and have run reprint episodes instead. A true testament to the character's enduring popularity is that even these reprints have remained beloved with a new generation of readers.
'Doebidoes', with art by Angeles Felices (1987).
Other Tina comics
Most of Patty Klein's other comics for Tina were drawn in Spain by artists affiliated with the Creaciones Editoriales agency. Jesús Redondo provided the artwork for 'Wendy' (1975), an adventure serial about a girl who inherits her aunt's cottage and has to deal with a vicious and mysterious housekeeper. Between 1975 and 1982, Patty Klein wrote 14 stories with the circus girl 'Mimi', featuring artwork by Edmond. Another comical series written by Klein was 'Pension Woefmiauw' (1978-1983), about a dog and cat shelter, with artwork by Jose Casanovas. A long-running feature was about the girl band 'Doebidoes' (1979-1997), drawn by Angeles Felices. The latter artist also drew the experiences of receptionist 'Madelon' in the farcical hotel Stending, which appeared in Tina from 1982 to 2003. Klein's third series with Felices was 'Het Huishouden van Janneke Steen' (1991-2008), about a girl whose unemployed father invents all kinds of zany solutions for domestic problems. Drawn by Emilio Freixas, 'Marleen' (1993-1997) was the story of a girl who moves to the United States with her parents, and becomes friends with a Navajo girl.
'Janneke Steen' (2006), art by Angeles Felices.
Besides contemporary stories, Patty Klein has also written a couple of historical series for Tina. 'Louis en Louise' (1988-2000), drawn by the British artist Bert Hill, told the tale of two upper-class children who flee from their stiff upbringing and have the wildest adventures. The medieval series 'Blanche en Gijske' (1994-1997, 2005) was drawn by Dutch artist Aloys Oosterwijk. Set in the Late Middle Ages, the maiden Blanche is the bored daughter of the lord of Montfort, who becomes best friends with the daughter of the innkeeper, Gijske. With Fred de Heij, Patty Klein made the first series of gags about 'Fanny' (1994-1997), an overenthusiastic fan of popstar Don Key. De Heij later continued the series on his own. Additional work for Tina includes three stories of 'Marjon en Jonathan' (1987-1989) with Maria Barrera and a couple of one shot stories with art by Redondo, Freixas, Purita Campos and Lucas Steeman. In addition, Patty Klein filled in for Andries Brandt on one story of the title comic 'Tina en Debbie' with art by Purita Campos. She also wrote the 1985 episode 'Krokodilletranen', which appeared shortly after the death of Andries Brandt.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Patty's sister Conny Möricke has also written several comics for Tina, creating the final story of 'Vera van de Risico' with Nico van Dam (1980-1981), two stories of 'Tina en Debbie' with Purita Campos (1988), 'Marnie en Sanne' with Juliana Buch (1986-1995) and 'Micky' with Trini Tinturé (1991-2002).
Special drawing by Angeles Felices for the 50th anniversary of Tina, with characters from 'Doebidoes', 'Janneke Steen' and 'Madelon'. Patty Klein opened the exposition dedicated to Tina's anniversary in the Comic Museum Groningen on 23 June 2017.
Additional comic projects
In addition to her work for Tina, Patty Klein has worked on other projects as well. Another collaboration with Jan van Haasteren was 'Sjaak en Oom George' (1978-1987), about a boy and his inventor uncle, which appeared in Studio, the radio and TV guide of Dutch broadcasting organization KRO. Between 1982 and 1985, she wrote more stories starring Disney characters like 'Goofy', 'Bucky Bug', 'Uncle Scrooge', 'Chip 'n' Dale', 'Mickey Mouse' and 'Donald Duck' (artwork by Jules Coenen, Studio Comicup, Carol Voges, José Colomer Fonts, Børge Ring, Dick Matena, etc.). Her final work for Donald Duck weekly was a 'Pocahontas' story in 1997. Both Patty and her sister Conny wrote many melodramatic and "true" stories for magazines like Anoniem, Story and Mijn Geheim. Anonymously, Patty Klein also provided scriptwork to Penny, a horse-themed magazine for girls.
Patty Klein by Jan van Haasteren in the 1970s.
In 1985, Patty Klein was the initiator of 'Tegenaanval' (De Lijn, 1985), an anthology book protesting against the conviction of comic artist Wim Stevenhagen who refused to fulfill his military service. Various cartoonists provided graphic contributions to this pamphlet-like publication, like Willy Lohmann, Fred Marschall, Fred Julsing, Jan Steeman, Gal (Gerard Alsteens), IJf Blokker, Berend J. Vonk, Arend van Dam, Peter van Straaten, Peter de Smet and many more (though in some cases the material in question were reprints, rather than new material).
In 1989, Klein was approached to write the gag comic 'Schanulleke', a spin-off comic about the rag doll from Willy Vandersteen's 'Suske en Wiske' series. In 1986, Vandersteen himself had created two picture story books with Schanulleke, 'Eiko de Wijze Boom' (1986) and 'Schanulleke in de Dierentuin' (1986). In this incarnation, Schanulleke became a sentient toy, flanked by the clown doll Duddul as a side-kick. Turning the concept into a one-page gag comic, Klein set every episode in a domestic setting, usually the house or the garden, where Schanulleke and Duddul interact with anthropomorphic animals like the striped cat Ponpon. Drawn by Eric De Rop, the 'Schanulleke' feature was published in Stripkrant (the children's supplement of newspapers De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad), Suske en Wiske Weekblad, Okki and Minitoe (the children's supplement of Nieuws van de Dag) over a period of ten years. Between 1990 and 1993, four albums have been published.
'Schanulleke' by Patty Klein and Eric De Rop (Suske en Wiske Weekblad #13, 1997).
Commissioned comics
In later years, Patty Klein's non-Tina comic projects have been mainly comic stories on commission. As early as 1981, she made an educational comic strip about asthma with Willy Lohmann, called 'Mijn Kind Heeft Astma'. In 2002 and 2003, she worked with her old taskmaster Marten Toonder again on two stories with Tom Poes and Olivier B. Bommel for pharmaceutical company Pfizer. These stories, 'Tom Poes en de Goede Gedachte' and 'Tom Poes en De Smetvrezers', were drawn by Wil Raymakers. However, her renewed working relationship with Marten Toonder was not a very rewarding experience. Toonder, who by then lived in the Rosa Spier retirement home, changed much of her script without her knowledge. Nevertheless, she returned to the characters once more after Marten Toonder's death. In 2012, she wrote the script for 'Tom Poes en de i-Padden', a commission of the Dutch Association of Information Professionals NVB. The artwork was handled by Gerben Valkema.
'Prinses Patty en de Kikkers' (2006), art by Pieter Hogenbirk and Metin Seven.
In 2006 and 2007, Patty Klein created 'Ria en Rinus', a strip for the 50+ magazine Camé, with artwork by Gerard Leever. Leever and Klein have additionally made a series of strips about public transport, called 'Dré en Gré in 't OV', published in 2007 in the door-to-door papers in the Gelderland region. With Aloys Oosterwijk, she made the book 'Werk en Bijstand in Amsterdam' (2003), about the changing benefit rules, which also appeared in Turkish and English translation. 'Lila & Kross' (2004) was an educational comic about public transport for children and immigrants, written by Klein and drawn by Eric Heuvel. Additionally, Patty Klein contributed the stories 'Prinses Patty en de kikkers' (art by Pieter Hogenbirk and Metin Seven) and 'Na het sprookje...' (art by Floor de Goede and Margreet de Heer) in the 2006 collective fairy tale book 'Sprookjes in Strookjes'. Her short story 'Een Drakerige Jonkvrouw' (2012) was drawn by Marlon Teunissen and printed in P@per, the comic supplement of Brabant Strip Magazine. When Jan van Haasteren was guest editor of the second issue of Stripglossy magazine (September 2016), Patty Klein wrote new stories of 'Baron van Tast' (art by Van Haasteren) and 'Sjaak en Oom George' (art by Dick Heins).
Poetry books by Patty Klein: 'Bizonvoeten' and 'De Ziel Is Een Pannenkoek'.
Poetry
Besides writing comics, Patty Klein resumed writing poetry in the 1990s. She took a poetry course from the creative writing school 't Colofon in Amsterdam, and also attended a training in writing song texts by Jan Boerstoel. To distinguish her poetry from her comics work, she used her married name Patty Scholten for her poems. Her poems, mostly sonnets, have been published in magazines like De Tweede Ronde, and she has read them at literary festivals as well. Starting in 1995, several collections have been published by Atlas-Contact. For much of her poetry, she returned to her roots. Both 'Het Dagjesdier' (1995) and 'Ongekuste Kikkers' (1997) are filled with poetry about zoo animals. She has also written a volume about the 17th-century VOC merchant Rumphius ('Een Tuil Zeeanemonen', 2000). An English translation of her work by James Brockway called 'Elephants in Love and other Poems' was published in 2000 by London Magazine Edition. In 2002, Klein taught poetry at the Michigan University in Ann Arbor as "Dutch Writer-in-Residence". The nature in the USA had inspired her for her collection, 'Bizonvoeten' (2004). Klein has also worked as a poetry teacher at the Schrijversvakschool in Amsterdam. Perhaps her most personal work is 'De Ziel is een Pannenkoek' (2011), an open-hearted autobiography in sonnets. Successively, she started writing sonnets about her grandfather Ben Geijsel, a multi-musician who was famous in Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s.
Recognition
On 20 September 1981, Patty Klein won the Annual Prize for Special Merits, nowadays known as the P. Hans Frankfurther Prize, along with Drukwerk publishers Annemieke and Har van Fulpen. She was nominated for the VSB Poetry Prize twice, in 1996 and 2001, and was nominated to become "Poet of the Fatherland" in 2005. During the Stripdagen comic festival in Haarlem, held on 10-11 March 2012, Het Stripschap awarded her the Bulletje & Boonestaak Plate for her contributions to Dutch comics. On 20 February 2019, Klein was knighted in the Order of the Dutch Lion for her many contributions to Dutch culture, and Dutch comics in particular.
In Tina issue #18 of 2025, the 50th anniversary of the Noortje character was celebrated in a special thematic issue, published on 1 May 2025. The issue contained an historical overview by Klein and Steeman's last comic editor, Bas Schuddeboom, a selection of classic Klein & Steeman episodes, as well as special 'Noortje' episodes by Tina's comic creators Robbert Damen, Gerard Leever, Jan Vriends and a team-up of Marloes de Vries & Bas Schuddeboom.
Final years and death
Living and working in the Gelderland town Doorwerth, Patty Klein continued to write a 'Noortje' gag for Tina every other week until a stroke left her unable to continue in mid-2018. Frank Jonker wrote the remaining 'Noortje' plots for 2018, largely based on ideas from a previous brainstorm he had with Patty earlier that year. Since 2019, Tina has completely switched to reprinting older 'Noortje' gags. Patty Klein spent the final months of her life in a nursing home, and passed away in the morning of 15 March 2019. She was 73 years old.
The August 2017 issue of Stripnieuws was completely dedicated to Patty Klein's 50 years as a comic writer. Jan van Haasteren made this new portrait of her especially for the cover.