Frans Piët

Frans Piët was born in Haarlem and studied art in London and Paris. He made his debut in 1928 with some loose gag comics published by De Spaarnestad. He decided to concentrate on comic books. The first one he made was called 'Wo-Wang en Simmie', about a Chinese and a little Negro, published in Haarlems Dagblad and Zonneschijn from 1932.

Subsequently, he published various other newspaper and magazine comics, such as 'De Luchtrovers van Hoitika' (1936, several papers and in book format), 'De Gebroeders Goochem' (1935-36, Amersfoortse Courant, De Volkskrant), 'De Lotgevallen van Piet Krent en Jan Oliebol' (1937, Amersfoortse Courant), 'Jossie Jovel' (1941-42, De Humorist) and 'Streken van een Kleine Strop' (1950-54, Grabbelton).

Piët is best known work however is a comic De Spaarnestad asked him to draw based 'Perry and the Rinkydinks' from the American newspaper comic 'Winnie Winkle' by Martin Branner. This series, 'Sjors van de Rebellenclub', was published in Sjors (1938-42, 1963-69) and in a supplement of Panorama (1942-63) and was a great success.

Piët, wanting to create something of his own, integrated his own 'Simmie' (from 'Wo-Wang and Simmie') into 'Sjors van de Rebellenclub' and Piët's most famous series 'Sjors en Sjimmie' was born. He continued to draw these series until his retirement in 1969. It was then taken over briefly by Jan Kruis and Jan Steeman, and then by Robert van der Kroft, who gave the duo a more modern look. Although retired, Piët drew the comics version of 'Ti Ta Tovenaar' for Televizier in 1974.