![Vuile handen - Stop de zeehondenjacht! #[nn] cover](https://comicbooks-covers-449901518064-us-east-2.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/covers/isbndb/9789069748122.jpg)
Vuile handen - Stop de zeehondenjacht! #[nn]
Vuile Handen – Stop de zeehondenjacht! (Arena, May 2006) is a rare example of Dutch cartoon and literary culture mobilising collectively as a form of activist publishing: it brought together the country's top cartoonists, novelists, columnists, and television personalities in a single anti-seal-hunt pamphlet, with all royalties directed to animal-welfare organisations Bont voor Dieren and IFAW. The inclusion of Fokke & Sukke — the Netherlands' most widely read newspaper comic duo, winners of the Stripschapprijs — is culturally significant because it marked one of the few times Reid, Geleijnse, and Van Tol lent their satirical characters to an explicitly humanitarian cause rather than to pure comic entertainment. As a crossover between literary protest writing and comics, the book demonstrated how cartoon art could move beyond irony and cynicism to serve direct moral and political advocacy, a tension the compiler Annemarie Postma addressed explicitly in her editorial framing.
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The project originated with Annemarie Postma, a Dutch writer and columnist (born 1969), who published a call to action in her weekly column in the Algemeen Dagblad, inviting fellow columnists to contribute pieces opposing the Canadian commercial seal hunt. Within fewer than two weeks the response had grown far beyond columnists to include novelists, cabaret performers, television personalities, and prominent cartoonists including Joep Bertrams, Fokke & Sukke (Reid/Geleijnse/Van Tol), and Toon van Driel, yielding a 96-page anthology published by Amsterdam imprint Arena on 8 May 2006.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published by Arena (Amsterdam) on 8 May 2006; ISBN 9789069748122; 96 pages, paperback.
- Compiled and edited by Annemarie Postma, Dutch writer and columnist, who initiated the project via a public call in the Algemeen Dagblad.
- All royalties from the book were donated to Dutch animal-welfare organisation Bont voor Dieren and international NGO IFAW.
- The Fokke & Sukke cartoon strip — created by John Reid, Bastiaan Geleijnse (writers), and Jean-Marc van Tol (illustrator), publishing under the collective pseudonym RGvT — contributed cartoon work to the volume; Fokke is a duck and Sukke is a canary, the central characters of the strip that debuted in 1993 in student paper Propria Cures.
- Other confirmed cartoon contributors include Joep Bertrams (Inktspotprijs winner, 2005) and Toon van Driel.
- Literary contributors confirmed in multiple sources include Hugo Borst, Kluun, Manon Uphoff, Jan Siebelink, Frits Barend, Maarten van Rossem, Marjan Berk, Mensje van Keulen, Koos van Zomeren, and others.
- Fokke & Sukke had won the Stripschapprijs — the Netherlands' premier cartoon award — in 2003, making their participation a notable creative endorsement for the cause.
- The book is an activist anthology ('pamflet'), not a serialised comic book; it has no issue number, explaining the [nn] designation in the catalog record.