Panda will publish books of the Tom Puss-stories and the entire series of Adventures of Panda. The Toonder Foundation and Publisher Panda recently resumed their cooperation. Their conflict about the book ‘De Tao van Toonder’, written by Frank van Hartingsveld has been resolved. The ´De Tao van Toonder´ will be corrected and reprinted. The Foundation agreed to allow bookstores to sell their currently remaining copies of the First edition. Marten Toonder and his colleagues produced a total of 198 Adventures of the cartoon Panda.

The first selection of seven stories of the NPS Bumble Radio Play is now available on cd. The box also contains a booklet with a biography of Marten Toonder , an introduction by the director of the radio play, Peter te Nuyl, and a summary of the stories. You can buy the cd’s in The Netherlands Selexys bookshops or order it via the website of publisher Ton Paauw. The total package of the 8 cd’s plus booklet cost only € 29,95.

The Dutch broadcasting company NPS edited 75 of the 177 Bumble stories into a radio play. As Toonders cartoons were used as a storyboard, the radio plays are completely similar to the original stories. Also the dialogues, which are so typical of the Marten Toonder style, remained intact.

On the 1st of April the Toonder Compagnie Ltd was officially founded. The Ltd is a continuation of  Marten Toonders company with the Toonder Foundation as its only shareholder. The board of the Foundation is also the board of the new Toonder Compagnie Ltd.  Charles Loyen will be the operational manager of the Toonder Compagnie BV. He officially started his function as per 1 August. Later this summer more news about Charles Loyen and the Toonder Compagnie wil be presented on this page.

On the 2nd of July the Dutch minister of culture, education and science, Plasterk, will receive the first two editions of the new series of 'Complete Works' of mr. Bumble and Tom Puss. Eiso, Milou and Irwin Toonder will hand over these copies.
Publisher De Bezige Bij intends to publish all 177 stories of mr. Bumble and Tom Puss in oblong-size. Much work has been done to enhance the graphic quality of the cartoons. The originals were digitised and conserved.
The first two books 'Laat dat een les zijn' and 'Een eenvoudig gebaar' will also be available in a luxurious linnen edition. The first one will also be produced in a limited edition in the original format of the cartoons. These special editions will be available in the bookshops in The Netherlands on 10 July for € 75,00. They can be ordered via nrc.

On May 1st, Katelijne van den Hoogen started working at the office. From now on she will be the your first contact if you need anything from the Toonder office. The Toonder Foundation is happy that Katelijne will join us and wishes her good luck in her new job. Katelijne works at the office on monday, thursday and friday mornings.

On Friday 8 February the exhibition Strip en Kunst (Cartoon and Art) opens in museum Singer Laren. The artwork of many wellknown Dutch and Belgian artists will be exhibited. It shows the differences and the similarities between cartoons and artwork. The organisers of the exhibition think this 'nineth art' deserve the same acknowledgement and therefore the same podium as artwork. The exhibited works are made by Karel Appel, Lucebert, Joost Swarte, Rob Scholte and Marten Toonder, among others. The exhibition starts on the 7th of february and is due 27 April 2008. You will find more information (in Dutch) on the website of the exhibition.  

Since this week you can get yourself a copy of ‘Heer Bommel en het para-abnormale’ by Willem Venerius. The book explores the spiritual basis of the mr. Bumble and Tom Puss stories. The author discovers that in these stories unmistakenly expressions of the I Tjing, a centuries old oracle book, can be found. Also it turns out that Marten Toonder consciously put elements of astrology into his stories. Perhaps more is hidden in the saga about mr. Bumble! After reading this book, you will re-read the mr. Bumble stories with different eyes.
Willem Venerius (1950) is a wellknown publisher of articles and books about astrology and the I Tjing, among other subjects. The preface was written by Eiso Toonder, the eldest son of Marten Toonder and Phiny Dick. The last part of the book contains the horoscope of Marten Toonder, mr. Bumble and Tom Puss. You can order your copy at publisher Synthese.

On the 4th of December Gerrit Willem Wieger Wamelink defended his PhD. thesis on the promotion ceremony at the Wageningen University. His thesis concerns the influence of the elements in the air on biodiversity, among other things. During the ceremony special attention was given to the back page of his thesis.
On the back of his book Wamelink had wanted to print a graphic and a quote of the wellknown gentleman mr. Bumble, the latter being written by Eiso Toonder, the eldest son of Marten Toonder. It was arranged with the approval of the Toonder Copyrights Foundation. Alas, the drawing and quote of mr. Bumble were officially dissaproved of by the committee whose task it is to decide what is on the back of a PhD. thesis. Wamelink protested because of this disapproval, and the committee then reprimanded him. No text is allowed on the back of a PhD. thesis, the committee said.
Wamelink then had the mr. Bumble quote and graphic printed on stickers, which he sticked to the back of all PhD. theses, except for the copies that he sent to the committee.
During the ceremony Wamelink's first opponent started to talk about the back of the thesis, showing it, much to the amusement of the public. The promotion was a successful; dr. Wamelink received his PhD. degree.

Friday 30 November the Bumble Travel Guide ('Bommel Reisgids') by Prof.dr.mr. Jenno Witsen will be available in the Dutch bookstores. The travel guide contains a couple of maps of the different sites mentioned in the Bumble stories, like the Black Mountains and the Dark Tree Woods. It describes nice walks, excursions, and a boat and bus tour. The Foundation is happy with the release of this book, published by Ton Paauw.
Jenno Witsen used to be the director-general of one of the Dutch ministries. He is a big fan of the Bumble stories and also a great lover of maps. On 29 november he was interviewed on the Dutch tv. He told that as a young guy, he made a geography book totally based on his own fantasy world. The author apparently hasn't changed since then. Today, the Bumble stories inspired him to make a travel guide about a world that doesn't exist. Or does it? In his introduction Witsen asks this question but leaves it unanswered ".. to my regret, despite this map and travel guide, it remains unsure whether the world it represents exists and, if it does, whether it looks like this..."

'Tom Poes en het Spook van Bommelstein' is translated into the second official Dutch language: Fries. This language is spoken in the north of The Netherlands. The translation is the 12th in a series of Ollie B. Bommel and Tom Puss books published by Le Chat Mort. The book is printed beautifully, produced in cooperation with publisher Panda. The story is translated by Harke Bremer en Prof. Jarich Hoekstra. This must have been quite a challenge as Marten Toonder used a lot of nonexistent words that he made up himself, which he did way before Joanne Rowling (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling) was even born. The book can be purchased via the website of Le Chat Mort.

Today the website of the Toonder Heritage/Copyrights Foundation has gone live!

RSM has launched their national campaign with a fullpage advertisement featuring Bommel and Joost on page 2 of the Dutch Financial Times and on page 3 the regional papers, Dagblad de Limburger and Limburgs Dagblad.
RSM Nederland is a coöperation of  three RSM international members  forming a global accountancy network offering services primarily to medium and small businesses. Mr. Bumble has been chosen as celebrity to promote the consortium on a national scale. The campaign will run until 2010.

The committee of the Toonder Heritage/Copyrights Foundation has a new committee member: Wil Raymakers (47). Wil is an illustrator and has been successfully publishing his cartoonstrip character ‘Boes’, an ox on clogs since the age of 17. Since the mid 80’s Wil started cooperating with Louise Geesink, the daughter of Joop Geesink who created the Dutch famous Loeki the lion. Together they now create and produce characters and mascots for pubishing, video and merchandising purposes on both national and international markets.
Since the turn of the century Wil has been responsible for new Bommel artwork working with Marten Toonder until his death in 2005.
The foundation is very happy with Wil’s enthusiastic acceptance of the committee membership bringing the committee back up to full-strength. Other committee members are Irwin Toonder (chairman), Milou Toonder (secretary-treasurer).

Bezige Bij puplishers have found the Dutch famous biographer, Wim Hazeu, prepared to write Marten Toonder’s biography. Hopefully the biography will appear in 2012, Marten Toonder’s birth centennial.
Wim Hazeu has successfully published biographies of various well renowned Dutch publicists such as Slauerhoff, M.C. Escher, Achterberg and Vestdijk. As well as poetry and novels. His Slauerhoff biography was awarded the Dordtse Academy prize. He received a literature doctorate for the Vestdijk biography.

“It’s begun, despite all the Kafka-esque deliberation, the voices of Mr. Bumble, Tom Puss and Joost have been made heard” , Mr. Peter Nuyl of the NPS (Dutch National Broadcasting Services), maker of the Bommel radio play, proudly tells us. The first broadcasted edition of the radio play is realised. Months of commitment with the involvement of Eiso Toonder and committee member, Milou Toonder has made this possible. Eiso Toonder has contributed and guided the scriptwriters extensively. Milou Toonder played an important role removing any formal barriers.
Peter Nuyl tells them “On behalf of the complete production team, I would like to thank you both emphatically for making this possible within such a relatively short time”.

After winning the injunction against Panda Publishers with regards to the publication of the  book ‘Tao van Toonder’ the foundation has had to continue litigation. The courts' prohibition of the book remains enforced.
Last year the judge ruled that the book had been unlawfully published and banned further sales. It has been proved that Panda Publishers and author Frans van Hartingsveld have ignored conditions and written requests of Marten Toonder with regards to the publication.
Panda Publishers have disguarded any compromise forcing the foundation to continue litigation.