Rasmus Klump

"Rasmus Klump" is the name of a comic strip series for small children created in 1951 by the Danish wife and husband team Carla and Vilhelm Hansen. The series was translated into a number of foreign languages, in some of which the title character Rasmus was renamed Petzi, Pol, Rasmus Nalle or other variations.

The series tells the adventures of the bear cub Rasmus Klump and his friends: Pingo (a penguin), Pelle (a pelican), Pilskaden (a turtle), Skæg (a seal) and others. Always dressed in red dungarees with white polka dots, Rasmus Klump travels the world on board his boat "Mary", which he builds with his friends in the first episode.

The comic strips do not make use of speech bubbles but rather subtitles, whose humour, as well as the affectionally drawn pictures, contributed greatly to the popularity of the series.

"Rasmus Klump" began as a newspaper strip and was successfully published in translation worldwide, with total sales running over 30 million. When fans appealed for more, the Hansens began publishing storylines in book form. A television series was recorded in Danish between 1997 and 2000.

In 1998, Carla Hansen created the Rasmus Klump Prisen (Rasmus Klump Award) for Danish people that had followed the virtues exhibited by the comic series. The winner receives an original comic strip, and 25,000 Danish kroner. Winners include Michael Laudrup and Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark.

On 17th November 2001, the comic reached its fiftieth anniversary and the occasion was marked in Denmark by the issue of a commemorative stamp.

"Rasmus Klump" appeared in English as "Bruin" in the Evening Times, where he had his own club, with at least two albums made, and in at least 2 albums as "Barnaby Bear".

The comic has also, on several occasions, been turned into animation. The first time was allegedly a low-budget Danish production in the 60's, although today not much is known about these films. In 1984, a new series was produced, still low-budget but a reasonable commercial success being shown on several television channels worldwide. In the 90's, yet another series materialised as 26 5-minute episodes for two periods, 1996 and 1998. This was an European co-production involving Danish animation veterans A. Film. [http://www.plaschke.dk/tegnefilm/rasmus.htm (in Danish)] [http://www.weirdspace.dk/RasmusKlump/RasmusKlump.htm (in English)]

Rasmus Klump is not to be confused with Bamse, a well known Swedish cartoon figure.

Translations

*Petzi in French (Casterman), German (Carlsen Comics), Portuguese and Italian
*Pol, Pel en Pingo in Dutch (Casterman)
*Rasmus Nalle in Swedish and Finnish (Weilin+Göös)
*Bruin in English (Evening Times: albums "The Bruin Story" and "Bruin's Adventures at Sea")
*Barnaby Bear in English (Random House: albums "Barnaby Bear builds a boat" and "Barnaby Bear visits the farm")

Name

Rasmus Klump is a proper name; "Rasmus" comes from the older strip "Strudsen Rasmus", which Rasmus Klump replaced; "Klump" was added to give him a family name, and comes from a dog the Hansens knew; the name "Bjørnen Rasmus" (Rasmus the Bear) was originally suggested. [ [http://www.weirdspace.dk/RasmusKlump/RasmusKlump.htm WeirdSpace Encyclopedia: Rasmus Klump/Petzi ] ]

External links

* [http://www.carlsen.de/buecher/petzi/ Official German website] (in German)
* [http://www.petzi-forschung.de/index.html Petzi-Forschung] (in German)
* [http://www.4kids2.dk Samlingssted for Rasmus Klump] (in Danish)
* [http://www.weirdspace.dk/RasmusKlump/RasmusKlump.htm Background information]

References