Eppo #10/1976
Eppo #10/1976 is a representative installment from what was arguably the most ambitious year in the young magazine's history — the year its circulation climbed to 300,000 readers and its homegrown lineup was firing on all cylinders. The issue carries ongoing chapters of 'Het Meesterwerk,' the story that formally established Franka as the lead character of her own series and marked the first time a Dutch mainstream weekly comic featured a young, independent woman as its unambiguous protagonist — a genuine creative milestone in the Dutch comics tradition. Alongside that serialization, it presents early chapters of the football strip Roel Dijkstra and continues the adventure serial Steven Severijn, making it a dense cross-section of Eppo's editorial ambition to launch wholly original Dutch-made content rather than relying on imported material.
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
Eppo was conceived by Oberon editors Martin Lodewijk and Frits van der Heide as the successor to the merged weeklies Pep and Sjors, with a deliberate strategy of commissioning new series that could later be sold to foreign publishers. The magazine launched in late 1975 with television advertising support and a print run of 250,000 copies; by the time issue #10/1976 appeared, that figure had risen to 300,000. The lineup visible in this issue reflects that founding mandate: 'Het Meesterwerk' (Franka vol. 2) was drawn and written by Henk Kuijpers, who was still a sociology student when he developed the series; 'Roel Dijkstra' was scripted by Andries Brandt with football-world advisor Willem van Hanegem and drawn by Jan Steeman, who had previously helmed Sjors & Sjimmie; and 'Steven Severijn' was drawn by the acclaimed Belgian artist René Follet to a concept devised by Lodewijk himself.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Eppo #10/1976 is a weekly installment issue published by Oberon (the youth division of VNU) in early 1976, with annual per-year numbering restarting each January.
- The issue contains a chapter of 'Het Meesterwerk' (Franka vol. 2), serialized in Eppo from issue 12/1975 through issue 20/1976 — the story in which Franka became the unambiguous solo lead of her series for the first time, a landmark for Dutch adventure comics.
- Franka was created by Henk Kuijpers and is recognized as the first Dutch mainstream adventure comic series with a strong, independent female protagonist.
- Roel Dijkstra — a football-hero strip drawn by Jan Steeman (script: Andries Brandt) and inspired by Johan Cruijff — was a new Eppo-original series begun in 1975; Dutch international footballer Willem van Hanegem served as an advisor on its early stories.
- Steven Severijn ('De Omzwervingen van Steven Severijn') was drawn by the French-Belgian master René Follet to a concept developed by Martin Lodewijk; it became the longest-running series of Follet's career, running in Eppo through 1982.
- Lowietje, drawn by Belgian artist Berck (Arthur Berckmans) with scripts by Raoul Cauvin, was an inherited strip that carried over from the predecessor magazine Sjors into Eppo at the 1975 merger.
- De Generaal, by Peter de Smet, was an absurdist humor strip that had run continuously since the Pep era and continued as a fixture in Eppo throughout the magazine's entire run — eventually spanning more than 26 years.
- Sjors & Sjimmie, in its Eppo incarnation, was drawn in a new ligne claire style by Robert van der Kroft, replacing Jan Steeman who had moved to the realistic Roel Dijkstra strip — an editorial shuffle that defined both series' identities for years to come.