Tina #12/2019
Tina #12/2019 belongs to a pivotal editorial moment in the magazine's history: by early 2019, publisher Sanoma had made a deliberate shift away from studio-produced strips toward single-creator features, a philosophy that gave individual issues noticeably more narrative and artistic coherence. The issue carries an instalment of Robbert Damen's 'Prinses Simone', the strip that had revitalised Tina's comic line when it launched in early 2017 and quickly became one of the magazine's defining serials — a satirical, politically inflected take on Dutch royalty aimed squarely at the 8-to-12 readership that the magazine had served since its founding in 1967. As a weekly issue appearing in the year Personalia began collecting the series in standalone albums, it sits at the point where 'Prinses Simone' crossed from beloved serial into a confirmed, book-format franchise.
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Tina was founded on 10 June 1967 and, as the first Dutch comic magazine produced exclusively for girls, built its identity around a mix of strips — many translated from abroad — alongside reader content and lifestyle features. After a decade of declining print circulation, Sanoma relocated the entire Tina editorial operation to the Donald Duck office around 2012, placing comic-specialist editors such as Bas Schuddeboom in charge of strip commissioning; this restructuring is what enabled Damen's pitch for 'Prinses Simone' to be developed and launched in Tina #1/2017. By 2019, Schuddeboom was actively phasing out multi-artist studio productions in favour of strips with a single creative identity, the policy that gave the 2019 run of issues — including #12 — their distinctive character.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Tina is a Dutch weekly girls' comic-and-lifestyle magazine published by Sanoma Uitgevers, first issued on 10 June 1967; it was the first comic periodical in the Netherlands created exclusively for a female readership.
- 'Prinses Simone', present in this issue, debuted in Tina #1/2017 and was conceived, written, and drawn in its entirety by Dutch creator Robbert Damen, with coloring by his daughter Emma Damen.
- The strip follows Simone, crown princess of the fictional microstate Eenderland — a satirical stand-in for the Netherlands — whose mother Koningin Nova is of foreign origin, drawing deliberate parallels to the real Dutch royal family.
- Simone's best friend Ché is the daughter of Eenderland's sole republican, a premise that generates the strip's central political comedy; the secretary of state character (identified in Lambiek sources as 'Van der Reutel') serves as the main adult foil.
- From 2019 onwards, Uitgeverij Personalia began publishing collected editions of 'Prinses Simone' in standalone album format; the third collected volume was subsequently nominated for Best Youth Album of the Year by Dutch comics organisation Het Stripschap.
- Also launching in Tina in 2019 was 'Nena's Vlog' by writer Bas Schuddeboom and artist Dorith Graef — part of the same editorial drive toward single-creator strips that shaped the magazine's 2019 lineup.
- By 2019, Tina's editorial team — operating under Sanoma out of the Donald Duck office — had formally adopted a policy of commissioning strips from individual author-artists rather than multi-person production studios, a shift visible across the 2019 weekly run.
- Tina magazine reaches its audience weekly every Thursday; by the period of this issue it comprised roughly half comic-strip content across approximately 52 pages per issue.
Cast · 5 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Simone zoekt een vriendin voor haar moeder.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).