Tom Puss

Tom Puss (Tom Poes in Dutch) is a fictional anthropomorphic cat and one of the two main characters, the other being Oliver B. Bumble (Olivier B. Bommel in Dutch), of an originally Dutch series of comic books bearing the name of either one main characters in their name, written by Marten Toonder.

The first "Tom Puss" story, called Het geheim der blauwe aarde (The secret of the blue earth), appeared in daily installments in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf as a replacement for the Mickey Mouse comic in 1941. The earliest stories in the series were comics. Later on, the books became more like an illustrated novel, with three comic drawings on every page and captions below. These stories are considered by some to be literature.

First they only featured Tom Puss. He is portrayed as noble, courageous, and heroic. Oliver B. Bumble was added as a recurring character in the third story but gradually became the main character because most stories depended on the more flawed Mr. Bumble to initiate the events of the stories.

His original Dutch name Tom Poes, is a word play on the Dutch pastry tompouce, which sounds the same but for a difference in stress. The spelling is the same except for the space.

The catchphrases used by Sir Bumble have become household expressions in Dutch and have gained much mainstream support, such as: "like my dear father always said", and "if you know what I mean". The most favourite catchphrase of Tom Puss is "Hm".

In 1983, the film The Dragon That Wasn't (Or Was He?) was released based on Tom Puss ("Kit Kat") and other of Toonder's characters.

External links

• Toondertijd, Dutch website for collectors of Tom Puss stories (and others by Marten Toonder)