Boes

Boes ("Ox Tales") is a Dutch newspaper gag-a-day comic strip created by Wil Raymakers and Thijs Wilms. It was created in 1980^[1] and spawned a popular anime TV series between 1988 and 1991 called Ox Tales in the English-speaking world.

Concept

"Boes" is a pantomime gag-a-day comic about an anthropomorphic ox who walks on clogs in a landscape that resembles the farm lands in the Netherlands. He works as a farmer. Many gags center around his comedic interactions with animals. While many gags are child-friendly there are also gags which have more risqué jokes involving sex, toilet humor and obscene gestures. The series has a few recurring characters who are unnamed in the comics, but received names in the animated series. They are Dolly the tortoise, Shampoo the gorilla and Saffie the dog.

Between 1981 and 1982 William-Dickens Productions published two albums with gags. Between 1986 and 1989 14 albums were published in oblong format by Uitgeverij Drukwerk (nrs. 1–10) and Standaard Uitgeverij (nrs. 11–14). Standaard Uitgeverij republished four albums with gags between 1989 and 1993 and gave them distinguishable titles: "Ossehaas" (1989), "Kippevel" (1991), "Hamsterwoede" (1992) and "Stierengevecht" (1993).^[2]

In 1988 three comic book albums were published by Standaard Uitgeverij where Boes has longer stories and in which he and other characters talk to one another. These albums were titled: "Een harde noot" ("A hard nut"), "Een nieuw erf" ("A new yard") and "De schaapscheerder" ("The sheep shearer").^[2]

In 2011 three new albums with gags were published by Nona Arte.^[1]

Animated series

Between 1988 and 1991 the comics series was adapted into an animated TV series, produced by Telecable Benelux B.V., Teleimage Japan Inc. / Meander Studio.^[3] 101 episodes were made and broadcast internationally in English, Italian, Dutch, Israeli, Portuguese, Brazilian, French and Swedish.^[4]

Sources