George Debels

1. General

My grandfather (my mother's father) George Debels was a pioneer in animation films in Holland. He made the first Dutch animation film in 1915/1916. For a short biographie and some online films take a look at:

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Several of his animation films are preserved there.
On the site of the Heineken Collection Foundation you can see a selection of their animation films and the film he made for Amstel in 1929.
He had a lot of activities and used beside his own name a lot of pseudonyms. Those were: Joss d'Anvers (for his poems), Mac Djorski (animation films), Joe Sten (comics), Ignace del Bès (illustrated children's books). In 1999/2000 some of his films were shown at the exhibition "Reclamehelden van de Eeuw" (Heroes of advertising of the century) in the building the "Beurs van Berlage" in Amsterdam.
Here is a photo of him in his younger days.

2. Animation films

The next picture shows one of the caracters of his animation films. It is a Dutch cow named "Ko de Koe" who played an important role in advertising films for Dutch milk products of "Friese Flag".

Ko de Koe (Ko the Cow)

The movements in animation films are created by little changes in the pictures that follow each other. Here is an example of a set of those pictures.

With the help of JavaScript I reanimated Ko from this strip of pictures above.

Take a look at the animation of Ko the Cow by clicking on Ko:

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In 1925 he made the first animation film with sound: De Dierenmars (The March of the Animals). The music he used was the march "Sambre et Meuse", composed by Robert Planquette.
Here are 2 pictures: a technical picture on the left and the complete "work-out" on the right.

3. Books and Comics

• Pam's wonderlijke avonturen
• Pam bij de Maanapen
• Pepipo's wonderlijke reizen

• Loekie Langoor Comic
• Loekie Langoor Slideshow

Related links.

• Lambiek
• Oude Jeugdboeken

Very likely but yet not proven he illustrated the next book.

• Het betoverde bos (story by Greta Badenhuizen).
  Visit the Memory of the Netherlands and search for Joe Sten.

4. Puppet