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Hans




Hans Eyes: Black
Hair: Black
Race: Human


Occupation: Office worker
Legal status: Danish citizen
Marital status: Married
Known relatives: Grete (wife)
Claus (son)
Søster (daughter)


Story: Hans is the family man and working stiff.


Continuity: Hans & Grete
Company: P.I.B.
First app.: January 1947
Creator(s): Helge Hall
Country of origin: Denmark Denmark


Background notes: Hans & Grete is a Danish family series in the vein of Blondie. Hans is a working stiff at an office like Dagwood and like Blondie, Grete is the housewife taking care of the two kids. The series and the jokes revolved around middle-class family life in Denmark, but contrary to Blondie and the following Danish family series it inspired, the series did not have the extended cast with neighbors, the boss and other recurring characters.

The idea for the series is from 1942, when the newspaper Nationaltidende had a comic competition. Hall considered participating and prepared some sketches for a new series. As a matter of principle, Hall had never participated in a comic competition, so he didn't participate in this one either. He left the series in the drawers for a couple of years before taking it up again in 1946. The series debuted January 1947 as a daily strip with Hans and Grete getting married and progressed with having kid and raising a family, until the series found its place in the late 1950's.

The series became a hit and besides the daily strip, a longer version for magazines was made. At the height of its popularity, the series ran in more than 100 newspapers and magazines. The series was popular in Scandinavia, especially Denmark; no information is available at the time whether the series was published outside Scandinavia or not. In Denmark the series was groundbreaking and inspired to other successful family series like Poeten og Lillemor and Far til Fire.

Hall wrote the series until his death in 1983. After this, the Danish cartoonist Frank Madsen took over the strip which he drew until the strip was stopped in 1986. The series continued as reprints for a couple of years after it was stopped, but in the end this stopped too, and today the series is mostly forgotten.


Related links/characters:
- Claus
- Grete
- Søster