011.png

Dick van Lente
Comic Strips as a source for popular images of science and technology: the case of Marten Toonder's "Tom Poes", 1947-1980

The second half of the twentieth century was characterized by spectacular innovations in science and technology, made possible by an unprecedented growth of the economy and broad political and public support. Besides great hopes, science and technology also raised profound fears and resistance, as well as moral doubts, especially from the nineteen sixties onwards. Many new technologies created possibilities that did not easily fit into existing ideas about man, society and the future (atomic weapons and new medical techniques are obvious examples). New knowledge and technologies were therefore the subject of political debates, science fiction stories, articles in popular magazines and newspapers, radio and television broadcasts, in which their meanings, possible uses, dangers and opportunities were explored. The bounderies of scientific knowledge and technical competence were questioned in stories about UFO's, "New Age" speculations, reverence for non-western types of knowledge and technology and alternative medical practices.

This paper reports on part of a new research project which aims to explore the ways in which the Dutch - or western societies more generally - interpreted and evaluated scientific and technological innovation during this period by studying several media containing "stories" - in words as well as in pictures - about these innovations. The aim is to understand the interaction between scientific popularisation, intellectual and political debates and popular images as found in popular media like illustrated magazines and comic strips.

The case study I would like to present is that of a very popular comic strip, which was published from 1947 to 1986 in the Dutch quality newspaper Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant as well as in tens of other newspaper in the Netherlands and abroad. It relates the encounters of a gentleman who lives in an old castle with the dangerous world outside, which includes scientists and laboratories producing all sorts of innovations, as well as capitalist entrepreneurs, criminals and magistrates. Magic and alternative forms of knowledge and technology are represented by sourcerers and goblins. Toonder's stories reflect and comment upon all the great themes of the period. They exhibit an imaginative exploration of the meanings of new technologies (as well as other topics) that reached a large public and received much acclaim.

Science and technology are represented in Toonder's stories by characters which give these "forces" a face, a voice and motivations, as well as by all sorts of artefacts, wich create unheard of possibilities and disasters, usually exagerated versions of technologies in the real world. This allows the author to show diverse ramifications of new technologies and reactions of people involved. The pictures make Technology and Science as well as their products recognisable, the story shows their intentions, meanings and impacts. The paper will show how these pictures and stories changed over time and how this relates to public debates about technology in the Netherlands during this period. Building upon the work of cultural historians like D. Nye, L. Marx and R. Williams, I will attempt to show how this type of source, which always depends on the interaction between text and pictures, may help us understand the development of public images of science and technology. I would therefore like to contribute to the theme "Bildrhetorik, Inszenierung und Aesthetisierung" refered to in your call for papers.