Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber

Born in Berchem, Van Hove studied to become a radio technician in Germany during World War II. Because of he had worked in Germany, he had difficulty finding a job after the War, which resulted in him becoming a comic artist. He started his career with Het Handelsblad in 1950. From October of that year, he gave his satirical view on current affairs in his comic 'De Week in Krabbels' in this newspaper. The first 'Piet Pienter' story commenced publication on 16 April 1951. He drew nine stories for Het Handelsblad, before he moved over to Gazet van Antwerpen in 1955. The paper's publisher, De Vlijt, also collected the comic in a book series. In the 1990s, Pom drew the final episodes of his series for the publishers Keesing and Standaard. After his retirement in 1995, Pom reworked some of his older stories for the Standaard reprints. Pom, who claimed to have disliked drawing comics at all, has very rarely given interviews. However, several hommages to his work have been made, such as the 2010 album 'Boelie en Kroepie Boemboem' by Tom Bouden, that featured his characters. Bouden also oversaw a tribute comic book to Pom called 'Op het spoor van Pom', that contains contributions by 60 Flemish artists. Text (c) Lambiek