Franka

Franka is a popular Dutch comic book series drawn and written since the mid-1970s by the graphic artist Henk Kuijpers. The principal character is a strong female Dutch sleuth who solves mysteries in exotic locales.

Franka has been translated into a variety of languages, including Danish, German, French and Spanish.

Franka (Francesca Victoria), the lead character that the series is named after, is a young, attractive and adventurous female private investigator. She lives in a slightly fictionalised version of the Netherlands, and since 1993's Flight of the Atlantis has clearly been revealed as a resident of Amsterdam (before, she lived in the fictional 'Groterdam'). The cases she solves often take place in the worlds of art, antiquities, fashion and film, and also often feature exotic locales full of smugglers, pirates and other shady businessmen.

Dominant women are a recurring theme of the series, similar to other Franco-Belgian comics series such as Yoko Tsuno. A single woman for long time, Franka acquired a male partner and love interest in the later volumes, the reformed art thief Rix. More often than not she is also accompanied by her dog Bars.

Franka was not the main character in the very first adventure of the series (an eight-page story which makes up the first part of Volume #1, Het Misdaadmuseum).

Instead Jarko (who is an increasingly minor character in all later volumes) played the central role, and Franka is only a secretary in the Criminology Museum.

However, by the second (main) story of the first volume, Franka has become a central character, though not yet as exclusively so as in the later volumes.

Franka is an example of the ligne claire style frequently associated with European comics, and Kuijpers' drawing style is noted for its high artistic standards, particularly clarity of line and accurate detail of elements like cars and buildings. The panels often contain additional little interesting or humorous details not relevant to the main storyline.

The style of drawing has developed significantly from the early comics, in which for example the characters had large eyes and squat proportions, to the more realistic figure drawing of the middle volumes to the slightly more stylized, 'fashion-designer' look of the latest issues. Also changed were the visual depiction of females - the Franka of the later volumes is a much more sexual creature than in the early volumes, where she only had friends, but never partners. While the early volumes rarely show nakedness, all volumes play with erotic poses and later volumes show Franka and other characters naked. Sexual acts, however, generally only hinted at, though again, this becomes more explicit in the later volumes.

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Wikipedia