Mik

Henning Dahl-Mikkelsen blev født i 1915 i Skive. Efter folkeskolen stod han et par år i malerlære med en fritidsbeskæftigelse som reklametegner. Derefter flyttede han til København, hvor han fik ansættelse ved et tegnefilmstudio. Dette førte med sig, at Mik i 1935 befandt sig i London som førstetegner hos et engelsk filmselskab.
I 1937 skabte han pantomime-strip´en Ferd´nand til det københavnske pressebureau P.I.B. Samme år debuterede den i et par engelske aviser. I maj 1937 begyndte den at dukke op i danske provinsaviser, men først efter at New York Herald Tribune og Chicago Tribune havde købt publikationsretten til serien, begyndte de københavnske dagblade at vise interesse.
Efter 2. verdenskrig opnåede strip´en verdenssucces. Specielt amerikanerne viste begejstring, hvorfor Mik - som Dahl-Mikkelsen nu kaldte sig - emigrerede til USA for at være tættere på sin største læserskare.
Men serien blev også en succes i Danmark. Bl.a. udkom den 1941-72 som julehæfte.
Ferd´nand er i årenes løb blevet produceret både som hverdagsstrip og søndagsside. Og serien eksisterer stadig, men med ny signatur. Da Mik døde 4.6.1982 blev den videreført af Al Mik, dvs. amerikaneren Al Plastino. Da han stoppede arbejdet på serien i 1989, blev den på P.I.B.'s foranledning videreført med stort held af den danske tegner Henrik Rehr.
Allerede i besættelsesårene var Ferd´nand en succes i Danmark. Succesen placerede Mik på endnu en strip, Familien Hansen.
Tegneserieversionen af Jens Lochers populære radioserie blev publiceret i ugebladet Landet 1942-48 med Mik som tegner indtil 1946. Han blev efterfulgt af Chris, Helge Hau og Holger Philipsen i nævnte rækkefølge.
Allerede i 1941 leverede Mik sin første tegneserie til Landet. I nr. 35 startede hans De gamle guder, som i hyggelig, karikeret form over en helside i farver tog udgangspunkt i den nordiske mytologi i en historie, skrevet af Harald H. Lund. I 1943 udkom den som hæfte fra Illustrationsforlaget med titlen Thor og hans hammer.
Miks tredie tegneserie i Landet var børneserien Lise og Lasse, som startede i nr. 18/1944 med tekst af Harald H. Lund. Der var tale om en iderig og fantasifuld episk serie fra eventyr- og legetøjsland i stil med Harry Nielsens Bamse og Dukke Lise - omsat til venlige, perspektivrige og detaljerede tegninger, som bredte sig over en halvside i farver.
Da Mik forlod serien med nr. 9/1946 for at prøve lykken i USA, blev Lise og Lasse videre ført af Ib Steinaa. Seriens sidste strip blev bragt i nr. 30/1950.
I 2001 stod Lars Jacobsen som forfatter af pionerværket Mik - en biografi / Dansk tegnefilms historie, som både gav sig tid til at portrættere tegneserien Ferd'nands tegner og give et signalement af tegnefilmens historie i Danmark.

Henning Dahl-Mikkelsen was born in 1915. After grammar school he spent two years as a painter’s apprentice, with a part-time job as an advertising artist. He then moved to Copenhagen and found employment in an animation studio. That led to a job in London in 1935, where he was senior artist for an English film company.
In 1937 he created the pantomime comic strip Ferd’nand for the Danish Press Agency PIB Copenhagen Copenhagen. It had its debut in two English newspapers the same year, and in May, 1937 also began appearing in Danish provincial newspapers. Only after the New York Herald Tribune and the Chicago Tribune had bought publication rights to the series did the major Danish daily newspapers show interest. After the Second World War the strip achieved international success, especially with the Americans. Mik, as Dahl-Mikkelsen now called himself, emigrated to the USA to be closer to his most enthusiastic readers.
Ferd’nand has been produced both as a daily strip and as a Sunday page, and the character was used in several animated cartoons. The strip is still being produced, but with a new artist. When Mik died in 1982, it was continued by Al Mik, alias American artist Al Plastino. When he stopped work on the series in 1989, it was continued, on the suggestion of PIB Copenhagen, by the young Danish artist Henrik Rehr, with great success.
Ferd’nand was a success in Denmark even under the German occupation of the country from 1940-45. The success set Mik to work on still another series, the double strip Familien Hansen (The Hansen Family). The comic book version of Jens Locher’s popular radio show about a typical Danish family’s humourous everyday experiences was published in the magazine Landet (The Country) from 1942-48, with Mik as the artist until 1946. He was succeeded by Chris, Helge Hau and Holger Philipsen, in that order.
Mik had created his first comic for The Country as early as 1941, with De gamle guder (The Old Gods) first appearing in issue no. 35. This full color page with charming caricatures took as its starting point the Nordic mythology and life of the gods in Valhalla in a story by Harald H. Lund. The series was published as a comic book in 1943 by Illustrationsforlaget (Carlsen) under the title Thor og hans hammer (Thor and his Hammer).
Mik’s third comic in Landet was the children’s series Lise og Lasse. It started as a double strip in color in 1944 and was written by Harald H. Lund. It was an imaginative epic series from fairy tale- and toyland in a style reminiscent of Harry Nielsen’s Bamse og Dukke Lise (Teddy Bear and Lise the Doll), transformed into detailed drawings rich in perspective. When Mik left Denmark in 1946 to try his luck in the USA, Lise and Lasse was continued by Ib Steinaa until 1950, with little success.