Robert Storm Petersen (19 September 1882–6 March 1949) was a Danish cartoonist, writer, animator, illustrator, painter and humorist. He is known almost exclusively by his pen name Storm P. September 19 is the 262nd day of the year (263rd in leap years). ... 1882 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... March 6 is the 65th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (66th in Leap years). ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday. ... A cartoonist at work. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... An animator is one who is involved in the process of animation. ... An illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing written text by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text. ... The Mona Lisa is perhaps the best-known artistic painting in the Western world. ... A humorist is an author who specializes in short, humorous articles or essays. ... A pen name or nom de plume is a pseudonym adopted by an author. ...

Biography

He was the son of a butcher and grew up in Copenhagen in a lower middle class/worker’s milieu whose jargon is felt in much of his writings. After an interrupted study on the Academy of Art he worked as a free-lance painter, illustrator and cabaret entertainer. Already during World War I he was a well-known artist and from about 1920 he was almost a national “institution” as a humorist, partly because of his versatile interests. He was for many years connected to the Copenhagen newspaper “Berlingske Tidende” as comic writer and cartoonist. Copenhagen (Danish: København) is the capital of Denmark, and the name of the municipality (Danish, kommune) in which it resides. ... Jargon is a type of terminology which is used in conjunction with a specific activity, e. ... Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue - a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ... Combatants Entente Powers Central Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties > 5 million military deaths > 3 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War I, also known as the First World War and (before 1939) the Great War, the War of the Nations, War to End All Wars was a world...

As a humorist Storm P. is related to British and American humour, with a strong touch of craziness and absurdity but less marked by total nonsense than for instance Lewis Carroll. Often his starting point is a plain Copenhagen jargon, combined with a Danish down-to-earth homespun philosophy and all kinds of cosy fun and comedy: the “little” man’s unimpressed comments on a crazy world Photograph of Lewis Carroll taken by himself, with assistance Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (January 27, 1832 – January 14, 1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was a British author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer. ... These five broad types of question are not the only subjects of philosophical inquiry, and there are many overlaps between the categories which are subsumed within the discipline under the four major headings of Logic, Ontology, Epistemology, and Axiology. ...

Though normally loved by most of his countrymen Storm P. has also been criticised for being too toothless, cosy and petit bourgeois. In spite of his social background and interest of poor milieus he very seldom shows deeper social criticism or revolutionary opinions and the dramatic age in which he lived left rather small stamps on his work. On the other hand he was no staunch giggler. Especially many of his paintings deal with death, sorrow and macabre themes. Though not a revolutionary he has indeed painted the victims of social injustice and misery often with a strong touch of compassion. Melancholy and fear are not unknown to him but his official appearance was an optimistic one. Petit-bourgeois or Anglicised petty bourgeois is a French term that reffered to the members of the lower middle social-classes. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Revolution. ... This article is about the writing style, macabre. ... Compassion (in Pali: Karuna) is a sense of shared suffering, most often combined with a desire to alleviate or reduce such suffering; to show special kindness to those who suffer. ... Melancholia (Greek μελαγχολια) was described as a distinct disease as early as the fifth and fourth centuries BC in the Hippocratic writings. ...

1977 a "Storm P. Museum" was opened. In 1982 he was featured on a Danish stamp. Denmark has issued stamps since 1851. ...

Drawings and paintings

Storm P. left about 60 000 drawings and 100 paintings of course of varied quality. His drawings are very often illustrated jokes, or series of a theme besides artist sketches. Among his favourite themes are the vagabonds - who are portrayed as grotesquely dressed-up petty philosophers - and the circus milieu that he regarded with much warmth. He is best known for his Storm P machines which are comic drawings of machines that perform very simple tasks through an unnecessarily complex series of actions. Other cartoonists who are known for similar machine drawings are Rube Goldberg and Heath Robinson. Besides he illustrated many books, often written by congenial authors among others Mark Twain, Jerome K. Jerome and G. K. Chesterton. Vagabond refer to: Vagabond, an itinerant person, Vagabond, a manga by Takehiko Inoue, Vagabond, a movie by Agnès Varda, Vagabond, a Marvel Comics universe character. ... The Big Top of Billy Smarts Circus Cambridge 2004. ... Rube Goldberg Reuben Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970) was a cofounder and first president of the National Cartoonists Society. ... William Heath Robinson (May 31, 1872 - September 13, 1944) was a British cartoonist and illustrator, who signed himself W. Heath Robinson. ... Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was a famous and popular American humorist, novelist, writer and lecturer. ... Jerome K. Jerome Jerome Klapka Jerome (May 2, 1859–June 14, 1927) was an English author, best known for the humorous travelogue Three Men in a Boat. ... G.K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (May 29, 1874 – June 14, 1936) was a prolific English writer of the early 20th century. ...

As a painter he is clearly influed by names like Edvard Munch and Toulouse-Lautrec but often with an independent naivist touch. Later on also Paul Klee and Wassili Kandinsky seem to have been an inspiration in spite of his often outspoken ridiculing of modern art. Among his many themes are exterieurs from Paris, from prostitution milieus and nature scenes. La Morgue (1906) and Kultur (1908, “Culture”) are two of his most well known paintings. Self Portrait with Skeleton Arm, 1895 Edvard Munch (December 12, 1863 – January 23, 1944) was a Norwegian expressionist painter and printmaker. ... Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (November 24, 1864 - September 9, 1901) was a French painter. ... Paul Klee (December 18, 1879 – June 29, 1940) was a Swiss painter. ... Wassily Kandinsky On White II (Kandinsky 1923) Wassily Kandinsky (Russian: Василий Кандинский, first name spelled as [vassi:li]) (December 4, 1866 – December 13, 1944) was a Russian-born French painter and art theorist. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...

The Author

As an author he wrote a lot of short-stories and tales, often parodies on detective stories or melodramas, small cosy snap-shots from the Copenhagen lower middle class milieu, crazy tales and especially “monologues” put into the mouth of bums, artists etc. A special kind of tales were the monologues put into the mouth of his own dog (the Grog, My Dog-tales 1926-1935) in which he let the dog reflect on life, death and daily life, sometimes with a light touch of sadness and pity within the humour. A monologue is a speech by one person directly addressing an audience. ...

Comics

Storm P is also well known in Denmark as the author of a number of comics (titles in Danish): Comics (or, less common, sequential art) is a form of visual art consisting of images which are commonly combined with text, often in the form of speech balloons or image captions. ...

• De tre små mænd og nummermanden (The three little Men and the Number Man) 1913-1923 is a play with situations: three little men making mad pranks leading to success or failure, all accompanied by an even smaller man who delivers the numbers of the strip.
• En underlig Mand ("A strange Man") from the 1930s was an absurd strip cartoon about a man who reacts illogical and solves problems in an unexpected way.
• Peter og Ping ("Peter and Ping"), 1922-1949 was his greatest success, a comic strip about a small citizen and his friend or adopted son Ping a speaking penguin. Their experiences in Copenhagen, spiced by Ping’s absurd expressions and jokes were extremely popular and even led to the foundation of a Ping Club for children. It also caused some international attention and was sold to Great Britain.
• Dagens flue ("The Daily Fly") that started 1939 were drawings illustrating humorous-philosophical jokes often containing a deeper meaning behind the joke.

Absurd can refer to: Look up Absurd in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Absurdism is a philosophy born of Existentialism absurdity, with small a, is a form of Surreal humour Theatre of the Absurd is an artform utilizing the philosophy of Absurdism Absurd (band) is a heavy metal band This is... Copenhagen (Danish: København) is the capital of Denmark, and the name of the municipality (Danish, kommune) in which it resides. ... A male Caucasian toddler child A child (plural: children) is a young human. ...

The Actor

Finally Storm P. played a minor role in acting. As a free-lance actor he had several roles in early Danish silent movies and also later on he occasionally acted in comedies on theatres besides his work as an entertainer. As a curiosity it might be mentioned that he created the first Danish animated cartoon (with the Three Little Men) 1920. As a decorator he delivered scenery to ballets and plays. A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. ... An animated cartoon is a moving picture generated by photographing drawings frame-by-frame, as opposed to a normal movie, which is produced by shooting 24 frames a second of actual moving persons or objects. ...

Storm P. Quotes

• It is difficult to prophesy – especially about future.
• Life is a circus: you go in, bend, run around, bend again and leave.
• – What is your opinion of the world situation? – Nothing, something got in my eye.
• There is something fishy about art that needs to be explained.
• We human beings are strange creatures – we have to go underground because we have invented the aeroplane. (1939)

Literature

• Henry Chafetz: Robert Storm Petersen (in: The American Scandinavian Review vol. 40, 1952.)

External links

• Home page (entirely in Danish) of the Storm P Museum at Frederiksberg (Copenhagen)
• http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0676941/ (movie career)