Papa minor

In 1952 Papa Moll was designed by Edith Oppenheim-Jonas on behalf of Pro Juventute . The Swiss comic strip was intended as an alternative to the many foreign comics . Edith Oppenheim-Jonas died in 2001 at the age of 93. During her lifetime she told the Swiss Radio DRS that her own family had inspired her to write the Papa Moll stories. First, individual stories appeared in the children's magazine Junior . The books have been published by Globi- Verlag in Zurich since 1975 . By spring 2012 there were 24 papa minor classical volumes.

content

Papa Moll is a father of a family with five hairs and mostly a tie and jacket. He and Mama Moll have three children: Willy, Fritz and Evi. The sixth figure is Tschips, a dachshund. Sometimes a cat is involved.

Moll is a charming, clumsy, gracious father and husband. Because of his nature, he and his family get caught up in a variety of adventures and stories. Mama Moll and the children often have to stand by Moll's side. But you also experience a lot of fun things together.

Authors and editions

Volumes 1 to 8 were drawn by Edith Oppenheim-Jonas, the inventor of Papa Moll. Issues 8, 9, 13 and 15 were illustrated by Peter Heinzer , volume 11 was designed by Rachela Oppenheim, Roy Oppenheim and Peter Krisp , volumes 10, 12, 14 and 17 to 20 were written and illustrated by Corinne Schroff and Raphael Volery. The verses for this come from Rachela Oppenheim, Guido Strebel and Jürg Lendenmann. Jürg Lendenmann and Caspar Frei and Rolf Meier are responsible for the latest issues.

Translations into French have been attempted, but due to the difficulties of translation, they have not been published. In 2012 all books were published in Chinese.

Father and son, from EO Plauen

Relationship with "father and son" from EO Plauen

The similarity of the Papa Moll stories with the picture stories Father and Son by Erich Ohser (alias eo plauen), which were extremely popular in Germany at the time , which first appeared from 1934 to 1937 in the Berliner Illustrirten Zeitung and later in book form, is obvious . The external appearance of Papa Moll follows the model, and the size ratio to his children is the same. Hannes Schmid writes about Edith Oppenheim-Jonas in his biography: “The Moll success story quickly spread beyond the Swiss borders and continues to this day. Of course there were also those who were envious. Ejo was once exposed to the accusation of a letter writer that Papa Moll was a plagiarism of the picture stories father and son of the illustrator EO Plauen. A certain graphic similarity was there for the critical mind, but there could be no question of plagiarism, the characters of the figures differed too much. Plauen's father-and-son stories were also clearly aimed more at adults than at children. The discussion soon broke off because the allegations were untenable. "

radio play

Some of the Papa Moll books also exist as radio plays on CD and MC . Kamil Krejčí has rewritten the books for radio play, staged them and speaks Papa Moll. Brigitte Schmidlin (Mama Moll), Beat Gärtner (Tschips, as well as all animals and guest roles), Gabriela Leutwiler (Evi Moll), Ralph Vogt / Reto Mosimann / Peter Hottinger (Fritz Moll) and Peter Steiner (Willy Moll) play other roles. The music for the radio plays is composed by Alexius Tschallener.

Motion picture

After a few unsuccessful attempts, the Papa Moll story was filmed as a feature film in the summer of 2016. Based on the template, a complete cinema plot was developed and the story expanded to include additional characters: Papa Moll works in a chocolate factory and his ambitious boss (Mr. Stuss) makes life difficult for the Moll family with his children Johnny and Jackie. The title role is played by Swiss actor Stefan Kurt, who lives in Berlin . In other roles: Isabella Schmid (Mama Moll), Luna Paiano (Evi), Maxwell Mare (Fritz), Yven Hess (Willy), as well as Martin Rapold (Herr Stuss), Lou Vogel (Jackie) and Livius Müller (son of Hanspeter Müller -Drossaart ) (Johnny). The shooting took place in the Bad Zurzach region as well as in Baden and Strengelbach , the interior shots were shot in Germany (studio shots in Cologne and factory shots in Görlitz ). The film was directed by Manuel Flurin Hendry and produced by Zodiac Pictures. The premiere took place on December 2, 2017 in Baden, the Swiss cinema release was on December 21, 2017.