Het Nederlands Stripmuseum

My Dutch husband thought it was great. I did not. I really wanted to like it, and was excited to visit. But when I got there I had no idea what I was looking at. There were a lot of comic books on display behind plexiglas with no explanation of what they were, why they were important enough to be on display, how popular they were, did they influence others or what influenced them, etc. In other words, there was no curation going on.
Normally a museum will tell a story. Their job is to pick significant things and then explain why they are significant, i.e., put them in some context. That was completely missing here. There would just be huge cut outs of some snooty looking dog, like, here he is! But I’ve never seen that character in my life, I don’t know who he is, why he is, what he is. My husband had to explain everything to me, and that got tiring after awhile.
Oh no, I forgot, there was some context. There were a few comics from Aztec times and Japanese silk paintings, but then it jumped right to Dutch comics with nary a nod towards America, where I’m pretty sure this stuff got popular first before it came over here.
Also the gift shop was the saddest gift shop I’ve ever seen, and I’ve never met a gift shop I didn’t like.
There is also no English translation of anything in the museum. Signs, titles, all comics, all in Dutch. I could deal with it because I could read Dutch, but I think that cuts off any international visitors.
So if you already know everything about Dutch comics, you’ll probably like this museum. If you don’t you’ll probably be scratching your head a lot.