The walking dead

While the official release date for the upcoming volume in the popular Belgium comic series ‘Suske & Wiske’ (called ‘De Kwakende Queen’, no. 313) has been set for June 22 by publisher Standaard, the authors, Studio Vandersteen,  have already leaked some of the artwork for their next album, ‘Het Lijdende Leiden’ (314), which is currently published in Belgium newspaper ‘De Standaard’ (starting May 13).


‘Het Lijdende Leiden’ has the main characters transported through time to the city of Leiden in 1574. While they’ve lost all recollection of who they are, they assume new identities and get caught in a war between the Spanish conquistadors and the Dutch resistance, torn between aiding the city’s defends and supporting the attacking Spanish legion, just like it happened back then for real. The story concentrates on the history of Magdalena Moons (1541-1613), daughter of prominent figure judge Pieter Moons, who was part of the Dutch resistance, and commander of the Spanish army Francisco Valdez. While the town was starving and Valdez attacked the city, Moons offered to marry Valdez if he would stop, buying time for reinforcements to arrive and break the siege. Left below: Magdalena and Alvarez as depicted by Dutch painter Simon Opzoomer (1819-1878), National Museum Amsterdam (click to enlarge).

It’s amazing to see that after hundreds of great stories, the creative team at Studio Vandersteen still seems to find inspiration for new adventure, finding inspiration in local history only makes for a more interesting read, and promises some nice jokes (and they deserve it! The Spanish not only invaded our country back then, they also stole the World Championship football last year right from under our feet in the final match, Grr!)

Willy Vandersteen (photo below), creator of the popular Belgian comic, created his first Suske & Wiske comic in 1945.It is published in the US as Willy and Wanda and was known in England as Bob and Bobette, (same as in France). Today, its no known in the UK as Spike and Suzy. Paul Geerts joined the studio in 1968 and continued his work under his supervision.

When Vandersteen passed away in 1990, he left the comic to his employees. After Geerts, his assistant Marc Verhaegen continued the work in april 2002. He had worked with the studio since 1988 and created 32 comic books until February 2005, when the studio thought his stories became too dark (Verhaegen had written a story about Auschwitz) and he was let go immediately. Today, the main artwork is created by Luc Morjeau with scripts by Peter van Gucht and help from other talented artists like Dirk Stallaert (also artwork), Isabelle van Laerhoven and Sabine de Meyer (coloring), Peter Quirijnen (backgrounds) and Eric de Rop (inks).

Het Lijdende Leiden will be for sale in September this year, a special collectors edition will be available in cooperation with the October 3rd organization, a special organization founded in 1886 celebrating the end of the Siege of Leiden which happened on October 3, 1574. (during the Eighty Years War 1568-1648). The organization currently has 14.000 members and celebrates its 125th anniversary this year.

While volume 315 of the succesful Belgian comic book series Suske & Wiske (also known as Suzy & Spike abroad) will be out on November 9th, the next issue has already been made available by publisher Standaard for digital download through the Mac Appstore.


People who like to read their comics oldschool on paper will have to wait till next week to read De Bananenzangers (The Bananasingers), as the next issue of the popular series is called. But eager fans who own an Apple Ipad tablet or the Iphone have already been able to get a hold of it, as a digital version was released early to promote the free download of Standaards new Suske & Wiske app. Through this gadget, readers and fans will be able to check out all titles available and more. With the early digital release fans were also able to check out the new cover for the book (above), which has been redrawn by Luc Morjaeu and edited since the Vandersteen Studio had released the artwork earlier this summer. Below: sketch for the original cover of S & W 315, for the final rendering go here.



Because of high demand, Standaard also published five older titles from the series: Amber (259), De Curieuze Neuzen (296), De Elfsteden Stunt (298), Het Babbelende Bad (299) and De Dartele Draak (301). (An official translation doesnt exist yet for these titles, so Im giving you a rough translation here, dont quote me on them! English titles would be Amber, The Curious Noses, The Elfsteden Stunt, The Blabbering Bath and The Playfull Dragon.)

In December Last year the Belgian publisher introduced their first digital comic book for the Ipad with the release of Suske & Wiske 311 De Stuivende stad (The Windy City). The app, created with Little Miss Robot was downloaded over 100.000 times in the first week and was also released in March this year for mobile devices using Android, the open source Operating system developed by the OHA and Google (version 4.0 nicknamed Ice Cream Sandwich was just released October 19th).

WPG publishers, of which Standaard is part of since September last year, has now announced they will use Adobes Digital Publishing Suite to create all their digital interactive content from now on. As many as 150 apps are announced, bringing also older titles of their long running comic series as Vandersteens De Rode Ridder (The Red Knight).
Below: cover by German artist Claus D. Scholz for the new Red Knight volume 232, titled Duivelsmist (Devilsmist), which will also be out on November 9.