Suske & Wiske 317: 'Het Bizarre Blok'.

Some more news from the European comic scene. Belgian Publisher Standaard will be releasing volume 317 'Het bizarre blok ('The strange block') in their succefull comic series 'Suske & Wiske' ('Spike & Suzy') on May 9th. Creators Luc Morjeau (artwork) and Peter van Gucht with their colleagues at Studio Vandersteen have again created another spectacle for the series, created by Willy Vandersteen in 1945.

This time our friends will have to deal with evil itself, as their friend Lambik (I think he's called 'Ambrose' in English) has made a deal with the devil to become a famous architect. Spike and Suzy get lost in a strange building he recently had build, with plenty of rooms filled with riddles and mysteries linking to previous adventures from the past. Prepublication of this story started on April 11th in the Belgian newspaper 'De Standaard'.

Below left: A cover sketch for the new book, showing a variation on the artwork that made the final cut. Middle: The French cover. In France the series is called 'Bob et Bobette', the new volume is called 'le bloc bizarre'. Right: Publisher Standaard has announced they will continue to publish a Summer Holiday Special this year, filled with games and puzzles and of course, four stories of Spike and Suzy. This year's volume will hold 'De Gevederde Slang' ('The Feathered Serpent') from 1996, 'De Koning Drinkt' ('The King Drinks') from 1949, 'De Schone Slaper'('The Sleeping Beauty') from 1965 and 'De Dartele Draak' ('The Playful Dragon') from 2008. 'The King Drinks' was published in the US in 1976, while the characters were still called 'Willy & Wanda' in English.

Three more books have been announced for 2012. Spike and Suzy's next adventure seems something from the pages of Roald Dahl's 1964 classic 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. Studio Vandersteen has already revealed the cover for volume 318, titled 'De Suikerslaven' (The Sugarslaves'). Prepublication hasn't begun yet, but the comic book will be published on August 8th. In this sory, Spike and Suzy are magically transformed into candy by a robot and kidnapped to Suchardia, where they are forced to work in a candy factory. But this fairytale is all but sweet as the country is terrorised by a magician and a huge monster. The titles for volumes 319 and 320 have also been announced already: 'Suske de Rat' ('Spike the Rat') and 'De Tirannieke Tor' ('The Tyrannical Beetle').

Below: Cover artwork for volume 318 and some character sketches by Morjeau. (thanks to Studio Vandersteen and Luc Morjeau). Visit Luc Morjeau's site for more on 'De Suikerslaven'!

The Red Knight.

Vandersteen's other succesfull comic book series, which he started in 1959 with Karel Biddeloo will also have another volume published by Standaard. 'De Rode Ridder' (The Red Knight') volume 234 will be out on June 9th titled 'De Elfenring' ('The Fairy Ring'). Artwork and story are, of course, again by German artist Claus Scholtz, so it looks like knight Johan van Horst is in for a great adventure again.

By the way, did you know that Castle of Horst really exists? It is situated in Sint-Pieters-Rode in Belgium. During a battle with the armies of Maximilian I of Austria in 1488, the castle was completely ravaged. It was rebuild afterwards by Lodewijk III Pynnock which financially ruined him, forcing him to sell it to his uncle, Ivan van Cortenbach in 1500. As of 2007 the estate is owned by the Flemish Region and plays host to historical reenactments, including medieval tournements between knights during the yearly festivities. Read all about the renovations taking place today on the official site or check the official Pynnock knights of Horst site (Dutch only).

Below left:: Cover for the new 'Red Knight' volume 234 by Claus. Right you can see the actual 'Castle of Horst' (click to enlarge).

Krimsonia.

Studio Vandersteen has published the cover for their new Suske & Wiske ('Spike & Suzy') comic book issue 316 titled 'Krimsonia'. The book will be released February 15.

Suske & Wiske 315 out November 9.

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 Standaard's 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 doesn't exist yet for these titles, so I'm giving you a rough translation here, don't 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 Adobe's 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 Vandersteen's '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.

Suske & Wiske 315.

Following up on my last post here in which I showed you the cover and some artwork of the new 'Suske & Wiske' comic book, to be released on September 21 this year (volume 314: 'Het Lijdende Leiden') the team at Vandersteen Studio has released the cover artwork for the next volume 315, which will be published on November 9th and is called 'De Bananenzangers' (which more or less translates as 'The Bananasingers'....okay that's just weird!)

The plot involves an expedition through the African jungle and a search for a special tree that grows blue Bananas, needed to sing a magical chant that will cure the African king from a neverending hiccup! The story hasn't been published in the Belgium newspapers yet, as they're still running the previous story about the city of Leiden.

Check the cover for 315 beneath, along with a small report by Stefan Tetelepta of  'Het Leidsch Dagblad' (The Leidsch Newspaper) featuring Thijs Hemmes of the 'October 3rd organisation' on their cooperation with the Vandersteen studio and the origination of volume 314: 'Het Leidende Lijden' (video is in Dutch only, sorry!)

Suske & Wiske 314: studio leaks cover art.

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).

Leiden is one of the oldest Dutch cities and is known for it’s prominent University throughout history. Founded in 1575, it is the place where John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the USA studied, as well as famous philosopher Descartes and Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who discovered Saturn´s moon Titan in 1655. Albert Einstein was professor of theoretical physics there.

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, it's 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).

Beside ‘Suske & Wiske’, Vandersteen created several other successful comic series.‘De Rode Ridder’ (‘The Red Knight’) is a comic set in medieval times. 229 Issues have been published since 1959 (issue 230 entitled ‘De Amazones’ will be on sale June 22).

Vandersteen created 'De Rode Ridder' based on the books by Leopold Vermeiren with artist Karel Biddeloo (who continued the series on his own from issue 44). After he passed away June 2004, Claus Scholtz took over, who had been working for the Vandersteen studio since the mid-eighties on 'Bessy' and 'Karl May'. Scripts for the series are since written by Dutch comic author Martin Lodewijk. Vandersteen's other series 'Bessy', a western featuring a Collie dog (made with Karel Verschuere), had 992 titles published in Germany. In all, he had over 25 series, selling more than 200 millon copies world wide! Recently Suske & Wiske have also become available in digital form, so you can read it on your Ipad 2!

Above left: Rode Ridder 230 will be released in June. Right: Belgium Comicshop and small press publisher Adhemar recently released an exclusive limited and numbered series of 25 new Bessy titles.

'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 it's 125th anniversary this year.

Check below for some more original artwork (pages six and twelve) from the forthcoming 'Het Lijdende Leiden' (thanks to Studio Vandersteen).

Coming in december: Suske and Wiske 311.

Although the latest issue of their succesfull comic series has just hit the stores, Belgian comic studio Vandersteen have leaked some intel on several of their next books, starting with issue 311, 'De stuivende stad' ('The Windy City'). I was able to get a hold on some of the next covers and share them with you here. Issue 311 should be available as of December 15 this year, just in time for the holiday season. Publication of the story began October 2nd in the Belgian newspaper 'De Standaard'. 

From the designs it seems the Studio isn't sure yet about the final cover for their next issue, both feature the church in Antwerp ("The Cathedral of Our Lady" built between 1352 and 1521). De Standaard started publishing the comic after WWII on November 9, 1947 in B&W. Since april 25 2007 (while publishing “De Tikkende Tikan”) they changed it to colors.

Suske & Wiske is a celebrated comic in Belgium and The Netherlands as well as abroad, although there haven’t been many comic books published in the English language yet. (They’re called 'Spike & Susy' in the US and Brittain).

A feature length 3D animation released last year could change all that. (It was based on the comic story 'De Texas Rakkers') Suske & Wiske were first created in 1945 by Willy Vandersteen (Februari 15, 1913 – August 28, 1990).
 Paul Geerts took over the comic from 1972. His assistant Marc Verhaege continued after him until 2005. Since then, the Belgian team of Luc Morjeau and writer Peter van Gucht have continued the series.

Check out the absolutely great covers for issue 312, "De Zappende Ziel" ('The zapping Soul') and 313 'De Kwakende Queen' ('The Rambling Queen') beneath.
Personally, the first reminds me of the first level of the video game 'God Of War II' (with the huge statue attacking Kratos) which seems to have inspired the writer somehow. Both of them will be published the first half of 2011 by Standaard Publishers. These stories haven't been published in the newspapers yet and I hear Dirk Stalleart has joined the team, drawing at least one of the comic books.