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.