A while back I reported that indie publisher Adhemar had announced they would release the first five volumes of the 'Willy Vandersteen Archives', collecting the first stories Belgian comic book legend Vandersteen (1913-1990) created, before he started his famous studio and turned out hundreds of thousands of fantastic comic books and series, most popular of them all of course, being 'Suske & Wiske' (Spike & Suzy'). As of the February 24, these first volumes indeed reached the stores. Because it the collection is a series of limited editions, only 1000 were printed for each title.
Yesterday Adhemar announced the next five volumes and showed the (beautiful) covers for them. The first five books contained the stories 'Knight Gloriant', 'The Red Mask', 'March of the Batavi', 'The Black leopard', and 'The Blue Lobster', published between 1945 and 1947 in 'Ons Volkske', the comics supplement to the Belgian magazine 'Ons Volk'. The books also contain additional gags of other early works of Vandersteen from 1941/1942, such as 'Kitty Inno', 'Thor', 'Pudifar' and 'Barabitje', which are amazingly rare today.
Volume 6 to 10 of the 'Vandersteen Archives' will again hold five early masterpieces, making you wonder why Vandersteen ever left this course of grittier and more hardcore fiction stories, emulating early American fiction authors Alex Raymond and Hal Foster, like his Belgian collegue Edgar P. Jacobs (1904-1987) had done before him, drawing 'The U Ray' for Europe's first comic magazine 'Bravo' (Vandersteen by the way, also drew a comic for this magazine called 'Lancelot').
Above: Willy Vandersteen (left) and Edgar Jacobs (right). The next stories to be published in this collection will be 'Mars Commandos on Earth', 'Phantom of the Peat Bog', 'The sunken Kingdom', 'Between Fire and Water' and 'The First Moon Rocket' (the English titles are in no means official and are translated by me, the comic stories are of course published in their original Dutch language).
Above: Hal Foster's Valiant from 1938 (left) influenced Vandersteen clearly while he was working on 'The Red Mask' (right), which is volume two in the series. Check out the great covers for volumes eight and nine below (I put the covers for volume six and seven at top of this article).
'Ons Volk' Magazine was first published in 1911 in Antwerp. In 1914 the creators also founded what would become Belgium's major newspaper publisher 'De Standaard'. The first World War brought an end to all publications, but the magazine returned in 1919, until circulation again came to a halt during WWII. Although 'De Standaard' ceased publication of it's major newspaper at that time, other publications, overseen by the Nazis, continued during WWII. After the war, the publisher was accused of collaboration, causing a two year ban on all their activities. However, circulation of the magazine and newspaper (including 'ons Volkske') recommenced after a new publishing company was founded, named 'De Gids'.
Above (Click to enlarge): the first two pages of Vandersteen's 'Mars Commando's op Aarde' ('Mars Commandos on Earth') created and published from July 14, 1946 to January 12, 1947. 'Knight Gloriant' (vol.1) was created and published between the end of 1945 and March 14, 1946, followed by 'Red Mask' (vol.2) which was published from March 21, 1946 to August 1 that same year.
'March of the Batavi' (vol.3) was published from August 8 to December 19, 1946, followed by 'The Black leopard' (vol.4) , published between December 26 1946 and June 19, 1947.
In 1947 'De Standaard' reclaimed it's properties and started publishing again. 'De Gids' also continued to do so and, although they had to rename their magazines and newspaper, started a rivaling competition between the two companies. Their magazine was called 'Overal!' and their comic supplement was renamed 'Kapoentje', while Standaard continued with 'Ons Volkske'. For a while Vandersteen's work appeared in both magazines. 'The Blue Lobster' (vol. 5) was published in 'Kapoentje' between June 26 and November 20, 1947. From then on, Vandersteen would work exclusively for 'De Standaard' again.
Below (Click to enlarge): the first two pages of Vandersteen's 'Het Veenspook' ('Phantom of the Peat Bog') created and published from January 19 to June 29, 1947. His next story, 'The Sunken Kingdom' was his last work for publisher 'De Gids', published between Juli 6 and November 9, 1947. (Note that the artwork above and below are taken from the 'Ciso collection' editions, published in September 1975 and January 1976 and are not representative of Adhemar's new Hardcover reprints).
Beside Vandersteen, a lot of famous Belgian comic authors started their career working for the magazine. Authors such as Marc Sleen, Jef Nys and Bob de Moor, who would later become Hergé' s right hand man, working on 'Tintin'. Volume six to ten of the 'Vandersteen Archives' are expected to appear in August, costing € 25,00 Euro's each. Below: cover for volume ten: 'De Eerste Maan raket' ('The First Moon Rocket'). For more on Adhemar, go here.
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