Suske & Wiske

The current cast: from left to right Lambik, Wiske, Suske, aunt Sidonia, professor Barabas and Jerom

Suske & Wiske is the most popular comic in the Lower Countries (The Netherlands and Belgium). The main characters of this comic are:

Wiske: Stubborn frank girl. She loves her friends and family and she will risk her life to save her doll Schanulleke.
Aunt Sidonia: The aunt of Wiske. Together with Wiske she was the first character to appear in this series. Sidonia is probably the most slim woman of the westeren hemisphere. She is capable of hiding behind a broom stick! Another extreme about her is her shoe size [PATS] Aouch! Guess I shouldn't have said that :) Sidonia is secretly in love with Lambik.
Suske: Suske Antigoon is the friend of Wiske. They met in the book "The Amoras Isle". Wiske, aunt Sidonia and Suske live together.
Professor Barabas: Professor Barabas is an absent-minded inventor. His most remarkable invention is a machine for time-traveling. This machine is used in many adventures. Professor Barabas' first appeared in the book "The Amoras Isle" (thanks to Leon Boerrigter for this info).
Lambik: Lambik is the chubby character with six hairs. He often does stupid things. However there are books (most notably in the blue sequence) in which Lambik plays an heroic role. Lambik was introduced in the book "De sprietatoom".
Jerom: Jerom is most strongest man of the westeren hemisphere. With Jerom around it is difficult to get the other characters into trouble because he is unbeatable. Therefore Jerom is often sent for a holiday or put to sleep to keep some excitement in the comic. Jerom first appeared in the book "The Mad Musketeers".

Apart from these main characters there are some other characters which appear now and then: the evil dr. Krimson, the stupid bandits Snoeffel and Gaffel, Suske's forefather the ghost Sus Antigoon, Lambik's brother Arthur the flying ape and the fanatical vacuum cleaner salesman Theofiel Boemerang. Michael van Hartskamp collects the character names in international issues of Suske & Wiske.

The main sequence of the books currently (February 1995) is at number 254. While the first 66 albums are out of stock, the list of later albums is far too large to list here. Michael van Hartskamp supplies an overview of titles of Suske & Wiske books. You can also view a recent page with sub-titles.

The cast in the fifties: from left to right Lambik, Wiske, Suske and aunt Sidonia

The Suske & Wiske comics were created by the Belgian artist Willy Vandersteen (born in Antwerp, March 15, 1913, died in Edegem, August 28, 1990, image 43kB) The first strip of Suske & Wiske appeared in the Belgian newspaper De nieuwe Standaard on March 30, 1945. In the 50 years that the series exists one can see Vandersteens drawing techniques change. One of the most interesting periods in Vandersteen's development is the period in which he worked together with Hergé, the creator of Tintin (1948-1959). In this period Vandersteen produced eight stories which came to be known as the blue sequence. After the death of Vandersteen, the series was continued by his studio directed by Paul Geerts. Apart from Suske & Wiske Willy Vandersteen created many comics that are well known in the Lower Countries: Bessy, The Red Knight, Jerom, Karl May and Robert & Bertrand.

Suske & Wiske

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