Spike and Suzy
Spike and Suzy (British title), Willy and Wanda (American title) or Luke and Lucy (in a 2009 film and video game) (Dutch: Suske en Wiske, ) is a Belgian comics series created by the comics author Willy Vandersteen. It was first published in "De Nieuwe Standaard" in 1945 and soon became popular. Although not in its earlier form, the strip adapted to the Ligne claire style, pioneered by Hergé. This change took place when the strip became serialised in Hergé's Franco-Belgian comics magazine "Tintin" from 1948 to 1959. The books revolve around the adventures of the  eponymous Spike and Suzy, two children (pre-adolescent or adolescent depending on the album), along with their friends and family. The stories combine elements of comedy, fantasy, and science fiction, such as talking animals, time travel and ghosts. The strip still runs daily in the Belgian newspaper "De Standaard", and new books continue to be published; as of May 2020, 382 albums have been published. Main characters. The main characters are a group of friends, living familywise though the only blood-relation is Sidonia being an aunt of Suzy. In the first regular comic, Suzy and her aunt Sidonia meet  the orphan Spike and unrelated Professor Barabas. In the next album "De Sprietatoom", they also meet Ambrose. Later, in "De dolle musketiers" (book #18, 1953), Jerom (called Jethro in the UK version), the "strongest man in the western hemisphere", was introduced. Apart from Suzy and Aunt Sidonia, none of them are related, and other family is only introduced occasionally to drive a particular story. Character evolution. Over the course of the series, characters are added and changed, and stories become more didactic. Ambrose and Jethro change significantly: in the beginning, Ambrose was just an amusing fool, but in the Blue  Series he appears more sophisticated and heroic, evolving towards a cynical and sceptical man in the current stories. In early stories, Jethro was initially portrayed as an ignorant strong man, who evolved into a sophisticated and quiet man in later works. In most stories Muffin is only a doll, but one very special to Suzy, and they are inseparable. In some stories Muffin comes to life and plays an important role. Settings. In the earliest stories, Willy Vandersteen used fictional countries like "Chokowakije" ("Chocolaslovakia") and "Amoras" (a tropical island, "Hoboken", actually a real town in Belgium, in the English-language  version). He dropped the use of those after a few stories, although some later stories revisit Amoras. Most of the current adventures of Spike and Suzy happen in real countries all over the world, with Belgium (their home country) as main focus for many stories. While in the early stories large distances were usually traveled using the fictitious "Gyronef", an experimental helicopter devised by professor Barabas, starting from the 1960s all air travel is provided by the Dutch national airline KLM, making it an early and prominent example of product placement in European comics. Vandersteen chose KLM over the Belgian  national airline SABENA because of his friendship with Ron Winderink, PR manager at KLM. Publication history. Willy Vandersteen created "Suske en Wiske", beginning publication in "De Nieuwe Standaard" on 30 March 1945. To Vandersteen's disappointment the editor had renamed the strip's first chapter "Rikki en Wiske". The following story was titled "De avonturen van Suske en Wiske - Op het eiland Amoras" and no longer featured Rikki. After a few years of publication in several newspapers, Vandersteen was approached by Hergé, intent to improve sales of the Dutch language "Kuifje", who wanted "Suske and Wiske" for his publications rebuilt  in the Ligne claire style. Vandersteen made the adaptation and "Suske en Wiske" first appeared in "Kuifje" and Belgian "Tintin" on 16 September 1948 with the story titled "Het Spaanse spook" and "Le Fantôme Espagnol" in the two languages. All 8 stories that were run until it ended in April 1959 made up the material collected in The Blue Series. Vandersteen established Studio Vandersteen in 1952 to manage his expanded activities. To have time for other series such as "De Rode Ridder" ("The Red Knight") and "Tijl Uilenspiegel", he gave Paul Geerts the job of creating new albums of "Suske  en Wiske" in 1968. Geerts did this until 2001, when he gave this task to Marc Verhaegen. From 2005 on, a team of writers and cartoonists makes the new series, led by Luc Morjeau. These authors are helped by Studio Vandersteen. Publications. Newspapers and magazines. Before "Suske en Wiske" appeared as albums, they were published in several newspapers and magazines, such as: Red Series and Blue Series. The books are generally divided into two groups - "Red Series" and "Blue series". The Red Series contains the vast majority of the books, and is so called because all of the books in  this series have a red coloured cover. There are only a few books in the blue series, and they are so called because of their blue cover. The blue series encompasses all those originally published in "Tintin" and "Kuifje". The Red series is everything published before or after. The following album series exist: Special editions. Other stories or editions have been published, such as: Albums in English. English translations have been published in three incarnations. The first was in the U.S., under the name of "Willy and Wanda". It was then published in the UK in the 1990s named "Bob  and Bobette", a copy of the Belgian title in French. The final print run was in the UK by the title "Spike and Suzy". Other languages. The comic book series was also published in Belgium in French, under the name "Bob et Bobette" ("Bob and Bobette" in English). Translations in other languages (including regional dialects) are plentiful but may exist as short-lived series only. Books out of the series have been published in the following languages as: Spin-off series. There have been various spin-off comic series from "Spike and Suzy": Adaptations. "Suske en Wiske" has reached such  a popularity in the Dutch-speaking world that various media adaptations have been made. Theatrical adaptations. In 1949 Dutch puppeteer Karel Weyler of the Flemish puppet theater "Pats' Poppenspel" adapted some "Suske en Wiske" series as puppet plays. Willy Vandersteen enjoyed these versions and gave him permission to make more. The music was composed by Armand Preud'homme and the dialogues were written by Jef Contrijn, whose wife, Germaine Gijsels also designed the costumes. Vandersteen returned the favor by helping to design the backgrounds and referencing "Pats Poppenspel" in the "Suske en Wiske" stories "De Mottenvanger" ("The Moth Catcher"), "De Circusbaron  (The Circus Baron"), "Het Hondenparadijs" ("The Dog Paradise"), "De Wilde Weldoener" ("The Wild Humanitarian") and "De Poppenpakker" ("The Puppet Catcher"). Between 1974 and 1977 Vandersteen also made a comics series about "Pats" until copyright issues forced him to change the title into "Tits". In 1994 the Royal Youth Theatre of Antwerp made a theatrical musical called "De Stralende Sterren". It ran for several years and was both a success in Flanders as well as the Netherlands. In July 2002 a new musical premiered, based on the album "De Spokenjagers" ("The Ghost Hunters"), again touring with huge success in Flanders and  the Netherlands. In 2008 the album "De Circusbaron" ("The Circus Baron") was adapted into a theatrical musical, which toured in Belgium and the Netherlands. TV adaptations. In 1955 the "Pats Poppenspel" puppet shows were broadcast on Flemish television. This was the first attempt to bring the comics to television. A limited animation series was made the same decade. Far more successful was the 1975-1976 puppet series. The Belgian TV network BRT produced a TV puppet series consisting of six original stories told by Lambik, all of them broadcast as five-minute episodes, which were each 22 minutes in length . These stories ("De Minilotten van Kokonera", "De Gouden Locomotief", "De Zingende Kaars", "De Windbrekers", "De Regenboogprinses" and "Het Laatste Dwaallicht") were later adapted into comic book albums. The puppets were made by "Creatuur" in collaboration with André Henderickx. Vandersteen's studio created the backgrounds and props. The series was a tremendous success in the Netherlands and largely responsible for the comics' ultimate breakthrough there. Re-runs were broadcast in 1985 and 1990. In the early 1990 an animated TV series was made by Atelier5, broadcast on Vtm. Each episode was based on original "Suske en Wiske" stories, with Han Peekel  as narrating voice-over. They were also made available on video. Film adaptations. In 2004 the album "De Duistere Diamant" ("The Dark Diamond") was adapted to the silver screen by Rudi Van den Bossche as the live-action film "". A CGI animated film called "" was released in July 2009. Produced by Skyline Entertainment, it was planned to be the first of a series of 13 films. Video game adaptations. In 2001, Infogrames released Suske en Wiske: De Tijdtemmers for the Game Boy Color. It was only released in Europe. On 19 July 2009 Nintendo DS a video game was released , based on the 3-D animated movie "". In popular culture. Suske and Wiske have their own statue in the Antwerp Zoo in Antwerp. It was sculpted by René Rosseel in 1978. Suske, Wiske, Lambik and Jerom also have statues in Middelkerke, sculpted by Monique Mol in respectively 2002, 2005 and 2013 In the Belgian Comic Strip Center in Brussels the permanent exhibition brings homage to the pioneers of Belgian comics, among them Willy Vandersteen. In the room dedicated to his work a replica of Professor Barabas' teletijdmachine ("tele time machine") can be seen. On 15 June 1995 an illustrated wall  was dedicated to the series in the Laekenstraat in Brussels, Belgium. Suske and Wiske are also part of an illustrated wall in the Korte Ridderstraat 8 in Antwerp, which was revealed on 13 May 2006. On 24 April 2009 a similar wall was revealed in Kalmthout. The character Lambik inspired the name of the Dutch comic book store Lambiek in Amsterdam. The misspelling of the name is due to the fact that the early Dutch publications of "Suske en Wiske" called him "Lambiek". The emblem on the store's sign is an image from the "Suske en Wiske" story "Prinses  Zagemeel" ("Princess Sawdust") (1947-1948) and represents Lambik's metamorphosis into a centaur.