Portal:Belgium/Selected article/2007/December

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Statue of Willy Vandersteen, between his characters Suske and Wiske, in Hasselt, Belgium

Willy Vandersteen (February 15, 1913 - August 28, 1990) was a Flemish creator of comic books. In a career spanning 50 years, he created a large studio and published more than 1,000 comic books in over 25 series, selling more than 200 million copies worldwide.

Considered together with Marc Sleen the founding father of Flemish comics, he is mainly popular in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Hergé called him "The Brueghel of the comic strip", while the creation of his own studio and the mass production and commercialization of his work turned him into "the Walt Disney of the Low Countries".

Vandersteen is best known for Suske en Wiske (known in English as Spike and Suzy, Willy and Wanda or Bob and Bobette), which still sells some 5 million copies a year. His other major series are De Rode Ridder with over 200 albums and Bessy with in Germany almost 1,000 albums.