The Blue Series

The Blue Series is the name of one of the series' of the "Suske en Wiske" books ("Spike and Suzy" in English), written by Willy Vandersteen. The Blue Series is shorter than the other two series - The Red Series and the "specials" - but is possibly the most popular. The Blue series is so called because the covers of the books were blue.

Bibliography

* "Het Spaanse spook" ("The Spanish Spook")
* "De bronzen sleutel" ("The Bronze Key")
* "De Tartaarse helm" ("The Tartar Helmet")
* "De schat van Beersel" ("The Treasure of Beersel")
* "Het geheim der gladiatoren" ("The Gladiators' Secret")
* "De gezanten van Mars" ("The Martian Ambassadors")
* "De groene splinter" ("The Green Splinter")

History of the series

In the 1950s, the comics magazine "Tintin" had a good following in France and Wallonia (The French speaking part of Belgium). However, the sister publication "Kuifje" aimed at the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, suffered in comparison. So they brought in a Dutch speaking cartoonist - Willy Vandersteen. In "Tintin" he created 6 stories from 1952 to 1957. Hergé taught Vandersteen to draw in the ligne claire style, so these 6 stories were Vandersteen's first works drawn in the ligne claire style. It was decided that when these stories were published as books they would have blue covers to distinguish them from the earlier books with red covers. When Vandersteen left the magazine, he continued his stories, but they were again released with red covers.

See also

* The Red Series
* Spike and Suzy
* Willy Vandersteen
* Ligne claire