De Kiekeboes

De Kiekeboes debuted in 1977. Merho had previously worked with Willy Vandersteen but wanted to create his own series. The first story, De Wollebollen, started in Het Laatste Nieuws. on 15 February 1977.[2]

New albums in the series appear every three months, and sell over 100,000 copies each.[3] Like most Flemish comic strips, De Kiekeboes comics are steady sellers, with most of the series available for sale at any one time. New titles are the best selling comics in Flanders, with some 80,000 copies sold in the first year of publication. In 2007, only the Dutch translation of the final Harry Potter book sold more copies.[4]

After being assisted for a while by Dirk Stallaert, Merho announced that from 1 January 2006 on, the comics would be drawn by Steve Van Bael and Thomas Du Caju, who would each produce two comics a year. Merho continues to write the stories and to make early sketches.[5][1] In October 2007 Kristof Fagard had to take over from Steve Van Bael and continued in tandem with Thomas Du Caju as pencilers.

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the comic strip in 2007, an exposition was held in the Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art and a wall painting was unveiled in Antwerp.[3] Statues of Kiekeboe and of his daughter Fanny are placed in Middelkerke.[6] Another statue of Kiekeboe can be found in Halle-Zoersel.[7]

The creator Merho having started his career in Willy Vandersteen's studio, it was only natural for his own Kiekeboe series to follow up on those traditions, especially the best-known Suske en Wiske. Soon however, the horizon widened: contrary to his peer, Merho never applied a time machine, setting all stories in very recognisable contemporary places and atmospheres. On the contrary, themes would include actuality, up to and including social controversies like sex in general and non-conformist sexuality in particular, but also the consumption of and trade in drugs, laundering of crime money (#70), corruption of politicians (#77), and more. The Kiekeboe series can thus be said to, on the one hand, continue the tradition of Flemish family comic strips like Nero, Jommeke, Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber and Suske en Wiske within the larger picture of the Belgian Comic tradition, yet on the other hand open up to a wider view on contemporary society and politics, adapting the genre to the 21st century. On top of that, the author Merho indulges in experiments with the technicalities and limitations of the comic strip genre and medium, especially in #26. Neither does he neglect referring to the French-language counterparts in multi-lingual Belgium, Tintin and the publishers getting particular attention.

Ordered by approximate number of appearances.

• Marcel Kiekeboe: protagonist of the comic book series, sort of an 'average Joe' with a non-descript average office job, attracts adventure and goes along with it. Thinks quite good of himself, but repeatedly turns out to be the least smart of the family.
• Charlotte Kiekeboe: Marcel's wife, housewife, often (mostly unwillingly) joining the adventures. She's smarter and more composed than Marcel and this usually helps the family getting out of trouble. She's ever distrustful of Firmin Van De Kasseien, who always uses Kiekeboe to settle his difficult situations, either relational or business-related.
• Fanny Kiekeboe: their daughter, around 20 years old. Socially engaged (feminism, animal rights,...), self-conscious, sexy and adventurous, she often gets in trouble. Before the 100th album, she had a new boyfriend in almost every story. After that, she was in some more or less steady relationships.
• Konstantinopel Kiekeboe: their son, extremely smart (certainly in the first stories), in primary school. Sometimes a troublemaker, sometimes cautious, always clever.
• The fat lady: recurring extra, appears in at least one image of every album, but never has any role of significance (though she does sometimes have an influence).
• Jens: a professional stuntman and boyfriend of Fanny in a solid relationship around the 100th albums. Until Fanny breaks up with him. He continues to appear now and then, in recent albums, and tries to help Fanny when she's in trouble. However, Fanny also ends up saving Jens quite often.
• Leon Van Der Neffe: neighbour of the Kiekeboe family, professional soldier but not at all a war veteran, ill-tempered and paranoid. Big enemy of Marcel - but never the 'bad guy'. On occasion, Kiekeboe and Van Der Neffe even collaborate (#12, #15). His name means (in the Antwerp patois) "next door guy".
• Carmella Van Der Neffe: Leon Van Der Neffe's (ex-)wife.
• Joeksel and Froefroe: Leon and Carmella Van Der Neffe's children, friends with Konstantinopel, much to the dislike of their fathers. Like many early characters, they have their names derived from the Antwerp dialect: Joeksel standing for itching, whereas Froefroe refers to the bangs haircut style - which she prominently displays.
• Fernand Goegebuer: another neighbour of the Kiekeboe family, all-around good guy, meddlesome fool, spits as he speaks. His name stands for "good neighbour" in shrill contrast to Van Der Neffe.
• Jozefien "Moemoe" Kiekeboe: Marcel's mother, always complaining about/to him and talking about the 'adventures' of her (never shown) best friend Mrs. Stokvis. Worse than the archetypal "mother in law" by the author's own word.
• Inspecteur Sapperdeboere: Inspector of local police, is more interested in food than in his cases, which is why the main family has to solve them themselves.
• Firmin Van De Kasseien: Marcel's boss, constantly has extramarital affairs with young beautiful women, often his "secretary"; and often needs Marcel to keep them hidden.
• Balthazar: 'self-employed' thief, 'the only burglar in the golden pages', tries to do small crimes but constantly fails.
• Mevrouw Stokvis: unseen best friend of Moemoe, even when the story revolves around her (#56), it's because she 'disappears' and she is not seen.
• Dédé La Canaille: French criminal, is caught because of Marcel and subsequently wants to kill him whenever he regains his freedom (similar to Sideshow Bob).
• Mona: old love of Marcel, until she gets bitten by a vampire and becomes a sexy vampirewoman, tries to seduce Marcel every time she shows up.
• Timothea Triangl: short, transgender 'master'-criminal.
• Nonkel Vital: Marcel's uncle, brother of Marcel's father, lives in the countryside; arch-enemy of Moemoe.
• Leo Van Der Neffe: Leon Van Der Neffe's twin brother, works as a prison guard.

1. Kiekeboe Down Under

De Kiekeboes has a simulator ride with set pieces drawn and coloured by Kristof Fagard that is located at Comics Station in Antwerp.The animation from the droptower ride was animated by Kristof Fagard and Tom Metdepenningen.

• Official site