Willy Vandersteen (15 February 1913 – 28 August 1990) was a Belgian maker of comic books. In his life, he made a large studio and published more than 1,000 comic albums in over 25 series. He sold more than 200 million copies worldwide.
He is 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". 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 (published in English as Spike and Suzy, Luke and Lucy, Willy and Wanda or Bob and Bobette). In 2008 it sold 3.5 million books. His other major series are De Rode Ridder with over 200 albums and Bessy with almost 1,000 albums published in Germany.
Awards and recognition
1959: Honorary citizen of the community Deurne near Antwerp
1977: Angoulême International Comics Festival prize for Best Foreign Author, France 2007: Prestige award at the Prix Saint-Michel in Brussels Vandersteen is also honorary citizen of Kalmthout. A statue of Vandersteen is located on Willy Vandersteen Square.
According to UNESCO's Index Translationum, Vandersteen is the second most often translated Dutch language author, after Anne Frank.