Suske
| Suske | |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Standaard Uitgeverij (Belgium) |
| First appearance |
Suske en Wiske: Het Eiland Amoras (1945). |
| Created by | Willy Vandersteen |
Suske (English: Willy, Luke, Bob, Spike) is one of the main characters in the popular Belgian comic strip Suske en Wiske by Willy Vandersteen. He is the boy of the duo.
When Willy Vandersteen created his first adventure story with the characters Wiske, Tante Sidonia and Professor Barabas, "Rikki en Wiske in Chocowakije" ("Rikki and Wiske in Chocowakije") (1945) he already gave the little girl Wiske a boy companion called Suske. However, in this early incarnation the boy was her older and stronger brother. Also, Vandersteen's publisher had changed the character's name into "Rikki" without his knowledge, left alone his approval. This turned out to be for the better, since Vandersteen felt that the character was way too old to be a good companion to the much younger Wiske. He also resembled Tintin too much. Thus, at the start of the next story, "Op Het Eiland Amoras" ("On The Isle of Amoras") (1945) Vandersteen sent Rikki off to get a ration stamp for shoes and effectively wrote him out of the series. In the course of the story Wiske, Sidonia and Barabas travel to the isle of Amoras where Suske meets a local orphan named Suske. He explains to her that he is the last living relative of Sus Antigoon, his great-great-great-grandfather. Wiske joins him in the Amorasians' battle against their oppressors. At the end of the story Suske is adopted by aunt Sidonia and travels back to Belgium.
Suske was named after Vandersteen's father, Sus Vandersteen. The diminutive "-ke" in Flemish dialect means "little", thus "Suske" would translate back to "Little Sus". In some stories his full name, François, is mentioned, but not often.
Suske is somewhat of a flat character. He is brave, honest, helpful, smart, polite, heroic, strong and has no real flaws in the way that Wiske or Lambik have. This also explains why he is the least popular character in the franchise. In "Het Eiland Amoras" he often went berserk whenever someone said the battle cry "Seefhoek vooruit!" (the "Seefhoek" was the neighborhood in Antwerp where Vandersteen grew up. In reprints this was changed to "Antigoon vooruit!"). This element was dropped in later stories.
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