Dalborn, Germany and Bastei Verlag -September 2020 update

20th September 2020 update

This was first published a while back but I am re-posting it as it explains Wastl, a character created by Willy Vandersteen.

you see, a couple days ago I picked up a copy of D. C. Thomson (Dundee Editions if you are outside the UK) comic Sparky dated 14th December, 1968.  Now the cover features"Sooty Snowball" aka "Sparky" and I cannot reproduce that here (even in its historical context) because we do not want to upset the weirdoes out there.

When I opened up the pages I smiled (or it might have been an ulcer -who knows?). Big Billy Bigg greeted me in full colour. Big Billy Bigg was none other than Wastl re-named. Just as Lucky Luke -just as Fleetway used LuckyLuke in Film Fun but re-named him Buck Bingo.

It was a treat to see and as I know there are a lot of Suske en Wiske/Wastle fans out there -here are the pages for you to see.

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I keep getting asked about Dalborn,in Germany, where I lived as a kid and I have these photos from my older brother's FB page.

Above is the farm house I lived in.  Photo does not do it justice because there is an upstairs as well as animal sheds and a huge barn all in one building.  Quite common in the countryside. It was while living here that I came VERY close to death.

 

 The Dalborn kneiper (pub).  Wonder what it looks like now?  Cord Beermann tells me it is now a Kulturkneipe (cultural pub).

Below: the road as you leave Dalborn heading through the forest and toward Detmold.  Incredible walks around the area....and a few mysteries!

 

I have written about mysteries around Dalborn in one of my books and on the AOP blog ....oh.  And here it seems: http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/memoriesd-gruppe-and-dalborn-its-age.html

Above: back in the late 1970s in a field between the Droster and Huck properties. See the hill with the forest ending in the background? Saw a couple weird things there.  

But I grew up in Dalborn in the 1960s .  TV was no major thing though the Heinzelmännchen animations between programmes we enjoyed.

And though we played a lot in the fields, forests and streams there was still a lot of time to kill between this and farm chores (kids today -let's see them go out and hand plant potatoes and then lift the crops later on.  As for hay-cutting or using a scythe to cut grass...phew).  Comics. Mainly Bastei comics and I have written about these a few times over the years.

Micky Maus comics were my late Uncle Gunther's favourite and featured Micky as well as Donald Duck and Pluto.  I'm guessing a few of the Westerns must have come via him or one of my cousins.

Lassie (or the Lassies) was the big animal movie star at the time and combine a Lassie style dog and the Wild West, which Germans were nuts about, and you had a winner. Well, Belgian creator Willy Vandersteen came up with Bessy.  Bessy was first published in Belgium and then by Bastei between 1965 and 1985 and the comic starred the eponymous collie bitch Bessy -companion of  "owner" (in the loosest sense of the meaning) Andy.  Apart from various special editions the stories were published weekly -stories and plots were set in a Wild West environment.

Don't get me wrong: at the time I read the Bessy comics even if I did think they were creation/products of Germany. Oddly, I cannot recall any dogs kept around Dalborn at the time until the early 1970s and my Uncle Herman's intimidating (in appearance) but very intelligent Alsation -after dark one evening the dog was instructed to walk my sister back to where she was staying. It did just that and would not return home until she was safely indoors.

There was one comic I discovered by accident.  My aunt, Hilde, lived in a house on the Droster property and in a barn where I was tidying up an old horse drawn cart, I found a copy of Der Rote Korsar -created by Jean-Michel Charlier no less and drawn by Victor Hubinon. Known in France as Barbe-Rouge.

Silberpfeil (Silver Arrow - The young chief  or in Dutch Zilverpijl ) was a Western comic about a young Kiowa Indian chief, you guessed didn't you?  The series was published by Bastei from 1970 to 1988 and the comics were drawn by Frank Sels or by the Zeichenstudio (Art Studio) founded by Sels. Nederlanders, French -we had no idea as kids!

There was another Indian hero, of course -Schwarzerwolf (Black Wolf) was created in France by Jean Ollivier in 1969  and he wrote over 160 Black Wolf adventures. Bastei published Schwarzer Wolf from 1975 to 1977 but not all of the 160 adventures were translated into German. There was a back up strip titled "Teddy Ted" - created in 1963 by author Jacques Kambe and draftsman Yves Roy (artist name of Francisco Hidalgo). 

I wrote a post about German Western comics back in...2012!  Completely forgot about it!

http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/wild-wild-west-germany.html

You'll find cowboy hero Lasso there as well as the grand daddy of Wild West heroes (Bill Cody would be so proud!) -Buffalo Bill.  These comics really filled a farm boy with a yearning for adventure so why not some covers?!

Willy Vandersteen popped up again with a character from his Suske en Wiske series -Wastl.  The character of Wastl appeared in German-speaking countries for the first time in the Felix Comic books of Bastei and was initially a minor character in the "Ulla and Peter" stories (Suske and Wiske ), by Pankwitz (in the original: Lambik ) . There was a separate Wastl series in Felix from 1965 to 1968. And as his popularity increased even more he got his own fortnightly to later weekly comic from May, 1968 to January, 1972.  There were a total of 173 issues appeared.  Bastei began publishing the series in 1968.

Sadly, I currently have no issues of Wastl which is a long and painful story so let's move on!

Rolph Kauka may well have died in September, 2000 but his legacy continues and I still have a few now battered and tatty Fix Und Foxi and Lupo comics!  Rolf Kauka founded Kauka Publishing in 1951 and beside his own original comic characters, Kauka Publishing introduced to German audiences such international series as Asterix and The Smurfs from France and Belgium. Some characters received Germanized names, for instance Spirou & Fantasio became Pit & Pikkolo, while Gaston Lagaffe became Jojo.

In 1973, Kauka sold his publishing house to the English publisher IPC and the Dutch publishing group VNU (which was bad news for German comic readers) but he maintained his right of authority, while removing himself from the active publishing world.  1975 saw him found the Kauka Comic Academy in Munich, where he concentrated on the training and continuing education of young writers and illustrators. At the end of the 1970s the publishing consortium was dissolved and Bauer/VPM began publishing Fix & Foxi.

But two titles I loved were Gespenster Geschichten (Ghost Stories) and Spuk Geschichten (Spooky Stories).

Still there was cute stuff Nils Holgersson

I could see myself settling back in a farmhouse in Dalborn tapping out stories and artwork for Bastei. Why would I not want to work for them since I had three companies listed that I wanted to work for -Fleetway/IPC -did that.  Marvel -only Marvel UK. And -Bastei.

 Look at a list of the titles the company published:

Abenteuer in der Elfenwelt (1984–1992, 37 Alben) (Elf quest)

Alan Dark (1983–1984, 6 Taschenbücher)

Alice im Wunderland

Arsat

Andy Morgan (1985, 3 Alben)

Bastei Comic (1972–1975, 19 Alben mit verschiedenen Serien wie Attila (Comic) , Sibylline und Dennis)

Bastei Comic Edition (1990–1993, 58 Alben)

Bastei Sonderband (1-13) / Berühmte Geschichten (14-39) / Abenteuer von Weltruf (40-44) (1970–1973, 44 Hefte)

Bessy (1965–1985, 992 Hefte / 1969–1973, 80 Doppelbände)

Bessy Taschenbuch (1973–1981, 34 Bände; 1982–1985, 19 Bände)

Biene Maja

Biggi

Black Beauty

Bruno Brazil (1985, 3 Alben)

Bonanza (1973–1977, 103 Hefte)

Bud & Chester (1981–1982, 17 Hefte; auch bekannt als Die blauen Boys )

Buffalo Bill

Buffalo Bill (1982–1984, 15 Taschenbücher)

Captain Future

Casper (1991–1992, 6 Taschenbücher)

Chick Bill (1983–1984, 20 Hefte)

Conny

Creepshow (1989, 1 Album)

Dan Cooper (1981–1983, 33 Hefte)

Der kleine Vampir

Der rote Korsar (1970–1971, 15 Hefte)

El Mercenario (ab 1982, 7 Alben)

Die Eroberung der Welt (1981–1982, 17 Hefte)

Felix (1958–1981, 1114 Hefte und 52 Sonderhefte zB Ferien, Ostern, Weihnachten )

Felix Extra (1970–1973, 31 Hefte) / Felix Großband 32-66 (1973–1977, 35 Hefte)

Galax - Prinz der Sterne (1984–1985, 4 Alben)

Geister Geschichten (1980–1983, 89 Hefte)

Gespenster Geschichten (1974–2006, 1654 Hefte)

Gespenster Geschichten präsentiert (1985–1990, 12 Alben)

Gespenster Geschichten Spezial (ab 1987, 232 Hefte)

Der Geister Reiter (1991–1992, 15 Hefte)

Die Götter aus dem All (1978–1983, 8 Alben)

Gulliver (1979–1981, 36 Hefte)

Hair (1979, 1 Heft)

Heidi

Herbie Huppser (1981–1983, 11 Taschenbücher), besser bekannt als Die Minimenschen

Der Herr der Ringe (1979, Fotocomic zum Zeichentrickfilm)

Jerry Spring (1972, 16 Hefte)

John Tornado (1980–1981, 20 Hefte)

Jupiter

Käptn Blaubärs Seemannsgarn (1993–1995)

Kalari (1982–1983, 11 Taschenbücher)

Klasse (1972–1973, 58 Hefte, Nachfolgeserie von Wastl )

Kung Fu (1975–1981, 155 Hefte)

Kung Fu (1982–1984, 4 Taschenbücher)

Lasso (1965–1985, 647 Hefte und 17 Sonderhefte)

Luc Orient (1983–1985, 13 Alben)

Manos – Der Dämonenjäger

Marco Polo (1975–1978, 95 Hefte)

Mykros - Die Kämpfe der Titanen (1982–1983, 21 Hefte)

Natascha (1984–1986, 9 Alben)

Phantom (1974–1983, 238 Hefte)

Phantom (1976–1979, 15 Taschenbücher)

Phantom (1980–1984, 25 Taschenbücher)

Phantom Spezial (1980–1982, 49 Hefte)

Pillhuhn

Pinocchio

Police Academy (Auf Basis der Police Academy -Filme, 78 Folgen in den Jahren 1990 und 1991 )

Pony (1958–1960, 49 Hefte)

Rauchende Colts (1977–1978, 32 Hefte)

Raumagent Alpha (1973–1974, 39 Hefte)

Raumschiff Enterprise (1979–1980, 6 Heft)

Rex Danny (im Original: Buck Danny ; 1973–1974, 30 Hefte; 1977 Neuauflage 30 Hefte)

Robin Hood - Der Herr der Wälder mit Zusatzgeschichten Fanfan der Husar und Torka der Tiger (1973–1977, 97 Hefte)

Robotech - Die Macross Sage (1989, 3 Taschenbücher)

Roy Tiger (1968–1970, 74 Hefte, beginnend mit Nr. 6)

Rick (1983–1984, 9 Alben)

Rick (1984–1985, 4 Taschenbücher, frz. Ric Hochet , dt. auch Rick Master )

Schwarzbart der Pirat (1980–1981, 22 Hefte)

Schwarzer Wolf mit Zusatzgeschichte Teddy Ted - Der Mann aus Arizona (1975–1977, 68 Hefte)

Silberpfeil (1970–1988 768 Hefte / 1981–1985, 19 Taschenbücher)

Sindbad

Sonic der Comic

Spass - Die irre Comiczeitung (1983, 6 Hefte - regionale Testausgabe)

Sport Billy

Spuk Geschichten

Topix (1976–1978, 29 Hefte)

Vanessa – Die Freundin der Geister (1982–90, 215 Ausgaben)

Wastl (1968–1972, 173 Hefte / 1983–1984, 7 Taschenbücher)

Welt-Bestseller (1977–1978, 48 Hefte)

I have told the story of my dealing with Bastei and developing the D-Gruppe idea and what happened but I realised some original material had never been returned so I thought I might try to get it back. It seems, however, that none of the projects I worked on for the company survives -or record of them. It may sound odd but get this....

It was after the death of founding publisher Gustav Lübbe, in 1995, that most of the comic books of Bastei were discontinued. Gespenster Geschichten (Ghost Stories) was the last Bastei comic book and survived until 2006.  Unbelievably, in early 2010, in the course of relocating the publishing house, some moron(s) destroyed the entire Gustav Lübbe comics archive.

Really.  I know two people who at the time told me that the company looked down on comics and they were an embarrassment so an ‘accident’ happened. True or false who knows but an entire archive of German comics was destroyed and it could have been donated to a national museum as archives.

Dalborn and Bastei.  Very fond memories of both.