Tom Tempo #2 - 'Het Oog Van Shava'.
Eduard De Rop was a Belgian comic artist and one of the longest-serving members of Willy Vandersteen's Kalmthout comic studio. For decades, De Rop was the regular inker of Vandersteen's signature series 'Suske en Wiske', while also being the lead artist for the spin-off series 'Jerom, de Gouden Stuntman'. With fellow studio member Karel Verschuere, he provided the artwork for the first books in the popular chivalry comic series 'De Rode Ridder' (1959-1969). De Rop additionally lended his slick inking style to other studio productions, such as 'Bessy' and 'Robert en Bertrand'. Between 1962 and 1967, Eduard De Rop wrote and drew the original 'Pats' comic for the youth supplement of the same name, a version deviating heavily from the more famous Studio Vandersteen version that began in 1974. More obscurely, De Rop was the main artist behind 'De Geschiedenis van Sleenovia' (1965), an odd comic based on Marc Sleen's 'Nero' series, written by the journalist Gaston Durnez in the time period between the end of Sleen's contract with Het Volk and his start at De Standaard. While most of De Rop's career happened in the shadow of Vandersteen, in the late 1980s he created one series of his own, 'Tom Tempo'. Unfortunately, a brain hemorrhage terminated what could have been a productive solo career.
Early life and career
Edward De Rop was born in 1928 in Antwerp. Later in life, he used to spell his name as "Eduard" to give it more international resonance. His father worked at the paper division of the Gevaert factory, and regularly brought back home large piles of paper, which were quickly filled with young Edward's scribbles. His passion for comics was fuelled by American newspaper comics like Hal Foster's 'Prince Valiant' and Milton Caniff's 'Steve Canyon', but also by the Dutch comic 'Sjors van de Rebellenclub' by Frans Piët. De Rop attended the Antwerp Art Academy, and took evening courses from the Academy of Berchem. Originally, he worked as a furniture designer in his grandfather's workshop, but soon left this job to become an advertising artist. He created many movie posters for the Nelissen agency, while delivering illustrations to the magazines Bolero and Mascotte under the pseudonym "Pim". In Piccolo magazine, his artwork appeared in color.
'Stan Tikker Tegen De Raaf'.
Early solo comics
As comic creator, De Rop's gag strips with the rascals 'Patat, Kriekske en Snijboon' (1953-1954) appeared in Pat magazine, followed by the humorous adventure serial 'Henk Handig in "De Zwarte Boeddha"' (1958) in the weekly Ons Land. After assuming the pen name "Drope", he continued with the short comics 'Clara Detective' (1959), 'Stan Stikker tegen de Raaf' (1959) and 'De Familie Zwanzers' (1960), three lightweight stories about respectively a girl detecive, a young reporter and an average Flemish family for the women's magazine Iris. In collaboration with G. Hopstaken, he created the advertising comic serial 'De Vrolijke Lotgevallen van Hans Snugger en Kwikzilver' (1959) through the advertising agency Publi Advisa, published in the newspaper De Gazet van Antwerpen. In 1960, this sci-fi story was released in book format by De Vlijt. Decades later, in 2012, Peter Bonte reprinted the story in two volumes. In 1962, De Rop teamed up with fellow artist E. Decamps, using the collective pseudonym Ro-Cam to create the comic 'Tijl Tempo in "De Blaffende Stopnaald"' for the Sunday newspaper De Zondagmorgen.
'De Zwanzers'.
Studio Vandersteen
In April 1959, De Rop joined Willy Vandersteen's studio, becoming one of his longtime assistants right after Vandersteen's regular inker Karel Boumans had left. Among De Rop's early jobs were inking the daily 'Suske en Wiske' newspaper episodes, starting with the story 'Het Vliegende Bed', as well as the gag features 'De Lustige Zwervers' in Ons Volkske, 'De Grappen van Lambik' (1959-1962) in De Bond and the final episodes of ''t Prinske' ('Altesse Riri', 1959) in Tintin. Between 1960 and 1962, Eduard De Rop provided the illustrations for 'Wij Lezen met Suske en Wiske', a series of six booklets for early readers starring Suske and Wiske, written by Leopold Vermeiren.
In 1960, Vandersteen created 'Geschipper naast Mathilde' (1960-1962), a celebrity comic based on the popular Flemish TV sitcom 'Schipper Naast Mathilde' (1955-1963), which appeared in De Zondagmorgen. As he already grew tired of it after one episode, Vandersteen passed on the feature to Eduard De Rop and fellow artist Eugeen Decamps, who continued it for a while longer. Coincidentally, that same year, the 'Schipper Naast Mathilde' TV series inspired yet another comic feature: Johan Anthierens and Eddy Ryssack's 'Kapitein Matthias' (1960) in Humo magazine. After their first collaboration, De Rop and Decamps teamed up again for the comic 'Tijl Tempo in "De Blaffende Stopnaald"' (1962), also created for De Zondagmorgen under the collective pseudonym Ro-Cam.
Bessy - 'De Vuurdans'.
De Rode Ridder & Bessy
At Studio Vandersteen, Eduard De Rop had quickly established himself as a jack-of-all-trades. He worked extensively with Karel Verschuere, the artist responsible for most of the studio's realistic comic series, such as 'Bessy' and 'Karl May'. Their most notable collaboration was a new series about the medieval sword-slinger 'De Rode Ridder', based on the youth novel series by Leopold Vermeiren. For the first story, Vandersteen handed his co-workers a brief outline, which the two turned into the serial 'Het Gebroken Zwaard' (1959). Vandersteen produced the second story himself, but after that, Verschuere and De Rop remained the series' main artists for the next couple of years. Besides doing part of the artwork, Eduard De Rop also provided the script for the 1961 episode 'Het Wapen van Rihei'. Between 1963 and 1966, Frank Sels took over as 'Rode Ridder' artist. After that, De Rop returned to the series, penciling new episodes in a more slick and clear drawing style, starting with the 30th episode 'Mysterie te Camelot' (1966) and lasting until Karel Biddeloo took over in 1968.
At the time, all the Vandersteen comics were either credited to "Willy Vandersteen" or "Studio Vandersteen", leaving the identification of specific co-workers to style recognition or first-hand statements. In an interview published on the website destripspeciaalzaak.be in 2016, De Rop claimed that he and Verschuere collaborated on all 'Rode Ridder' stories together up until Karel Biddeloo took over, leaving out the entire Sels period and De Rop's solo tenure. Considering the availability and activities of both artists at the time, this information seems disputable. Between 1964 and 1968, Karel Verschuere left and rejoined Studio Vandersteen on several occasions. By 1965, Eduard De Rop jumped in to replace Verschuere as artist of the 'Bessy' stories, recognizable by the more angular and stiff drawing style. As Vandersteen's new "second in command", he also helped with assembling a team that could take care of the 'Bessy' stories ordered by the German publisher Bastei Verlag. Starting in 1966, this tight and large-scale production was coordinated from Vandersteen's separate Studio Bessy in Antwerp, initially under supervision of Verschuere. Among the early artists who worked there were Karel Biddeloo, Edgard Gastmans, Frank Sels and a group of female inkers.
First 'Pats' strip, from 5 September 1962.
Pats
On 5 September 1962, all publications of De Standaard received the new weekly children's supplement Pats, named after the popular puppet show 'Pats Poppenspel' by Karel Weyler. Outside of his studio hours, De Rop created a gag strip based on Weyler's puppet play, 'Pats', which he signed with "Dropy". The initial strips were written by Weyler himself, but De Rop eventually took care of the entire production. When the Pats supplement was restyled in 1965, Willy Vandersteen got the opportunity to contribute more comics. First of all, Vandersteen and De Rop, with participation of Eugeen Goossens, developed a reboot of the previously canceled family comic 'De Familie Snoek' (1965). To appeal to a younger audience, the strip was restyled with a more slick drawing style, while the gags focused on the kid characters.
On 8 February 1967, Vandersteen's 'Jerom' comic replaced De Rop's 'Pats' on the front page of the supplement. It took seven years before the title comic returned in his own magazine as a Studio Vandersteen production. On 28 February 1974, Pats was retitled De Patskrant and a new protagonist was created with the same name, but with a different design. The new Pats received a baby sister, Trezebees, and a strange pet called Flappy, an extraterrestrial big-eared squirrel with the ability to fly. Vandersteen took care of the first stories himself, but eventually handed the production to Merho. Pats Poppenspel threatened to sue, since they weren't financially compensated for the use of their brand name. After a court case, both the newspaper and the comic changed names. On 23 August 1977, De Patskrant became the Stipkrant and the Pats character was redesigned and renamed into 'Tits'. The rest of the cast stayed the same and the comic continued until 3 June 1986, by then drawn by Peter Koeken. At this point, the strip had deviated heavily from De Rop's initial version.
'De Geschiedenis van Sleenovia'.
De Geschiedenis van Sleenovia
Another comic with Eduard de Rop's participation is an oddball in Flemish comic history. In 1965, Marc Sleen, creator of 'Nero', left his newspaper Het Volk to join De Standaard, where he became a colleague of Willy Vandersteen. While De Standaard and its companion papers Het Nieuwsblad and De Gentenaar already announced the arrival of 'Nero' in their pages, Sleen was contractually still tied to Het Volk, and unable to publish anything for the next three months. As both Sleen and De Standaard were in a tight spot, Willy Vandersteen stepped in to help. He proposed to create a 'Nero' story of his own to fill in the gap. With his aid, the first episode took off in De Standaard on 12 April 1965 under the title 'De Avonturen van Nero & Co'. The plot, written by Sleen's friend and colleague Gaston Durnez, stars Nero as the monarch of a happy kingdom named "Sleenovia". He wants his country to join the United Nations, but an alliance of "serious countries" try everything to keep him out. The artwork was credited to Wirel, the pseudonym used by Vandersteen and Karel Verschuere, but in reality most of it was done by Eduard De Rop. A rival cartoonist making an official comic strip with another cartoonist's characters was already unusual in itself. But Durnez and De Rop used some odd techniques too. They cut out characters from old 'Nero' stories and pasted them into the story, while other background characters and scenery were drawn in the familiar Studio Vandersteen style, resulting in by far the most experimental comic strip Vandersteen's team ever produced.
While Sleen supported Vandersteen's initiative, Het Volk threatened to sue De Standaard over copyright infringement for using the 'Nero' character. After only five episodes, Nero suddenly received a black bag over his head, which stayed there for most of the story. Nero's name was removed from the title and all the other regular 'Nero' cast members were drastically redesigned as well. Durnez wrote Nero's obscured head into the narrative and made a few jokes about the legal complications. Sometimes, Nero's name and head returned again, only to disappear again the next day. On 4 May 1965, Nero returned for good and Durnez's plot continued uncensored. Only one permanent change was added. On 31 May, the story was renamed 'De Geschiedenis van Sleenovia', the title it is still referred to today. However, this didn't mean troubles were over. On 5 June, a judge sentenced De Standaard for "unfair rivalry" and forbid them to use Sleen's characters and their names ever again. De Standaard went in higher appeal, but eventually a couple of high-ranked Catholic clergymen had to step in to end all the squabbling between two Catholic newspapers. With their intervention, the matter was settled amicably. As such, 'De Geschiedenis van Sleenovia' could quietly end its serialization on 30 June 1965. A day later, Sleen's contract with Het Volk ended, which allowed him to publish his first real 'Nero' story in the newspapers of De Standaard.
Still, legal issues prevented this unique collage comic from ever receiving an official album publication. In 1979, the Flemish comic magazine Ciso Stripgids brought out a special issue (#25), that offered a bundled version as a free gift. Collectors bought it eagerly. In 2017, publisher Peter Bonte finally released the story in book format with a cover drawing by Sleen's longtime assistant Dirk Stallaert.
Jerom - 'Wie Een Put Graaft Voor Een Ander' (1990).
Jerom
Despite all of his other contributions, the Vandersteen series Eduard De Rop is mostly associated with is 'Jerom'. On 18 August 1960, Vandersteen had launched a spin-off with Suske and Wiske's muscleman friend in Ons Volkske magazine. In 1967, the series also appeared in Pats, followed a year later by its publication in the regional newspaper Het Belang van Limburg. Originally, Jerom was a humorous adventure series in the same tradition as the parent series 'Suske en Wiske', but starting with the 11th adventure in 1967, it was rebooted into a superhero-style comic named 'Jerom, De Gouden Stuntman'. Three characters from the 'Suske en Wiske' series were added to the main cast, namely Aunt Sidonia, professor Barabas and the antagonist Krimson, but Suske, Wiske and Lambik remained absent from the series. The superhero version of Jerom also received a boy sidekick named Odilon.
The series was translated in French, English ('Big Billy Bigg', which ran in Sparky) and Greek. Just like Vandersteen's 'Bessy' comic, 'Jerom' was incredibly popular in its German translation by Bastei Verlag. Under the title 'Wastl', the comic first appeared in Bastei's Felix magazine between 1965 and 1968. While Studio Vandersteen provided Bastei with brand new stories, some of the German serializations were translations of older 'Suske en Wiske' episodes. Starting in 1968, new stories were published directly in a Wastl comic book, first appearing every two weeks and eventually on a weekly basis. Between February 1972 and June 1973, an additional 'Wastl' series appeared in the magazine Klasse. Just like with 'Bessy', the Vandersteen team took care of a heavy production schedule to supply Bastei with new stories. Some of the German 'Jerom' stories have never appeared in Dutch, as the production was basically "quantity over quality". The final German 'Jerom' story appeared in 1973.
Besides Willy Vandersteen himself, co-workers Eugeen Goossens, Paul Geerts and Merho also worked on 'Jerom' stories. By the time Paul Geerts was assigned to take over the main 'Suske en Wiske' series in 1969, Eduard De Rop got a prominent role in the production of 'Jerom'. In 1982, 'Jerom' was retitled 'De Wonderbare Reizen van Jerom' ("The Miraculous Travels of Jerom", 1982-1985) and then returned to simply being called 'Jerom' (1985-1991). In this new incarnation, the muscled hero said farewell to his Golden Stuntman persona and became a globetrotter. In Belgium, Ons Volkske ended its publication of 'Jerom' in 1984, Het Belang van Limburg in 1986 and Stipkrant in 1988. The final 'Jerom' album was published in 1991. In the later 'Jerom' book releases, Eduard De Rop is mentioned explicitly as the artist and Marck Meul as the writer.
'Het Hondenparadijs', a 'Suske en Wiske' story inked by Eduard De Rop.
Studio Karel Verschuere
In 1969, De Rop briefly left Studio Vandersteen, when he and other former studio employees like Karel Boumans and Erik Vandemeulebroucke went to work for German publisher Erich Pabel as members of Karel Verschuere's new studio. There, they collaborated on the humorous western series 'Tom Berry', as well as the realistic comic 'Die Abenteuer von Jimmy Carter und Adlerfeder' (no relation to the later US President Jimmy Carter). The latter comic was also published in the Flemish magazine De Post under the title 'Arendsklauw'.
To many, it remains strange that the loyal and friendly De Rop would leave Willy Vandersteen in the first place. One of the main reasons might be that De Rop and Karel Verschuere had become good friends during their collaboration at Studio Vandersteen. Also, around the time of De Rop's departure, Vandersteen had assigned newcomer Paul Geerts to take over the studio's lead comic 'Suske en Wiske'. As his main inker since 1959, De Rop had worked with Vandersteen on some of the best remembered stories of the 1960s, including 'De Texasrakkers', 'De Wolkeneters' and 'Het Hondenparadijs'. Despite forming a dream team with his taskmaster, De Rop was not appointed as his successor, but instead handed the less prominent 'Jerom' series. Whatever the reason, his departure from Studio Vandersteen didn't last long. Disagreements with Verschuere over their payments made all employees quickly return to Vandersteen. As a result, Verschuere was forced to end his contract with Pabel.
Return to Studio Vandersteen
Back at Vandersteen, De Rop resumed inking 'Suske en Wiske', now penciled by Paul Geerts. Working on 'Suske en Wiske' remained one of his main tasks until 1980, often in alternation with Eugeen Goossens. He also returned to 'Jerom', and assisted on the inking of 'Robert en Bertrand'. However, the productivity of the studio sometimes made the quality suffer. The weekly deadlines for the German-language versions of 'Bessy' and 'Jerom' stories resulted in such sloppy work that by 1985, Bastei Verlag terminated their contract. In the mid-1980s, Studio Vandersteen was dissolved, and many series were canceled. Production of the ongoing series were divided between Vandersteen's Kalmthout studio and a new studio opened by the publisher, Standaard Uitgeverij, in Brussels. De Rop transferred to Brussels, where he drew the remaining 'Jerom' stories until the series' cancellation in 1991.
Tom Tempo #5 - 'De Zonderlinge Mummie'.
Solo career
In 1983, Eduard De Rop designed the cover and illustrated various pages of Jack de Graef's 'Doorschuiven, A.U.B. De Ludieke Geschiedenis van de Antwerpse Tram' (De Dageraad, 1983), a book about the history of the Antwerp streetcars. Other artists who provided drawings for this book were Gaston Schuermans, Wim Sorry and Hannelore Vantieghem.
By the time Standaard Uitgeverij canceled the 'Jerom' series, Eduard De Rop was in his early sixties, still too young to retire. He therefore revived his 1960s creation 'Hans Snugger' and renamed him 'Tom Tempo' (1988), while applying a "Clear Line" approach for his drawings. Newspaper Het Volk published 14 episodes of his humorous adventure comic, and collected six of them in book format in 1989 and 1990, but without much success. To earn some extra income, De Rop sold new drawings of 'Pats' and 'Suske en Wiske', commissioned by his fans. Through Marck Meul's Studio Koala, he also worked on three albums of Thijs Wilms and Wil Raymakers' funny animal comic 'Boes' (Standaard Uitgeverij, 1988), penciled by Marc Verhaegen.
Final years and death
In the late 1990s, De Rop and Karel Biddeloo also contemplated a comic strip set in 19th-century London, named 'Crazy Old London'. Six pages were finished when De Rop suddenly suffered a brain hemorrhage, which left him partially paralyzed on the left side of his body. This effectively ended his career and he spent the final years of his life in a medical care center. In 2007, Eduard De Rop passed away in Borgerhout.
Legacy
In later years, several of De Rop's older comics have been reprinted in limited edition albums by Peter Bonte. In 2006, Bonte also released the entire 'Tom Tempo' series in new albums. Posthumously, Bonte released a booklet collecting the finished artwork of 'Crazy Old London' (2007), followed in later years by book collecting the 'Hans Snugger en Kwikzilver' story 'S.O.S. Op de Planeet Jupinus' (2012), as well as 'Stan Stikker Tegen de Raaf' (2016). His son Eric De Rop has also worked as a comic artist for Studio Vandersteen, mainly responsible for the 'Schanulleke' comic and inking 'Suske en Wiske'. Eric's own son, Dave De Rop, became a well known graffiti artist under the name Bué the Warrior. In 2011, a posthumous graphic homage by Eduard De Rop was included in 'Op Het Spoor van Pom' ('t Mannekesblad, 2011), a collective tribute album to the Flemish comic artist Pom. Originally, this page was intended by De Rop as an application for continuing Pom's series 'Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber'.
Eduard de Rop has a cameo in the 'Suske en Wiske' album 'De Briesende Bruid'. In the scene where aunt Sidonia gets married in the city hall (strip #214), exchanging the vows with the mayor, De Rop, Paul Geerts and letterer Hilde Costermans can be seen in the background. De Rop also has a guest appearance in strip #208 of 'De Belhamel Bende' (1982). In the scene where Suske and Wiske visit the studio, he claims it is a "delightful surprise."
Eduard De Rop and his personal creations, drawn by his son Eric De Rop in 2014.