Jommeke is a boy of about ten with a very characteristic haircut (a ‘thatch’). Together with his group of friends he has all kinds of highly imaginative and exciting adventures, in which there is not a trace of violence. All of Jommeke's adventures have a happy end. Though the happy ending may have become almost a permanent feature of Flemish family cartoons, a series like Jo & co sometimes risks a departure from this rule. Merho, its author, is apparently not very optimistic regarding certain present-day world problems (e.g. the democratisation of former dictatorships). The most daring family cartoon is undoubtedly the risqué Urbanus. Linthout's style of drawing is disarmingly naive, but there is a great deal of social criticism mixed in with the ruthless humour.
The humour in Flemish comic strips has come a long way since the Second World War, but it remains less varied than in other comics such as the French or American ones. One particularly strong trend in Flanders is nonsensical or absurd humour, the leaders here being Kamagurka & Herr Seele. By contrast, social satire, the chief genre in nineteenth-century European comic strips, appears very rarely. In The Cow, by Johan De Moor and Stephen Desberg, the satire is hidden beneath a form that is mischievous and playful. Kobe looks like an ordinary cow, but sometimes she goes out into the wide world as a secret agent and takes up the cudgels against pollution and other contemporary excrescences.
A separate trend is the humorous comic that focuses on a famous tv personality, such as a comedian, a pop singer, a politician, a sex symbol or a children's idol. The great majority of these merchandising comics are substandard and quite ephemeral. The only ones which have been successful in appealing to a broad readership for a longer period are Urbanus and Samson & Gert (based on a tremendously popular tv series for young children, centred on a fluffy dog called Samson).
Another widespread genre is the ‘naughty boy’ comic, about children who get up to mischief. The former ‘cheerful rascals’, conversant only with innocent pranks, have now given way to brash and independent cartoon children like Legendre's Biebel.
Whereas the Japanese manga and American comic books explode with action, in Flemish comic strips it's relatively peaceful. Flanders produces no pure action comics containing violence for violence's sake. Action is in most cases used in thrillers or crime stories. XIII, by William Vance, is a deftly drawn, exciting macho adventure series. The scenario is by one of Europe's most popular scenarists, the French-speaking Belgian Jean van Hamme, who likes to borrow ideas from novel writers and film scenarists. In the case of XIII he drew part of his inspiration from the books of Robert Ludlum.
The great majority of Flemish comic strips are set in the present day, but there are also those that are set in the past (e.g.
Bakelandt, set during the eighteenth-century French occupation) or the future (e.g.
Forever War). Generally speaking, Flemish comics are interested in only a limited number of historical periods and in specific locations. The Middle Ages in Europe remain popular. The stories are always fictional, though employing historical elements. The more fantastic genres such as science fiction, tales of heroes and sword & sorcery occur less frequently but do play a major part in
Red Knight. It was started in 1959 by Willy Vandersteen as a Flemish version of the American
Prince Valiant by Hal Foster. In the hands of Karel
Merho: Jo & co (Kiekeboe).
Karel Biddeloo: The Red Knight (De Rode Ridder).