Suske en Wiske: Beefcake and Adventure in Flemish Comics

Suske en Wiske, aka Spike and Suzy, Bob and Bobette, Finn and Fifi, Ze y Maria, Willy and Wanda, and so on, are a pair of adventurers in a long-running comic strip created by Willy Vandersteen in 1945.  There have been 300+ albums to date, plus spin-offs.

For many years they appeared in Tintin Magazine, and comparisons with the Tintin strip are inevitable.

1. Tintin was originally published in French, Suske en Wiske in Flemish.

2. Tintin has a talking dog, Milou (Snowy).  Wiske has a doll, Schanulleke (Muffin), which doesn't talk, unless she is brought to life.

3. Tintin is a young adult, so he travels alone, or with Captain Haddock, a co-adventurer rather than a guardian. Suske and Wiske are in late childhood or early adolescence, so they require adult supervision on their travels:

Wiske's Aunt Sidonia
The befuddled scientist Professor Barabas
The portly comic relief character Ambrose
Muscular superheroic caveman Jethro.

4. Tintin's adventures are mainly naturalistic, with occasionally a bit of science fiction.  Suske and Wiske run the gamut of mystical, paranormal, fantasy, and science fiction.  They travel back in time to ancient Egypt or the Viking era.  They stop a war on the far side of the moon.  They interact with ghosts, dragons, wizards, and fairies.

5. Both Tintin and Suske en Wiske all but eliminate hetero-romance.  Suske and Wiske are platonic friends, and the adults rarely go out on dates or express romantic interest.

6. Tintin has a strong gay subtext, a romance in all but the name between Tintin and Captain Haddock.  I haven't found one in the Suske en Wiske albums that I've read.

But there's lots of beefcake, of a cartoonish sort.

7. Both Tintin and Suske en Wiske have been translated into many languages.  Suske en Wiske is particularly assiduous at translations into Dutch dialects: Brabantian, Dreents, Fries, Groning, Kalmhouts, Limburgish, Tweants.

Admit it: You didn't know there were so many dialects of Dutch.  Actually, there are 18, if you include Afrikaans and Flemish.



8. Both have achieved popularity in media other than comics.  Suske and Wiske have appeared in several movies, with Suske played by David Verbeek, Niels Destadsbader, Joeri Busschots (left), and Guilhermo Appolonio (top photo).  There have been television programs, stage musicals, and video games.

Cosplay is popular.

There are statues of the characters in Antwerp and Middelkerke, and a wall mural in Brussels. They have their own museum in Kalmthout.

9. Tintin has stayed the same age for 60 years, but Suske and Wiske have grown up.

 In 2013, Charel Cambre introduced a spin-off, Amoras, with adult Suske and Wiske going into the future to avert a catastrophe in the present.  Suske pairs up with a girl named Jerusalem.

The adult Suske is a handsome, muscular action hero, but he encounters semi-naked girls and has a hetero-romance.

You get something, you lose something.

Pat Boone, Gay Icon

It's hard to imagine, but conservative spokesperson Pat Boone was once an icon for gay kids.  In a 1959 version of the Jules Verne classic Journey to the Center of the Earth, one of a series of adaptions of Jules Verne classics which Disney made during the period, Alec (Boone) journeys into the subterranean world with his geologist uncle, Professor Lindenbrook (James Mason), their guide Hans (Peter Ronson), and a love interest for the professor (Arlene Dahl).

While minimizing plausibility (they encounter giant lizards and the ruins of Atlantis), director Henry Levin maximized beefcake. As the explorers descend, Alec doffs his clothes, and the camera forsakes closeups of his prettyboy face to concentrate on his small, firm biceps and lean, tight chest.

Soon Hans doffs his clothes, too; he is blond and beefy, considerably more defined, a veritable Tarzan.

The men spend the rest of the movie falling into pits, fleeing from lizards, almost suffocating in salt pits, and almost drowning in oceans, and consequently rescuing, grabbing, holding, and comforting each other; Alec is especially likely to require rescue, followed by cradling in Hans' strong arms. When they reach a field of giant mushrooms that will replenish their dwindling food supply, they are so delighted that they break out into a dance while the Professor's love interest stands aside, a spectator only.

Hans is not interested in girls, but Alex has a girlfriend back home, whom he marries in the last frames of the movie.  But after two hours of half-naked men grabbing, holding, and comforting each other, we could put up with a fade-out boy-girl kiss.

In real life, Pat Boone is a conservative Christian who frequently makes homophobic statements, although my friend Randall said that he was "straight but open to suggestions back in the 1950s.

See: Dick Sargent's Hookup with Pat Boone

Flipper: Bodybuilder teen, twink brother, gay dad, and a dolphin

Flipper (1964-67),  was like Lassie or Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, except set n the Florida Everglades, with a dolphin instead of a collie or a kangaroo, and no women in sight. It seemed designed explicitly for the viewing pleasure of gay kids (your other choices on Saturday night were Jackie Gleason, for the grownups, and Shindig, for the teens).

It was about Ranger Porter Ricks (Brian Kelly), who lived in the Everglades National Park with his two sons, used boats more than cars, and didn't seem to own a shirt.

Nor dd his lithe, androgynous son Sandy Ricks (seventeen-year old Luke Halpin), who seemed to go to school once in a while, but otherwise was swimming, diving, boating, and getting into trouble.  He wore cut-off jeans that were way too tight for adequate modesty, and shrank even more whenever he got wet (which was all the time).

And can someone explain Bud Ricks (twelve-year old Tommy Norden)?  He's a kid with the pecs and abs of an adult bodybuilder.  Did they graft a 12-year old's head onto a grown-up's body, or what? (The same muscle spurt, incidentally, happened in comics to Richie Rich.)

Not that any gay kids were complaining.  Saturday night, summer or winter, was beefcake time.

 There was not a lot of buddy-bonding; Sandy and/or Bud needed rescuing a lot, but it was always Flipper who chirped to the rescue.  But -- and this was a big "but" for 1960s tv - none of the boys exhibited much heterosexual interest.  Porter and Bud, never.

Sandy had already grinned and flirted with a girl in the movie Flipper’s New Adventure (1964), yet he expressed an interest in girls during the tv series only twice. In “Love and Sandy” (1965), he has an unrequited crush on  a college girl (Cheryl Miller), and in “Cupid Flipper” (1966) he mistakenly believes that his girlfriend (Susan Abbot) is in love with his father. It was like a weekly vacation from the tedium of incessant "what girl do you like"?

There were lots of book tie-ins and toys available for the off-hours.

After a few 1970s tv appearances, such as The Mighty Isis, Tommy Norden retired from acting, and Brian Kelly was forced to retire in 1970 after a motorcycle accident paralyzed his right arm and leg -- he continued to produce movies like The Blade Runner (1982).  But Luke Halpin had a long career on television and in movies like Island of the Lost (1967) and  If It's Tuesday, This Must be Belgium (1969).  

See also: Flipper Toys

Toddler TV

Adults think that gayness is something that "happens" to you late in life, after a childhood of girls mooning over teen idols and boys grinning at the girl next door. But we know that they are wrong.  In every kindergarten classroom, in every preschool classroom, there are some boys who gaze at girls, and some boys who gaze at boys.

But what are they looking at?  Is their desire erotic, romantic, or something else entirely, something that we have forgotten as adults?  When gay boys watched Blue's Clues (1996-2006), did they think of Steve Burns as a cool big brother, or as a hot fantasy boyfriend with killer biceps?









Or Donovan Patton, who took over for Steve in later seasons?






















When they watched Barney and Friends (1992-2010), did they want to hug and kiss Michael (Brian Eppes), or did physical intimacy never enter their minds?

When I was three or four years old, there wasn't a lot of toddler tv. On Saturday morning I probably watched what the older kids watched: The Alvin Show, Tennessee Tuxedo, Underdog, Beany and Cecil.  On weekday mornings I probably watched Romper Room, with a female host, and Captain Kangaroo, with an elderly male host.  And in the early evening, there was probably Yogi Bear and The Flintstones.

I was drawn to the homodomesticity (same-sex partners living together) and to the same-sex rescues. But did I think anyone was hot?

See also: Burr Tillstrom, the gay puppeteer behind Kukla, Fran, and Ollie.