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THE SERIES

The Kiekeboe Family
Thinking about Kiekeboe, the first thing that springs to mind is the image of a bald guy with a heavy moustache. But Marcel Kiekeboe is not the only Kiekeboe around: with his wife Charlotte, his daughter Fanny and his son Konstantinopel he has the most exciting adventures. Actually, the Kiekeboe family is a perfectly normal family experiencing a lot of abnormal events. Being a real Kiekeboe fan, you obviously know that the comics are often very funny: just check out the names of the characters! Usually they're puns. Ever heard of a person called Jingle Bell? Or the popular singer Dow Jones? But the Kiekeboe series doesn't shrink from more serious topics and also focuses on current events and situations: the story De wokchinees, for instance, deals with the Chinese mafia selling human organs, in album 112 the neighbors of the Kiekeboe family have just gone through a divorce, and the recent escapes from Belgian prisons are discussed in album 111, Dédé by Night. If you watch the news, you can be sure to recognize some topics from Kiekeboe comics.

BIOGRAPHY
The Author
Rob Merhottein, a.k.a. Merho, was born in Antwerp on 24 October 1948. As a boy, he was an avid reader of newspaper comics such as Suske & Wiske (Bob and Bobette), Nero, and Piet Pienter & Bert Bibber. These great examples infused him with a strong interest in comics and drawing. Merho personally visited all comic artists he knew and got in touch with Marc Sleen (Nero) and Pom (Piet Pienter & Bert Bibber) whose advice and coaching taught him a lot. In 1964 he started up a series of gags about Comi and Dacske for a trade journal, and in 1965 he started drawing the gag strip Zoz & Zef in Jong Caritas. Both creations were also published in book form and have become real collector's items.
Merho went on to study Applied Graphics at the Saint Lucas Institute in Brussels where he honed his skills as a cartoonist. Against the general passion for experiment of those days, he also ventured to draw classic comic strips. In 1970, after his graduation, he applied for a job at Studio Vandersteen where he learned the trade from the great master Willy Vandersteen himself who asked him to apply his skills to the series Pats and Jerom (intended for the German market). Merho worked for the Studio until 1976. Undoubtedly, this period with Vandersteen proved to be an ideal training experience for the young comic artist.
Next, Merho started dreaming about his own comic book project. In 1977 he launched his own comic book series, Kiekeboe, inspired by characters from the puppet show of his brother Walter. The series was published by the newspaper syndicate Het Laatste Nieuws/De Nieuwe Gazet. One and a half years later the first Kiekeboe adventure, De Wollebollen, (The Woolly Balls) was published as an album. It was followed by many other successful albums and in 1983 Merho received De Bronzen Adhemar, the highest award for comic artists in Flanders.
Together with Hec Leemans (the artist who is famous for his Bakelandt series, and who also draws F.C. De Kampioenen) Merho signed up with Standaard Uitgeverij in 1990. Henceforth, this publishing house would be publishing all his albums. So far, more than one hundred comic books have seen the light and their success is still growing.
As of 2004 Kiekeboe is pre-published in Gazet van Antwerpen/Het Belang van Limburg.

The Assistants
During the first nine years Kiekeboe was a one man project, but due to the growing success of the series Merho decided to look for assistance. For some time now the Merho team consists of two permanent assistants. Peter Koeken has been taking care of the inking for twenty years. He's the one who brings the Kiekeboe family into line. As a colorist, Ria Smits, Merho's wife, is responsible for the healthy complexion of Marcel and his gang. She also looks after the lettering, and attends to the accounting and administration.
In 2006 Thomas Du Caju joined the studio. Merho usually hands him the script and pencil drawings asking him to draw up a story. Thomas has extensive experience in drawing realistic comics, and these skills help him when applying the typical Kiekeboe style. Another new assistant is Kristof Fagard.

THE CHARACTERS
Marcel Kiekeboe
He's the main character. Since Kreuvett in De anonieme smulpapen (Gourmands Anonymous) explicitly asked for his first name, we know that it's Marcel, but even his wife Charlotte just calls him Kiekeboe (Peekaboo in English).
His birthday is on 24 October.
He has been married to Charlotte for more than 20 years; he is the proud father of Fanny and Konstantinopel, as well as Moemoe's only son.
Before marrying Charlotte, he came this close to tying the knot with Thea Traal (Goegebuer's present girlfriend) and he also had a relationship with Sarah Gossa (see De wraak van Dédé - Dédé's Revenge), but since his marriage he hasn't taken a fancy to other women, not even to the seductive vamps who cross his path in Kies Kiekeboe (Vote Kiekeboe) or De onweerstaanbare man (The Irresistible Man). The only other woman to succeed in giving him the hots is Mona.
Marcel owes his looks to a character in the puppet show of Merho's brother Walter. He's extremely proud of his moustache and in 1984 he even won the award "Moustache of the Year" presented by the Antwerp Moustache Club. He is also convinced that bald is beautiful, in spite of his experiments with a toupee in Kies Kiekeboe (Vote Kiekeboe) and De bende van Moemoe (Moemoe's Gang).
Since De Ka-Fhaar Kiekeboe is wearing contacts.
In a previous life he used to be the jester Hans Worst (see De Heeren van Scheurbuyck - The Lords of Scheurbuyck) and in De wereld volgens Kiekeboe (The World according to Kiekeboe) he travels to the future.
Marcel works as a clerk in the company of Van de Kasseien, but he also tries his hand at other jobs (restaurant critic, deodorant tester, cook, actor, politician, laundry owner, etc.). Obviously, Marcel Kiekeboe is a busy bee.

Charlotte Kiekeboe
Charlotte met Marcel more than 20 years ago, when she was working as a shop assistant in a patisserie. She's the proud mother of Fanny and Konstantinopel.
Her birthday is on 16 July.
In the first albums of the series she used to be a rather shy housewife, but that didn't last long. In De getatoeëerde mossel (The Tattooed Mussel) she ends up in a sect, together with Goegebuer. From the next album (Het lot van Charlotte - Charlotte's Destiny) on she craves an adventurous life, re-examines her relation with Kiekeboe and decides it's lots more fun to go out working.
She landed jobs as a police officer, telemarketeer and executive assistant. She also worked for a funeral director. She's a liberated woman, who enjoys her adventurous life and doesn't hesitate to practice the tricks she learned in a self-defense class.
After a while, she feels happy to be home again and apparently, she also likes to take care of her family, but in the meantime she has definitely earned our respect.
Charlotte is quite jealous, especially when Kiekeboe is flirting with Mona. She has had one fervent admirer herself, Bibi Pralin Gaga, who regarded her as his 'madame de Pompadour'.
Once in a while Charlotte's family also plays a part in the Kiekeboe adventures. Her cousin Lex Tok dies in De hoofdzaak (The Main Thing) and her uncle Felix is a seemingly prudish verger (see De naakte waarheid - The Naked Truth).
In the first album Merho ever drew (Kiekeboe in het circus - Kiekeboe at the Circus) she was called Sofie, but since De Wollebollen we know Marcel's wife as Charlotte. In De Heeren van Scheurbuyck she is Lady Morphine, the count's bride to be.

Fanny Kiekeboe
She’s the daughter of Marcel and Charlotte, and Konstantinopel's sister. She's the sexy 'attraction' of the comic series, showing off her body in the bath, under the shower, lying topless on the beach, wearing a wet T-shirt, running around naked at a nudist campsite... and posing in the nude for Playfair. Her birthday is on 15 February.
She's concerned about a lot of actual issues (the environment, animal rights, the anti-fur movement ...) but she's also a material girl who adores luxury cars and sun beds... In almost every story she's got a (different) boyfriend whom she often drags along in some adventurous events; that is, if she doesn't decide to go things alone, or with her brother.
Her falling in and out of love with a series of boyfriends ends just before the 100th story, Verkeerd verbonden (Wrong Number), where Fanny is going steady with Jens. In the meantime this relationship has broken up as well, but they remain good friends.
Fanny is often looking for a job. She has already worked a lot of different student jobs, such as babysitting, modeling, delivering flowers, washing cars, selling Plat-Food, working in a hotel etc.

Konstantinopel Kiekeboe
The youngest child of the Kiekeboe family (or isn't he? A question asked in Kielekiele Boe). At first he ran around in shorts, later in a tracksuit. Currently, he's wearing hip pants and a red shirt. He is very smart, but he is often overlooked because he is just a kid. However, he sees that as an opportunity to take action and he often succeeds in saving the day. Just like any other boy he loves to play and he's happiest when he can hang out with his friends Joeksel and Froefroe.
His birthday is on 23 August.
In De pili-pili pillen (The Pili Pili Pills) an invention (or rather, an experiment) by Konstantinopel is the main theme of the story: accidentally, he invents pills against drunkenness.
In De Incabouter he plays his first leading part.

Moemoe
Moemoe (Granny) is Marcel's mother and the widow of Oscar Kiekeboe. Her name is Jozefien (Josephine).
She makes her first appearance in Meesterwerken bij de vleet (Masterpieces Galore).
She often drops by when the Kiekeboe family least want to see her. She expects her son to be at her beck and call whenever she needs him.
We never get to meet her friend, Mrs. Stokvis (Stockfish), a woman she considers to be her social rival. This woman of legendary proportions doesn’t even show up in the story about The Stockfish Incident.Occasionally, Moemoe falls in love (with Beauregard Van Achteren and Don Juan Casanova de Sade), but these relationships never have a happy ending. On the contrary…In some albums Moemoe plays a leading role, such as in De bende van Moemoe (Moemoe's Gang) and Zand erover (Nuff Said).

 

MINOR CHARACTERS
Balthazar
This character already appeared in the Kiekeboe puppet show presented by Merho's brother.
He has been part of the series from the first album.
As a criminal Balthazar is a complete failure (his exploits always turn out badly). He's an independent operator (but often works contracts for other people) and each time he gets in the way of the Kiekeboe family, he ends up feeling sorry for himself.
He's always wearing the same checkered suit, unless he has to dress up - usually in women's finery.
In Over koetjes en kalfjes (One Thing and Another) he falls in love with Inspector Sapperdeboere.

 

The Van der Neffe Family
They are the next-door neighbors of the Kiekeboe family.
Leon is a professional serviceman with a corporal's rank. He is a real bully who also barks at people outside of the barracks. At home he doesn’t have the least bit of authority. In Geeeef Acht! (Teeeeeenshun!) he grabs the chance to give orders to Kiekeboe.
Leon makes his first appearance in the album De dorpstiran van Boeloe Boeloe (The Village Tyrant of Boeloe Boeloe), where the neighbors still address one another as Mr. Kiekeboe and Mr. Van der Neffe.
His brother Leo works as a janitor in an apartment building. The Kiekeboe family gets acquainted with him in De wraak van Dédé (Dédé’s Revenge). Later, Kiekeboe meets him again in de Ribbedebiegevangenis (The Letscram Prison), where he has landed a job as a warder.
Mrs. Van der Neffe (since 99 Plus we know her first name is Carmella) is very keen on tidiness, and to keep their home neat and clean she orders her husband about and has him do a lot of chores. In album 112, En in kwade dagen (And for Worse), Carmella leaves her husband for another man. Afterwards, they pester the life out of each other.
The (ex) couple have two children, Joeksel and Froefroe, who are a little younger than Konstantinopel. The neighbors are continually quarreling, which always leads to a lifelong ban for Joeksel and Froefroe to play with Konstantinopel.

After the divorce Carmella undergoes a thorough makeover. She sports a new hairdo and clothes that are much too young for her age. She also gets in and out of new relationships.
Leon tries to find a new girlfriend via dating sites and speed dating, but so far without success. He tries to find a way to increase his salary because he needs to pay a ridiculously high alimony. That's why he decides to moonlight as an Elvis impersonator. The divorce has given the Van der Neffe character an extra dimension. Before his divorce he was just a bully. Now he's also pathetic, and we sometimes even feel sorry for him. Charlotte feels obliged to look after him, to Marcel's great dissatisfaction.

 

 

Goegebuer
Fernand Goegebuer lives opposite. When he speaks, he produces a lot of spit (or rather: he's spitting all the time).
He's separated. In Het witte bloed (The White Blood) we meet his girlfriend, the widow Thea Traal, who apparently is also Kiekeboe's ex-fiancée.
Goegebuer is a meddlesome neighbor we meet for the first time in the album Een zakje chips (A Bag of Crisps).
He used to be a computer programmer, but in De roze Rolls (The Pink Rolls) he also tried to establish a dating agency. His artistic 'talent’ is not always recognized by the rest of the world: he sings off-key, he’s an awful painter and he flunked the magician's exam.

Inspector Sapperdeboere
He's a police inspector with an enormous appetite. That's why he's always looking for something to eat. When all the restaurants are closed, he doesn't mind preparing a meal at the station.
Every storyline including police officers also includes Sapperdeboere. Unfortunately, the Kiekeboe family cannot count on him and usually have to go it alone.
Sapperdeboere makes his debut in De Haar-Tisten (The Hairtists). In Over koetjes en kalfjes he acquires a curvaceous shape and Balthazar falls in love with him.

 

Van de Kasseien
Firmin Van de Kasseien is Kiekeboe's wealthy boss. He's married to Yvonne, pet name Chichi, who has a profound distrust of him. And she's right, because he's got quite a few young bits on the side.
In Het gat in de kaas (The Hole in the Cheese) he even establishes a company in order to be alone with his secretary. In De affaire Chichi (The Chichi Case) he orders some thugs to kidnap his wife so he can lay his hands on her money. These are just a few examples of the loving behavior of this perfect husband.
He makes his debut in the comic book Het edelweissmotief (The Edelweiss Motif). He always succeeds in having his dirty business (or cleaning business as in Thantomthant) taken care of by his employee Marcel Kiekeboe.
As the series progresses, we get to see him more and more.

'The Fat Lady'
This is the hefty woman who shows up in (nearly) every story. She usually wears a red sweater.
More often than not she makes a cameo appearance in the background, but sometimes she gets into some conflict or other with Kiekeboe or his antagonists.
She's a fixture from the album De wollebollen. For some reason Merho also staged this unknown woman (she's not inspired by any real person) in the next stories and chose to have her appear in (almost) every other story.

 

Uncle Vital
Vital is the brother of Marcel's deceased father.
Uncle Vital is single and lives on a farm in Mestwalle. He's retired and functions as president of the Pensioners' Club. He’s firmly embedded in the social life of his community. He's a member of the card players' club, loves fishing and is the proud owner of a large collection of garden gnomes.
As Uncle Vital rides a bike he's always wearing bicycle pins.
His relationship with Moemoe, his sister-in-law, is strained. He blames her for making life a burden to his brother.

 

 

Alanis
Fanny's closest friend. They go shopping together and they vacation together. They share their experiences with men, whom they don't think highly of.
Things between them only get tense when they fancy the same prospective boyfriend. Then it's every woman for herself.

 

 

Chichi
Chichi is the pet name of Yvonne, the wife of Van de Kasseien. She's the only daughter of the previous owner of his company. The company is in her name, and so is all the money. Therefore Van de Kasseien is completely hooked on her. (I didn't marry my wife for her money, but it was the only way to get to it, he says). The couple's terms of endearment are Chichi (Yvonne) and Chouchou (Firmin).
Yvonne is very well aware of her husband's extramarital affairs. But her pride binds her to secrecy. She knows he will never leave her, even if he just stays with her for her money.