'Schanulleke'.
Eric De Rop was a Belgian comic artist, who worked for Willy Vandersteen's studio between 1970 and 1976 and again from 1984 to 2015. He inked series like 'Robert en Bertrand', 'Jerom' and 'Suske en Wiske', and also assisted on the pencil artwork of the latter. His best-known series drawn for the studio is 'Schanulleke' (1989-1998), a spin-off around Wiske's rag doll, written by Patty Klein. Of all Studio Vandersteen employees, Eric De Rop was the longest-serving. In addition to Vandersteen, De Rop has also assisted artists like Jef Nys, Jean-Pol, Eddy Ryssack and Merho. On his own, he created short-lived comic features like 'Bloemlezing' (1994-1995), 'Ribbedebie', 'Kat en Hond' (1994-2000) and 'Kapoen' (1994-2000), all children's comics for young readers. Between 2013 and his death in 2025, De Rop was one of the main cartoonists of the right-wing conservative satirical weekly 't Pallieterke.
Early life and career
Eric De Rop was born in 1954 in Wilrijk, as the son of Eduard de Rop, one of Willy Vandersteen's co-workers at Studio Vandersteen. As could be expected, both his father and Vandersteen were two of his main graphic influences, but he was also inspired by Fiep Westendorp, André Franquin, Berck, Morris and Walt Disney. By 1967, Karel Verschuere had left Studio Vandersteen to pursue a solo career. Eric de Rop's father regularly visited his friend Verschuere, and took his son with him. During this period, Verschuere let thirteen-year old Eric De Rop ink some of the comic pages of his comic version of 'Buffalo Bill'. During holidays, Eric then did inking chores for Frank Sels' 'Silberpfeil' series for the German market (the comic is known in Dutch as 'Zilverpijl'). By the late 1960s, De Rop studied at the SISA (Stedelijk Instituut voor Sierkunsten en Ambachten) in Antwerp. At that point, his father Eduard De Rop had left his job at Studio Vandersteen and joined Karel Verschuere in his production for the German publisher Pabel Verlag. However, since Verschuere's studio suffered from bad management, it didn't take long for Eduard De Rop to return to Willy Vandersteen.
Redrawn version of 'De Witte Uil' (1972). Eric de Rop penciled and inked strips 185 through 216.
Studio Vandersteen (1)
During the short period that Eduard De Rop was working for Karel Verschuere, the 17-year old Eric De Rop went behind his father's back and visited Willy Vandersteen to apply for a job. Between 1970 and 1972, De Rop worked as an apprentice for Vandersteen, starting out with inking the 'Bessy' story 'De Hertenjagers' (1971). Interviewed by Leon den Hartog for Brabant Strip Magazine in 2007, De Rop said that he once took several new 'Bessy' pages from Vandersteen's studio on Beauvois Avenue to the train station of Kalmthout. When he parked his bicycle at the station, he discovered to his horror that his luggage carrier had snapped and all the drawings were lost! After a panicky phone call with Vandersteen, the studio head instantly got on his own bike, followed the trail De Rop had followed and luckily found all the missing pages. The young assistant was warned to never let something like this happen again. Despite this incident, De Rop was officially hired by Studio Vandersteen in 1972. He spent two months working for the artist Jeff Broeckx at Studio Vandersteen's Antwerp division, inking 'Bessy' stories that the team produced for the German publishing company Bastei Verlag.
De Rop was eventually assigned to ink the 'Suske and Wiske' spin-off about strongman 'Jerom', which was penciled by his father and written by either Paul Geerts or Vandersteen himself. With Merho as fellow inker, he also participated in the immense 'Jerom' production for the German market, also commissioned by Bastei Verlag. Another production with Eric De Rop's participation was the reboot of the family gag comic 'De Familie Snoek' (1969-1972), drawn by Eduard de Rop and Eugeen Goossens for the Flemish TV magazine TV Ekspress. After fulfilling his military service in 1973-1974, De Rop returned as staff artist at Studio Vandersteen. He inked Vandersteen's pencils for 'Robert en Bertrand' and assisted his father on the inking of 'Suske en Wiske'. Together with Merho, he redrew some of the classic 'Suske en Wiske' stories in a modernized style, including 'Lambiorix' and 'De Witte Uil'. Personally, De Rop always felt this modernized style was unneccessary, since the original art had its own charm, but he simply did what Vandersteen commissioned him to do.
Jommeke - 'De Vliegende Brigade'.
Assistance work
Between 1976 and 1982, De Rop left Studio Vandersteen for the first time, to join the team of another successful Flemish comic artist, Jef Nys. In Nys's Antwerp studio, De Rop spent six years serving as a background artist for the highly popular 'Jommeke' comic. While De Rop enjoyed working for Jef Nys, the artwork standards were a lot higher than at Studio Vandersteen. Nevertheless, he was allowed to draw a couple of 'Jommeke' stories on his own, such as 'Drie In Eén Slag' and 'De Vliegende Brigade', and six short stories made for advertising purposes, such as 'De Regenbom'.
During the 1980s, De Rop also assisted Jean-Pol on the kids adventure comic 'Annie en Peter' (1984-1986), as well as the 'Sport Billy' (1983) comic made for Editions Europeennes. In 1985, he additionally assisted Jeff Broeckx on the advertising comic 'Het Groene Raadsel' (1985) for Ebes.
'Ilian contra Wereldschrik' (Ohee Club #14).
Solo career
On the side, De Rop tried creating comic series of his own too. In 1973, he created the story 'Ylian Contra Wereldschrik', which was published in magazines like Koerier (1973) and Ohee (1975). Starting in 1982, Eric De Rop made sports cartoons for the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine and worked for advertising agencies, before becoming an independent comic artist two years later.
Studio Vandersteen (2)
In 1984, Eric De Rop also renewed his association with Studio Vandersteen. Among his first tasks was reworking 'Jerom' stories that were originally created for the German market into a suitable format for the Flemish book publications. The first 'Suske en Wiske' story inked by Eric De Rop was 'De Bevende Berken' (1984), an advertising comic made exclusively for the washing powder brand Dash. He also provided the pencil art for the first seven pages, while Anita Schauwvlieghe also did part of the inking. De Rop then helped with the finished art of the sketches of 'De Ruige Regen' (1985), one of the few 'Suske en Wiske' stories written and drawn by Willy Vandersteen personally since his retirement from the series in 1972. Together with fellow studio worker Eugeen Goossens, De Rop provided the artwork for 'Suske en Wiske' advertising comics like 'Sony San' (1986), 'Witte Zwanen, Zwarte Zwanen' (1987) and 'Fata Morgana' (1988). De Rop also inked the first three stories of Vandersteen's new historical series 'De Geuzen' (1985-1986), but left this series to become Paul Geerts' regular inker on the main 'Suske en Wiske' comic. He replaced Eugeen Goossens, who in turn was assigned to 'De Geuzen'. The first 'Suske en Wiske' episode that De Rop inked for Paul Geerts was 'De Woeste Wespen' (1987).
'Schanulleke'.
Schanulleke
Eric De Rop had the honor of drawing the final comic series launched by Vandersteen himself: 'Schanulleke' (1988-1998), a spin-off around Wiske's rag doll. Originally, the concept started as two illustrated children's adventure books created by Willy Vandersteen himself, 'Schanulleke in de Dierentuin' (1986) and 'Eiko de Wijze Boom' (1986). For this spin-off, the veteran comic artist gave Schanulleke a male sidekick, the clown doll Duddul. On 27 December 1988, 'Schanulleke' became a one-page gag-comic for young readers, scripted by Dutch comic writer Patty Klein, and drawn by Eric De Rop. Anita Schauwvlieghe assisted on the backgrounds and inking. All episodes take place in a domestic setting, usually the house or the garden, where Schanulleke and Duddul interact with anthropomorphic animals like the striped cat Ponpon. The 'Schanulleke' gags were published in De Stipkrant, the children's supplement of newspaper De Standaard, as well as the Dutch toddlers' magazine Okki. Later on, the series was also reprinted in Suske en Wiske Weekblad and in Minitoe, the children's supplement of the Dutch newspaper Nieuws van de Dag.
Suske en Wiske inker
After the death of studio boss Willy Vandersteen in 1990, Eric De Rop continued to ink the 'Suske en Wiske' albums made by Vandersteen's successors, successively Paul Geerts, Marc Verhaegen and Luc Morjaeu. Additional inking work was done by De Rop for the 'Suske en Wiske' junior spin-off, 'Klein Suske en Wiske' (later retitled 'Junior Suske en Wiske', 2002). This gag comic, originally written by Marc Legendre and drawn by Jeff Broeckx, depicted Suske and Wiske as toddlers, aiming at young readers. On 13 January 2015, Eric De Rop retired from Studio Vandersteen. One of the main reasons he cited was the take-over of Studio Vandersteen by Standaard Uitgeverij's parent company, WPG, which meant a drop in salary. The 330th album, 'De Fabuleuze Freak' (2015), was the final story with his participation. With about 38 years in total on his resumé, Eric De Rop was the longest-running Studio Vandersteen employee of all time, outlasting other mainstays like Paul Geerts and Karel Biddeloo.
Circus Saroma - 'De Verdwijntruc'.
Solo work
Between 1988 and 1990, in addition to his work for the studio, De Rop created three mini-comic books about circus clowns for the pudding brand Saroma. In the 1990s, he made several sporadically appearing gag features for Suske en Wiske Weekblad (1993-2003), using different pseudonyms. One of them was 'Bloemlezing' (1994-1995), a gag comic about two talking flowers, created under the pen name Eric. He also made 'Doebidoe' (1996-1997, about a group of monsters, using the name Ropson, and 'Ribbedebie' (2001-2002), about a sorcerer's apprentice. In 2013, several of his comics for the weekly were collected by Saga Uitgaven in the books 'Bloemlezing... en Andere Verhalen' and 'Ribbedebie... en Andere Verhalen'. For the Stipkrant newspaper supplement, De Rop created 'Kat en Hond', an children's adventure comic about an orange cat named Poezewoe and a blue dog named Kluifje. His series 'Kapoen' (1994-2001), about a horse, ran in the specialized bi-monthly magazine Het Belgisch Warmbloedpaard. Since his departure from Studio Vandersteen, De Rop has been working on a solo comic about the caveman 'Wieisda', of which one album was published by Peter Bonte in 2019. De Rop has additionally assisted on Merho's 'Kiekeboe' series and inked Charel Cambré's satirical gag comic 'Albert en Co' (2008-2013).
'Bloemlezing' (Suske en Wiske Weekblad #50, 1994). Translation: "Nah-nah-na-nah-na, Mole is in love. I really hate moles that are in love!!!".
Pallieterke
Since 2013, De Rop was mostly active as one of the main cartoonists for the conservative, right-wing satirical weekly 't Pallieterke. His main feature is a comic series titled 'Toogpraat', starring two bar hoppers discussing politics. A compilation of these cartoons was published by 't Mannekesblad in 2016. De Rop also designed a new logo of 't Pallieterke, a drawing of a young boy making a taunting gesture, while winking to the reader. De Rop was an open supporter of the far-right party Vlaams Blok (nowadays Vlaams Belang).
'Ribbedebie'. The boy uses a magical spell to make the ingredients for an apple pie appear, but his friend wonders whether it wouldn't have been better if he simply used a spell to make an apple pie appear instead?
Graphic contributions
Eric De Rop paid homage to his old taskmaster Jef Nys in 'Jommekes Bij De Vleet' (Ballon Media, 2010) and to Pom in 'Op Het Spoor van Pom' (Het Mannekesblad, 2011), both collective tribute albums. He also contributed to 'Kalmthout In Beelekes II' (2021), a book by Jan Francken to promote the town Kalmthout, and to '40 Jaar Culturele Vereniging Spirit Temse' (2023).
Final years, death and legacy
In 2019, it was unexpectedly announced that Studio Vandersteen veteran Paul Geerts - who retired in 2001 - was about to make a new 'Suske en Wiske' story that paid homage to the franchise: 'De Preutse Prinses' (2020). Eric De Rop was brought in to assist him as an inker. In 2021, Eric De Rop created 'Bas en de Belhamels', a humorous comic book about a father who works from home, while managing his two sons and an equally demanding dog. The comic was written by the Dutchman Paul Reichenbach, who also published the book through his Pear Productions imprint. These were De Rop's final new projects. In ill health for some time, he passed away in the morning of 1 October 2025. He was 71 years old.
Eric de Rop has a cameo in 'De Rode Ridder' album 'Met Masker en Zwaard' (1971) and in the 'Suske en Wiske' story 'De Blikken Bluster' (2005-2006). Marc Verhaegen also portrayed him in his semi-autobiographical graphic novel 'Het Beest Is Los', ironically as a Communist sympathizer.
Eric De Rop's son, Dave de Rop, is a well-known graffiti artist, who operates under the name Bué the Warrior.
Cartoon for 't Pallieterke (November 2018), depicting former Belgian king Albert II being carried around in a pram by his illegitimate daughter Delphine Boël, after DNA tests proved she was indeed his biological daughter.