'Kwik en Filidoor'.
Raf Van Dijck was an obscure mid-20th century Belgian comic artist, who drew a humorous adventure comic about the duo 'Kwik en Filidoor' (1950), serialized in the newspaper Het Nieuws van den Dag.
Life and career
Nothing is known about Raf Van Dijck, except that he was active for the Flemish newspaper Het Nieuws Van Den Dag in 1950. During World War II, Het Nieuws Van Den Dag had been banned by the Nazis, but after the Liberation (1944), it reappeared on the market. In June 1948, the paper bought another paper, 't Vrije Volksblad, formerly owned by De Nieuwe Gids. This ensured that Het Nieuws van den Dag could now also serialize the popular newspaper comic 'De Avonturen van Detektief Van Zwam' by Marc Sleen, which had been running in De Nieuwe Gids and 't Vrije Volksblad since 1 October 1947. However, in the Spring of 1950, Sleen left the paper to join another newspaper, Het Volk, taking his hit series (now renamed 'Nero') with him.
The editors of Het Nieuws Van Den Dag quickly searched for a replacement comic. They found two artists willing to create two separate humorous adventure series, Luc Droek (pseudonym of Lucien De Roeck) and Raf Van Dijck. Van Dijck created the humorous duo 'Kwik en Filidoor', a ghost and a lanky guy, in their one and only story 'Anna Bouzilowna' (23 March - 2 June 1950). The plot brings the characters to a surrogate version of Russia, named "Ruzië" (a pun on the Dutch word "ruzie", meaning "squibble"). Certain scenes offer political satire, referencing then-current events such as the Royal Question crisis (1944-1950), when the Belgian population had to vote whether king Leopold III was allowed to return on the throne or not. As can be expected from a post-war Catholic paper, there were also several jokes at the expense of the Liberal, Socialist and Communist Parties.
The comic serial of 'Kwik en Filidoor' didn't quite catch on, nor did Lucien De Roeck's comic 'Klawieter'. Both artists were replaced with a more professional comic artist, Bob de Moor. De Moor made another political satire comic for Het Nieuws Van Den Dag, 'De Nieuwe Avonturen van Tijl Uilenspiegel' (1950-1951), followed by his apolitical humorous adventure series 'De Avonturen van Nonkel Zigomar, Snoe en Snolleke' (1951-1956). As it seems, Raf Van Dijck never drew another comic strip again.
'Kwik en Filidoor' ran with two strips per day (27 April 1950).