Paul Geerts Jerom

Paul Geerts was the successor of Willy Vandersteen on the popular Flemish comic 'Suske en Wiske' for many years. Born in Turnhout, he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp at the age of 14, and worked as an window-dresser at the Innovation department store. His first illustrating assignments included advertisements for cinemas and silkscreens. Geerts made his comics debut in magazine Trouw en Lente with 'De Chorowietjes', written by E.H. Jan Hillen. Later on, he was also present in publications like Het Volk, 't Kapoentje, Ohee and Het Gazet van Antwerpen, and created the science-fiction story 'De Melkweglopers' and 'De Verdwenen Smirrel' (collected in album in 1970).
In 1967, while working in a printing firm, he applied for a job at Willy Vandersteen's studios. After a trial period, he was hired and commenced working at Studio Vandersteen in January 1968. He started out working as an artist and writer on 'Jerom' stories for the German market, and as an inker on 'Bessy', 'De Rode Ridder', and 'Biggles'. Geerts soon became Vandersteen's assistant on the 'Suske en Wiske' series. He eventually gained sole responsibility for this series, starting with the episode 'De Gekke Gokker' in 1972.
Geerts continued the extremely popular Flemish series for many years, making it a little bit more realistic and maintaining a steady production of 4 albums a year. Some of the highlights of his work are 'De Raap van Rubens', 'Angst op de Amsterdam' and 'De Parel in de Lotusbloem', which was an homage to Willy Vandersteen. In 2001, he stopped working on the regular 'Suske en Wiske' stories, and handed over his position as main writer and illustrator to Marc Verhaegen.

source: www.lambiek.net