''Isabelle'' was a Belgian comic series drawn by Will and written by

André Franquin André Franquin (; 3 January 1924 – 5 January 1997) was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best-known creations are '' Gaston'' and '' Marsupilami''. He also produced the '' Spirou et Fantasio'' comic strip from 1946 to 1968, a perio ...

, Delporte and

Raymond Macherot Raymond Macherot (30 March 1924 – 26 September 2008) was a Belgian cartoonist. Although not nearly as famous as fellow Belgian cartoonists such as Hergé or André Franquin, Macherot's work, both as artist and writer, remains highly regarded am ...

. The comic first appeared in '' Spirou'' magazine in 1969. Created by a top team of already-famous contributors to the magazine, the series gained a small but fanatical following. The first stories were written by Franquin (of

Gaston Lagaffe ''Gaston'' is a Belgian gag-a-day comic strip created in 1957 by the Belgian cartoonist André Franquin in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine '' Spirou''. The series focuses on the everyday life of Gaston Lagaffe (whose surname means "the blu ...

fame), Delporte (editor of ''Spirou'' and writer of many comics) and Macherot (creator of ''

Sibylline Sibylline is a Belgian comics series by Raymond Macherot and his second best-known work after ''Chlorophylle''. Just like the latter, it is a fantasy comic about anthropomorphic animals in a forest setting. However, here the protagonist is a fema ...

''). Later, Delporte alone wrote the stories in collaboration with Will. Twelve

albums An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

were published until the series ended with Will's death in 2000.

Plot

The little girl Isabelle (named after Franquin's daughter) gets into a lot of adventures when the evil witch Kalendula troubles Isabelle's uncle Hermès and his fiancée, the good witch Calendula (who is the descendant of the evil Kalendula). Other stories are about a magical painting, a flying village or a floating island. The stories have a poetical tone, although mixed with tons of jokes and puns, rhyming ghosts, a talking diamond and Isabelle's down-to-earth aunt – whose greatest concern when Isabelle gets into an adventure is whether she's dressed warmly enough, even when she descends into

Hades Hades (; grc-gre, ᾍδης, Háidēs; ), in the ancient Greek religion and myth, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also ...

. The drawings are packed with details and the poetic nature of the stories comes through in the imaginative animals and backgrounds.

Reprints

All the stories have recently been reprinted in three omnibus editions by

Le Lombard ''Le Lombard'', known as ''Les Éditions du Lombard'' until 1989, is a Belgian comic book publisher established in 1946 when '' Tintin'' magazine was launched. Le Lombard is now part of Média-Participations, alongside publishers Dargaud and Du ...

. Dupuis titles Lombard Editions titles Belgian comic strips Fantasy comics Belgian comics characters Child characters in comics Fictional Belgian people 1969 comics debuts 2000 comics endings Comics about women Children's comics Female characters in comics {{FrancoBelgian-comics-stub