Meet the crazy family next door

This comic is an old classic, known under several different names in English: "Bob and Bobette", "Willy and Wanda", "Luke and Lucy" or "Spike and Suzy". The Dutch original is called "Suske en Wiske". In Sweden, we simply call it "Finn och Fiffi"...

I admit that this comic didn't really appeal to me as a kid. I found the personal relations of the characters confusing. Bob and Bobette aren't boyfriend and girlfriend, but neither are they siblings. Yet, they live together. They have no parents, and their parent substitutes Orville and Agatha aren't married and don't seem to have any other "relationship" either. Today, this untraditional family would presumably be considered pretty normal! Orville is a weird, unpredictable and not quite likable character (although he is usually one of the good guys). And then there's Wilbur, a man of superhuman strength and paranormal abilities, apparently a kind of Neanderthal brought to our time by a mad scientist?! Bobette's doll, Molly, occasionally also spouts paranormal powers.

In "The Diamond Boomerang", this unlikely crew of heroes and heroines is pitted against vicious villains trying to steal an enormous magic boomerang from highly evolved spirit-beings in northern Australia. The spirits (called Tjoeringas in the Dutch original) watch over an Aboriginal tribe, called the Bebebas, who live in an enchanted forest where the animals can speak. The diamond boomerang turns out to give the members of the tribe eternal youth and vitality. I no longer remember the exact details of the plot, except that the vain Orville played a somewhat ambivalent role. But yes, the good guys win in the end, and the Edenic paradise of the Bebebas and their cute talking koalas is saved.

Well, it's good to know that *someone* doesn't have to worry about peak oil, LOL.

Bob, Bobette and their friends remind me a little bit too much of "our crazy neighbours", but for ol' times sake, I give them four stars.