Willy Vandersteen in the context of "Franco-Belgian comics"

Bandes dessinées (singular bande dessinée; literally 'drawn strips'), abbreviated BDs and also referred to as Franco-Belgian comics (BD franco-belge), are comics that are usually originally in French and created for readership in France and Belgium. These countries have a long tradition in comics, separate from that of English-language comics. Belgium is a mostly bilingual country, and comics originally in Dutch (stripverhalen, literally "strip stories", or simply "strips") are culturally a part of the world of bandes dessinées, even if the translation from French to Dutch far outweighs the other direction.

Among the most popular bandes dessinées are The Adventures of Tintin (by Hergé), Spirou and Fantasio (Franquin et al.), Gaston (Franquin), Asterix (Goscinny & Uderzo), Lucky Luke (Morris & Goscinny), The Smurfs (Peyo) and Spike and Suzy (Willy Vandersteen). Some highly-regarded realistically drawn and plotted bandes dessinées include Blueberry (Charlier & Giraud, a.k.a. "Moebius"), Thorgal (van Hamme & Rosiński), XIII (van Hamme & Vance), and the creations of Hermann.

Spike and Suzy (British title), Willy and Wanda (American title) or Luke and Lucy (in a 2009 film and video game) (Dutch: Suske en Wiske; French: Bob et Bobette) is a Belgian comics series created by the comics author Willy Vandersteen.

It was first published in De Nieuwe Standaard in 1945 and soon became popular. Although not in its earliest form, the strip soon adapted the Ligne claire style, pioneered by Hergé. This change took place when the strip became serialised in Hergé's magazine Tintin from 1948 to 1959.