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Thursday 28 January 2021

1657) Leading Ladies in Comic Books, Belgium: A set of postage stamps brought out by Bpost (Belgian Post) highlighting five leading ladies - Bianca Castafiore, Miss Jannie, Natacha, Yoko Tsuno and Aunt Sidonia: Date of Stamp Set issue: 25.01.2021:

1657) Leading Ladies in Comic Books, Belgium: A set of postage stamps brought out by Bpost (Belgian Post) highlighting five leading ladies - Bianca Castafiore, Miss Jannie, Natacha, Yoko Tsuno and Aunt Sidonia: Date of Stamp Set issue: 25.01.2021:

Belgium is a comic strip hotbed. A lot of comic strip characters are known far beyond its borders. In this issue Bpost has depicted five exceptional female characters who have featured in various comic books/strips - Bianca Castafiore, Miss Jannie, Natacha, Yoko Tsuno and Aunt Sidonia. And it’s 50 years since the first Natacha comic strip was released.


The Miniature Sheet (MS) is titled "STRAFFE STRIP DAMES, GRAND DAMES DE LA BD" (meaning "Comic Strip Ladies - The Grand Ladies").

Bianca Castafiore, the "Milanese Nightingale" (French: "le Rossignol milanais"), is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. She is an opera singer who aggravates particularly Captain Haddock as she pops up in adventure after adventure. Castafiore is comically portrayed as narcissistic, whimsical, absent-minded, and talkative, and seems unaware that her voice is shrill and appallingly loud. She is also wealthy, generous and essentially amiable, and has a will of iron.

Her first name means "white" (feminine) in Italian, and her surname is Italian for "chaste flower". She first appeared in 1939, but since the 1950s, Hergé has partially remodelled her after the Greek soprano Maria Callas.

Natacha is a Belgian comics series, created by François Walthéry and Gos. Drawn by Walthéry, its stories have been written by several authors including Gos, Peyo, Maurice Tillieux, Raoul Cauvin and Marc Wasterlain. It was first published in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou on February 26, 1970. 

The series eventually ended serial publication in Spirou, leaving its publisher Dupuis, and began publishing albums only through Marsu Productions in 1989, starting with the album Cauchemirage.

Yoko Tsuno is a comics album series created by the Belgian writer Roger Leloup published by Dupuis in Spirou magazine since its debut in 1970. Through twenty-nine volumes, the series tell the adventures of Yoko Tsuno, a female electrical engineer of Japanese origin surrounded by her close friends, Vic Video and Pol Pitron. 

Their adventures bring them to, among other places, Belgium (Bruges), Germany, Scotland, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia and also into outer space. The stories are heavily technology driven, with concepts like robot dragons (Le Dragon de Hong Kong), suspended animation (La Frontière de la vie), time travel (La Spirale du temps and others), and even an alien species called the Vineans. 

Despite the often exotic settings and science-fiction plot lines, the stories generally remain realistic on the personal level between the characters and friendship, love and spirituality are some of the key themes of the series.

 The art is drawn in Ligne claire style, although having originally started out in the Marcinelle style. When depicting real-world settings, Leloup aspires to be as true to reality as possible, with places like Burg Katz or Rothenburg ob der Tauber depicted with almost photographic skill

Tante Sidonia is a Flemish comics character from the Belgian comics series Suske en Wiske. In the franchise she is the aunt of Wiske and the adoptive aunt of Suske, of whom she both takes care.

In the original Flemish publications her name was Sidonie, while the translations in the Netherlands named her Sidonia. 

After the series changed to Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands in 1964 the character was changed to her definitive name Sidonia. She even announces this to the readers at the start of the album "De Nerveuze Nerviërs" ("The Nervous Nervii").

 In English translations of the series, she has been called Aunt Agatha, Aunt Sidonia, and Aunt Sybil.






Posts from Belgium & Luxembourg:


5) City of Bruges (or Brugge), Belgium: 20 Years as UNENCO World Heritage Site: A 20 Euro Silver Proof Coin issued by the Royakl Dutch Mint under licencing of the Royal Belgian Mint, on behalf of the National Bank of Belgium: Coin issue date: 26.02.2020

6) 100 Years of Nature & Environment Protection, Luxembourg: Commemorating the Centenary Anniversary of the "Letzebuerger Natur a Vulleschutsliga a.s.b.l. (Luxembourg Nature and Bird Protection Society):A 0.80 Euro Stamp issued by Luxembourg Postes (Post): Date of stamp issue: 10.03.2020

7) Celebrating 25 Years of listing on UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Luxembourg: A Commemorative Stamp of 0.80 Euro issued by Luxembourg Postes (Post): Stamp issue date: 10.03.2020





For other interesting posts on issues from the Royal Dutch Mint, Netherlands and PostNL, please visit the following links:


9) "De Haar Castle", Utrecht, Netherlands: The first Coin to be released in the "Dutch Castles" Coin Series: A silver ducat Trade Coin with a history spanning over 350 years, minted by the Royal Dutch Mint: Date/Year of Delivery: 04/2020

10) First Atlases, Netherlands: Commemorating 450 Years of the first Atlas (1570-2020) & others: A Stamp Sheet of six stamps depicting the Atlases which were compiled in the Netherlands in the 16th & 17th Centuries AD: Stamp Set issued by POstNL: Date of Stamp Set issue: 23.03.2020





Some other interesting Posts from Finland, Norway & Nordic Countries:












Links to other Posts on Aland issues:



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