Willibald the sorcerer's apprentice
Willibald the Sorcerer's Apprentice was a long-standing, one-page comic series in the Austrian children's magazine Wunderwelt . It appeared for over 10 years until the early 1960s. Originally in four horizontal lines, from 1953 the page consisted of three vertically arranged picture sequences with ironic rhymes underneath by the illustrator Prinz.
The author and illustrator was the painter and writer Peter Paul Prinz (* 1925), who initially worked for the competition paper Kinderpost , but switched to the newly founded Wunderwelt in 1948. From 1964, Prinz worked as a commercial artist in the industry.
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At the beginning of the long-standing series, little Willi was going on his drawn adventures alone, but soon the tall magician Hokus was at his side. Prinz initially called the series Willi and Hokus . He gave the master, who also wrote the succinct, humorous verses, a long, pointed magic cap, which was studded with mysterious symbols, and a long blue coat as a trademark.
Willi should gradually learn the art of magic from Hokus, but his witchcraft almost always failed despite the powerfully staged hocus-pocus enriched with pots and steam. But the vife apprentice Willi was almost always able to save the situation.
In order to give the comic series new tension after years, its creator invented the mustached and vicious cousin Pokus. With sparkling eyes, Pokus tackled his hiccups, but had to regularly give up and admit his defeats.