'Team Lou' album #11.
Sylvia Tops is a Flemish comic artist, known for her humorous adventure comic 'Team Lou' (2014- ). Debuting at the early age of 19, and was able to launch an actual comic series from scratch. A productive and imaginative artist, she managed to make her hobby a full-time career.
Early life and career
Sylvia Tops was born in 1995 in the village of Heultje, not far from Westerlo. Among her artistic influences are Walt Disney, Jef Nys, Merho, Peter de Smet, Luc Cromheecke and Steve Van Bael. As a teenager, she often watched the children's TV series 'Elfenheuvel' on Ketnet, which inspired her to create her own fanfiction comic about the characters from the show. In 2010, she sent her work to Ketnet and it was shown by host Niels DeStadsbader on TV. This motivated her to develop a similar fantasy comic series.
Team Lou
In 2014, at age 19, Tops created 'Team Lou', a humorous adventure comic series about a group of friends who act as private investigators. Protagonist Kim is based on herself, Olivia on her mother and Alex and Boeh on her uncles. The team is named after their dog, Lou, which is also the name of Tops' own dog. Since 2014, over 25 volumes of 'Team Lou' have been published by Peter Bonte.
In addition, Tops developed an animated film based on her comic series, 'Team Lou Krampus', which premiered on 7 October 2023. The picture was completely hand-made by Tops herself. She also provided the background paintings and sound effects.
Sprankel
In 2024, Tops released her first graphic novel, 'Sprankel', originally made for a contest. The plot follows Tamara, a girl secretly in love with a boy named Roan. To fulfill her desires for him, Tamara gets help from a group of lunar princesses who give her a magical star perfume. Since this fantasy novel appealed to children as much as adults, Tops was able to publish 'Sprankel' through the publishing company FantasyNovels.Be.
'Team Lou'.