Brussels-born artist André van der Elst, better known as Walli, made his comics debut in Tintin in 1977. He started out with the gag series 'L'Oeuf', and then moved on to draw 'Touky le Toukan' in cooperation with fellow artist Bertrand Dupont from scripts by Bob de Groot. During this period, Walli was also present in the Dutch magazine Eppo with the series 'Kommerkat'.