The years from 1949 to 1953 are often considered the highlight of Vandersteen's career, when he combined large production with consistent high quality in his stories, the jokes, the many characters, and the graphical aspects, in which the charming quirkiness of the early years was balanced with the more rigorous ligne claire of Hergé. Many of these stories were loosely based on popular classics, ranging from Alexandre Dumas over Buffalo Bill to Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen", with as culmination his comic in two parts of the legend of Till Eulenspiegel, made for "Kuifje".