 Afterwards, he worked for five years as an assistant on "Jerom" and "Pats" with Studio Vandersteen, but then started his own series, "Kiekeboe", in the newspaper "Het Laatste Nieuws".Contrary to the other major Flemish newspapers like "De Standaard"/"Het Nieuwsblad" (with "Spike and Suzy") and "Het Volk" (with "Nero"), "Het Laatste Nieuws" had no local, Flemish comic strip but only published Dutch comics by Marten Toonder or Hans G. Kresse, which left an opportunity for Merho.