Adios amigo !!! I am sure all of you know about “The Adventures Of Tintin” and his creator “Herge”. Today my story is about the most famous comic centre in Belgium, “The Belgian Comic Strip Center”. It is the place of origin of the comics. Not only “Tintin” but other comics such as “Smurfs” which all of you are familiar with. It is also known as the birth of the European comics and is also known as inspiration to the modern comics. Apart from Belgium’s official language - French, it is also written in Dutch. It is interesting to know that the Nazi invasion of Belgium had a big influence in the world of comics.
During the session break of 2013, in March, we went to Brussels and there we went to the Comic Strip Center. It gave me a chance to understand how comics were made. Actual live models had to stand for hours to get the image of the action. It had a full range of comic art, including science fiction, wild west, crime and politics, as well as children's comics such as The Smurfs.
Even though “Tintin” is famous all around the world it not so popular among the Belgian! One of the famous comics among them is Spirou et Fantasio (Spirou and Fantasio), a popular classic Franco-Belgian comics. The series, which has been running since 1938, shares many characteristics with other European humorous adventure comics like “Tintin”. It has been written and drawn by a succession of artists. Spirou and Fantasio are the series with main characters, two adventurous journalists who run into fantastic adventures, aided by Spirou's pet squirrel Spip and their inventor friend the Count of Champignac.
Marc Sleen holds with “The Adventures of Nero” the world record of issues of a comic book series title drawn by the same author. He drew "The Adventures of Nero" single handedly from 1947 to 1992 without any assistance of other artists. This feat is even more remarkable, considering he also drew other comic strip series from 1947 to 1965. It holds the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Comic Strip Center holds a wide range of comical characters and their comical actions. The museum is decorated in such a way that you are in the comical world. There is separate section for “Tintin” which I was amazed to see. There was a description of each character. Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is also known as the comic capital of the world. The whole experience being in Brussels and in the Comic Strip Center, was unique and very realistic. One more interesting fact is that there are various guided tours available which are being organized by the center. One of the famous tours is - Guided tours of the Tintin route - Hergé and Tintin in Brussels where you can discover the details linking Hergé to Brussels by walking from Gare du Midi station and ending in Grand-Place.
So friends, do not forget to visit the Comic Strip Center while in the "chocolate capital of the world" ! Also sure to notice the stair case while entering the center where it is purposefully kept broken to make you remember " the last scene from - The Castafiore Emerald - too bad ! A lovely bit of marble, that was !" Thank you.
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