Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art

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I don't know if people outside of Europe are aware that Belgium is considered to be the world centre for comic strip art. After the creation of Tintin in 1929, the floodgates opened and the Belgian artists created Blake & Mortimer, the Smurfs, Lucky Luke, Gaston Lagaffe, Spirou and countless others. If you don't recognize all of the names, it is probably because new names were invented for most of the characters in practically every language. They had to be easy and amusing for young readers rather than being foreign tonguetwisters.

Anyway, I had been wanting to go to the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée for a long time. It opened in 1989 in a splendid art nouveau building which used to house a fabric merchant.

Tintin posed for this bust in 1952.

One of the things I learned was that the first comic strip style stories were drawn by medieval monks.



Most drawings for hundreds of years were just illustrations for stories.



In the 1920's though, imaginations began to run wild.

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I appreciated all of the displays showing the huge amount of work that is required... the first pencil drawings...





... and also the inking and colouring.











Characters need to be really detailed to become "real."







Creating an album cover is a special job in itself.







And of course now there is a big market for figurines.



Uh-oh, there's a big tour group about to arrive downstairs!

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Other forms of comic art are also covered.









Red alert! Tour group now inside the building!



Tintin has his own special section since he is the superstar.

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Each Belgian star had a section devoted to the author.

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They showed in how many different versions some of these characters exist.









timelines...











Little bellhop Spirou is not just fun and games.



I saw all I wanted to see in about an hour. My friends bade me farewell.







I did not buy anything at the gift shop.

Anyway, while such a museum is clearly not for everyone, I really enjoyed seeing something totally different and also to learn what hard work it is to produce something that most of us tend to think as being quite simple. But it would not still be a growing industry if it did not have a lot of real substance.

I was very impressed that behind the ticket counter, they had numerous folders in various languages to help visitors who might have trouble reading the information in French, Dutch or English. Just in the time that I was getting my ticket, they had already loaned some out in Italian, Chinese and Japanese.

[bjd]

I'll have to go there next time I'm in Brussels.

We just spent the weekend in the Quercy with friends. Our friend's wife doesn't show up very often (they don't live there, but he comes for the whole summer) but when she does, she keeps singing loudly. The neighbours call her Mme Castafiore!

[fumobici]

This is wonderful, I'm glad the Belgians recognize their own talented artists. I was surprised to discover how seriously the Italians take their fumetti, their graphic stories or comics, it's considered very much a legit literary form there although I don't think they've had as much success as the Belgians exporting their art.

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In France, comics and graphic novels are the "9ème art", which is the last on the list but still considered fully legitimate as an art form.