Page 30 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Belgium & Luxembourg

28  INTRODUCING BEL GIUM AND L UXEMBOURG

Belgian Comic Strip Art strong sense of justice in
stories such as King Ottakar’s
Belgian comic strip art is as much a part of Belgian culture Sceptre, where a fascist army
as chocolates and beer. The seeds of this great passion were attempts to control a cen tral
sown when the US comic strip Little Nemo was published European state. Hergé took
great care in
in French in 1908 to huge popular acclaim in Belgium. The research ing
country’s reputation for producing some of the best comic his books. For
strip art in Europe was established after World War II. Before the 1934 Le
the war, Europe was awash with American comics, but the Lotus Bleu,
Nazis halted the supply. Local artists took over, and found that which was
there was a large audience who pre ferred homegrown comic set in China,
he wrote,
heroes. This explo sion in comic strip art was led by perhaps “I star-ted… Cover of the Spirou
the most famous Belgian creation ever, Tintin, who, with his showing a real
dog Snowy, is as recognizable across Europe as Mickey Mouse. interest in the people and
countries I was sending Tintin
off to, concerned by a sense
supplement, Le petit Vingtième. of honesty to my readers.”
Eager to invent an original
comic, Hergé came up with Post-War Boom
the character of Tintin the
reporter, who first appeared Belgium’s oldest comic strip
in Tintin au Pays des Soviets journal, Spirou, was launched in
on 10 January 1929. Over the April 1938 and, along with the
next 10 years, the character weekly Journal de Tintin, which
developed and grew in began in 1946, became a
popularity. Book-length stories hothouse for the artistic talent
Hergé, the creator of one of the world’s began to appear from 1930. that was to flourish during the
most loved comic characters, Tintin During the Nazi post war years. Artists such as
occupation in the 1940s, Morris, Jijé, Peyo and Roba
Tintin continued to be worked on the journal. In
Hergé and Tintin
published, with political 1947, Morris (1923–2001)
Tintin’s creator, Hergé, was born references carefully introduced the cow boy
Georges Remi in Brussels in omitted, in the approved parody Lucky Luke, which
1907. He began using his pen paper, Le Soir. This led to went on to feature in
name (a pho netic spelling of Hergé being accused of live-action films and
his initials in reverse) in 1924. collab oration at the end US television cartoons.
At the age of 15, his drawings of the war. He was Marc Sleen, another
were published in the Boy called in for question- celebrated Belgian
Scout Journal. He became the ing but was released Statue of Tintin cartoonist, was the
pro tégé of the priest, Abbot the same day with out and Snowy creator of the popular
Norbert Wallez – who also charge. His innocence character Nibbs (or Nero).
managed the Catholic journal was amply demonstrated by During the 1960s, the idea of
Le XXe Siècle – and was made his work before and during the comic strip being the
responsible for the children’s the war, as he expressed a “ninth art” (after the seventh
Comic Strip Characters
Some of the world’s most
loved comic strip charac ters
originated in Belgium. Tintin
is the most famous, but Lucky
Luke the cow boy, Suske en
Wiske the cheeky children
and The Smurfs have been
pub lished worldwide.
Modern artists such as
Schuiten con tinue to break
new ground. Tintin by Hergé Lucky Luke by Morris

028-029_EW_Belgium.indd 28 18/10/16 3:00 pm
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Feature template “UK” LAYER
(SourceReport v1.3)
Date 18th October 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm