JACK-BRUSSELS- Belgian Comic Strip history, pioneer of this art.
Jack
comic strip fans but a cultural visit of this art, called the 9th art
in Belgium. Amateurs and simple visitors will take great pleasure to
visit this museum. The splendor of the cadre where it is lodged will
stun you. The ancient "Magasins Wauquez" (textile warehouse) in Art
Nouveau style, architect Victor Horta and built between 1903 and 1906.
Belgium has always been an example and pioneer in this comic strip art.
It is taken very seriously here. It produces yearly 35 million works of
which 75 % goes for export.
TINTIN appears for the first time in 1929 in a column of the Belgian
newspaper "Le Petit Vingtiéme", in black and white. In this episode,
called "Tintin au pays des Soviets", the hero is without his
characteristic hair powder puff. The Tintin creator, the Belgian Remi
Henri, (which inverted initials made Hergé), produced 24 adventures of
this dynamic personage, who became a myth in comic strips all over the
world with 200 million albums published, in all imaginable languages,
even in Latin!!
Like all heroes, Tintin, doesn't take a wrinkle and has his special
place on earth. General de Gaulle once said that he considered Tintin
as his greatest rival in popularity in France.
But he was not the only to have seduced several generations.
In 1946, Hergé starts with the weekly "Tintin "magazine, helped and
assisted by a certain E.P.Jacobs, father of the famous pair "Blake and
Mortimer". The publishing of another weekly magazine, "Spirou, in 1938,
made other cartoonists very famous: Franquin and his Spirou, Gaston
Lagaffe. Roba with his delicious dog and little boy, Boule et Bill.
Peyo, inventing a tribe of little blue men and women, called Schtroumps
and mow a worldwide success under the English name of "Smurfs". In
1959, another magazine "Pilote" created by Maurice Goscinny (father of
Asterix), started the career of another Belgian, Morris, who became
immortal thanks to his flegmatic cowboy Lucky Luke.
Imagine now that in the 80s some clever promoters wanted too continue
the work of their criminal predecessors and demolish this Wauquez
house, a genuine architectural masterpiece! It was saved and restored.
Te vast entrance hall is lit by a street lamp, giving it an old
fashioned public square look, with a library, restaurant and the
largest cartoon and comic strip public bibiiotheque in the world, where
you will be able to browse through your favorite comics or make some
researches if you are an expert. At the foot of the impressive marble
staircase, a copy of the rocket which took Tintin to the moon. It
confirms that you are indeed on another planet here: the planet of the
9th Art.
Upstairs, lit by an iron wrought glass case, you will be ale to learn
all about the history of the "bande dessinée", rare treasures of
original drawings signed by the greatest names and much more.
Next walk, uptown to the place du Sablon.
More on Brussels on my web site.
Posted on RTE 16 January 2001.
Jack
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