Belgian Comic Strip Centre
20 rue des Sables,
Brussels
1000
Website: http://www.cbbd.be
A visit to this museum is a must for two reasons: the museum is situated in the beautiful Art Nouveau setting of the Waucquez Warehouses and one can see the history of an amazing art form - the comic strip.
The Waucquez Warehouses are considered to be one of the masterpieces of the most famous Belgian Art Nouveau architect, Victor Horta. He built the house in 1906 for the Waucquez family who used it for a wholesale cloth business. The building displays the principles of Horta's architectural style: sunlight filters from the glass ceiling into the central hall thereby illuminating the rest of the warehouse in a natural way. The Warehouses were restored between 1987 and 1989.
The name Herge stands out as the most important writer. He is the creator of the best known Belgian comic strip: TinTin but there are other successes too: The Smurfs, Asterix, Charlie Brown, Andy Capp, Spirou, Lucky Luke, Gaston Lagaffe, Superman, Batman, Blake and Mortimer and others. Covering more than 15,000 square feet, on three floors, the Museum displays original pages of comic artwork, sketches and memorabilia which belonged to the comic-strip artists. Visitors learn about the birth and development of a comic strip. One section of the museum ("The Comic Strip in Motion"), created by Folioscope, who also organize the annual Brussels Cartoon and Animated Film Festival, is entirely devoted to animated film, and in particular to animations adapted from comics. A visit begins with a time-line picturing decade by decade the milestones of worldwide animation. The museum also has a shop with albums and gadgets from the different Belgian comic strip heroes.
