EuroTrip: Brussels and Namur - Comic Art Museum

See here for more blogs on this, and other, comics trips. 

Situated slap-bang in the middle of Brussels city centre is the Comics Art Museum.  Housed in a large, beautiful Art Nouveau building from the turn of the century, the museum first opened in 1989 and is a must-visit attraction for any comics fan.  The entry fee was a reasonable €14.00, with free storage lockers for your coats and bags, and there were English language translations for all explanatory text.   There is a shop at the museum, but somewhat disappointingly there was very little available there that couldn't be found in the cities regular comic shops.  When we visited there were a few different exhibitions on, some of which are permanent, and some temporary that focused on specific comics or creators.

The main exhibition tries to cover as much ground on comics as it can.  It traces the history of comics (or sequential art) from cave paintings, via the Bayeux Tapestry, to Hogarth, and up to the present day.  The museum then moves on to aspects of creating comics; pencilling, inking, colouring, lettering, publishing, and digital art/comics.  Finally, the different genres of comics were covered; fantasy, sci-fi, action, romance, autobiographical, avant-garde, and everything in between.  All of this was presented with the lay person in mind, so it's very much a beginner's guide to comics.  Whilst I would have liked a bit more detail, it was easily compensated for by a huge selection of original comic art, which was mainly used to illustrate each specific topic.  Overall I think anyone taking the tour round these exhibits will come away with a greater understanding and appreciation of the art form.

Another permanent exhibition is A Century of Belgian Comics, which is exactly what you'd expect!  Taking in the last 100 years it tells the chronological story of the development of the medium in Belgium, and whilst there is a focus on some big names, it also includes information about dozens of other less well known (to me anyway!) Belgian comic creators.  This was a bit more razzmatazz with imaginative modern multimedia displays, rather than the more traditional museum/art gallery presentation of the main displays. 

The highlight for me was a temporary exhibition about Metal Hurlant, the world-famous French sci-fi/fantasy anthology comic (much of its content was published in the US magazine Heavy Metal).  This was a feast of original art from over the decades of its publication, with a potted history and highlights of particular artists.  This was the work I was most familiar with, so seeing original drawings and paintings was a real thrill.  Its such an integral part of the Franco-Belgium comics history that I'm surprised it's not part of the permanent exhibitions (though I suppose you could say the same of say, Asterix or Tintin - more on the latter next blog).  

There was a decent sized exhibition about Danish comic Rasmus Klump (named Bruin in English translations, not that I've ever seen any!). He sails around having adventures with his friends Pingo (a penguin), Pelle (a pelican), Pildskadden (a turtle), Skæg (a seal) and others.  It looked a lot of fun, and I'm surprised its never made inroads in the UK.

Finally, there was another decent sized display of Flemish cartoonist Wauter Mannaert.  He's not someone I'm familiar with, and if I'm being honest there wasn't much in the display that made me want to investigate his work further.

I took a few photographs, but somewhat stupidly did not take a note of who the work was by, so apologies for the lack of additional information.  Some have notes under them if you zoom in, and some you might recognise anyway (Mœbius, David B).  Please also accept my apologies for the odd angles and framing of some of the pictures - the museum is very well lit, but this caused lots of glare on the art which I had to try and photo in odd ways to not simply get a bright light or reflection. 

 

Not my photo, but I had to include a picture of Rasmus Klump and friends!

 

EuroTrip: Brussels and Namur - Intro and the Comic Strip Trail

See here for more blogs on this, and other, comics trips.

It's that time of year again when I hop on the Eurostar and cross (well go under) the channel to the continent for a holiday with our European cousins.  My wife and I loved our last trip to Belgium so much, we decided to head back - albeit to different towns and cities.  Given Brussels is arguably the home of Franco-Belgium comics (Angoulême might disagree), the trip obviously had to feature the 9th art extensively - and it did!  Incidentally, the cities and towns we visited, and Belgium in general, are absolutely delightful, and I would recommend a visit regardless of your interest level in comics - particularly if you like beer, mussels, and waffles!  Our trip took in the national capital Brussels, the capital of the Walloon district Namur, and the beautiful small town of Dinant (which won't feature here as there was no comic-related visits, though it is the home of Alfanso Sax the inventor of the saxophone, and they're not shy about letting you know the fact).  Given them number of photos I'm sharing, I'll break this down into a few blogs to make it more manageable (for you and for me!)

As befitting its capital of comics status, there are numerous artworks adorning the buildings of Brussels.  You can find a list of the murals and suggested tour from the Visit Brussels website here, and you can also handily import the suggested route into Google Maps.  We tied our tour in with a selection of bars we wanted to visit, and this meant we got to see lots of the city on our journey.  However, I discovered after we got home that the website only includes some of the murals, and there's plenty more than we didn't get to see!

Ric Hochet from the comics of the same name, hangs from the roof in one of the best uses of the building as canvas in the tour.

Tintin and Captain Haddock escape down an artfully drawn fire escape.  The mural is perfectly placed next to the comic shop Moule à Gaufres.

Victor Sackville, the eponymous British spy overlooks a crossroads with plenty of bars and restaurants.

Le Passage, which doesn't really need translating!  A scene from the Obscure Cities series, which influenced me picking up one of the collections (see later blog).

Out in the Street, located in the gay area, celebrates the Brussels LGBTQ+ scene. 

Monsieur Jean in a typical Brussels setting, although the trams have been updated somewhat!

Froud and Stouf, the two blue dogs bottom right, bring some humour and inventive use of the window space.

The swashbuckling Scorpion, overlooks a street just round the corner from the impressive St Michael & St Gudula Cathedral

Broussaille, on the right, stars in the first ever Brussels comics mural dating back to 1991. 

The infamous Viking warrior, Thorgal, in a beautifully rendered mural. 

Characters from The Adventures of Nero bring a bit of the countryside to inner city Brussels.

Kinky and Cosy causing havoc as usual, in the Belgian capital.

The hapless Gaston hitting a passerby with his yo-yo from an upper story window.

 

The tricky to photograph Smurfs mural covers the entire ceiling of a tunnel, near the Brussels Comics Figurines Museum (which alas we didn't have time to visit)

The first part of our stay in Brussels was spent in the Radisson Red hotel.  Perfectly situated next the EU Parliament and a stop for regular buses that run a circular route of the city centre.  We decided to stay here after our stay in the Glasgow Radisson Red, which was itself influenced by the Frank Quitely artwork throughout the hotel (see here).  Sure enough, the Brussels branch didn't disappoint on the art front either - here are a few pics I took of our stay there.  The final image is on the wall of the Brussel-Luxemburg train/metro station next to the hotel.