Belgian Architecture and the Art Nouveau

This man is not paella (or real)
Brussels is world famous for art nouveau architecture, and without doubt the finest brusseleño architect in history is Victor Horta. But we will talk of these things another time. In rue des Sables, in the business district of Brussels, stands an early Horta masterpiece, at once delightfully playful in its functional design and brilliantly forward-thinking in its use of what, for the time, were quite modern materials, such as glass brick, cast iron, and ceramics (but we will talk of architecture another time). Originally a department store, the building is now home to le Centre belge de la Bande dessinée, or CBBD, the Belgian museum of comic book art.

What can we learn in the CBBD? Well, for starters, we can learn that the average Belgian adult of today has a lot in common with the average American teenager of the 1950s; they both love beer, French fries, and comic books. But Belgians take comic book love to a new level. They feel so strongly about it that they refer to comics as the "Ninth Art" (after painting, poetry, sculptures of peeing children, Belgian hip-hop, and four other art forms lost to time). A Belgian member of the European Parliament was once seen with a comic book under his arm on the way to work. He was stopped by another MEP, who asked him, mockingly and quite publicly, if he weren´t embarrassed to be a grown man and a politician caught reading comics. The Belgian replied, "It is normal for us." Then, in the style of his favorite Belgian super-hero, Jean-Claude Van Damme, he kicked the other MEP in the face. The Belgian didn´t get in trouble, though, because the other man was Italian, so no one cared.

What is perhaps even more surprising, however, is that in the CBBD we learn that many of the most famous Belgians in the world aren´t even real! Take world-reknowned Belgian journalist and travel writer Tintin, for instance. Surprisingly, he´s not real. Never was. How about championship Formula 1 driver Michel Vaillant? Also made up. Which is probably why you haven´t seen him on the F1 calendar for the past 61 seasons. I imagine that you, like many people, probably think that Lucky Luke is American, in the same way that you might think Bud Spencer and Terence Hill are Americans, because of the manner in which they dress and speak. But while Spencer and Hill are actually Italian, Lucky Luke is completely fictitious. And Belgian. Another interesting fact: smurfs, those small blue mammals which are herded as a Belgian food delicacy for wizards and cats, are made up as well. And finally, that same Belgian super-hero, Jean-Claude Van Damme? Also not real. But that one is kind of obvious if you think about it. Simply kicking people in the face is a pretty uninteresting super-power. My advice to Belgian comic writers: leave the super-heroes to the Americans. We´re just better at it.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this little written stroll through the Belgian museum of comics, or CBBD. You should visit it sometime. It´s in Belgium where they are famous for beer.

David Trefz