Tag Archives: Belgium

[May 26, 1967] Flames over Brussels: The À l'Innovation Department Store Fire

May 26, 2022 Cora Buhlert 6 Comments

by Cora Buhlert

Comic Shopping in Brussels

Regular readers of the Journey may remember that I occasionally visit Belgium, particularly the beautiful cities of Antwerp and Brussels, on business. Whenever I'm in Brussels, I try to find the time for a stroll along the Rue Neuve/Nieuwe Straat, the city's main shopping street and home to trendy boutiques, elegant movie palaces and luxurious department stores.

Rue Neuve, Brussels — The Rue Neuve a.k.a. Nieuwe Straat in Brussels, looking towards Place de la Monnaie a.k.a. Muntplein.

The foremost of the department stores along the Rue Neuve and also the most beautiful is À l'Innovation (For Innovation), "Inno" for short. Built in 1897 by the famous architect Victor Horta, the À l'Innovation store is a stunning Art Noveau building with a glass-covered façade. Inside, the various departments are arranged around an open atrium that is crisscrossed by walkways and topped by a skylight.

The À l'Innovation department store on Rue Neuve in Brussels shortly after its opening in 1897.

Interior of À l'Innovation store in Brussels — The atrium of the À l'Innovation department store in Brussels with skylight.

A l'Innovation atrium — A more recent photo of the atrium of the À l'Innovation department store.

The last time I was in Brussel in April, I stopped at the Standaard Boekhandel book shop directly across the street from À l'Innovation to pick up the latest comics. The venerable weekly comics magazine Tintin has launched a slew of new strips to keep up with the competition of Spirou and particularly the French comics magazine Pilote. Several of the new series are promising such as Bruno Brazil, a James Bond inspired spy adventure by Greg a.k.a. Michel Régnier with artwork by William Vance a.k.a. William van Cutsem, Howard Flynn, a Horatio Hornblower style naval adventure set in the 18th century by Yves Duval and William Vance, and Bernard Prince by Greg and Hermann a.k.a. Hermann Huppen, which combines spy and sea adventures. Tintin even has a new science fiction comic called Luc Orient, also written by Greg with artwork by Eddy Paape, which seems to be inspired by the Flash Gordon comics of the 1930s.

A selection of TinTin issues — A selection of recent issues of Tintin.

After I bought the comics, I headed across the street to À l'Innovation for a stop at the marble-tiled bathrooms. Then I went to the top floor restaurant to flip through my new purchases under the Victor Horta designed skylight, while enjoying a remarkably good meal for a department store restaurant. Little did I know that this would be the last time I'd ever see this store.

Inno neon sign — The neon sign on the expansion of the À i'Innovation store, "Inno" for short.

Smoke over Brussels

For when I switched on the evening news on May 22, I was greeted by footage of the rooftops of Brussels engulfed in smoke. A massive fire had broken out around lunchtime at the À l'Innovation store and completely gutted not only the beautiful Victor Horta building, but the neighbouring Priba supermarket and the entire city block as well. The final death toll is not yet known, as firefighters are still combing through the wreckage and many victims are still fighting for their lives in Brussels hospitals, but more than three hundred are feared dead.

In the end, the beautiful Art Noveau architecture, which I had always admired so much, was what doomed the building and the more than three hundred souls who perished. The polished wooden floors and wall panelling not to mention the merchandise, much of which was flammable, burned like tinder, while the stunning atrium acted like a chimney and fanned the flames. And since the building was seventy years old, it was not equipped with modern fire-suppression measures like a sprinkler system. There were fire extinguishers, of course, and standpipes, but the standpipes did not function and the fire extinguishers were not sufficient to stop the fire. And so the grand staircase with its ornate banisters, which I had walked up and down so often, was engulfed in thick black smoke within minutes, making escape impossible for those on the upper floors.

Burning A l'Innovation department store — The burning À l'Innovation store, seen from the Rue de Pont Neuve.

A l'Innovation fire — The blazing À l'Innovation store and the firefighters, viewed from the upper floors of a building across the street.

The Brussels fire brigade was quickly on site and more than 150 firefighters risked their lives to fight the flames and rescue those trapped inside the burning building. However, there were many challenges such as the non-functioning standpipes or the fact that the Rue Neuve is a narrow street, which makes manoeuvring difficult for large fire trucks, particularly the ladder trucks that were so vital to saving those trapped on the upper floors.

Fire fighter at the a L'innovation store — Firefighters attacking the blaze inside the Inno department store.

Fire fighters on the facade of the burning A l'Innovation store — Two firefighters walk along a ledge outside the burning À l'Innovation store.

Fire fighters fighting the Inno department store fire. — Brussels firefighters tackling the blaze inside the À l'Innovation store.

À l'Innovation ground floor in flames — The blazing ground floor of the À l'Innovation store seen from the relative safety of a shop across the road.

Scenes of Horror

Eye witnesses describe horrifying scenes. People burst out of the exits with clothes and hair on fire, molten synthetic fabric fused with their skin. A woman who had been shopping with her young daughter grabbed the girl's hand and ran for the exit. She managed to escape, but once she stumbled onto the Rue Neuve, she turned around and realised that the child whose hand she was clutching was not her daughter at all.

Children being rescued from the À l'Innovation fire — Young children are evacuated from the in-store nursery of the À l'Innovation department store.

The most terrible scenes, however, happened on the upper floors, where hundreds of shoppers and staff were trapped by fire and smoke, unable to escape. In desperation, people broke the window panes of the glass façade on their quest to flee the flames. Many were rescued by firefighters with ladders, but others fell or jumped to their deaths, including a woman and her three young children. A few lucky souls managed to make it to the roof of the store and scrambled to the safety of neighbouring buildings, from where they could be rescued.

People waiting for rescue on the roof of À l'Innovation — People waiting for rescue on the upper floors of À l'Innovation.

People climbing onto the roof of À l'Innovation — People scrambled to safety onto the roof of the burning À l'Innovation store.

Fire fighters evacuating people from the burning À l'Innovation store — Firefighters evacuate people trapped on the upper floors of the blazing Inno store.

Firefighters rescue elderly woman — Firefighters escort an elderly lady to safety.

In spite of the best efforts of the Brussels fire brigade, the blaze also spread to the neighbouring shops, which had to be evacuated as well. Robert Dehon, a clerk at the Priba supermarket next to Inno helped survivors to safety and only narrowly escaped himself, when the fire reached the supermarket. Meanwhile, the staff of a furrier's shop desperately tried to save their merchandise from the flames, throwing expensive fur coats from the upper floors to the Rue Neuve below, into the waiting arms of fire fighters and civilian helpers.

Woman dangling from window of the À l'Innovation store — A man holds on to a young woman who is precariously dangling from a ledge.

Woman hanging from wire. — A woman is hanging from a wire, which some of the people trapped inside the burning store used to escape the inferno.

Man on wire — A man sliding down a wire to escape the fire, while an injured woman is carried to safety.

Woman with handbag jumps — A man is holding on to a wire, while a woman jumps from a window of the burning building. She survived and is now being treated in a Brussels hospital for a broken leg.

Because the fire broke out around lunchtime, the top floor restaurant under the glass skylight was bustling with shoppers and diners. The fire alarm was not heard by many people in the busy restaurant or they were reluctant to leave the food and drink they had paid for behind. And by the time the smoke and fire reached the restaurant it was too late for most. In fact, it was here – in the very restaurant where I had lunch while flipping through the latest comics barely a month ago – that many of the victims died.

Firefighters rescue injured people from the burning Inno store — Firefighters rescue injured people from the upper floors of the burning Inno store.

Remains of the Inno restaurant — The remains of the À l'Innovation restaurant, viewed from the Rue de la Roses. This part of the building completely collapsed.

Protests and Sparks

So far, it is not certain what caused the fire. In fact, is not even certain, where it started. There are conflicting reports by survivors and since the building was completely gutted, fire investigators have difficulties locating the exact ignition source. Most survivors agree that the fire was first spotted in the children's department on the first floor, though some also claim that it started in the camping department on the third floor and that exploding butane gas cylinders fuelled the flames. Yet others report that the fire started in the kitchen of the top floor restaurant

À l'Innovation steel frame facade — After the fire, only the steel frame of the Victor Horta facade is left standing.

Inno courtyard after the fire — A look up at the burned out atrium of the À l'Innovation store.

Gutted interior of A l'Innovation — The entire interior of the store was gutten by fire.

Burned out Inno store — A look down Rue Neuve at the burned out Inno store. To the left, you can see the Priba supermarket, which also was destroyed.

Burned out Pribe supermarket — Inside the burned out offices of the Priba supermarket.

Staircase to nowhere — In the ruins of the À l'Innovation store, a staircase leads to nowhere.

But no matter where exactly the fire started, a very dark picture is beginning to emerge regarding its cause. For though the Brussels police and fire brigade are investigating all possibilities, including a gas leak, an overheated light bulb or faulty wiring in the old building, there is a good chance that this devastating fire that cost the lives of more than three hundred people was due to arson.

In early May, À l'Innovation launched a special promotion called "US Parade", where American products such as jeans, barbecue equipment and toys were offered for sale. Such promotions are nothing unusual, many European department stores run them to showcase products from a specific country. They are also popular with shoppers, because it is a chance to purchase international products that you cannot normally get.

US Parade decoration at Inno department store — Firefighters enter the burning À l'Innovation department store. The stars and stripes decoration for the "US Parade" promotion which so incensed the protesters is clearly visible.

Stars and stripes burning — The stars and stripes decoration in the display windows of the À l'Innovation store on fire.

However, the US is not exactly popular in Europe at the moment due to the ongoing war in Vietnam. As a result, some people viewed a promotion campaign called "US Parade" not as an exciting shopping opportunity but as a provocation. And so anti-war protesters took to picketing the store and distributing pamphlets. Why those protesters felt that picketing a department store selling American goods would be more effective than protesting outside the US Embassy only four Metro stations away is a question only they can answer.

The overwhelming majority of those anti-war protesters were peaceful, if noisy. And indeed, most of the young protesters were horrified at the scenes unfolding before them, as the store went up in flames. Some protesters had firecrackers, which according to Inno staff members kept going off on the Rue Neuve outside and sometimes even inside the store. In fact, a surviving sales clerk later reported that she had become so used to the cries of protesters and the sound of firecrackers in the street that she initially mistook the cries for help and the crackling of the fire for yet more firecrackers and yelling protesters.

Burning mannequins and collapsed letters spelling out "US" inside the À l'Innovation store

As everybody should know, firecrackers need to be handled carefully and kept away from flammable materials. Did one of the protesters enter the store, ignite a firecracker and accidentally set the building ablaze? Or – worse – did someone deliberately set the fire inside the store? At any rate, survivors report seeing a man inside the store crying, "I'm giving my life for Vietnam," when the fire broke out. Furthermore, store manager Willy Bernheim reported that À l'Innovation had been receiving bomb threats.

As someone who opposes to the Vietnam war, I agree with the message of the protesters, if not their methods, since harassing shoppers and department store employees will certainly not stop the war in Vietnam. Therefore, I was horrified when I first heard about speculations that the fire my have been due to arson.

"Surely it was an accident," I thought, "An idiot playing with firecrackers, who intended to cause a small nuisance and had no idea what he or she wrought. Surely nobody dedicated to peace would deliberately burn down a building filled with hundreds of people."

And then I saw the latest pamphlets published by the Kommune 1…

The Kommune 1 and Their Shocking Lack of Empathy

The Kommune 1 is a group of leftist activists who believe that the nuclear family is the root of fascism and therefore want to experiment with alternative forms of communal living. This group–eight young men and women, as well as two of their children–moved together into an apartment in West Berlin earlier this year.

This experiment in alternative living was political from the start and so the Kommune 1 quickly became notable for their creative but also extreme protests such as scaling the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church to throw pamphlets and Mao Bibles onto the street below or the plan to hurl pudding at US Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey during his visit to West Berlin last month, which brought them to the attention of the police.

Rainer Langhans being arrested — Kommune 1 member Rainer Langhans is arrested by the West Berlin police, following the foiled plot to throw pudding at US Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey

The members of the Kommune 1 claim to have been in contact with the organisers of the protests in Brussels, a Maoist group named "Action for Peace and Friendship between Nations", and their spokesperson Maurice L. And so a pamphlet published by the Kommune 1 two days after the fire quoted Maurice L. who admitted not only to organising the protests, but also to setting off firecrackers inside the store to "accustom the staff to explosions and screams" and sending bomb threats to the store management to gauge police response. In fact, the pamphlet implies that the fire was no tragic accident, but a meticulously planned attack.

All this is very disturbing, but even more disturbing is the reaction of the authors of the pamphlet (credited to Dagrun Enzensberger, former wife of writer Hans Magnus Enzensberger and mother of a nine-year-old daughter, and her former brother-in-law Ulrich Enzensberger) who fail to show any empathy at all for the more than three hundred victims of the fire. Instead, the pamphlet proudly notes that the effect of the "great happening", which is how they refer to the protest, exceeded expectations.

Kommune 1 pamphlet — The disgusting pamphlet published by the Kommune 1 two days after the fire.

The next pamphlet, published on the same day, was even worse. Herein, the Kommune 1 explicitly cheers about the deaths of more than three hundred people (referred to as "overfed bourgeois consumers"), because "a burning department store with burning people will provide – for the first time in a European metropolis – that prickling Vietnam sensation (being there and burning) that we in Berlin are still missing."

To say I was disgusted is putting it mildly. In fact, the members of the Kommune 1 should count themselves lucky that I only received the pamphlets in the mail from a friend who lives in West Berlin (and was just as horrified by their content as I was), because otherwise I might well have rung the doorbell of the apartment on the corner of Stuttgarter Platz and Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße and punched whomever opened the door in the face.

Kommune 1 at home — At home with the Kommune 1. Hard to imagine that these people can cuddle their own children, while cheering the deaths of other young children in Brussels.

But it gets even worse, because the Kommune 1 did not stop at cheering about the deaths of more than three hundred people, they apparently enjoyed the horrifying TV footage of the fire so much that their next two pamphlets explicitly call for setting department stores in West Berlin on fire or maybe blowing up a military base or causing the collapse of a stand in a sports stadium filled with spectators. There were also threats against the Shah of Persia, who will be visiting West Germany in early June.

Now I have sympathy for the frustration felt by anti-war protesters that their peaceful protests seem to have little impact, though more and more people around the world are turning against the war in Vietnam. However, violence is not the answer, let alone violence on such a horrifying scale as what happened in Brussels. And calling for violence, even if meant satirically, as the Kommune 1 claimed once the West Berlin police knocked on their door, is utterly despicable, especially since someone might take those calls seriously and cause the next large-scale fire.

Let's be clear, so far no one truly knows what happened at À l'Innovation and what caused the fire. It's quite possible that the mysterious Maurice L. is blowing hot air or that he is merely a figment of the Kommune 1's imagination.

However, no decent human being, let alone someone who considers themselves on the left or anti-war, should ever cheer about the deaths of others. And make no mistake, the more than three hundred people who died at the À l'Innovation were innocents. They were people who were at work or shopping or having lunch. Many of them may well have been opposed to the war in Vietnam themselves. Several of the dead were young children, about the same age as the daughter of Dagrun Enzensberger, or even younger.

This whole thing is utterly disgusting and I do hope that the broader Left will make it very clear to groups like the Kommune 1 or the ironically named "Action for Peace and Friendship between Nations" that such behaviour is neither acceptable nor welcome. I also hope that if the À l'Innovation fire was indeed due to arson, the perpetrators will be caught and brought to justice soon.

Twisted wreckage — Twisted steel beams after the À l'Innovation fire.

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Comics

[November 18, 1965] Humour, Heroes and History: The Comics of France, Belgium and the Netherlands

November 18, 2020 Cora Buhlert 11 Comments

by Cora Buhlert

Winter is coming

Winter 1965 — Winter has come to Germany

Germany is experiencing an uncommonly early winter and the entire country is currently buried under a blanket of snow. Time to settle down by the fireplace and listen to records such as Neue Songs der Welt by Israeli folk duo Esther and Abi Ofarim, which currently sits at the top of the West German long-play charts.

Winter is also the ideal time to read. Which brings me back to my last article, wherein I introduced you to the comics of East and West Germany. In this article now, I pay a visit to the comics of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

The Ninth Art

The comics heart of Europe undoubtedly beats in France and Belgium. For here, comics are considered not disposable entertainment for kids, but a genuine art form. Belgian comics artist Maurice De Bevere, better known as Morris, referred to comics as "the ninth art".

Maurice de Bevere a.k.a. Morris, creator of Lucky Luke

US comic books only focus on a single character or group. The French-Belgian industry is different, since it focusses on anthology magazines, which contain several different serialised comic strips. The most popular comics are later collected in books known as albums.

Three comic magazines dominate the French-Belgian-Dutch market. The Belgian magazines Spirou (Robbedoes in Flemish) and Tintin (Kuifje in Flemish) and the French magazine Pilote. All three have their own distinct style and voice.

Belgium is a multilingual country. The northern part speaks Flemish (a variation of Dutch), the southern part speaks French and a small area near the German border speaks German. As a result, Belgian comic magazines routinely appear in both French and Flemish. And since Flemish and Dutch are so similar, the Netherlands regularly get the Flemish versions of Belgian magazines. Therefore, France, Belgium and the Netherlands largely read the same comics.

Antwerpen 1960s — De Meir, main shopping street of Antwerp, Belgium

Leysstraat Antwerpen — The Leysstraat in Antwerp, Belgium

Several Franco-Belgian comics have been translated into German. However, since I live only one and a half hours from the Dutch border and about three hours from the Belgian, I frequently pick up comics that haven't yet been translated there.

Humour, dynamic art and big noses: Spirou

Of the three Franco-Belgian comic magazines, Spirou is the oldest, dating back to 1938. Though Spirou also publishes comics with more realistic art, it specialises in zany humour and a dynamic, cartoony art style that has been dubbed the "Marcinelle school", named after the Belgian town of Marcinelle, where the magazine has its headquarters.

The title character has a tangled history. Created by French cartoonist Robert Velter a.k.a. Rob-Vel, Spirou originally was an elevator operator at a luxury hotel. After Rob-Vel joined the Belgian army and was wounded in World War II, the series went through several hands, until the young Belgian cartoonist André Franquin took over in 1947 and made the strip his own. The character Spirou acquired a pet squirrel named Spip and a best friend in the reporter Fantasio. Spirou eventually changed careers and became a reporter as well, though he continues to wear his red bellhop uniform. Together, Spirou and Fantasio travel the world and have many adventures. They also adopted a strange jungle creature known as the Marsupilami.

Spirou et Fantasio — Spirou and Fantasio meet the Marsupilami

In 1957, a young man named Gaston Lagaffe (literally Gaston the blunder) wandered into the office of the newspaper for which Spirou and Fantasio work. Even though Gaston is terminally lazy and fails at pretty much everything, he was hired as an office boy. Gaston initially appeared as a supporting character in Spirou and Fantasio, but eventually got his own gag strip and became one of the most popular characters in the magazine, though he mostly does nothing at all.

However, the most popular comic published in Spirou is undoubtedly Lucky Luke. A cowboy in the Old West who is known as the man who shoots faster than his shadow, Lucky Luke doesn't shoot to kill, but only to disarm his foes. His constant companions are Jolly Jumper, the smartest horse in the world, and Rantanplan (a parody of heroic film dog Rin Tin Tin), the stupidest dog in the universe. In his adventures, Lucky Luke meets many real life historical figures. His sworn enemies are the Dalton Brothers, bandits and cousins of the historical Dalton Gang. No matter how many times Lucky Luke sends the Daltons to prison, they escape again and again. Created by the above mentioned Maurice de Bevere a.k.a. Morris in 1946, Lucky Luke is very much a parody of American westerns. Spirou also publishes the serious western comic Jerry Spring, written and drawn by Spirou editor-in-chief Joseph Gillain a.k.a. Jijé, but the humorous western adventures of Lucky Luke are a lot more popular.

Another hugely popular series that originated in the pages of Spirou are Les Schtroumpfs a.k.a De Smurfen in Flemish a.k.a. Die Schlümpfe in German. These small blue gnomes were created by Belgian cartoonist Pierre Gulliford a.k.a. Peyo and initially appeared as supporting characters in Peyo's comic Johan et Pirlouit about the adventures of the medieval squire Johan and his diminutive friend Pirlouit (Pirrewiet in Flemish) in 1958. The little blue gnomes, who live in a village of mushroom shaped houses in the forest and tangle with the evil wizard Gargamel and his cat Azrael, quickly became popular and got their own comic in 1959. Just this year, the German toy company Schleich began producing collectible Smurf figurines.

Johan et Pirlouit — Johan and Pirlouit before they met the Smurfs.

Other popular comics to appear in Spirou include the realistic aviation strip Buck Danny by Jean-Michel Charlier and Victor Hubinon, the detective strip Gil Jourdan by Maurice Tillieux and Boule et Bill, the story of a young boy and his dog by Jean Roba and Maurice Rosy.

A gothic adventure for detective hero Gil Jourdan

Clear lines and great adventures: Tintin

Tintin, the other big Belgian comics magazine, was founded in 1946, though its flagship series has a much longer history. For the intrepid young reporter Tintin and his dog Milou first appeared in the newspaper Le Petit Vingtième in 1929. Created by Belgian artist Georges Remi a.k.a. Hergé and drawn in the so-called ligne claire (clear line) style, Tintin and Milou travelled the world in search of adventure and acquired a sizeable supporting cast, including Captain Haddock, a hard-drinking and swearing sailor, Professor Tournesol, an absentminded genius, Dupont and Dupond, a pair of identical looking and not very competent police detectives, and opera singer Bianca Castafiore, who has taken a shine to Captain Haddock.

Tintin Temple of the Sun — Tintin visits the Temple of the Sun.

World War II paper shortages eventually put an end to Tintin's newspaper career, but in 1946 the intrepid young reporter returned for new adventures in glorious colour in the pages of the newly founded Tintin magazines. Though his adventures are mostly set in the real world, Tintin does venture into fantasy and science fiction on occasion, including a remarkably realistically rendered trip to the moon in 1950.

Suske en Wiske (Bob et Bobette in French), another popular strip in Tintin magazine, also predates the founding of the magazine. Created by Flemish cartoonist Willy Vandersteen and drawn in the ligne claire style, the two mischievous children Suske and Wiske and their Aunt Sidonie first appeared in a daily comic strip in the Belgian newspaper De Standaard in 1945 and moved to Tintin magazine in 1948. Suske and Wiske quickly acquired a supporting cast consisting of the brilliant inventor Professor Barabas, the strongman Jerome and Lambik, part-time detective, part-time plumber and full-time comic relief. Initially, the adventures of Suske and Wiske were largely realistic, but fantasy and science fiction elements soon appeared. And because the inventions of Professor Barabas include a time machine, Suske, Wiske and their friends also frequently go on adventures throughout history.

Suske and Wiske are hugely popular in Flanders and the Netherlands. The enterprising Willy Vandersteen also created several comic series for other publishers such as De Rode Ridder (The Red Knight), a medieval adventure series which first appeared in 1959 and Bessy, the adventures of a heroic dog in the Old West, which first appeared in 1952.

De Rode Ridder — The Red Knight visits Atlantis

Blake and Mortimer by Belgian artist and writer Edgar P. Jacobs debuted in Tintin magazine in 1946. Professor Philip Mortimer, a brilliant Scottish physicist, and his best friend and protector Captain Francis Blake, a Welsh MI5 officer, have many adventures and tangle with their sworn enemy Colonel Olrik. Both Blake and Mortimer were modelled after friends of Edgar P. Jacobs, while the villain Olrik is a self-portrait of the artist. Though nominally a spy series, Blake and Mortimer's adventures often takes them into the realm of science fiction. Among other things, Blake and Mortimer have visited Atlantis, travelled through time and thwarted an attempt to destroy the Earth via guided meteorites. The series is a true delight for science fiction fans.

Another strip which has appeared in Tintin since the beginning is Corentin by Belgian artist Paul Cuvelier. The titular character is a Breton orphan who runs away to sea and is shipwrecked. A mix of Tarzan and Robinson Crusoe, Corentin has adventures all over the world with a group of human and animal friends and occasionally ventures into the realms of fantasy as well. Cuvelier started out as a fine artist and Corentin is one of the most beautifully drawn Belgian comics.

Alix, the adventures of a young Gaul slave adopted into Roman nobility around the time of Julius Caesar, was created by Jacques Martin and debuted in Tintin in 1948. Other comics to appear in Tintin magazine are Michael Vaillant, the adventures of a formula one driver created in 1957 by Jean Graton, and Ric Hochet, yet another heroic reporter created by cartoonist Gilbert Gascard a.k.a. Tibet and mystery writer André-Paul Duchâteau in 1955.

Alix La Griffe Noire — Alix fights the Black Claw

Michel Vaillant on the racecourse of fear

Adventures for an older audience: Pilote

Spirou and Tintin are aimed at children (which explains why there are so few female characters, because Belgian youth protection laws forbid even the slightest hint of sex), though many adults read and enjoy them, too. Meanwhile, the French upstart Pilote was aimed at an older audience from its start in 1959 on.

Pilote's most popular strip is undoubtedly Astérix, which premiered in the first issue of the magazine, written by Lucky Luke co-writer René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo. The titular character is a Gaul warrior living in a small Breton village, which is resisting Roman occupation during the time of Julius Caesar. Loosely based on historical Gaul chieftain and French national hero Vercingetorix, Astérix is short but shrewd. His best friend Obelix is big, strong and not very smart. Obelix carries around menhir, which he likes to hurl at Romans, and has a dog named Idefix. Astérix and Obelix always remind me of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, though I have no idea if Goscinny and Uderzo are familiar with that series. Together, Astérix, Obelix and the rest of their village run rings around the Roman would-be occupiers, also thanks to a superstrength potion developed by the village druid Panoramix. But Astérix and Obelix are not content to remain in Gaul. Instead, they have adventures all around the Roman empire. They just visited Egypt and met Cleopatra, who looks remarkably like Elizabeth Taylor in the recent movie.

Whereas the above mentioned Alix treats the subject of the Roman occupation of Gaul seriously and shows its hero as torn between his Gaul and Roman identity, Astérix uses the same historical material for comedy and satire. The series is full of puns and allusions to contemporary French politics. It's also hilarious – at least in the original French. For the German translation, publisher Rolf Kauka renamed the heroes Siggi and Babarras and replaced the allusions to contemporary French politics with allusions to contemporary West German politics. Unfortunately, the Kauka translations are not at all funny and also managed to slip in antisemitic stereotypes, which did not appear in the original. René Goscinny was not at all amused and withdrew the translation license from Kauka, which led to a lawsuit that is still ongoing. I sincerely hope that Astérix will eventually get the German translation it deserves.

Asterix and Obelix and Cleopatra — Astérix and Obelix meet Cleopatra

The other breakout comic to debut in Pilote is the western comic Blueberry, created by the Belgian writer Jean-Michel Charlier and the young French artist Jean Giraud, who occasionally also goes by Moebius. The comic initially appeared as Fort Navajo in 1963, but the unlikely named US Cavalry Lieutenant Mike Steve Blueberry became so popular that he took over the comic. Unlike the clean-cut heroes of other western comics, Blueberry is rough and unshaven, more reminiscent of Clint Eastwood in the recent Italian western Per un pugno di dollari than of John Wayne. Blueberry cares deeply about justice and abhors racism, whether it's aimed at Blacks or Native Americans. The comic would be good either way, but it's Jean Giraud's brilliant art which turns it into something truly special.

Fort Navajo, the first adventure of Lieutenant Blueberry

Other comics to appear in Pilote include the pirate adventure Barbe-Rouge by Jean-Michel Charlier and Victor Huginon, which debuted in 1959, the aviation series Tanguy et Laverdure by Jean-Michael Charlier and Albert Uderzo, which also debuted in 1959, and the gag strip Achille Talon, created by Michel Regnier a.k.a. Greg in 1963.

Going Dutch

The Dutch mostly read the Flemish editions of Franco-Belgian comics. However, they also have some titles of their own. One feature that's unique to Dutch comics is that they have no speech bubbles, only captions.

One of the most popular Dutch comics is Eric de Noorman (Eric the Norseman) about the adventures of a Viking warrior and his family. Created in 1946 by Hans G. Kresse, Eric de Noorman first appeared in the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. The strip was picked up by other newspapers and also published in the oblong piccolo format from 1948 on.

Another popular Dutch comic strip is Paulus de boskabouter (Paulus the Woodgnome). Created by Jan van Oort a.k.a. Jean Dulieu in 1946, the adventures of Paulus and his animal friends first appeared in the newspaper Het Vrije Volk and also spawned a series of popular radio dramas.

Kapitein Rob is a fascinating mix of sea adventure and science fiction, because De Vrijheid (Freedom), the sailing ship helmed by the titular captain, can also travel through time as well as space. The strip was created by writer Evert Werkman and artist Pieter Kuhn and debuted in 1945 in the newspaper Het Parool.

However, the most highly regarded comic in the Netherlands is a funny animal comic named Tom Poes (Tom Cat). The adventures of the anthropomorphic cat Tom Poes and his best friend, the aristocratic bear Olivier B. Bommel, first appeared in the newspaper De Telegraaf in 1941. Tom Poes started out as a children's comic, but quickly became popular among adults due to the satirical allusions and idiosyncratic language use of its creator Marten Toonder. Like Erika Fuchs, the brilliant German translator of the Donald Duck comics, many of the expressions and neologisms Marten Toonder introduced in Tom Poes have become part of the Dutch language.

The erotic space adventures of Barbarella

Delightful as the French-Belgian-Dutch comics are, female characters are sadly rare in those strips and female main characters are even rarer. However, there is one exception and it's even a science fiction comic.

Created by Jean-Claude Forest, Barbarella first appeared in the French periodical V Magazine in 1962. The protagonist is a young female space explorer who happens to be a dead ringer for French movie star Brigitte Bardot. Barbarella travels from planet to planet, meets various aliens with whom she engages in rather intimate first contact. Barbarella also loses her clothes a lot.

As long as the strip appeared only in V Magazine, which is similar to Playboy in the US, no one minded. But when the album was released last year, it caused a minor scandal and was banned as pornographic, which only served to make Barbarella even more popular.

Jean-Claude Forest also illustrates covers for French science fiction magazines.

Hard as it may be to imagine, this article only offers a brief glimpse into the wide and wonderful world of Franco-Belgian-Dutch comics. Many of these comics are not yet accessible to English speaking readers, but I hope that will change eventually.

Place de Brouckère by night — Place de Brouckère in Brussels by night.

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