Nero is a Flemish comic strip drawn by Marc Sleen and the name of its main character. The term Flemish Community has two distinct, though related, meanings: culturally and sociologically, it refers to Flemish organisations, media, social and cultural life; alternative expressions for this concept might be the Flemish people or the Flemish nation (in a similar sense as the Scottish nation, the Basque or Catalan); politically... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Marc Sleen is a Belgian comic book artist, best known for the Nero series. ...

Origin

Nero is a Dutch language comic strip which appeared in Flemish newspapers between 1947 and 2002. Originally called The adventures of Detective Van Zwam, it quickly changed its name to The adventures of Nero after a character Van Zwam met in the first adventure who was locked in an asylum and thought he was emperor Nero. He comes quickly to his senses, but the name stuck. This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Nero Claudius Cæsar Augustus Germanicus (December 15, 37 – June 9, 68), born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and last Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (54–68). ...

Nero is one of the quintessential Flemish newspaper comics, together with Spike and Suzy. With two strips published a day, six days a week, the comic follows the news quite closely and often incorporates puns and real life events. The drawing style is initially very amateurish but gets polished quickly. The main characters of the Spike and Suzy series on a wall painting in Brussels. ...

Main characters

During its 55 year course, a lot of regular characters have joined the original duo Nero and Van Zwam.

• Nero is the central figure. Essentially good hearted, he can also be a selfish, lazy man, who doesn't know how to keep his money and always gets himself into trouble.
• His wife (often called Madam Nero, or in some stories Bea) stays mainly at home and tries to keep a semblance of a household while her husband is off to some far corner of the earth. If the need arises, she knows how to defend herself.
• Van Zwam is a private detective. Driving a Porsche 911 (which seems to crash at least once every comic), he is always extremely fast at the place of the crime, and can make the most brilliant deductions out of the smallest clues (often a cigarette stub).
• Adhemar is the genious son of Nero. He is only a few years old, but has received numerous Nobel prizes and Ph.D.'s. His major hobby is the building of Rockets, called Adhemar I, II, ... These as well tend to crash somewhere in every story, but are a major means to get to the exotic countries where the stories often happen.
• Mister Pheip is the bourgeois friend of Nero. As an old fashioned Flemish new rich, he thinks it is fitting that he speaks some poor kind of French instead of Dutch (a reference to the language battle between Flanders and Wallonia).
• Madam Pheip is his wife. She is a pipe smoking bully, loyal to her kids, herself, her husband, and her friends (in that order). When necessary, she can make a smoke curtain with her pipe.
• Petatje is the daughter of the Pheips.
• Petoetje is their adoptive son. He is actually the son of a Papoea king, and is extremely bright. Petoetje and Petatje get treated like children (which they are, around 10 years old) by their parents, even though they act more mature most of the time.
• Clo-Clo is the younger son of the Pheips. His main characteristic is wearing a large moustache as a toddler. He weeps for the smallest reason.
• Tuizendfloot is the last pirate. Weaponed with a dagger or sometimes a cannon, he is very easily irritated and chases everyone around.
• Captain Oliepul is the captain of the tugboat named 'His Majesty Pull'. He is a good friend of Nero, and saved him many times.
• Nero's worst enemies are the Sicilian bandit Ricardo and a devil, called Geraard de Duivel (Gerard the Devil, called after a medieval building in Ghent).

Bourgeois at the end of the thirteenth century. ... Flanders (Flemish, Fleming) (Dutch: Vlaanderen (Vlaams, Vlaming)) has two main designations: a geographical region in the north of Belgium, corresponding to the Flemish region, a constituent part of the federal Belgian state. ... Wallonia (French: Wallonie, German: Wallonien, Walloon: Walonreye, Dutch: Wallonië) or the Walloon Region (French: Région Wallonne, Dutch: Waals Gewest) is the predominantly French-speaking region that constitutes one of the three federal regions of Belgium, with its capital at Namur. ... The Le Four manoeuvering in Brest harbour A tugboat, or tug, is a boat used to manoeuvre, primarily by towing or pushing other vessels (see shipping) in harbours, over the open sea or through rivers and canals. ... Gent at Night Ghent (Gent in Dutch, Gand in French, formerly Gaunt in English) is a city located in Flanders, Belgium. ...

Stories

The early stories had a random length, often around 240 strips, while the latter ones (from 1965 on) had a length of 32 pages of each 4 strips. Every day, two strips appeared in the newspaper.

While the stories have some continuity, with recurring characters and things that happen in one stroy having a consequence in the next one, they are on the whole separate, finished stories, not a continuing saga.

Almost all stories start and finish in Flanders, but many take the characters inbetween all around the world and mostly to Africa. Marc Sleen was a passionate wildlife lover and made many documentaries and books about the fauna of Africa, and this love can be found in his comics as well. The end of the comic always has a "wafelenbak", a dinner with Belgian waffles, with all the protagonists joined around the table.

Trivia

• Marc Sleen has, with Nero the world record of issues of a comic book series title drawn by the same author.

A world record is the best performance in a certain discipline, usually a sports event. ...

See also

• Franco-Belgian comics

Tintin, one of the most famous Belgian comics Franco-Belgian comics are comics written in Belgium and France. ...

External links

• Webpage about Marc Sleen, mostly devoted to Nero