Comics Art Museum — Attraction in Brussels

Over 20 years ago we visited the museum with my class. I remembered having a good time and seeing a mix of Flemish & Wallonian comics. Suske & Wiske for example were well represented back then as well.

Yesterday I went back to the museum only to find it changed ... and not in the best way. It seems part of the museum is used to heavily promote a few comics (Boerke for example) with lots of merchandise to buy in the gift shop. The other part is almost exclusively Wallonian (french part of Belgian) comics. Suske & Wiske is barely visible, no Jommeke, no Kiekeboe (all really popular comics in Flanders) nor older classics such as Biebel, Bakelandt, etc.

What you do get is tons and tons of barely known niche Wallonian comics ... and the one Flemish comic that gets featured, is featured in a negative light (Nero) by adding a woke flashlight to it.

Besides this, the museum felt dull - it was just strips of comics on the wall, some artwork, almost nothing more physical like statues. The old Smurf village now looks rather sad & boring.

I think the only fun part for us, was the clips of Boerke that you could watch which lasted 5 minutes before they started to repeat.

A BELGIAN comic museum should show a balanced view of both Flemish & Wallonian comics and they did in the past. Now they push comics unknown to anyone outside of Wallonia, barely feature well known Flemish comics and otherwise just show the biggest International names ... but even those don't really get a lot...

Good idea for a museum but not recommendable for non-french speaker. All the stripes are French only, some of the signs are also in Netherlands and English but only provide information that seems to be common knowledge so we didn't learn anything new here. Also the entry fee (13 Euros regular!) is really high for such a small museum with only little added value. Its okay if they can't present the big and well known comics due to issues with the rights or them not being Belgian but then I would at least expect alle the Belgian comic artists in more languages to be able to get to know them as someone who did not grow up with them. Also the children's does not really provide anything cool and appears to be unloving and reall cheap just like the design of the rest of the museum. The virtual reality thing (you can download an app for free and then aim at the big comic figures and they will tell you something about them) is a nice gadget but would make more sense to translate the comic strips. They have a library which costs an extra fee and a room where you can read some of the comics which is included in the ticket. I liked that. Also they have a cool smurf section with a smurf house for children to enter. I hoped for a whole museum like that.

All in all I would not recommend to visit the museum. Unfortunately we also had a very unpleasant experience with a very rude...

Museum is a big word, more like semi-interesting exposition of Belgian comics.

The building and the exposition about comics in the louvre are interesting and beautiful to see. But the rest is hit or miss, cobbled together and sometimes flagrantly offensive.

Belgian comics are known for their rac*st stereotypes and the unwillingness of authors and publishers to rewrite those, even long after. The exposition does a poor job of thoughtfully engaging with this history. They mention the stereotypes but don’t condemn them.

Their approach is, and I am not making this up, literally a sign at the entrance that says “be aware May contain harmful images” and a screen playing Bridgeton (the netflix series) on loop.

What the point is of showing Bridgerton, the series know for its rac*al equity in a phantasy world of class inequality, is unclear. One can only guess that it’s meant to show that even Hollywood is more thoughtful about race than Belgian comic publishers?

Either way — it’s an experience to go here, but don’t be disappointed if all you get for the not-cheap entry fee is a tour of nice Horta building and a short course on Belgian casual rac*sm but in...