Nero, a comic hero

Meet Nero, a Belgian Flemish comic hero, a detective and actually an anti-hero ! The Belgians love their comic strips, there are several museums dedicated to the strips or 'bandes dessinees' in French, among which the comic strip museum in Brussels and the Herge Museum in Louvain-la-Neuve. Nero's inventor, Marc Sleen does have his own museum, the Marc Sleen museum in Brussels as well. He has been writing/drawing 200 The Adventures of Nero books since 1947, which meant an official Guinness record , the only strip artist to have made so many books in one series! You can find an illustrated article about Marc Sleen here

The statue on the picture is situated at the Brasserie Nerocafe in Hoeilaart, a neighbouring village and the place of residence of Marc Sleen. This Brasserie Nerocafe is housed in the former tramstation of Hoeilaart, a building which had become derelict with the closing of the tramline in 1958. Marc Sleen wrote a Nero adventures book in 1990, "de Verschrikkelijke Tweeling" in which Nero occupied the derelict tram station building. After the publication of that book the building became listed finally and was renovated 8 years later, resulting in the cafe/brasserie it is today. I understand there is also a special Nero beer ! Marc Sleen is still a regular visitor, even though he is now in his 90s.