Nero (Flemish Comics)

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For other uses of Nero, see Nero (disambiguation)

Nero is a Flemish comic strip drawn by Marc Sleen and the name of its main character.

Contents

[edit] 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 met by Van Zwam in the first adventure who was locked in an asylum and thought he was emperor Nero. He came quickly to his senses, but the name stuck.

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 was initially very amateurish but got polished quickly.

[edit] 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.
  • Tuizentfloot 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).

[edit] 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 story 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 in between 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.

[edit] Trivia

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

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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