A visit to the Comic Art Museum in Brussels
Where is the Comic Arts Museum?
The Comic Arts Museum is in Brussels! We travelled there for a long weekend on the Eurostar back in April 2018, but I thought I would share some photographs from our visit in line with National Doodle Day for Epilepsy in 2021. Brussels is a really lovely city to visit too, by the way, and really easy to get to on the Eurostar. We came across the Comic Arts Museum after spending a morning on the Open Top Tour Bus (with the roof closed as it was raining!). It’s a little hidden away, but in a way that was nice as it meant it wasn’t too busy. Whether you’re an arty farty person like me, or simply love your comic strips, it’s well worth a visit – very interesting to find out the history and see some origial doodles of well known characters.
Permanent Exhibitions
There are a few permanent exhibitions in the Comic Arts Museum in Brussels, so even if you don’t visit until next year, this information will be relevant! They were all incredibly interesting, but the history of the comic strip and how it was invented intrigued me.
The description from the museum website reads “There was once, a very long time ago, a man who could neither read nor write. Moreover, the words “read” and “write” did not even exist, any more than any other words. He invented drawing to express himself, to tell stories and to worship.
How did what we now call “comic strip” come about, and how do we describe it? The aim of this exhibition, which spans the history of the world and civilisations, is to answer these questions.”
Evolution, development, before and afters will always grab my attention – it’s why I love perfecting my craft in newborn photography, to be able to look back and see how far I’ve come. If this sounds like you, this exhibition is great!
The Peyo Exhibition
The other exhibition I remember really well is the one showing the creation of the Smurfs. I used to watch these all the time on tv when I was younger, so again, gripped my attention. There’s even a Smurf playhouse for the little ones to play in! (No, I didn’t try to join in!) There’s lots of exclusive information about their creator Peyo, and episodes playing alongside the comic strip versions. I could have spent hours taking in all the details from the model village too.
Worth a visit
There are also three temporary exhibitions in the gallery at all times and you can view these as part of your entry ticket price. It’s not a huge place, but we spent a good few hours there, which was brilliant as the weather wasn’t great and so it kept us out of the bars a bit longer!! It’s also one of the stops on the tour bus around the city, so jump on that and squeeze some additional sight seeing into your trip at the same time.
We are hoping to do some more European City Breaks when the world opens up a little more, and so I’ll be posting a few more visits in the very near future, all being well.
Have you visited the Comic Arts Museum before? What did you think? I’d love to know!
