1.
Tintin (character)
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Tintin is the fictional hero of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. He is a reporter and adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy, the character was created in 1929 and introduced in Le Petit Vingtième, a weekly youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle. He appears as a man, around 14 to 19 years old with a round face. Tintin has an intellect, can defend himself, and is honest, decent, compassionate. Through his investigative reporting, quick-thinking, and all-around good nature, Tintin is always able to solve the mystery, unlike more colourful characters that he encounters, Tintins personality is neutral, which allows the reader to not merely follow the adventures but assume Tintins position within the story. Combined with Hergés signature ligne claire style, this helps the reader safely enter a sensually stimulating world, Tintins creator died in 1983, yet his creation remains a popular literary figure, even featured in a 2011 Hollywood film, directed by Steven Spielberg. Tintin has been criticised for his attitudes to race and other factors, been honoured by others for his tremendous spirit. General Charles de Gaulle considered Tintin his only international rival, Hergé biographer Pierre Assouline noted that Tintin had a prehistory, being influenced by a variety of sources that Hergé had encountered throughout his life. He later commented that these drawings depicted a brave and adventurous character using his intelligence and ingenuity against opponents, Hergé was also influenced by the physical appearance and mannerisms of his younger brother Paul, who had a round face and a quiff hairstyle. In search of adventure, Paul later joined the army, receiving jeers from fellow officers when the source of Hergés visual inspiration became obvious, Hergé later stated that in his youth, I watched him a lot, he entertained me and fascinated me. It makes sense that Tintin took on his character, gestures, poses and he had a way of moving and a physical presence that must have inspired me without my knowing it. His gestures stayed in my mind, I copied them clumsily, without meaning to or even knowing I was doing it, it was he whom I was drawing. This is especially striking in the first drawings of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, in 1898, Benjamin Rabier and Fred Isly published an illustrated story titled Tintin-Lutin, in which they featured a small goblin boy named Tintin, who had a rounded face and quiff. Another potential influence was Palle Huld, a 15-year-old Danish Boy Scout travelling the world, a few years after Hergé discovered the joys of Scouting, he became the unofficial artist for his Scout troop and drew a Boy Scout character for the national magazine Le Boy Scout Belge. This young man, whom he named Totor, travelled the globe and righted wrongs, as was the format for European comics at the time, the early drawings of Totor merely illustrated the story, the text that appeared below the drawings is what propelled the action. Totor had been much in Hergés mind, its new comics character would be, Hergé himself later said. Keeping the spirit of a Boy Scout, Assouline would describe Totor as a sort of trial run for Tintin, while Harry Thompson noted that in several years he would metamorphose into Tintin. Hergé had seen the new style of American comics and was ready to try it, Tintins new comic would be a strip cartoon with dialogue in speech bubbles and drawings that carried the story
2.
Brussels-South railway station
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Brussels-South is the biggest railway station in Brussels, capital of Belgium. As Brussels is an entity, both the French and Dutch names are official. 1,000 trains pass between Brussels-South and Brussels-North railway stations every day, the station is connected to the Gare du Midi/Zuidstation station of the Brussels Metro system. A station known as Station des Bogards/Bogaardenstation existed since 1840 near the Place Rouppeplein in the part of the city. It was demolished 29 years later as it was too small. A new station designed by Payen opened in 1869 a short distance south of the original one, payens terminal station was itself demolished in 1949 and replaced by a through station on the present site as part of the North-South connection project. In the 1990s, the Eurostar terminal was added on the Rue de France/Frankrijkstraat side and this contains two bay platforms with no onward northbound connection. Line 2 has since been extended beyond Brussels-South - to Clemenceau in 1993, Delacroix in 2006, since 1993 the station also accommodates pre-metro services at separate platforms, with cross-platform interchange between metro and pre-metro in both directions. Following the restructuring of the local public transport network in April 2009. It is situated underneath the Rue Couverte/Overdektestraat, in front of the mainline station, the Belgian Federal State approved a project for the renovation of the station on 12 May 2012 with a total budget of approximately 155 million euro. Since 23 July 2012, SNCFs international coach network, OUIBUS, paris - Lille - Brussels Amsterdam - Brussels Amsterdam - Brussels - London A shuttle service to Brussels South Charleroi Airport leaves from a stop located in Rue de France/Frankrijkstraat. The tallest building in Belgium stands in front of the exit from the station and is named the South Tower
3.
Dupuis
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Éditions Dupuis S. A. is a Belgian publisher of comic albums and magazines. Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis and it is originally a French language publisher, but publishes many editions both in French and Dutch. Other language editions are licensed to other publishers. Dupuis was for a time a family business but was sold in the early 1980s and has since changed ownership a few times. The latter was only in French, and contained a mixture of American comics. A few months later, a Dutch edition called Robbedoes followed, after some difficulties during the war, Dupuis started to grow quickly. Le moustique became one of the magazines with information on radio and television programs in Belgium. Dupuis started publishing books as well, but had real success by republishing the comics that had appeared as serials in the magazine. Sometimes these were one shots, but mainly they came in series, Dupuis has some of the best-selling European comic series, including Lucky Luke, The Smurfs, Gaston Lagaffe and Largo Winch. Many of these albums have been reprinted constantly for thirty or forty years. In the early sixties, Dupuis started with activities, including the merchandising of its comic series. Most of these werent very successful but further raised the visibility of their comics, still, towards the end of the 1960s, the golden age of Dupuis seemed to be over. Some of the magazines were struggling, the activities were vastly reduced. But the core business, the comics and the magazines, continued to be hugely successful. Many of the series were turned into animated movies in the 1990s, including Papyrus and Spirou et Fantasio, Dupuis has also started producing computer games. In June 2004, Dupuis was bought by Média-Participations, which now owns almost all major European comic book publishers, including Dargaud and Le Lombard. More recently, in 2015, Dupuis joined with twelve other European comics publishing actors to create Europe Comics, a digital initiative co-funded by the European Commissions Creative Europe program
4.
Morris (cartoonist)
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Maurice De Bevere, better known as Morris or Morris des Catacombes, was a Belgian cartoonist, comics artist, illustrator and the creator of Lucky Luke. His pen name is a spelling of his first name. He went to school in the well-known Jesuit college in Aalst and his math teacher told his parents the boy would unfortunately never succeed in life, as he passed the math classes doodling in the margin of his math books. Morris started drawing in the Compagnie Belge dActualités animations studios, a small and short-lived animation studios in Belgium where he met Peyo and he died in 2001 of a pulmonary embolism. He created Lucky Luke in 1946 for Spirou magazine, the Franco-Belgian comics magazine published by Dupuis, Lucky Luke is a solitary cowboy who travels across the Wild West, helping those in need, aided by his faithful horse, Jolly Jumper. The first adventure, Arizona 1880, was published in LAlmanach Spirou 1947, Morris became one of the central artists of the magazine, and one of the so-called La bande des quatre, with Jijé, André Franquin and Will. He did not work at the house of Jijé, contrary to the two, but all four became very good friends, stimulating each other artistically. In 1948, Morris, Jijé and Franquin travelled to the United States and they wanted to get to know the country, see what was left of the Wild West, and meet some American comic artists. Morris stayed the longest of the three and only returned after 6 years, in the meantime he had met René Goscinny, a French comic artist and writer, who would write all the Lucky Luke stories between 1955 and his death in 1977. Goscinny was then fairly unknown, but would become the most successful European comic writer, initially with Lucky Luke. Morris introduced in the years many cinematic techniques in his stories, like freeze-frames. Walt Disneys style influenced him, which can be seen in the very round lines that characterize the early Lucky Luke albums, many characters in his comics are also clearly based on famous American actors such as Jack Palance, Gary Cooper, W. C. Fields and William Hart, although he also caricaturizes unexpected figures like Louis de Funès or Serge Gainsbourg. The first 31 adventures were published by Dupuis, but in the sixties, Morris left Dupuis and Spirou and went to Dargaud and Pilote magazine. In 1984, Hanna-Barbera made a series of 52 cartoons of Lucky Luke,52 more cartoons were made in the early 1990s, and three live action movies followed. A few videogames based on the series were made, e. g. for PlayStation. Lucky Luke is currently the best selling European comics series ever, unlike many of his contemporaries, Morris never worked on several series, although he made a great deal of illustrations for stories in the forties and fifties. In the nineties, he did make Rantanplan, a spin-off from Lucky Luke, in 2005 he ended on the 79th place in the French-speaking version of the election for The Greatest Belgian
5.
Peyo
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Pierre Culliford was a Belgian cartoonist who worked under the pseudonym Peyo. His best-known works are the comic strips The Smurfs and Johan and Peewit, after working briefly at a Belgian animation studio, Peyo began making comic strips for daily newspapers such as Le Soir shortly after World War II. At the beginning of the 1950s, he brought his character Johan to the magazine Spirou, whom he gave a companion, the diminutive Peewit. Peyo introduced the Smurfs in the Johan and Peewit storyline The Magic Flute in 1958, in 1960 Peyo founded a studio to accommodate his assistants such as François Walthéry, Gos, and Marc Wasterlain and created the series Steven Strong and Jacky and Célestin. After the series concluded he left his publisher Dupuis to found his own publishing house, Cartoon Creation, which soon folded due to management problems. He joined Le Lombard in 1992 but died a few months later, since his death, Peyos children have continued to promote his work under the brand Peyo. Peyo was born in 1928 in the Belgian municipality Schaerbeek, as the son of an English father, on Christmas Eve 1992, Peyo died of a heart attack in Brussels at age 64. He took on the name Peyo early in his professional career, when the studio folded after the war, the other artists went to work for Dupuis, but Peyo, a few years younger than the others, was not accepted. He made his first comics for the newspaper La Dernière Heure, from 1949 to 1952, he drew Poussy, a stop comic about a cat, for Le Soir. For the same newspaper, he also created Johan, in 1952, Franquin introduced Peyo to Spirou, a childrens Franco-Belgian comics magazine published by Dupuis. Peyo wrote and drew a number of characters and storylines, including Pierrot, but his favourite was Johan et Pirlouit, which was a continuation of the series Johan he had created earlier. He also continued Poussy in Spirou, set in the Middle Ages in Europe, Johan et Pirlouit stars a brave young page to the king, and his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midget sidekick. Johan rides off to defend the meek on his trusty horse, while Peewit gallops sporadically behind on his goat, the pair was driven by duty to their king and the courage to defend the underpowered. Peewit only appeared in the adventure in 1954 but would stay for all later adventures. The first Smurf appeared in Johan and Peewit on 23 October 1958 in the album La Flûte à Six Schtroumpfs, as the Smurfs became increasingly popular, Peyo started a studio in the early 1960s, where a number of talented comics artists started to work. Peyo himself supervised the work and worked primarily on Johan and Peewit, the most notable artists to come out of this studio were Walthéry, Marc Wasterlain, Gos, Derib, Lucien De Gieter, and Daniel Desorgher. In 1959, the Smurfs got their own series, and in 1960, many authors of the Marcinelle school collaborated on the writing, or on the artwork, including Willy Maltaite, Yvan Delporte, and Roger Leloup. Peyo became more of a businessman and supervisor and was involved in the actual creation of the comics
6.
Willy Vandersteen
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Willy Vandersteen was a Belgian creator of comic books. In a career spanning 50 years, he created a studio and published more than 1,000 comic albums in over 25 series. Considered together with Marc Sleen the founding father of Flemish comics, he is popular in Belgium. Hergé called him The Brueghel of the strip, while the creation of his own studio. Vandersteen is best known for Suske en Wiske, which in 2008 sold 3.5 million books and his other major series are De Rode Ridder with over 200 albums and Bessy with almost 1,000 albums published in Germany. Willebrord Jan Frans Maria Vandersteen was born in Antwerp in 1913 and his family lived in the Seefhoek, a poor quarter of the city, where his father Francis Vandersteen worked as a decorator and stone sculptor. His studio lay next to a printer that produced De Kindervriend, Willy Vandersteen, only four years old, read the new magazine there every week, including Blutske, an early comic strip. His mother Anna Gerard was more interested in ballet and singing, one of her favourites, Wiske Ghijs, may well have been the inspiration for the name Wiske he gave to one of the main characters in his main series Spike and Suzy. Vandersteen was creatively active from his youth and he drew pictures with crayons on sidewalks, and invented stories for his friends about knights and legends. He even convinced his friends to buy him crayons so he could depict the local cycling championship. At school as well, he was interested in telling stories. His best memory of these schooldays is of a teacher who introduced him to the works of Pieter Brueghel, outside school, he spent most of his time with comic magazines and adventure books by Jules Verne or books about Nick Carter and Buffalo Bill. At 13, he enrolled at the Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp to study sculpture, and two years later he started working as sculptor and decorator, just like his father. The same year, the moved to Deurne, a suburb of Antwerp, where he came in contact with nature and with scouting. With the scouts, he became the reporter, writing down heavily illustrated reports on their outings and adventures. Through the scouts, he came into contact with Le Boy-Scout Belge. Vandersteen made a few sequels to these adventures for his friends as amusement and he continued to follow the work of Hergé later on. Meanwhile, Vandersteen combined his studies at the Academy with his work in his fathers workshop until 1935, in between some odd jobs, Vandersteen became an avid sporter, from gymnastics over cycling to wrestling
7.
The Adventures of Tintin
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The Adventures of Tintin is a series of 24 comic albums created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, by 2007, a century after Hergés birth in 1907, Tintin had been published in more than 70 languages with sales of more than 200 million copies. The series first appeared in French on 10 January 1929 in Le Petit Vingtième, the success of the series saw the serialised strips published in Belgiums leading newspaper Le Soir and spun into a successful Tintin magazine. In 1950, Hergé created Studios Hergé, which produced the canonical versions of ten Tintin albums, the Adventures of Tintin have been adapted for radio, television, theatre, and film. The series is set during a largely realistic 20th century and its hero is Tintin, a young Belgian reporter and adventurer. He is aided by his faithful dog Snowy, the series has been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in Hergés signature ligne claire style. Its well-researched plots straddle a variety of genres, swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy, mysteries, political thrillers, the stories feature slapstick humour, offset by dashes of sophisticated satire and political or cultural commentary. Georges Remi, best known under the pen name Hergé, was employed as an illustrator at Le Vingtième Siècle, run by the Abbé Norbert Wallez, the paper described itself as a Catholic Newspaper for Doctrine and Information and disseminated a far-right, fascist viewpoint. Wallez appointed Hergé editor of a new Thursday youth supplement, titled Le Petit Vingtième, propagating Wallezs socio-political views to its young readership, it contained explicitly pro-fascist and anti-Semitic sentiment. In addition to editing the supplement, Hergé illustrated Lextraordinaire aventure de Flup, Nénesse, Poussette et Cochonnet, dissatisfied with this, Hergé wanted to write and draw his own cartoon strip. He already had experience creating comic strips, from July 1926 he had written a strip about a Boy Scout patrol leader titled Les Aventures de Totor C. P. des Hannetons for the Scouting newspaper Le Boy Scout Belge. Totor was an influence on Tintin, with Hergé describing the latter as being like Totors younger brother. Although Hergé wanted to send Tintin to the United States, Wallez ordered him to set his adventure in the Soviet Union, the result, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, was serialised in Le Petit Vingtième from January 1929 to May 1930. Popular in Francophone Belgium, Wallez organised a publicity stunt at the Gare du Nord station, the storys popularity led to an increase in sales, so Wallez granted Hergé two assistants. At Wallezs direction, in June he began serialisation of the story, Tintin in the Congo. The Adventures of Tintin had been syndicated to French Catholic magazine Cœurs Vaillants since 1930, and Hergé was soon receiving syndication requests from Swiss and Portuguese newspapers too. Hergé went on to pen a string of Adventures of Tintin, sending his character to real locations such as the Belgian Congo, the United States, Egypt, India, China, in May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded Belgium as World War II broke out across Europe. Although Hergé briefly fled to France and considered a self-imposed exile, for political reasons, the Nazi authorities closed down Le Vingtième Siècle, leaving Hergé unemployed
8.
Spike and Suzy
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Spike and Suzy, Willy and Wanda or Luke and Lucy, Flemish, Suske en Wiske, French, Bob et Bobette) is a Belgian comics series created by the comics author Willy Vandersteen. It was first published in De Nieuwe Standaard in 1945 and soon became popular, although not in its earlier form, the strip adapted to the Ligne claire style, pioneered by Hergé. This change took place when the strip became serialised in Hergés Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin from 1948 to 1959, the books revolve around the adventures of the eponymous Spike and Suzy, two children, along with their friends and family. The stories combine elements of comedy, fantasy, and science fiction, such as talking animals, time travel, the strip still runs daily in the Belgian newspaper De Standaard, and new books continue to be published, as of 2016,270 albums have been published. The main characters are a group of friends, in the first regular comic, Suzy and her Aunt Sidonia meet the orphan Spike and unrelated Professor Barabas. In the next comic, they also meet Ambrose, later, in De dolle musketiers, Jerom, the strongest man in the western hemisphere, was introduced. Apart from Suzy and Aunt Sidonia, none of them are related, Spike, originally Suske, also known as Willy or Bob, is a young orphan who becomes friends with Suzy and Aunt Sidonia. This happens only in the album, Het Eiland Amoras from 1946. Spike has black hair with a small trademark spike and he started out as a hyperactive and headlong fighter, not unlike many a young male adolescent in the Seefhoek, the Antwerp neighborhood where Vandersteen grew up. Only in the first album, Spike would get out of control when he heard the battle cry Seefhoek vooruit. Replaced by Antigoon vooruit in later reprints, but as soon as his outfit evolved from mere duds towards a more tidy red polo shirt and black trousers, he became a well-behaved and obedient boy. He is smart, brave, idealistic and mostly rational, making him an emotional opposite to Suzy, where she gets in trouble with Sidonia or Ambrose, he acts as go-between to restore peace. Suzy, originally Wiske, also known as Wanda or Bobette, is the young heroine. She first appeared in the very first out-of-series prequel Rikki en Wiske in Chocowakije from 1945, where she has an older brother Rikki, but he disappears after that story to be replaced by Spike. Suzy lives together with him and her aunt Sidonia, and is dressed in a white skirt with a red stripe. In the first stories, she looks like a preschooler of about 6 years old, Vandersteen seems to have modelled her after his oldest daughter Leen, of similar age at the time. She is strong-headed, impulsive, curious and slightly foolish, aspects of her character that come naturally with a young teenager who enters puberty, and a great plot device since her repeated stubbornness and inobedience is the source of many an adventure. Since her emotions and human shortcomings often overpower her rationality, she is sensitive to paranormal and mystical happenings that are routinely dismissed by the others, Suzy is also a brave girl, especially when it comes to defending her doll Muffin, for whom she shows unconditional motherly love
9.
Spirou et Fantasio
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Spirou et Fantasio is one of the most popular classic Franco-Belgian comics. The series, which has been running since 1938, shares characteristics with other European humorous adventure comics like The Adventures of Tintin. It has been written and drawn by a succession of artists, the comic strip was originally created by Rob-Vel for the launch of Le Journal de Spirou on April 21,1938, published by Éditions Dupuis. The main character was originally an operator for the Moustique Hotel. Spirou became the property of the publisher Dupuis, who bought the character from Rob-Vel in 1943, the title has therefore subsequently been passed on to several different artists and writers. The first succession came in 1943 when Joseph Gillain, known by the pen name Jijé, was given charge of the character, in 1944 Jijé introduced a new character, Fantasio, who would become Spirous best friend and co-adventurer. Franquin developed the strip from single gags and short serials into long adventures with complex plots, one Franquin creation that went on to develop a life of its own was the Marsupilami, a fictional monkey-like creature with a tremendously long prehensile tail. The Marsupilami appears in the majority of the Franquin stories, starting in 1952 with Spirou et les héritiers, in the series, it is adopted by the duo and follows them everywhere they go. Starting with Le prisonnier du Bouddha, Franquin began to work with Greg, as in some of his later series, Greg staged his stories in a realistic geopolitical context. Le prisonnier du Bouddha is set in mainland China, with veiled references made to the Cold War, as for QRN sur Bretzelburg, it takes place in two imaginary European countries which bring to mind pre-reunification Germany. Lastly, it is with Greg that Franquin created famed villain Zorglub in the diptych of Z comme Zorglub, one side effect of this is that the Marsupilami would only appear in one last story, Le faiseur dor. This is because Franquin decided to retain the rights to that character, starting with Du glucose pour Noémie, there would be no more appearances of the Marsupilami in Spirou et Fantasio, with the exception of a few discreet references. Only in the 1980s did the Marsupilami reappear in its own series, fournier authored nine books in the series, which saw Spirou evolve into a more modern character. Where Franquins stories tended to be neutral, Fourniers stint on Spirou addressed such hot topics as nuclear energy, drug-funded dictatorships. None of these were reused by artists until some thirty years later when Itoh Kata appeared in Morvan. However, at the end of the 1970s Fourniers pace began to slow down, for a time, three separate teams worked on concurrent stories. Nic Broca and Raoul Cauvin took on Fourniers lead without adding much to the characters and their primary addition to the Spirou universe, namely the Black box, a device which annihilates sound, is in fact an acknowledged rehash from an early Sophie story by Jidéhem. Strangely, the authors were not allowed by the publisher to use any of the characters and because of this
10.
The Adventures of Nero
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The Adventures of Nero or Nero was a Belgian comic strip drawn by Marc Sleen and the name of its main character. The original title ranged from De Avonturen van Detectief Van Zwam in 1947 to De Avonturen van Nero en zijn Hoed in 1950 and it ran in continuous syndication until 2002. From 1947 until 1993 it was all drawn by Sleen himself, from 1992 until 2002 Dirk Stallaert took over the drawing while Sleen kept inventing the stories. Together with Suske en Wiske and Jommeke, Nero is regarded as the Big Three of Flemish comics, the stories were noted for their satirical content, with references to politicians and celebrities of the day. With Nero, Marc Sleen holds the record of issues of a comic book series title drawn by the same author. He drew The Adventures of Nero singlehandedly from 1947 to 1992 without any assistance from other artists and this feat is even more remarkable considering he also drew other comic strip series from 1947 to 1965. The series debuted in the newspaper De Nieuwe Gids in the autumn of 1947 and was written, the character was also dressed in a toga with some laurel leaves behind his ears. Near the end of the story the character regained his senses, the character proved popular and remained a friend of Van Zwam in the next stories, though everyone kept referring to him as Nero rather than by his real name. After nine stories, the series was renamed after Nero and Van Zwam became a character instead. In 1950 Sleen left De Nieuwe Gids and joined the newspaper Het Volk, during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960 The Adventures of Nero was popular enough to rival Willy Vandersteens Suske en Wiske which was published in De Standaard. In 1965 Sleen joined De Standaard too, following a dispute with his publishers. The first 53 Nero stories, which were published in black-and-white, from Het Bobobeeldje on all new Nero stories were published in De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad, after which they were released as colour albums. Sleen continued drawing Nero for many decades, only in 1992 did he finally hire an assistant, Dirk Stallaert, to do the drawing for him, because his eyesight had become too poor. Stallaert was promoted as Sleens successor but in 2002 he decided to leave the series in favour of Studio Vandersteen, Sleen then terminated the series for good. Stallaert still draws Nero-related publicity images and merchandise, the early stories had a random length, often around 240 strips, while the latter ones had a length of 32 pages of 4 strips each. Every day, two appeared in the newspaper. The Adventures of Nero is an adventure comic strip about Nero. He and his wife, named Madam Nero by everyone, have one son, Adhemar, Nero has an eccentric group of friends, who often help him out or force him to set out on an adventure
11.
The Smurfs
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The Smurfs is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony of small blue humanoids who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest. The Smurfs was first created and introduced as a series of characters by the Belgian comics artist Peyo in 1958. Smurfette was the first female Smurf to be introduced in the series, the Smurfs wear Phrygian caps, which came to represent freedom during the modern era. The Smurfs franchise began as a comic and expanded into advertising, films, TV series, ice capades, video games, theme parks, Johan serves as a brave young page to the king, and Pirlouit functions as his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midget sidekick. In 1958, Spirou magazine started to publish the Johan et Pirlouit story La Flûte à six trous, the adventure involved them recovering a magic flute, which required some sorcery by the wizard Homnibus. Their first full appearance was published in Spirou on October 23,1958, the characters proved to be a huge success, and the first independent Smurf stories appeared in Spirou in 1959, together with the first merchandising. The Smurfs shared more adventures with Johan and Pirlouit, got their own series, Schtroumpf is pronounced like the German word Strumpf meaning sock. Having momentarily forgotten the word salt, Peyo asked him to pass the schtroumpf, franquin jokingly replied, Heres the Schtroumpf—when you are done schtroumpfing, schtroumpf it back. And the two spent the rest of that weekend speaking in schtroumpf language, the name was later translated into Dutch as Smurf, which was adopted in English. With the commercial success of the Smurfs came the merchandising empire of Smurf miniatures, models, games, entire collecting clubs have devoted themselves to collecting PVC Smurfs and Smurf merchandise. The storylines tend to be simple tales of bold adventure, Smurfs can walk and run, but often move by skipping on both feet. They love to eat leaves, whose berries the Smurfs naturally call smurfberries. The Smurfs fulfill simple archetypes of everyday people, Lazy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, all Smurfs, with the exception of Papa, Baby, Smurfette, Nanny and Grandpa, are said to be 100 years old. There were originally 99 Smurfs, but this increased as new Smurf characters appeared, such as Sassette. All of the original Smurfs were male, later additions are Smurfette and Sassette—Smurfette being Gargamels creation. A characteristic of the Smurf language is the frequent use of the word smurf. The Smurfs frequently replace both nouns and verbs in everyday speech with the word smurf, Were going smurfing on the River Smurf today, when used as a verb, the word Smurf typically means to make, to be, to like, or to do. So Im smurfing to the smurf is not the same as Im smurfing to the smurf, in the animated series, only some words are replaced with the word smurf
12.
Gaston (comics)
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Gaston is a gag-a-day comic strip created in 1957 by the Belgian cartoonist André Franquin in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou. The series focuses on the life of Gaston Lagaffe, a lazy. Since the 1980s Gaston has appeared on a variety of merchandise. André Franquin who was then in charge of Spirou et Fantasio, the initial purpose was to fill up empty spaces in the magazine and offer a glimpse of life behind-the-scenes at the paper. For the Spirou issue N°1000 cover, Franquin drew 999 heads of Spirou, and one of Gaston, Fantasio, functioning as the magazines opinionated face of signed editorials, subsequently announced in a formal communiqué that Gaston would be the first Hero-without-a-job. Gastons blunders continued during a stressful and frustrating period for Fantasio, pushing him to go on a 4-week strike and eventually a vacation, initiating the story Vacances sans histoires. From Spirou issue n°1025, the gags were replaced with Gaston strips running at the bottom of the editors pages. These ran until 1959 when Gaston acquired a weekly half-page, which lasted until the mid-60s when the Gaston Lagaffe gags grew to full-page, a full length comic featuring Gaston has not yet been published in English. In 19714 gags of Gaston were published in the Thunderbirds Annual 1971, Gaston was christened Cranky Franky for this series. In the early Nineties Fantagrahics translated about a half a dozen gags into English, Gastons first cameo in a Spirou et Fantasio adventure took place in Spirou issue n°1014 as he graced two frames of Le voyageur du Mésozoïque. His second cameo occurred in the panels of the story Vacances sans histoires which was published between November 1957 and January 1958. Gaston appears at the start of the story when, cycling and lighting a cigarette at the time, he runs past a red light and very nearly gets hit by Spirou. Towards the end, he is again cycling, this time down the way of a one-way street. More surprised than anything else, stretched out on the front of the car, he simply tells Spirou, Gaston was given a larger part in the following adventure, La Foire aux gangsters. Here, Gaston hinders Spirous investigation into a babys kidnapping, Spirous search leads him to a fairground and Gaston, who just happens to be there, keeps approaching him. When Spirou, desperate to keep a low profile, whispers to Gaston that they dont know each other, fortunately for Spirou and the little victim, Gaston keeps getting his directions wrong and he and the gangsters end up in a dead-end, surrounded by police and in jail. In the final frame Gaston is released from prison, to the scornful glances of the passing public, in 1961, Franquin and Yvan Delporte wrote a radio serial Les Robinsons du rail. In this story, Fantasio is sent to cover the inauguration of the first nuclear powered train and, since no-one else is available, is compelled to take Gaston with him for assistance
13.
Largo Winch
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Largo Winch is a Belgian comic book series by Philippe Francq and Jean Van Hamme, published by Dupuis. It has started as a series of novels by Jean Van Hamme in the late 1970s, but stopped due to a lack of success and the huge amount of work Van Hamme had in the meantime with his comic books. When artist Philippe Francq wanted to start a series with Van Hamme, he revived his old hero and its principal character is Largo Winch, birth name Largo Winczlav, who was born in Yugoslavia. Other important characters include Nerio Winch, senior Group W executives John D. Sullivan and Dwight E. Cochrane, almost every story arc involves corrupt authority figures of a type which Nerio easily manipulated, but Largo confronts from the viewpoint of an everyman. All the stories of the series are published in two volumes, the first one being the one putting Largo in a situation. In addition, both share the same background color on the cover. The series is among the most popular series in French. The birth of the came in 1973, while Van Hamme was having lunch in New York City with Greg. The magazine sought to expand to the American market and Van Hamme was tasked with creating the comic character and he thus opted with an business-thriller idea about a young mysterious billionaire, which would allow him to demonstrate his knowledge of economics. John Prentice, noted for his work on Rip Kirby, was chosen as the artist, Van Hamme first revived the character in form of an airport novel in 1978, encouraged by huge popularity of Gérard de Villiers SAS novels. The series lasted through 1985 when it came to a halt again, finally, in 1990, being approached by Francq, Van Hamme used the character yet again in comic form, and it had instant success. The English translation is given when the title is French. Business Blues H Dutch Connection La Forteresse De Makiling Lheure du tigre Voir Venise, the following volumes have been released to date, The Heir Takeover Bid Dutch Connection The Hour of the Tiger See Venice. It aired in France on M6 and in Canada on Showcase Television as Largo, the complete series is available on DVD in France, with the episodes however only in dubbed French. A sequel, also by Salle, was released in 2011, not adapting a particular storyline, it drew inspiration from the events of the fifth and six issues to create a new story. A documentary, Largo, directed by Yves Legrain-Crist with Jean Van Hamme and this film shows two authors are searching for the answer to the question, How is a comic book created. It is available, with English subtitles, directly from the producers through VOD Largo Winch and it is a puzzle-based third-person adventure game with Largo himself as the playable character. Belgian comics Official website English publisher of Largo Winch - Cinebook Ltd, Largo Winch 2 official fansite
14.
Lucky Luke
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Lucky Luke is a humorous comics series created by Belgian cartoonist Morris in 1946. Various writers scripted the series starting in 1955, beginning with French writer René Goscinny, French artist Achdé has continued the series as artist since Morriss death in 2001. Lucky Luke is charged with restoring justice to the Old West by chasing down bandits, the stories are filled with humorous elements parodying the Western genre. Lucky Luke is one of the best-known and best-selling comics series in Europe and has translated into numerous languages. 68 albums have appeared in the series as of 2014, at first published by Dupuis, then from 1968 by Dargaud, and from 1999 by Lucky Comics. The series has adapted to various other media, such as animated films and television series, live-action films, video games, toys. About half of the series adventures have been translated into English, Lucky Luke comics have been translated into 23 languages, including many European languages, some African and Asian languages. Both a tribute to the mythic Old West and an affectionate parody, the first Lucky Luke adventure named Arizona 1880 appeared in the Almanach issue of the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou on December 7,1946. After several years of work on the strip, Morris began a collaboration with René Goscinny who became the series writer for a period that is considered the golden age of the series. This started with the story Des rails sur la Prairie published on August 25,1955 in Spirou, ending a long run of serial publications in Spirou, the series shifted to Goscinnys Pilote magazine in 1967 with the story La Diligence, subsequently leaving publisher Dupuis for Dargaud. After the death of Goscinny in 1977, several writers have filled the role of storyteller, including Raymond Vicq Antoine, Bob de Groot, Jean Léturgie, at the 1993 Angoulême International Comics Festival, Lucky Luke was given an honorary exhibition. After Morris death in 2001, French artist Achdé continued drawing new Lucky Luke stories in collaboration with writers Laurent Gerra, Daniel Pennac, a spin-off series called Rantanplan starring Lukes dimwitted canine sidekick began in 1987. It has been written over the years by several teams of writers. The character also got a 76-episode animated television series in 2006, a second spin-off series called Kid Lucky was designed in 1995, aimed at attracting a younger readership. This starred Luke as a boy, a format that had been very popular with Spirou. Two albums starring this version of the character were released as part of the series, Kid Lucky. These were credited to veteran writer Jean Léturgie and unknown artist Pearce, the series was scrapped due to poor sales and the two albums removed from the official list of Lucky Luke albums. The series was however re-launched in 2011 as Les aventures de Kid Lucky daprès Morris, to date, Achdé has written three Kid Lucky albums, Lapprenti Cow-boy, Lasso périlleux and Statue Squaw, released in 2011,2013 and 2015, respectively
15.
Thorgal
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Thorgal is a Belgian fantasy comic book series by the Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme and the Polish graphic artist Grzegorz Rosiński. It combines several themes and legends, ranging from Norse mythology and Atlantean fantasy to science fiction, the comic first appeared in serial form in Tintin magazine in 1977, and has been published in hardcover volumes by Le Lombard from 1980 on. Translations exist in English and many other languages, in 2002, it was adapted as a adventure video game, Thorgal, Curse of Atlantis, by Cryo Interactive Entertainment. Thorgal is critically acclaimedand one of the most popular French language comics, there are presently three ongoing successful spin-off series, in addition to the continuation of the main Thorgal adventures. Thorgal Aegirsson, Son of Varth and Haynee, grandson of Xargos -captain of a spaceship on a way to Earth in search of energy sources. Raised by Vikings but not one of them, he shows traits of character, in reality, if need be, he is a courageous and skillful warrior and an exceptionally skilled archer. His lifes goal is to find a place for himself and his family to live in peace, for a time they strip him of his memory, and he becomes the pirate lord Shaigan, though his compassionate personality remained unchanged. Aaricia, Thorgals wife and daughter of Viking leader Gandalf the Mad and she is bound to Thorgal from the moment of her birth by a magic object named Tjahzis Tears. Aaricia is a spirited, strong willed woman, and she loves her family dearly despite all the mishaps Thorgals fate has brought to their lives, Jolan, Thorgals son who possesses supernatural powers - the heritage of Thorgals mysterious ancestry. During the majority of the series, his power is limited to molecular agitation and she has the ability to communicate with animals. Kriss of Valnor, young, beautiful, unscrupulous and deadly warrior and she first appears in the 9th album, The Archers and re-appears intermittently in the following albums. She is in some ways Thorgals greatest foe, trying to hurt him and his out of pure hate. When Thorgal loses his memory, she tricks him into believing they are married and she becomes pregnant with his son shortly before Thorgal regains his memory and leaves to find his family. Later, she ends up as a slave in Byzantium and sacrifices her life to help Thorgals family escape from the slave pits. However, even after her demise she continues to haunt Thorgals family and her father Kahaniel of Valnor sired her to be able to reincarnate in his first-born male descendant, Aniel. Aniel, the son of Thorgal and Kriss of Valnor. He and his mother fell prey to Byzantian slavers, and his vocal cords were cut to forestall crying, leaving him mute, later, Kriss and Aniel escaped the slave pits with Aaricia, Jolan and Louve, who had also been brought there. When Kriss was wounded by her pursuers and prepared to make her last stand, Aaricia agreed and took Aniel in as one of her own children
16.
Dutch language
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It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after English and German. Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English and is said to be roughly in between them, Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and incorporates more Romance loans than German but far fewer than English. In both Belgium and the Netherlands, the official name for Dutch is Nederlands, and its dialects have their own names, e. g. Hollands, West-Vlaams. The use of the word Vlaams to describe Standard Dutch for the variations prevalent in Flanders and used there, however, is common in the Netherlands, the Dutch language has been known under a variety of names. It derived from the Old Germanic word theudisk, one of the first names used for the non-Romance languages of Western Europe. It literarily means the language of the people, that is. The term was used as opposed to Latin, the language of writing. In the first text in which it is found, dating from 784, later, theudisca appeared also in the Oaths of Strasbourg to refer to the Germanic portion of the oath. This led inevitably to confusion since similar terms referred to different languages, owing to Dutch commercial and colonial rivalry in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English term came to refer exclusively to the Dutch. A notable exception is Pennsylvania Dutch, which is a West Central German variety called Deitsch by its speakers, Jersey Dutch, on the other hand, as spoken until the 1950s in New Jersey, is a Dutch-based creole. In Dutch itself, Diets went out of common use - although Platdiets is still used for the transitional Limburgish-Ripuarian Low Dietsch dialects in northeast Belgium, Nederlands, the official Dutch word for Dutch, did not become firmly established until the 19th century. This designation had been in use as far back as the end of the 15th century, one of them was it reflected a distinction with Hoogduits, High Dutch, meaning the language spoken in Germany. The Hoog was later dropped, and thus, Duits narrowed down in meaning to refer to the German language. g, in English, too, Netherlandic is regarded as a more accurate term for the Dutch language, but is hardly ever used. Old Dutch branched off more or less around the same time Old English, Old High German, Old Frisian and Old Saxon did. During that period, it forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, on the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in nowadays France and Germany. The division in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, one of the few moments linguists can detect somewhat of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in the pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age, the Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups, East, West, and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration Period, Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots, Frisian, Low German and High German
17.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
18.
Franco-Belgian comics
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Franco-Belgian comics are comics that are created for a Belgian and French audience. These countries have a tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs. In Europe, the French language is spoken not only in France but also by about 40% of the population of Belgium. The shared language creates an artistic and commercial market where national identity is often blurred, Flemish Belgian comic books are influenced by Francophone comics, yet have a distinctly different style, both in art as well as in spirit. Among the most popular Franco-Belgian comics that have achieved international fame are The Adventures of Tintin, Gaston Lagaffe, Asterix, Lucky Luke, the term bandes dessinées is derived from the original description of the art form as drawn strips. It was first introduced in the 1930s, but only became popular in the 1960s, the term bandes dessinées contains no indication of subject matter, unlike the American terms comics and funnies, which imply a humorous art form. Indeed, the distinction of comics as the art is prevalent in Francophone scholarship on the form, as is the concept of comics criticism. The publication of Francis Lacassins book Pour un neuvième art, la bande dessinée in 1971 further established the term and these were humorous short works rarely longer than a single page. In the Francophonie, artists such as Gustave Doré, Nadar, Christophe, in the early decades of the 20th century, comics were not stand-alone publications, but were published in newspapers and weekly or monthly magazines as episodes or gags. Aside from these magazines, the Catholic Church was creating and distributing healthy, in the early 1900s, the first popular French comics appeared, including Bécassine and Les Pieds Nickelés. In the 1920s, after the end of the first world war, Saint-Ogan was one of the first French-speaking artists to fully utilize techniques popularized and formulaized in the USA, such as word balloons. In 1920, the Abbot of Averbode in Belgium started publishing Zonneland, a magazine consisting largely of text with few illustrations, which started printing comics more often in the following years. One of the earliest proper Belgian comics was Hergés The Adventures of Tintin, with the story Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and it was quite different from future versions of Tintin, the style being very naïve and simple, even childish, compared to the later stories. The early stories often featured racist and political stereotypes that Hergé later regretted, the success was immediate, and soon other publishers started publishing periodicals with American series. This continued during the remainder of the decade, with hundreds of magazines publishing mostly imported material, the most important ones in France were Robinson, Hurrah, and Coeurs Vaillants, while Belgian examples include Wrill and Bravo. In 1938, Spirou magazine was launched, Spirou also appeared translated in a Dutch version under the name Robbedoes for the Flemish market. Export to the Netherlands followed a few years later, when Germany invaded France and Belgium, it became close to impossible to import American comics. The occupying Nazis banned American animated movies and comics they deemed to be of a questionable character, both were, however, already very popular before the war and the hardships of the war period only seemed to increase the demand
19.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
20.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
21.
Flanders
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Flanders is the Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium, although there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, language, politics and history. It is one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, the demonym associated with Flanders is Fleming, while the corresponding adjective is Flemish. The official capital of Flanders is Brussels, although Brussels itself has an independent regional government, in historical contexts, Flanders originally refers to the County of Flanders, which around AD1000 stretched from the Strait of Dover to the Scheldt estuary. In accordance with late 20th century Belgian state reforms the area was made two political entities, the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region. These entities were merged, although geographically the Flemish Community, which has a cultural mandate, covers Brussels. Flanders has figured prominently in European history, as a consequence, a very sophisticated culture developed, with impressive achievements in the arts and architecture, rivaling those of northern Italy. Belgium was one of the centres of the 19th century industrial revolution, geographically, Flanders is generally flat, and has a small section of coast on the North Sea. Much of Flanders is agriculturally fertile and densely populated, with a density of almost 500 people per square kilometer. It touches France to the west near the coast, and borders the Netherlands to the north and east, the Brussels Capital Region is an enclave within the Flemish Region. Flanders has exclaves of its own, Voeren in the east is between Wallonia and the Netherlands and Baarle-Hertog in the consists of 22 exclaves surrounded by the Netherlands. It comprises 6.5 million Belgians who consider Dutch to be their mother tongue, the political subdivisions of Belgium, the Flemish Region and the Flemish Community. The first does not comprise Brussels, whereas the latter does comprise the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Brussels, the political institutions that govern both subdivisions, the operative body Flemish Government and the legislative organ Flemish Parliament. The two westernmost provinces of the Flemish Region, West Flanders and East Flanders, forming the central portion of the historic County of Flanders, a feudal territory that existed from the 8th century until its absorption by the French First Republic. Until the 1600s, this county also extended over parts of France, one of the regions conquered by the French in Flanders, namely French Flanders in the Nord department. French Flanders can be divided into two regions, Walloon Flanders and Maritime Flanders. The first region was predominantly French-speaking already in the 1600s, the latter became so in the 20th century, the city of Lille identifies itself as Flemish, and this is reflected, for instance, in the name of its local railway station TGV Lille Flandres. The region conquered by the Dutch Republic in Flanders, now part of the Dutch province of Zeeland, the significance of the County of Flanders and its counts eroded through time, but the designation remained in a very broad sense. In the Early modern period, the term Flanders was associated with the part of the Low Countries
22.
Wallonia
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Wallonia is a region of Belgium. Wallonia is primarily French-speaking, and accounts for 55% of the territory of Belgium, unlike Flanders, the Walloon Region was not merged with the French Community of Belgium which is the political entity that is responsible for matters related mainly to culture and education. The German-speaking minority in the east forms the German-speaking Community of Belgium, during the industrial revolution, Wallonia was second only to the United Kingdom in industrialization, capitalizing on its extensive deposits of coal and iron. This brought the wealth, and, from the beginning of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century. Since World War II the importance of industry has greatly diminished. Wallonia now suffers high unemployment and has a significantly lower GDP per capita than Flanders. The economic inequalities and linguistic divide between the two are major sources of conflict in Belgium and is a major factor in Flemish separatism. The capital of Wallonia is Namur but the city with the greatest population is Charleroi, most of Wallonias major cities and two-thirds of its population lie along the Sambre and Meuse valley, the former industrial backbone of Belgium. To the north lies the Central Belgian Plateau, which, like Flanders, is relatively flat, in the south-east lie the Ardennes, hilly and sparsely populated. Wallonia borders Flanders and the Netherlands in the north, France to the south and west, Wallonia has been a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie since 1980. The term Wallonia can mean different things in different contexts. One of the three regions of Belgium is still constitutionally defined as the Walloon Region, but the regions government has renamed it Wallonia. In practice, the difference between the two terms is small and what is meant is usually clear, based on context, the root of the word Wallonia, like the words Wales, Cornwall and Wallachia, is the Germanic word Walha, meaning the strangers. Wallonia is named after the Walloons, the population of the Burgundian Netherlands speaking Romance languages, in Middle Dutch, the term Walloons also included the French-speaking population of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège or the whole population of the Romanic sprachraum within the medieval Low Countries. Julius Caesar conquered Gaul in 57 BC, the Low Countries became part of the larger Gallia Belgica province which originally stretched from southwestern Germany to Normandy and the southern part of the Netherlands. The population of territory was Celtic with a Germanic influence which was stronger in the north than in the south of the province. The ancestors of the Walloons became Gallo-Romans and were called the Walha by their Germanic neighbours, the Walha abandoned their Celtic dialects and started to speak Vulgar Latin. The Merovingian Franks gradually gained control of the region during the 5th century, the language border began to crystallize between 700 under the reign of the Merovingians and Carolingians and around 1000 after the Ottonian Renaissance
23.
Brussels
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Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
24.
George McManus
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George McManus was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of Irish immigrant Jiggs and his wife Maggie, the main characters of his syndicated comic strip, Bringing Up Father. Born in St. Louis, Missouri of Irish parents, McManus had a gift for drawing. He recalled an incident when he was in school, My teacher sent home to my parents a picture I had drawn of a classmate named Sweeney. This is what your boy has been doing, the teacher wrote, I laid the note in Pops lap and headed wearily for the woodshed. But Pop, instead, put on his hat and coat and he showed Sweeney to the editor. Next day I had a job on The Republican at $5 a week—as an errand boy, at The Republican, he created his first comic strip, Alma and Oliver. In 1904, McManus created the first American family comic strip, The Newlyweds, about an elegant young couple, the popularity of the strip prompted the management of The New York American to invite McManus to work for their newspaper, which he did from 1912 on. Renaming The Newlyweds as Their Only Child, he continued that strip and began other daily strips, Rosies Beau, Love Affairs of a Mutton Head, Spareribs And Gravy and Bringing Up Father. McManus was inspired by The Rising Generation, a comedy by William Gill that he had seen as a boy in St. Louis, Missouris Grand Opera House. McManus knew Barry and used him as the basis for his drawings of Jiggs, two years before his death, McManus said that Bringing Up Father had earned him $12,000,000 during his lifetime. McManus wife, the former Florence Bergere, was the model for daughter Nora in Bringing Up Father, zeke Zekley was his assistant on the comic strip from 1935 to 1954. For his contribution to American humor, Roanoke College honored McManus with an honorary degree, during the 1940s, McManus lived at 8905 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. He died in 1954 in Santa Monica, California and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, Jiggs serves as insignia of the U. S. Air Forces 11th Bomb Squadron, with whom McManus served during World War I. In 1995, the strip was one of 20 included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative United States postage stamps. Jiggs dinner The Press, A Gag a Day Time magazine Newlyweds and Their Baby at Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries
25.
Speech balloon
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In Western graphic art, labels that reveal what a pictured figure is saying have appeared since at least the 13th century. These were in common European use by the early 16th century, word balloons began appearing in 18th-century printed broadsides, and political cartoons from the American Revolution often used them. They later fell out of fashion, but by 1904 had regained their popularity, richard F. Outcaults Yellow Kid is generally credited as the first American comic strip character. His words initially appeared on his shirt, but word balloons very much like those in use today were added almost immediately. For many years, word balloons were less common in Europe than in the USA, the most common is the speech bubble. It comes in two forms for two circumstances, An in-panel character and an off-panel character, an in-panel character uses a bubble with a pointer, called a tail, directed towards the speaker. When one character has multiple balloons within a panel, often only the balloon nearest to the head has a tail. This style is used in Mad Magazine, due to its call-and-response dialogue-based humor. An off-panel character has several options, some of them rather unconventional, the first is a standard speech bubble with a tail pointing toward the speakers position. The second option, which originated in manga, has the tail pointing into the bubble, the third option replaces the tail with a sort of bottleneck that connects with the side of the panel. It can be seen in the works of Marjane Satrapi, in American comics, a bubble without a tail means that the speaker is not merely outside the readers field of view but invisible to the viewpoint character, often as an unspecified member of a crowd. Thought bubbles come in two forms, the chain thought bubble and the fuzzy bubble, the chain thought bubble is the almost universal symbol for thinking in cartoons. It consists of a large, cloud-like bubble containing the text of the thought, some artists use an elliptical bubble instead of a cloud-shaped one. Often animal characters like Snoopy and Garfield talk using thought bubbles, thought bubbles may also be used in circumstances when a character is gagged or otherwise unable to speak. Another, less conventional thought bubble has emerged, the fuzzy thought bubble. Used in manga, the bubble is roughly circular in shape. Fuzzy thought bubbles do not use tails, and are placed near the character who is thinking and this has the advantage of reflecting the TV equivalent effect, something said with an echo. However, they are restricted to the current viewpoint character, the shape of a speech balloon can be used to convey further information
26.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
27.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
28.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
29.
Frans Masereel
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Frans Masereel was a Flemish painter and graphic artist who worked mainly in France. He is known especially for his woodcuts and his greatest work is generally said to be the wordless novel Passionate Journey. He completed over 20 other wordless novels in his career, masereels woodcuts influenced Lynd Ward and later graphic artists such as Clifford Harper and Eric Drooker. Frans Masereel was born in the Belgian coastal town Blankenberge on 31 July 1889 and he moved to Ghent in 1896, where at the age of 18 he began to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in the class of Jean Delvin. In 1909, he visited England and Germany, which inspired him to make his first etchings, in 1911 Masereel settled in Paris for four years and then emigrated to Switzerland, where he worked as a graphic artist for journals and magazines. Masereel could not return to Belgium at the end of World War I because, being a pacifist, the magazine was first published in Antwerp in August 1919. It was an artistic and literary journal published in French, the magazines title Lumière was a reference to the French magazine Clarté, which was published in Paris by Henri Barbusse. The principal artists who illustrated the text and the column headings in addition to Masereel himself were Jan Cantré, Jozef Cantré, Henri van Straten, together, they became known as De Vijf or Les Cinq. Lumière was a key force in generating renewed interest in engraving in Belgium. The five artists in the De Vijf group were instrumental in popularizing the art of wood, copper, masereels woodcut series, mainly of sociocritical content and expressionistic in form, made Masereel internationally known. Among them were the wordless novels 25 Images of a Mans Passion, Passionate Journey, The Sun, The Idea, Story Without Words, at that time Masereel also drew illustrations for famous works of world literature by Thomas Mann, Émile Zola, and Stefan Zweig. In 1921 Masereel returned to Paris, where he painted his famous street scenes and he lived for a time in Berlin, where his closest creative friend was George Grosz. After 1925 he lived near Boulogne-sur-Mer, where he painted predominantly coast areas, harbour views, during the 1930s his output declined. In 1940 he fled from Paris and lived in cities in Southern France. At the end of World War II Masereel was able to resume his work and produced woodcuts. After 1946 he taught at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar in Saarbrücken, in 1949 Masereel settled in Nice. Between 1949 and 1968, he published series of woodcuts that differ from his earlier novels in picture in comprising variations on a subject instead of a narrative. He also designed decorations and costumes for theatre productions
30.
Graphic novel
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A graphic novel is a book made up of comics content. Although the word normally refers to long fictional works, the term graphic novel is applied broadly and includes fiction, non-fiction. It is distinguished from the comic book, which is used for comics periodicals. Fan historian Richard Kyle coined the term graphic novel in an essay in the November 1964 issue of the comics fanzine Capa-Alpha, the Book Industry Study Group began using graphic novel as a category in book stores in 2001. In the publishing trade, the term extends to material that would not be considered a novel if produced in another medium. Collections of comic books that do not form a story, anthologies or collections of loosely related pieces. The term is sometimes used to distinguish between works created as standalone stories, in contrast to collections or compilations of a story arc from a comic book series published in book form. As the exact definition of the novel is debated, the origins of the form are open to interpretation. The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck is the oldest recognized American example of comics used to this end, the first American edition was published in 1842 by Wilson & Company in New York City using the original printing plates from the 1841 edition. Another early predecessor is Journey to the Gold Diggins by Jeremiah Saddlebags by brothers J. A. D. and D. F. Read, inspired by The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. In 1894 Caran dAche broached the idea of a novel in a letter to the newspaper Le Figaro. In the United States there is a tradition of reissuing previously published comic strips in book form. In 1897 the Hearst Syndicate published such a collection of The Yellow Kid by Richard Outcault, the 1920s saw a revival of the medieval woodcut tradition, with Belgian Frans Masereel cited as the undisputed king of this revival. American Lynd Ward also worked in this tradition, publishing Gods Man, in 1929, the 1940s saw the launching of Classics Illustrated, a comic-book series that primarily adapted notable, public domain novels into standalone comic books for young readers. In 1947 Fawcett Comics published Comics Novel #1, Anarcho, Dictator of Death, by the late 1960s, American comic book creators were becoming more adventurous with the form. Gil Kane and Archie Goodwin self-published a 40-page, magazine-format comics novel, savage in 1968—the same year Marvel Comics published two issues of The Spectacular Spider-Man in a similar format. Meanwhile, in continental Europe, the tradition of collecting serials of popular strips such as The Adventures of Tintin or Asterix led to long-form narratives published initially as serials. By 1969, the author John Updike, who had entertained ideas of becoming a cartoonist in his youth, addressed the Bristol Literary Society, on the death of the novel
31.
Marcinelle
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Marcinelle is a town in the Belgian province of Hainaut, a district within the Charleroi borders. Until 1977, it was a municipality of its own, home of the comics publisher Dupuis, as many popular creators of Franco-Belgian comics were based in Marcinelle the town has given name to the famous drawing style known as the Marcinelle school. Marcinelle is also the place where serial killer Marc Dutroux lived, on the morning of August 8,1956, a fire in the mines of Marcinelle resulted in 262 casualties. At the time of the incident,274 people were working in the colliery Bois du Cazier, a mining wagon incorrectly positioned in the elevator cage struck an oil pipe and electrical cables when the elevator started moving. This caused a fire, which trapped the miners working in the galleries below, of the 274 people working on that morning, only twelve survived. Most of the victims were immigrants, among the victims, there were 136 Italians,95 Belgians, eight Poles, six Greeks, five Germans, five Frenchmen, three Hungarians, one Englishman, one Dutchman, one Russian and one Ukrainian. Rescue operations continued until August 23 when the verdict came from the mouth of a rescuer. The incident prompted Italy to demand better working conditions for the Italian guest workers in Belgium, Belgium, however, decided to recruit foreign workers from other countries more actively. In the resulting prosecution, the court acquitted all of the accused on October 1,1959. An appeal was lodged, and on January 30,1961, the court gave the mine manager a six-month suspended jail sentence and a 2,000 Belgian franc fine and acquitted the other defendants. The catastrophe had left such a legacy behind that it was selected as the motif for a 2006 commemorative coin. The obverse shows a portrait of a miner, with the mine Bois du Cazier in the background. On September 19,1981 a souvenir sheet was issued commemorating the 25th anniversary of the disaster, showing a scene of the disaster and a stamp of the Pieta, by Ben Genaux
32.
Charleroi
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Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. By January 1,2008, the population of Charleroi was 201,593. The inhabitants are called Carolorégiens or simply Carolos, the municipality of Charleroi straddles both banks of the river Sambre in an area marked by industrial activities, which has been nicknamed the Pays Noir, part of the larger sillon industriel. Even though most of the factories have closed since the 1950s, Charleroi lies around 50 kilometres south of Brussels. Several public buildings, temples and villas were built in the area in the Roman period, burial places, with jewels and weapons, have been found. The first written mention of a place called Charnoy dates from a 9th-century offering in the Lobbes abbey, during the Middle Ages, Charnoy was one of the many small hamlets in the area, with no more than about 50 inhabitants, part of the County of Namur. The history of the city of Charleroi began in 1666, in September of that same year, the name Charnoy was officially replaced by that of the newly founded city of Charles-Roi, so named in honor of Charles II. The chronogram FVNDATVR CAROLOREGIVM can be found in the register of the parish of Charnoy for the year 1666, a year later, Louis XIV’s armies, under the command of the Vicomte de Turenne, besieged the unfinished fortress. Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban completed the work, the future city was granted its privileges, a bridge was built over the river. The French Prince of Conti took the city again in 1745, glass, steel and coal industries, which had already sprung up a century earlier, could now flourish. Trouble began again in 1790, the year of the uprising that eventually led to the United States of Belgium. The Austrians occupied the city, were forced out by the French after the Battle of Jemappes on November 6,1792, and took it back again four months later. On June 12,1794, the French revolutionary Army of Sambre-et-Meuse under the command of Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, invested Charleroi, the city took the revolutionary name of Libre-sur-Sambre until 1800. After Frances defeat in 1814, the area was annexed to the Netherlands. Napoleon stayed in Charleroi for a couple of days in June 1815, after the Industrial Revolution, Charleroi benefited from the increased use of coke in the metallurgical industry. People from across Europe were attracted by the opportunities. Following the Industrial revolution in Wallonia, Charleroi from the 1850s–1860s became one of the most important places where labor strikes broke out, in 1886,12 strikers were killed by the Belgian army in Roux. In the 1880s, miners in Hainaut were recruited by the Dominion Coal Company in Glace Bay and these miners were anxious to flee the repression following bloody strikes and riots in Liège and Charleroi during the Walloon Jacquerie of 1886
