Belgian comics explained: why Brussels is the BD capital
Brussels: Brussels Comic Art Museum Entrance Ticket
Why is Belgium famous for comics?
Belgium is the heartland of the European comic strip (bande dessinée). Brussels-born Hergé created Tintin in 1929 and pioneered the clean 'ligne claire' style; the Smurfs, Lucky Luke, Spirou and Gaston Lagaffe followed. Comics are treated as a respected art form here — the 'ninth art' — celebrated with murals, a major museum and a thriving publishing scene.
The “ninth art” was perfected here
To understand Brussels, you have to understand its love of comics. In Belgium, the comic strip — bande dessinée (BD) — isn’t disposable kids’ stuff; it’s the “ninth art,” a respected medium with master practitioners, serious museums, and giant murals painted across the capital. Per head, Belgium produces and reveres comics like nowhere else on earth, and Brussels is its beating heart. Here’s the context that makes the city’s murals and museum so much richer.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Where | Murals scattered across the city centre and Marolles; Comics Art Museum near the Grand-Place |
| Cost | Murals are free to view outdoors; the museum costs around EUR 10-15 |
| Time needed | Around 2-3 hours for a self-guided mural walk, or half a day combined with the museum |
| Getting there | Walkable from the Grand-Place and central metro stops |
| Best time | Any season — murals are outdoors and free year-round, though a dry day is more pleasant for walking |
How Belgium became the comics capital
- Hergé and Tintin (1929). Brussels-born Georges Remi (“Hergé”) created Tintin, whose global success put Belgian comics on the map and established the template for the European adventure strip. Hergé’s pen name reversed his initials — R.G. — in French pronunciation. He was working for the conservative Catholic newspaper Vingtième Siècle when the first Tintin strip appeared, aimed at the children’s supplement.
- The post-war golden age. Magazines like Tintin and Spirou became hothouses for talent, and Brussels publishers turned comics into a national industry. Artists who contributed to these magazines went on to global careers; the magazines were the training ground and the launchpad.
- A culture that took it seriously. Belgium treated comics as art, teaching, collecting and exhibiting them — hence the murals, the Comics Art Museum, and the bande dessinée festivals. The French-Belgian tradition always positioned itself as literature for adults as well as children, which is part of why the art form commanded serious critical attention.
The style: ligne claire
Hergé’s signature “ligne claire” (clear line) defines the classic Belgian look:
- Clean, even-weight outlines with no fussy shading.
- Flat, bold colours.
- Clear, uncluttered compositions that read instantly.
It’s elegant, legible and timeless — and hugely influential across world comics and design. The absence of shading is a deliberate choice: information is conveyed through outline alone, which requires extreme precision. Once you know it, you’ll spot it everywhere in Brussels — not just in the murals, but in graphic design, packaging, and public signage that has absorbed the aesthetic.
The style allowed for a kind of universality: Tintin’s blank, open face reads as an everyman rather than a specific individual. Readers project themselves onto him, which is part of why the character translated across cultures.
The characters you’ll meet
- Tintin (Hergé) — the intrepid boy reporter and Snowy (Tintin guide). 24 albums translated into 70+ languages; one of the best-selling comics series of all time.
- The Smurfs / Les Schtroumpfs (Peyo) — the tiny blue villagers, a global phenomenon. Creator Pierre Culliford (“Peyo”) was a contemporary of Hergé, also Brussels-based.
- Lucky Luke (Morris) — the cowboy who shoots faster than his shadow. The strip’s satirical relationship with American Western mythology is one of comics’ funniest long-running jokes.
- Spirou & Fantasio — the bellhop-adventurer and friends. The Spirou magazine continues to publish, with a rotating roster of writers and artists keeping the character in print since 1938.
- Gaston Lagaffe (Franquin) — the lovably useless office boy. A masterclass in physical comedy and characterisation; the strips hold up perfectly.
- Blake and Mortimer (E.P. Jacobs) — classic ligne-claire adventure. Jacobs worked closely with Hergé and the influence is everywhere.
- Le Chat (Philippe Geluck) — the modern philosopher cat, on a famous mural. Geluck’s work is deliberately adult and philosophical — a reminder that Belgian BD isn’t only about adventure stories.
Many of their creators worked in Brussels, which is why the city honours them on its walls.
Where to enjoy it in Brussels
- The comic mural route — 50+ free outdoor frescoes (route, map). The route began in 1991 with the Broussaille mural and has expanded steadily. More are added each year.
- The Comics Art Museum — original art in a Horta building (guide); a ticket here is the indoor anchor. The museum building itself — a former department store by Victor Horta — is worth the visit independently.
- Comic shops — for collector editions and souvenirs near the Grand-Place. Brussels has some excellent specialist shops with original editions, prints and original art.
- Guided walks — a comic murals tour or a Tintin and street-art walk ties the history together on the ground.
The Comics Art Museum building
The Comics Art Museum (Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée) deserves special mention for its setting: it occupies the former Waucquez Warehouse, a 1906 Art Nouveau building by Victor Horta on Rue des Sables. Horta designed it as a fabric warehouse; it was derelict for years before being converted into the museum in 1989. The building alone is worth the ticket — a glass-and-iron interior with the same organic lightness as the Horta Museum, repurposed for a collection of original comic art. You’re reading Tintin original plates in a Horta building — two of Brussels’ greatest contributions to visual culture in the same room.
Why it matters to your trip
The comics aren’t a gimmick — they’re a window into Brussels’ character: playful, unpretentious, proud of its own quirks. A city that paints Tintin and the Smurfs across its buildings, and builds a museum for cartoonists inside an Art Nouveau palace, is telling you something likeable about itself. Engage with the BD culture, even just by hunting murals, and Brussels makes a lot more sense — and becomes a lot more fun.
Planning a mural walk yourself
The murals are spread across several neighbourhoods rather than clustered in one spot, so a bit of planning pays off. Many of the best examples sit around the Marolles and the lower town, within reach of a wider wander through Brussels’ neighbourhoods; others turn up unexpectedly on residential side streets, which is part of the fun. Pair the hunt with an Art Nouveau walking route if you want two of the city’s visual obsessions — comics and architecture — in a single outing, since both reward slow, attentive walking rather than a checklist approach.
Give yourself more time than you expect: photographing a mural well, especially with the narrow Brussels streets, often means waiting for traffic or people to clear the frame. Early morning light and quiet streets make for the best photos and the least crowded viewing.
Beyond the big names
Belgian BD runs deeper than the household names. Marc Sleen’s Nero, Willy Vandersteen’s Suske en Wiske, and Edgar P. Jacobs’ collaborators all built substantial, still-loved bodies of work that rarely travel outside Belgium and the Netherlands. Specialist comic shops near the centre stock original editions and out-of-print runs that reward a browse even if you don’t read French or Dutch — the artwork speaks for itself. Collectors’ fairs pop up periodically and are worth checking for if your visit coincides.
How to read a Belgian comic if you are new to it
Belgian BD is usually published in the album format: a single long story told in one hardback volume, often with a strong cover that works almost like a film poster. If you have never opened one, start with something short and self-contained rather than the middle of a long saga. Gaston Lagaffe and Lucky Luke are friendly entry points because most stories stand alone and the humour is visual, so even a basic grasp of French or Dutch is enough to follow the joke. Tintin rewards reading in order, while Blake and Mortimer is better once you have acquired a taste for dense, text-heavy adventure.
Many of the classics are available in English translation, and shops around the centre usually keep a shelf of them. Buying one before you walk the murals is a nice trick: you recognise the characters on the walls, and the walls start to feel like pages you have already read. It also gives you something to read on the train if you head out on a day trip from Brussels.
Comics, chocolate, beer: the wider Belgian picture
Comics sit alongside the other things Belgium is proud of, and the city makes it easy to mix them. A morning on the murals pairs naturally with an afternoon among chocolate shops near the Grand-Place or a hands-on session or a hands-on session at one of the chocolate workshops in Brussels. In the evening, the same sense of playful craftsmanship shows up in the beer scene; our guide to Belgian beer types is a good primer before you pick a bar.
If you like the idea of eating your way through the culture, the Brussels foodie weekend shows how to fit tastings around sightseeing, and best waffles in Brussels will keep you fuelled between murals. None of this is required for enjoying the comics, but it explains why visitors so often describe Brussels as a city of small, well-made pleasures.
Building comics into a longer itinerary
How much room to give comics depends on how long you have. With a single day, the dedicated comic art day is the most efficient way to see the highlights without backtracking. If you are staying two or three days, treat the murals as a filler between bigger stops: a handful on the way to a museum, another cluster on the way back to your hotel. The 2-day and 3-day plans leave natural gaps for this kind of wandering.
On a wet day, the indoor side of the story takes over. The museum, a coffee, and a browse through the specialist shops make a perfectly good plan, and our rainy day itinerary shows how to stack indoor stops sensibly. Travelling with children? Comics are one of the easiest ways to keep younger visitors engaged, and the Brussels with kids guide suggests where else to take them.
Seeing the murals with a guide, or without
A self-guided walk is cheap and flexible, and the maps in this site are designed for exactly that. A guide adds stories you will not get from a plaque: who drew what, why a particular wall was chosen, and how the route grew over the years. If you prefer to be shown rather than to navigate, a guided Tintin and street-art walk, like the one mentioned above, covers the ground at a steady pace and suits first-time visitors well.
Whichever you choose, wear comfortable shoes, keep your phone charged for photos and map-checking, and leave time for a coffee stop. The pleasure of the route comes from the small detours, not from reaching the end.
Where comics meet the rest of Brussels
Comics are woven into the rest of the city rather than sealed off in a museum. Many of the best murals sit in or near the Marolles and Sablon district, where flea-market stalls and antique shops add to the browsing. The Art Nouveau thread runs through the same streets, so a visit to the Horta Museum or a look at the Brussels Art Nouveau guide makes a natural companion to a comics day. And if you need a base for all this walking, our advice on where to stay in Brussels will help you pick a neighbourhood within easy reach of both.
For a lighter read on the same theme, the blog has a first-hand account of the best comic murals we found, including the ones that surprised us most.
What to look for on the walls
Once you start looking, the murals reward a second glance. Notice how the artists scale a tiny frame from a printed page up to the height of a building without losing the clean line: the thick outlines and flat colours that make ligne claire so legible in a book also make it work from across a street. Look at how each wall uses the architecture around it, with windows, doors and drainpipes sometimes becoming part of the scene, so the character seems to climb, lean or peek out of the building itself.
Pay attention to the mix of eras, too. Some walls honour the founding figures, others celebrate more recent creators, and together they show that Belgian comics are a living tradition rather than a museum piece. If you are walking with someone who has never read a BD, challenge them to guess the character before reading the plaque; it is a surprisingly good game, and it turns the route into a shared activity rather than a photo errand.
Finally, treat the route as a way into the city, not just a list of walls. The streets you cross to reach the next mural are often the most interesting part, and the Brussels travel tips guide has practical advice on moving around, from public transport to what to expect from the weather, so that a comics day runs smoothly from start to finish.
Frequently asked questions — Belgian comics explained: why Brussels is the BD capital
What is 'ligne claire' in comics?
'Ligne claire' (clear line) is the style pioneered by Hergé in Tintin: clean, uniform-weight outlines, flat bold colours, no shading, and clear, readable compositions. It became hugely influential across European comics and is instantly recognisable as the classic Belgian look.What are the most famous Belgian comics?
Tintin (Hergé), the Smurfs (Peyo), Lucky Luke (Morris), Spirou et Fantasio, Gaston Lagaffe (Franquin), Blake and Mortimer (E.P. Jacobs) and Le Chat (Geluck) are among the most famous — most created by Brussels-based artists, and celebrated across the city's murals and museum.Are the Brussels comic murals free to see?
Yes, all the outdoor comic-strip murals are free to view at any time — they're painted on the sides of ordinary buildings around the city, not inside a paid venue. Only the indoor Comics Art Museum requires a ticket.
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