What’s On: Marc Sleen ‘Nero’ exhibition opens in Sofia on April 6
An exhibition of work by famous Belgian cartoonist Marc Sleen, entitled “Nero”, opens in Sofia at the Altronic Lights – Suspasious gallery on April 6 at 6pm and continues until April 30.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Embassy of Belgium in Bulgaria, the Belgian Comic Strip Center and the Bulgarian Union of Artists.
The gallery’s address is 13 Shesti Septembri Street.
In addition to this exhibition, a lecture about “Comics in Belgium, a big success for a small country” will be given on April 7 at 5pm by M. Willem De Graeve, P&R director of Belgian Comic Strip Center, at the Academy of Fine Arts – 1, Shipka Street – Sofia. Entrance is free.
Sleen, according to his Wikipedia entry, is a big name in Belgian (Flemish) comics. He is respected and popular with children and even more with adults for his brilliant caricatures, political and social references and ironic humour. He is commonly considered one of the four fathers of the Flemish comics, together with Willy Vandersteen, Bob de Moor and Jef Nys.
Nero is a Dutch language comic strip which appeared in Flemish newspapers between 1947 and 2002. Originally called The adventures of Detective Van Zwam, it quickly changed its name to The adventures of Nero after a character met by Van Zwam in the first adventure who was locked in an asylum and thought he was emperor Nero. He came quickly to his senses, but the name stuck.
Nero is one of the quintessential Flemish newspaper comics, together with Spike and Suzy. With two strips published a day, six days a week, the comic followed the daily news events quite closely and often incorporates puns and real life events.
