De Ronde van Frankrijk (The Tour de France) was a Belgian gag cartoon comic strip series by Marc Sleen, in which he made a comedic report of every daily tournament of the annual cycling contest the Tour de France. Sleen drew the strip each year, from 1947 up until 1964, for the Flemish newspapers Het Vrije Volksblad and Het Volk . [1] [2]
Each daily cartoon was a summarization of the tournament held the day before. [3] Sleen drew caricatures of all famous cyclists and made puns on their names and typical cycling jargon. A running gag was the always losing Belgian team. He also gave famous politicians of the day a cameo appearance, including characters from his other comics series and the over-worked artist himself.
Sleen first drew the series in 1947. In 1948 he travelled along with the other journalists and the Belgian team leader Romain Maes, but on all other occasions he remained at home, while listening to the live radio report. Often he drew the body of the winning cyclist of that day beforehand and waited with drawing the head until the winner was announced. When his cartoon was finished Sleen waited for a motorcyclist to pick up his drawing and drive back to the newspaper's office in Ghent, so it could be published in the extra sports edition later that evening. [4]
The series was terminated in 1965, along with Sleen's other gag-a-day comics, when he left Het Volk for the newspaper De Standaard . [5] Sleen also illustrated the cycling books Figuren uit de Tour and Humor en Tragiek uit de Tour by Jan Cornand and illustrated journalist Hubert Van De Vijver's reports. [6] After Sleen left other artists tried to continue the series, but not with the same success.
In 1992 all the cartoons were compiled into Frans Lodewijckx' book De Grote Rondes van Marc Sleen. Each chapter was enriched with commentaries of the newspapers' best reporters: Michel Casteels, Jan Cornand, Jérome Stevens, Willy Hofmans and André Blancke. Only the final installments of the 1948 and 1949 editions were lost and couldn't be retraced.
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 finally De Avonturen van Nero & Co from 1951. 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.
Marcel Honoree Nestor (ridder) Neels, known as Marc Sleen, was a Belgian cartoonist. He was mostly known for his comic The Adventures of Nero and Co., but also created gag comics like Piet Fluwijn en Bolleke, De Lustige Kapoentjes, Doris Dobbel, Oktaaf Keunink and De Ronde van Frankrijk.
Willy Vandersteen was a Belgian creator of comic books. In a career spanning 50 years, he created a large studio and published more than 1,000 comic albums in over 25 series, selling more than 200 million copies worldwide.
Ferdinand Van der Auwera, pseudonym Fernand Auwera was a Belgian writer. His fragile health during his youth and its impact on his life (solitude), had an effect on his first literary work.
Nero is a Flemish comic book character and the main protagonist in Marc Sleen's long running comic book strip series The Adventures of Nero (1947–2002). He is one of the most recognizable comic book characters in Belgium and comparable to Lambik from the Suske en Wiske series by Willy Vandersteen.
Ricardo is a Flemish comic book character and the main antagonist in The Adventures of Nero series by Marc Sleen. He is a ruthless maffiosi who hates Nero with a passion. Together with Geeraard de Duivel and Matsuoka Ricardo is Nero's most frequent opponent, appearing in at least 24 albums, even surviving several seemingly deaths.
Abraham Tuizentfloot, in full Oscar Abraham Tuizentfloot, is a Flemish comic book character from the Belgian comic book series The Adventures of Nero by Marc Sleen. He is a crazy little man who dresses up as a pirate and has a tendency to attack people. In the series he is one of Nero's personal friends.
Piet Fluwijn en Bolleke was a Belgian gag-a-day comic strip series drawn by Marc Sleen from 1944 until 1965. It was continued by artists Hurey and Jean-Pol until 1974.
Ons Volkske was the youth supplement of the Flemish newspaper Ons Volk Ontwaakt. It was published without interruption from 1932 until 1988, except for the years during World War II. The magazine was notable for its comics and together with 't Kapoentje it was the most important comic book magazine in Flanders.
't Kapoentje was a youth supplement published by the Flemish newspaper Het Volk from April 3, 1947 until 1989. It was notable for its comics and, together with Ons Volkske, the most important comic book magazine in Flanders.
De Lustige Kapoentjes was a long-running Flemish comic book series, which existed under different titles and was drawn by different artists, among whom Marc Sleen and Willy Vandersteen are the most well known. The series was published in 't Kapoentje, the youth supplement of Het Volk, and in Ons Volkske, the youth supplement of De Standaard. They were the mascots of 't Kapoentje from 1947 until the magazine's demise in 1985.
Madam Pheip is a character from the Flemish comic strip The Adventures of Nero by Marc Sleen. In the series she is one of Nero 's personal friends and married to Meneer Pheip, with whom she has one child, Clo-Clo. Madam Pheip also adopted two children, Petoetje, and Petatje.
Meneer Pheip is a Flemish comic book character from the Belgian comic strip The Adventures of Nero by Marc Sleen. In the series he is part of Nero's personal circle of friends, despite often being up in arms with him. He is the husband of Madam Pheip, father of Clo-Clo and adoptive father of Petoetje and Petatje.
Detective Van Zwam is a Flemish comics character in the Belgian comics series The Adventures of Nero by Marc Sleen. He is a brilliant detective and able to find clues from even the tiniest of evidence.
100.000 of niets was a Flemish television quiz show on the Flemish public broadcaster N.I.R., between 1956 and 1959. It was one of the most popular television shows from the Flemish pioneer years.
Wij, Heren van Zichem was a Flemish TV drama series, originally broadcast between 1969 and 1972 in 26 episodes on the BRT. The program was based on several novels by Ernest Claes, who died just a few months before the show first aired. All episodes were shot in the Flemish village Zichem. At the time it was one of the most popular TV series in Flanders, attracting almost 2,960,000 viewers which is about 3/4 of all Flemish people. Tourism to the village boomed, while it hardly had enough bars, let alone restaurants to accommodate the tourists. In a 2004 interview with Het Nieuwsblad actor Fons Exelmans remembered that tourists were often confused because certain houses and buildings were located less close to each other than in the series. The actors were also invited to appear during annual festivities as promotional stunts.
Doris Dobbel was a Belgian gag-a-day comics series, written and drawn by Marc Sleen, between 8 April 1950 and 1965 and published in the magazine De Middenstand.
Oktaaf Keunink was a Belgian comics series, written and drawn by Marc Sleen. It was published between 16 November 1952 and 4 April 1965 in the magazine Ons Zondagsblad.
Petoetje is a Belgian comics character from the comic strip The Adventures of Nero by Marc Sleen. He is a teenage black boy who originates from Papua New Guinea, but was adopted by Madam Pheip and Meneer Pheip, along with another orphan child, Petatje.
Petatje is a Belgian comics character from the comic strip The Adventures of Nero by Marc Sleen. She is a teenage girl who was adopted by Madam Pheip and Meneer Pheip, along with another orphan child, Petoetje.