Character
Madam Pheip is a strong and dominant middle aged woman. She is very impulsive and immediately takes charge in any problematic situation. Whenever her children are in danger she will protect them at all cost. Her henpecked husband, Meneer Pheip, is forced into submission. Despite being a violation of the law of marriage he carries her name instead of the other way around. Madam Pheip also frequently beats him up whenever he insults her or looks at other women. In "De Terugkeer van Geeraard de Duivel" ("The Return of Geeraard de Devil") (1983) she even keeps him close to her by means of a chain. [2] A good example of Madam Pheip's woman power is that she is the only feminist who remains true to her ideals after the story "De Dolle Dina's" ("The Looney Dina's") (1970) ends.
She is a close friend of Nero's wife, Madam Nero, with whom she frequently goes shopping and enjoys jabbering while having coffee. Still, they often get into arguments and there is some rivalry between the Neros and the Pheips. In "De Zoon van Nero" ("Nero's Son") (1959) the Pheip even kidnap Nero's genius son, Adhemar out of jealousy, but feel remorse near the end and bring him back. In "De Terugkeer van Geeraard de Duivel" ("The Return of Geeraard the Devil") (1983) Meneer Pheip arranges Nero to be kidnapped because he is jealous that Madam Pheip often goes on adventure with Nero while he is forced to stay home. Still, both families always make up together to celebrate the traditional waffle feast near the end of each story.
Pipe smoking
Madam Pheip's most colourful character trait is the fact that she is a woman who smokes pipe. She is such a professional smoker that she can produce smoke curtains. In "Het Vredesoffensief van Nero" ("Nero's Peace Initiative") (1951-1952) it is revealed that she is a member of the V.V.V.P. ("Flemish Organisation of Pipe Addicts"). Her addiction has one major downside. Every ten minutes she has to catch her breath. Madam Pheip has tried to quit smoking twice, [3] but always fell back into her old bad habits.
She only smokes the brand "fleur de matras", [4] but in the stories "Moea-Papoea" (1950), "De Bronnen van Sing Song Li" ("The Sources of Sing Song Li") (1952), "De Matras van Madras" ("The Mattress of Madras") (1967) and "Hannibal" (1977) she smokes more heavy stuff, such as tropical snake root, opium, Indian hemp, ... which causes her to hallucinate.
Character history
Madam Pheip made her debut in the story "De Hoed van Geeraard de Duivel" ("Geeraard the Devil's Hat") (1950) where she visits Nero in the hospital. Nero is under threat of Geeraard de Devil who wants to steal his magical hat. Madam Pheip advises Nero to start pipe smoking which, according to her, scares the Devil away because it reminds him of Hell. Sure enough her advice works and later in the story she travels along with Nero to India. Near the end of the story a maharadja wants to marry her but she declines since he has a harem. [6]
In the next story, "Moea Papoea" (1950) Nero and Madam Pheip travel to Papua New Guinea. On the fictitious island Moea-Papoea she adopts Petoetje, a small native boy, as her own child. She finally finds a husband in the story that follows, "De Zwarte Voeten" ("The Black Feet") (1950), where she meets the mayor of Moerbeke-Waas, who also owns a sugar factory. By the end of the story they marry and he takes her name as Meneer Pheip. Five stories later, in "De Ring van Petatje" ("Petatje's ring") (1952) Nero adopts the orphan Petatje, but one story later it turns out Madam Pheip has taken over the adoption. When Nero and his wife receive their own son, Adhemar, in "De Zoon van Nero" ("Nero's Son") (1959) Meneer and Madam Pheip become Adhemar's godparents. [7] In "De Groene Gravin" ("The Green Duchess") (1975) the Pheips finally have a son of their own, Clo-Clo.
Madam Pheip was turned into a gold statue in "De Hoorn des Overvloeds" ("Horn of Plenty") (1953-1954), but changed back again in the next story "De Ark van Nero" ("Nero's Ark") (1953). In "Mama Kali" (1969) she is changed into an African elephant and in "Allemaal Beestjes" ("All kinds of animals") (1981) into a hare. Another physical transformation was caused on her own initiative in "Het Geheim van Bakkendoen" ("Bakkendoen's Secret") (1957-1958), "De Sluikslapers" ("The Squatters") (1970) and "De V-Machine" ("The V-Machine") (1979), where she loses weight spectacularly, but always becomes chubby again.
In the "Nero" stories of the 1950s Madam Pheip was a prominent main character. Later in the series she appears on a less recurring basis, usually because she and her family are taking a holiday at the Côte d'Azur.
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.
Notable events of 1950 in comics. See also List of years in comics.
Merho, born Robert Merhottein on 24 October 1948, is a Belgian comic-book writer and artist, best known for creating the comic strip De Kiekeboes.
Naima El Bezaz was a Moroccan-Dutch writer, who also gave lectures and wrote stories, essays and columns.
Adhemar is a Flemish comic book character. He is the son of Nero in the eponymous Belgian comic strip series The Adventures of Nero by Marc Sleen and one of the main protagonists. He is a child prodigy who is both a professor as well as an inventor. His full title is doctor professor Adhemar. He is easily recognizable due to his beret and tuxedo.
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.
De Ronde van Frankrijk 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.
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.
The Geeraard de Duivelsteen is a 13th century gothic architecture building in Ghent, Belgium. It served as defense of the Portus Ganda, the city's port.
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.
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.
