Belgian Comic Strip Center

Belgian Comic Strip Center

Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée (French) Belgisch Stripcentrum (Dutch)
Exterior of the museum
Interactive fullscreen map
Established	6 October 1989 (1989-10-06)[1]
Location	Rue des Sables / Zandstraat 20, 1000 City of Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium
Coordinates	50°51′04″N 4°21′36″E / 50.85111°N 4.36000°E / 50.85111; 4.36000
Type	History of Belgian comics
Visitors	More than 200,000 per year[1]
Public transit access	Brussels-Congress and Brussels-Central 1 5 Gare Centrale/Centraal Station
Website	www.comicscenter.net/en/home

The Belgian Comic Strip Center (French: Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée; Dutch: Belgisch Stripcentrum) is a museum in central Brussels, Belgium, dedicated to Belgian comics. It is located at 20, rue des Sables/Zandstraat, in an Art Nouveau building designed by Victor Horta, and can be accessed from Brussels-Congress railway station and Brussels-Central railway station.

In 1906, the building that would later house the Belgian Comic Strip Center was inaugurated as the Waucquez Warehouse, designed by architect Victor Horta to serve textile baron Charles Waucquez. This period, in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, coincided with the beginnings of modern comic strips.^[2]

By 1975, architect Jean Delhaye, a student of Horta, brought the endangered Waucquez Warehouse to the attention of the state, and the building was listed. In 1980, architect Jean Breydel and comics artists François Schuiten, Bob de Moor, Alain Baran, Guy Dessicy, and Hergé planned to restore the warehouse and give it a new role as a museum dedicated to the history of Belgian comics. Originally, the museum would be a homage to Hergé, but he suggested honouring the entire Belgian comics industry.^[3][2]

In 1983, the Minister of Public Works purchased the warehouse from the owners’ heirs to secure the building and dedicate it to promoting comic strips. In 1984, the “Belgian Comic Strip Center” was founded as a non-profit organisation, with Bob De Moor as its first chairman. A fund was established bringing together Flemish and Walloon comics artists.^[2]

In 1986, the launch of the project was celebrated, despite the building still being in ruins. Intensive lobbying, including a luncheon at the Royal Palace and a soirée with the Belgian comic strip community, helped secure the project. Restoration work began in 1987, coordinated by architect Christian Lelubre and executed by Pierre Van Assche, who designed the plans respecting Horta’s original work. The restorations included updating the building to modern standards, while mosaics were imported from Italy and constructed by Italian mosaic workers due to the profession being largely obsolete in Belgium.^[3][2]

On 6 October 1989, the museum was officially inaugurated in the presence of King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola.^[4] Over the following decades, the Belgian Comic Strip Center became a major museum with international appeal, welcoming around 200,000 visitors annually, while government subsidies accounted for less than 10% of its working budget. By 2015, the museum began redecorating its permanent exhibition, continuing its mission as a promotional tool, exhibition venue, research centre, and cultural ambassador for Belgian comics and Art Nouveau architecture.^[5]

Since 2009, directly across the street from the Belgian Comic Strip Center, another comics-themed museum opened, the Marc Sleen Museum, dedicated to the work of Belgian comics artist Marc Sleen. On 30 January 2023, it was announced that the museum would close in the autumn, with part of its collection being integrated into the Belgian Comic Strip Center.^[6][7][8]

• 
  Entrance staircase
• 
  Art Nouveau lamppost
• 
  Main skylight on the second floor
• 
  Second floor

The Waucquez Warehouse was designed in 1905 by Victor Horta in Art Nouveau style and completed in 1906 as a textile department store. It is the only surviving example of a series of Horta’s department stores, notable for its use of iron and glass, a central atrium, and a monumental staircase. The building was protected as a monument in 1975 and renovated in 1988–1989 to restore its architectural details while adapting it for public use.^[3][9]

The structure is rectangular, with two storeys under a low-pitched roof and two large glass domes. The façade is symmetrical, slightly concave, and built from natural stone, with vertical pilasters forming curved arches above the main openings. Doors and windows were restored to their original designs, with wrought iron guards on the ground floor and decorative railings above.^[9]

The interior is open-plan with two main levels and a mezzanine, featuring exposed I-beams on cast iron columns, vaulted ceilings, and decorative elements such as marble mosaic floors, stained glass, and a monumental stone staircase with iron railings. The ground floor houses a restaurant, a room dedicated to Victor Horta, a comics store, a library, and a reading room, while the upper floors contain a permanent exhibition on the history of Belgian comics and spaces for temporary exhibitions.^[3][9]

• 
  Entrance hall
• 
  Library
• 
  Entrance to the PUBLIART space
• 
  Exhibition space

Four artists exhibited are Flemish: Willy Vandersteen, Marc Sleen, Bob de Moor and Morris. The rest are Walloon or from Brussels, except for Jacques Martin and Tibet who were born in France, but published in Tintin.

• 
  Gaston Lagaffe
• 
  Lucky Luke and Jolly Jumper
• 
  The Adventures of Tintin

• List of museums in Brussels
• Brussels' Comic Book Route
• Art Nouveau in Brussels
• History of Brussels
• Culture of Belgium
• Belgium in the long nineteenth century

• Geert De Weyer, België gestript (in Dutch), Lannoo, Tielt (2005), p. 77–78 (ISBN 978-9-462-10202-6)
• Le Patrimoine monumental de la Belgique: Bruxelles (PDF) (in French). Vol. 1C: Pentagone N-Z. Liège: Pierre Mardaga. 1994. pp. 268–270.

• Media related to Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website