Het Rattenkasteel

Het Rattenkasteel ("The Rat's Castle")
Original 1952 album cover
Date	1948 (pre-published in newspapers) 1952 (in album format)
Series	The Adventures of Nero
Publisher	Uitgeverij Het Volk.
Creative team
Writers	Marc Sleen
Artists	Marc Sleen
Original publication
Published in	De Nieuwe Gids
Date of publication	September 8, 1948 to December 24, 1948.
Language	Dutch
Chronology
Preceded by	"Het Zeespook" (1948)
Followed by	"De Erfenis van Nero" (1948–1949)

Het Rattenkasteel ("The Rat's Castle") is a 1948 comic book album in the Belgian comics series The Adventures of Nero by Marc Sleen. It's the fourth album in the series and acclaimed as one of Sleen's best. In the 2000s the story was collected and re-published by the Flemish newspapers Het Belang van Limburg and Gazet van Antwerpen in a special series entitled "De beste 10 volgens Marc Sleen" ("The best 10 according to Marc Sleen"), where Sleen choose his ten favorite "Nero" stories. He placed "Het Rattenkasteel" first.

Sleen was inspired by the castle "Hof ter Brugge" in Erps-Kwerps and the nickname for castle "Onze-Lieve-Vrouw ten Hove" in Waarschoot, which was literally called "Het Rattenkasteel".

The story was pre-published in the Flemish newspaper De Nieuwe Gids from September 8 to December 24, 1948. As the character Detective Van Zwam was still the main protagonist of the series it initially ran in the newspaper as a "Van Zwam" story. When published in album format in 1953 it was titled as a "Nero" story, since Nero (comic book character) had already become the series' main protagonist by then. It was published in color when reprinted in the youth magazine 't Kapoentje in 1960.

Nero (comic book character) suffers from sleeping sickness and looks for a more peaceful environment to stay. When meeting a fortune teller, Madame Blanche, he is informed that Detective Van Zwam will be in danger when he enters a castle named "The Rat's Castle" in Erps-Kwerps. Indeed, at that same time Van Zwam and his dog Tito are in the vicinity of said castle and hear that several people who once entered there never came back alive. A local farmer advises Van Zwam to ring the clock in the castle's bell tower in case of danger. The story then returns to Nero who enters the castle in fear that Van Zwam is in danger (unbeknownst to him Van Zwam didn't enter). Inside Nero encounters a huge rat, whom he manages to scare off, but is captured by the mad scientist Dr. Ratsjenko, who tries to murder him. Since Nero keeps dozing off he is an easy victim. Just when Ratsjenko wants to murder Nero the rat accidentally rings the bell tower clock, alarming everybody outside. Unfortunately for Nero the farmers don't come to his aid at all, but just run off. However, Zwam happens to hear the bell and enters the castle where he finds Nero. Ratsjenko has fled, but while Van Zwam and Nero try to find him they suddenly see a colossal rat of about two metres high. They panick and run away, while the reader discovers it was just Ratsjenko in a rat suit. Meanwhile, Nero and Van Zwam get back to their senses and re-enter the castle, destined to find Ratsjenko. They discover his secret hiding place, but are captured and tied up as Ratsjenko plans to trepan them for a brain transplant, where he wants to put human brains inside a rat's head. When Ratsjenko reaches for his chloroform he accidentally puts himself to sleep. At that precise moment Ratsjenko's rat happens to quarrel with his wife. She is opposed to Ratsjenko's plans, scares her husband off and gnaws Nero's ropes loose. As Nero prepares to untie Van Zwam he falls asleep again, while Ratsjenko awakes again. He prepares Nero for the operation and gives him some extra chloroform, which has the opposite effect on him. Now fully awake Nero knocks Ratsjenko unconsicous and frees Van Zwam, but the evil doctor manages to escape yet again, taking Van Zwam's dog Tito with him.