Marc Sleen
| Marc Sleen | |
|---|---|
Sleen in 2012
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| Born | Marcel Neels 30 December 1922 Gentbrugge, East Flanders, Belgium |
| Died |
6 November 2016 (aged 93) Hoeilaart, Flemish Brabant, Belgium |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Area(s) | Artist, writer |
| Pseudonym(s) | Marc Sleen |
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Notable works
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Nero De Lustige Kapoentjes Piet Fluwijn en Bolleke Oktaaf Keunink Doris Dobbel De Ronde van Frankrijk |
| Awards | full list |
Marcel Honoree Nestor, ridder Neels (30 December 1922 – 6 November 2016), 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.
Sleen was one of the most celebrated comics artists in his home country. His work is admired for its absurd and sometimes satirical comedy, as well for the fact that he worked completely singlehandedly without any assistance for 45 years on end, a feat that landed him a spot in The Guinness Book of Records in 1992. (This feat has been surpassed since by Jim Russell's The Potts, which ran for 62 years.) He was one of the few comics artists in Belgium who had a museum dedicated to his work.
Marc Sleen was born as Marcel Neels in Gentbrugge, near Ghent. He studied drawing in Ghent. During the Second World War he was imprisoned by Nazi soldiers in Fort Breendonk because his brother worked for the resistance. He was tortured and put in the death cell, but saved by the fact that after D-Day the officers moved all the prisoners to a different prison, where he could escape. In 1944 he started to work as a political caricaturist in the Flemish newspaper De Standaard. He also contributed illustrations and short comics for the newspaper and the youth supplement, and made illustrations and his first comics for the magazine Ons Volk.
In October 1947, Marc Sleen started a new series, The adventures of detective Van Zwam in the newspaper De Nieuwe Gids. In the first adventure Detective Van Zwam encounters a fool who thinks he is emperor Nero. After he regains his senses, they continue calling him Nero and slowly he became the star of the series. The name changes accordingly to The adventures of detective Van Zwam and Nero and after nine stories to The adventures of Nero and co.
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