The Adventures of Nero

The Adventures of Nero
Nero, Adhemar and Madam Pheip during the traditional waffle feast which concludes every story.
Author(s)	Marc Sleen
Current status / schedule	Discontinued
Launch date	October 1, 1947
End date	2002
Syndicate(s)	Uitgeverij Het Volk, Standaard Uitgeverij
Genre(s)	Humor comics, Satire, Fantasy, Adventure

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.

Together with Suske en Wiske and Jommeke, "Nero" is regarded as the Big Three of Flemish comics. The stories were noted for their satirical content, with references to politicians and celebrities of the day. With Nero, Marc Sleen holds the world record of issues of a comic book series title drawn by the same author. He drew "The Adventures of Nero" singlehandedly from 1947 to 1992 without any assistance from other artists. This feat is even more remarkable considering he also drew other comic strip series from 1947 to 1965.

The series debuted in the newspaper De Nieuwe Gids in the autumn of 1947 and was written and drawn by Marc Sleen from the start. Originally the central character was Detective Van Zwam, but halfway through the first story "Het Geheim van Matsuoka" ("The Secret of Matsuoka") (1947), Van Zwam meets a man who has drunk from a serum that makes people go insane and thinks he is the Roman emperor Nero. The character was also dressed in a toga with some laurel leaves behind his ears. Near the end of the story the character regained his senses and revealed his real name was "Schoonpaard" (in reprints this was changed to "Heiremans", in both cases inside joke references to colleagues of Sleen). The character proved popular and remained a friend of Van Zwam in the next stories, though everyone kept referring to him as "Nero" rather than by his real name. After nine stories, the series was renamed after "Nero" and Van Zwam became a side character instead.