Belgium’s annual international comic festival “2024 Brussels World Comic Festival” was grandly opened from September 6 to 8, 2024 in Brussels, Belgium. The China-Europe International Design and Culture Association and Atlas Hiseas SA jointly planned and organized the “China Pavilion”. The entire exhibition hall of the festival is over 7,000 square meters, with about 50 exhibitors from all over the world. In addition to comics and derivatives, the exhibition also included art lectures, forums and autograph sessions, as well as children’s entertainment and games, focusing on the world’s splendid comics culture and related cultural and creative works to the European public, so that the public can perceive the artistic value and long-lasting vitality of comics.
The “China Pavilion” presents nearly ten cartoon works and Chinese traditional crafts for European cartoon enthusiasts, such as traditional Chinese classic ink cartoons, pen and light color illustrations of Shan Hai Jing (The Classic of the Mountains and Seas), folk clay sculptures of clay goo goo and clay dogs, and colorful Peking Opera face paintings. In addition to the exhibition, the China Pavilion also presented a picture book of the production process of the displayed cartoon works, and prepared relevant cultural gifts for the audience, so that the Chinese cartoon more in-depth into the life of the European people, and to feel the profundity of Chinese culture. Representatives from various countries visited the exhibition site, including the Minister of Education and Culture of the Flemish Region of Belgium, the Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Belgium, the Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of France in Belgium, and the Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of Spain in Belgium.
With more than 700 cartoonists, or to put it more graphically, more cartoonists per square kilometer than any other country in the world, Belgium is known as the Kingdom of Cartoons, having given birth to such world-famous cartoon characters as Tintin and the Smurfs. Its capital, Brussels, is a city that lives in comics and is known as the “European Capital of Comics”. In Brussels, you can find many comic book related specialty stores, statues, murals, bars and museums. Walking through the streets of Brussels, you’ll find famous comic book characters such as Tintin, The Smurfs, Asterix, Lucky Luke, Gaston, Gil Jordan and many more painted on the walls of some of the buildings. There is roughly no other place in the world where comics are more revered than here.
The Belgian World Comics Festival began in 1991 to celebrate Belgium’s rich history and comics achievements.