Tintin and Snowy's lust for solving mysteries took them all over the world and beyond, including a 1950 space expedition that took place long before Neil Amstrong's moon mission. The adventurous pair were assisted by the unwavering but foul-mouthed and perpetually drunk Captain Haddock, the absent-minded Professor Bienlein, and the oblivious detectives, Schulze and Schultze.

Spirou began his career in 1938 as a Pageboy in a hotel, where he met reporter Fantasio in 1943. Together the pair undertook numerous adventures during which they encountered many other central characters: Fantasio's evil cousin, Zantafio; the crazy scientist Zyklotrop; the unlucky mafia boss Don Vito Cortizone; and the monkey-like creature Marsupilami.

Marsupilami lives in the jungles of Palombia and belongs to the family of the monotreme animals (like the platypus and echinda). With his eight-meter-long tail and appetite for piranhas, he is shy and rare but has super powers. His biggest enemies are the jaguar preying on his cubs, and the big hunter Bring M. Backalive, who wants to catch Marsupilami and sell him to an animal park.

Belgian comic artists have regularly caused a sensation with their works. These include Willy Vandersteen’s "Willy and Wanda" (American title, "Spike and Suzy" in the UK), the daily comic strip about two adventurous friends published for the first time in 1945 that achieved a similar cult status as "The Adventures of Tintin" or "Spirou."

Lucky Luke and his trusty horse, Jolly Jumper, have been keepers of justice in the wild west since 1946. Their enemy is the notorious Dalton brothers gang who not only attack stagecoaches and banks, but terrorize innocent citizens. Jolly Jumper is forever Luke's loyal and dependable sidekick who not only plays chess, but can also saddle himself and climb trees.

For more than 55 years, Ric Hochet (Rick Master in German) has been solving difficult mysteries. From 1955 to 2010, the reporter and amateur detective undertook a total of 77 adventures, running into all manner of wild nemesis' from werewolves to vampires. But in the end, the plotlines were somewhat blandly resolved.

Appearing in the French-language Belgian comics magazine "Spirou," Gaston is a daily comic strip first published in 1957 that features Gaston Lagaffe, a lazy office junior in a comic book publisher who is constantly causing chaos, or "gaffes." Instead or working, he cultures a family of mice in his document folder, or creates innumerable inventions including a shoelace-tying device

The lovable tiny blue creatures in their mushroom houses and enchanted forest shot to fame in 1958. For the most part, Smurfs are musical and industrious (with the exception of Lazy, who falls asleep even while standing up). Papa Smurf's magical powers help protect his sheep, but more importantly, protect all from the evil wizard Gargamel who likes to hunt for Smurfs.

Released in 1980, "Silence," was the greatest success of the writer and illustrator Didier Comès, a pioneer of the graphic novel. The mute and slightly backward servant of the farmer Abel, Silence is badly treated by his employer. But seeing only good in people, he does not realize that he's been rejected as an outsider in the village. When he falls in love with a witch, evil takes its course.

"The Cat" was a comic strip by Philippe Geluck published in the "Le Soir" newspaper from 1983 until 2013. It featured an overweight cat in a suit and tie who liked to sprout sometimes absurdist ideas about life and politics — and here comments on the prevalence of men in the forming of the EU. "The cat is a tool for me to say what I want to say," Geluck once said.

Enjoyed a growing fan base since first published in 2001, "Dickie" is the ongoing tale of a farmer who is also a walking disaster. Created by Flemish illustrator Pieter de Poortere, Dickie slips into bizarre different roles: He is Bin Laden, sometimes Hitler's son, and then suddenly Marilyn Monroe. Just as poor Dickie thinks it can't get any worse, it always does.

The Artcurial auction "The World of Herge," held on November 20, features 122 lots, including this 1969 drawing paying tribute to the Apollo XI moon landing. Another highlight is an original ink drawing from "Tintin: Land of Black Gold." The auction record for the most expensive work of comic book art is a Herge drawing that sold for €3.2 million ($3.8 million) in January 2021.

If Brussels is recognized as the capital of European comics, it is thanks to the pioneering work of cartoonist George Remi, who wrote under the name Herge. In 2016 and 2017, the Grand Palais Museum in Paris held a huge retrospective on the creator of various cartoon series, including Tintin.

Herge is best known for creating Tintin, a young reporter traveling around the world for his work. Herge produced 24 volumes of his adventures; the last manuscript was unfinished but was posthumously published in 1986. These books, popular among readers of all ages, have been translated into more than 110 languages. Over 250 million books have been sold worldwide.

Born in 1907, Remi started signing his illustrations as Herge, the phonetic transcription of his initials, RG, in 1924. In 1928, he became editor of the Petit Vingtieme, a weekly supplement for the Belgian paper Vingtieme Siecle, in which the adventures of Tintin were first published.

The first volume of Tintin's adventures was initially published from 1929 to 1930 in the weekly. In this anti-communist propaganda, Tintin was sent off to the Soviet Union with his dog, Snowy, where he was hunted down by the secret police while doing research on Josef Stalin's government.

For his second adventure, in 1931, Tintin was sent to the Belgian Congo. Shown here is a page of the album that Herge later redrew and colored for the books published by Casterman, like all his other early works. This volume was later criticized for its racist colonial views. Countries such as Belgium, Sweden, the UK and the US tried to have it banned or restrict its availability to children.

Even though his early books drew on stereotypes for comedic purposes, Herge was fascinated by ancient civilizations. While studying in Brussels, he met the Chinese artist Zhang Chongren, who helped Herge depict China in "The Blue Lotus." Pictured is a cover of the Petit Vingtieme, where it was first published in 1934. From then on, Herge would depict foreign societies more sensitively.

Herge did extensive research to make his spacecraft as realistic as possible for the books "Destination Moon" and "Explorers on the Moon," initially published in 1950 as strips in the weekly "Tintin" and as volumes in 1953 — years before human space travel was achieved. Shown here is a mock-up of the rocket that appears in those stories, created by the visionary cartoonist.

In 1940, Belgium was invaded by the Nazis. The weekly that published Herge's work was banned. The cartoonist moved on to another paper, Le Soir, which was under Nazi control. Although Herge did not collaborate actively, an interview in the Paris exhibition showed how his passivity under the occupation remained "a stain on his career," curator Jerome Neutres told news agency AFP.

A little-known side of the cartoonist was also on show at the Herge exhibition. He was also a painter and an art collector. This photo features some of his paintings, revealing influences from artists such as Miro, Holbein and Rembrandt. However, painting remained a hobby for Herge.

In 1979, US pop artist Andy Warhol was commissioned by Herge to produce a series of four portraits of him. That same year, Tintin celebrated his 50th anniversary — though the reporter never aged over the years.

The cartoonist was also a graphic designer. His advertising work, as seen in these posters, featured a high level of formal creativity. Beyond Tintin, Herge was also the creator of several other characters, such as Quick and Flupke, as well as Jo, Zette and Jocko, whose adventures were told in five volumes. The prolific artist died in 1983.