Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée (Belgian Center for Comic-Strip Art)

Grown-ups will love this place as much as kids do. Called the CéBéBéDé for short, the center, in a side street not far from the Gothic spires and baroque guild houses of the Grand-Place, is dedicated to comic strips and takes a lofty view of what it calls "the Ninth Art." As icing on the cake, it's in a restored Art Nouveau department store from 1903, the Magasins Waucquez designed by Victor Horta, which was slated for demolition before the center took it over. A model of the red-and-white checkered rocket in which Hergé's Tintin and Snowy flew to the Moon, long before Armstrong and Aldrin did it in mere fact, takes pride of place at the top of the elegant staircase. Beyond is a comic strip wonderland. All the big names appear in a library of 30,000 books and in permanent and special exhibits, including Tintin, Asterix, Thorgal, Lucky Luke, the Smurfs, Charlie Brown, Andy Capp, Suske and Wiske -- yes, even Superman, Batman, and the Green Lantern -- along with many lesser heroes.

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