New Belgian passport: Around the world with Tintin

Comic books are Belgian cultural assets. Characters like Tintin, Marsupilami or the Smurfs are classics worldwide. Now they are even immortalized in the new Belgian passport.

Anyone who applies for a new passport in Belgium will receive a comic book. At least that’s what you might think when you leaf through the passport. Comic heroes are printed on the 34 pages of the travel document: Lucky Luke, the Smurfs, Tintin and Struppi, among others. Their silhouettes fill the pages completely. For example, stamps in the passport end up on the head of a Smurf or on Lucky Luke and his horse.

For the Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmès, this not only makes the passport more forgery-proof, it is also a homage to the world-famous stories from Belgium. “Why did we choose comics? Because comics represent Belgium. They stand for being Belgian.”

In addition, the representations are very detailed, which increases the security of the passport. Of course that also plays a role.

Comic world power Belgium

All the illustrations in the passport have one thing in common: they come from Belgian artists. The Smurfs, Lucky Luke, the Marsupilami and Tintin have achieved world fame. But they are by no means the only comic treasures in Belgium.

The country with ten million inhabitants has 650 comic book authors. More than any other country in the world. Around 40 million Belgian comics are printed every year. Two thirds of them go abroad.

Belgian heritage

Comics are part of Belgian culture. The Belgians affectionately call it “the ninth art”. The success story began when the first “Tim und Struppi” magazine was published in 1929 – initially with two comic magazines per week. There are now too many to know them all, says Olivier van Houte, who runs a comics shop in Brussels.

Most of the valuable specimens are from that time anyway, from the 1930s to the 1960s. Some of them are now worth a fortune.

As an expert, Van Houte appraises the value of comic book collections and rare books. “People bring me their collections and I rate them. I’ve been following the market for a long time, so I can tell them what their issues are worth.” In general, books in good condition would only become more expensive over time.

Expensive waste paper

Individual front pages of old comics are available for less than 100 euros. Most valuable specimens are sometimes worth a fortune. A well-preserved magazine from the 1960s can easily cost more than 2000 euros.

The original drawings are even more expensive. Earlier this year, one of the drawings by Herge, the inventor of Tintin, sold for more than three million euros. It’s better to own comics that are in good condition than to put your money in the bank, jokes the dealer.

Mirror of the Belgian mentality

Van Houte explains that the most successful comics come from Belgium, of all places, with the mentality of his compatriots:

The comic book expert’s favorite character is Tintin, better known in German as Tintin from “Tim und Struppi”. “I read that when I was little. The adventures in which he traveled to all countries in the world, that was a dream.”

The last Tintin comic was published in 1976. Then the adventures of the wild duo from Belgium came to an end. Until now, because with the new passport it is up to the Belgians themselves how far “Tintin” will make it around the world again.