page_title: Nero (comic book character)
section_title: Status
hierarchical_section_title: Nero (comic book character) / Status
caption_attribution_description: English: Statue of Nero, a Flemish comic, Hoeilaart (Flemish Brabant, Belgium) Nederlands: Hoeilaart (Vlaams Brabant, België) Français&#160;: Hoeilaart (Brabant Flamand, Belgique)
context_page_description: Nero is a Flemish comic book character and the main protagonist in Marc Sleen's long running comic book strip series The Adventures of Nero. He is one of the most recognizable comic book characters in Belgium and comparable to Lambik from the Suske en Wiske series by Willy Vandersteen.
  Nero is a middle aged, fairly obese man who is bald except for two long hairs on his head. Furthermore, he wears a huge red bow tie and has laurel leaves behind his ears, in reference to the Roman emperor Nero after whom he was named.
  Nero is an anti hero. He is a complex character with many good character traits, but also many human fallities. He is sometimes stupid, lazy, naïve, egotistical and vain, but in other situations he proves himself to be clever, friendly, determined and melancholic.
context_section_description: As one of the most famous comic book characters in Flanders Nero received his own statue in Hoeilaart, near an old streetcar station in 1994. It was originally made in polyester, but changed to bronze in 2004. The sculptor is Luc Cauwenberghs. The location was chosen because Nero himself moved into this house in the album "De Verschrikkelijke Tweeling" ("The Horrible Twin") (1990). Today the place is a café, named after Nero.
  There is another statue of Nero in front of the casino in Middelkerke, where other statues of Belgian comic book characters can be seen.
  The organisation "Nero-Harmonie" in Hoeilaart and a mountain bike route have been named after him.
  Nero, the dog of Carmen Waterslaeghers in the popular Flemish sitcom FC De Kampioenen was also named after the comic book character, when Carmen happened to see a newspaper with Nero in it.
  He is included along with other Nero characters on a bas-relief in Sint-Niklaas, made by sculptor Paul Dekker in 1988 to commemorate Marc Sleen's induction as an honor citizen of the city. A wall on the Place Saint-Géry/Sint-Goriksplein was dedicated to Nero in 1995 and can be visited during the Brussels' Comic Book Route. A similar wall was also revealed in the Kloosterstraat in Antwerp in 2014 depicting Nero, Petoetje and Petatje.
  In the 1984 opera Het Rattenkasteel Nero's role was played by Marc van Malderen.
  To honor the 200th "Nero" album a special puppet theatre play was performed in the "Poesje" van St. Andries, next to the St. Andries kerk in Antwerp, with a special puppet made after Nero.
caption: Statue of Nero in Hoeilaart, hometown of Marc Sleen and Nero
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-H9", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2007:08:10 19:19:09", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "328", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Normal", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-H9", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Rotated 90 CCW", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2007:08:10 19:19:09", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9322", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "14804", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/50", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:08:10 19:19:09", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:08:10 19:19:09", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "23/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "19", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2448", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3264", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}