The Belgian Comic Strip Center - Museum Brussels

What an excellent idea to allow the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to have its say! It tells us its history, its hopes, its values to be preserved: “I am not just a package of rights. I serve as a permanent reminder.”

This well-documented original approach is extremely interesting. Showing proof of great sensitivity, the two authors have illustrated the articles of the Declaration and bring back its basic values to the fore. It is “a fragile but real protection against ignorance, hate and fear, and against forgetting the precariousness of all things.”

This new title of the collection ‘La petite Bédéthèque des Savoirs’ (Little Comics Art Library of Wisdom), published by Éditions du Lombard, is an excellent example of how comic strip art, didactics and reflection about the world can form a perfect combination.

These are all reasons why the Belgian Comics Art Museum is so happy and proud to introduce this remarkable book in its Gallery!

Mélanie Andrieu, Belgian Comics Art Museum

In 1948, in the wake of the war and the discovery of the Holocaust or Shoah, an exceptional committee of writers under the direction of Eleanor Roosevelt and René Cassin was trying to draw up the very first universal declaration of human rights. This event will put the different visions of the world to the test: East and West, American and European, North and South, etc. This comic strip retraces the paces of this team that has laid down on paper a common dream: a world in which mankind no longer falls prey to mankind.

The Authors

François De Smet is a philosopher and general manager of Myria, the Belgian federal agency responsible for safeguarding the basic rights of foreigners. He is also the author of several works on democracy, such as Reductio ad Hitlerum, une théorie du point Godwin (a theory of the Godwin Point).

Thierry Bouüaert is a comic strip author with an enquiring mind, who is constantly conducting research. He has developed a polymorph and highly personal piece of work, which has been influenced by the British graphic design scene as well as by contemporary works.

The idea of La petite Bédéthèque des Savoirs is quite simple, and is based on the realisation that one of the last big unexplored territories of comic strip art is the vast field of human science and non-fiction. It is a didactic series of comic strips, in which a graphic artist links up with a specialist. They are constructed as serious and fun approaches that are accessible to the general public, and they actually act as access keys or invitations to explore further.

Le Lombard Publishers