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Belgian Comic »Tintin«
Photo: United Archives / imago images
The Belgian passport gets a new design that shows Belgian cartoon characters.
"The photos of the town halls of the Belgian provincial capitals have made room for 16 comic heroes of Belgian origin," says the Belgian news portal VRT.
In the future, prominent Belgian cartoon characters will appear on the pages of the passport intended for the stamp.
Among them many that are also well known in Germany, such as motifs from "Tim & Struppi", the "Smurfs", "Spirou" or "Marsupilami".
Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmes presented the new design of the passport.
The comic motifs were also selected thematically to match the official document, so the comics shown are about mobility and travel.
For example, the rocket from the Tintin album »Steps on the Moon« can be found right on the first page.
The security against forgery was also increased with the new edition of the passport.
A total of 48 elements such as holograms and barcodes can be found in the new passport book.
There are now twice as many as was the case with the old Belgian passport.
"The new passport can be applied for from February 7, 2022 at your municipality in Belgium or at the consular representation abroad," said the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Twitter.
The fee previously charged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the application remains unchanged, it said.
Belgium is the land of comics and has a rich history of speech bubble stories.
»Tim & Struppi« was created here, as was the cowboy »Lucky Luke«.
Although countries like Japan and the USA have long since surpassed Belgium as the number one comics country, there is still a comics scene in Belgium to this day.
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