Career
Marc Sleen started his career as an artist at a catholic newspaper. Besides just drawing cartoons he also drew illustrations for news articles like maps. But he also got the chance to draw his own comic books stories. He saw the succes of the
Willy Vandersteen with his comic book series
Suske & Wiske so Marc decided that there was more succes and profit to be gained if he focussed on a complete comic book series. So he thought of '
Nero'. A succes that would last him his entire life.
Personal life
Marc was born in Gentbrugge in Belgium, he grew up with a nice family and three brothers. When he was five he was put into a boarding school but at the age of 7 became so unhappy that he became ill. His parents had no choice but to pull him out of the boarding school again. He began taking up drawing lessons but in the year 1938 his father passed away which made it difficult for the family to afford anything. And it wasn't made any better by the occupation of Germany in the second world war. He had to flee and worked on a farm for a few years, but money problems haunted him. So he had to work for the Germans in an administrative position, he had to make sure all the mail reached the German personell but instead he threw all the mail in the river. His brothers was in the resistance and when the German came looking for him Marc and his other brother were taken prisoner. They were beaten and questioned but he wouldn't tell the Germans anything so he was taken to a prison in Gent which was known for killing their prisoners.
He managed to get out when the French and Canadian soldiers were getting closer and the SS fled. The Germans tried to regain their ground several times but failed. Even years later Marc still had nightmares about this. In 1945 he married his first love, she got pregnant in 1953 but due to a mistake from the doctor Marc had to make the decission wetter to save his wife or his unborn child. He chose for the life of his wife. To this day he considers this the most difficult choice of his life.
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