Along Rue de l’etuve, a narrow street in Brussels, a sea captain hustles down a building’s fire escape, trailed by a young reporter and his dog. If the trio look frozen in time, it’s because they are—they’re part of a mural that’s recognizable to anyone who has ever read a Tintin comic.

Walking through Brussels is a lot like flipping through the pages of a comic book. Around practically every corner of Belgium’s capital, comic book characters spring to life on colorful murals on the exterior walls of houses, boutiques and blank “canvases.” They’re all part of the city’s Comic Book Route—just one of the things that makes Brussels a paradise for comic book lovers.

The route began in 1991 when the city and the Belgian Comic Strip Center, a museum dedicated entirely to comics, commissioned local author Frank Pé to sketch an original piece featuring characters from his popular Broussaille and Zoo series. The result was a 380-square-foot showpiece on the side of a building located at one of Brussels’ busiest intersections. Citizens asked for more, so the city commissioned dozens of local comic book authors to create original murals to give a splash of color to the city’s streetscapes. Today, more than 55 murals make up the route, and the city plans to add even more in the future.

Comic books have always held a special place in the hearts of Belgians, but it was artist Georges Remi, who went by the penname Hergé, who really helped popularize comic strips, which are known as “the ninth art” in French-speaking circles. In 1929, Hergé introduced the series The Adventures of Tintin about a young Belgian reporter and his trusty dog, and the Franco-Belgian comic strip was born. In the years since, more than 230 million copies of the series have been sold in some 70 languages and there’s even a museum outside of the city dedicated to his work. Hergé’s overnight success spurred an interest in comics in Belgians of all ages, inspiring many to put pen to paper and create characters of their own. After World War II, comic strips became as common in newspapers as want ads.