'De Schat van Shaka Khan' (2026).
Frank Deckers is a Belgian theater director, writer and songwriter with the band De Kastaars. In 2026, he published his first comic book, 'De Schat van Shaka Khan', a stylistic homage to Marc Sleen's classic 'Nero' comic. It marks the fifth 'Nero' homage album released since Sleen's death in 2016 and the second since the rights to Sleen's series entered the public domain.
Life and career
Born in 1960, Frank "Franky" Deckers is a theater director hailing from the Antwerp town of Boechout. He has written scripts for comedy plays, which he also stages with his ensemble Joker Productions. They are often performed in the theater hall De Crypte in Edegem. Among the plays he wrote, scripted and produced are 'De Beste Vriend', 'Het Feestje', 'Man Zoekt Vrouw', 'Paella Voor Vijf' and 'Perron Charlie'. Deckers has also organized a theater workshop and directed for other theater groups. Together with his son Bram, he has played in the band De Kastaars, for which he also writes the songs. De Kastaars usually provide musical intermezzos during his plays.
Nero
Since childhood, Frank Deckers has been a fan of Marc Sleen's humorous adventure comic series 'Nero', which ran non-stop in newspapers between 1947 and 2002. Its madcap style and adult satire kept appealing to him when he grew older. During the final run of 'Nero' (1992-2002), Sleen only scripted the stories, while Dirk Stallaert provided the artwork. In 2002, Sleen decided to retire, ending the series too. Since no new 'Nero' albums were published, 'Nero' was kept in public view through special events. After Sleen's death in 2016, several prominent comic artists received official permission to make new 'Nero' comic books, created in their own personal styles. First in line was Kim Duchateau with 'De Zeven Vloeken' (2018), followed by Willy Linthout, who scripted 'De Toet van Tut' for Luc Cromheecke (2020). In Linthout's case, this marked the second time he had made a 'Nero' album: back in 1982 Sleen had granted him permission to draw the 'Nero' parody 'De Zeven van Zeveneken'. Finally, Duchateau wrote the script for 'De Hemeltergers' (2022), drawn by Sleen's former assistant Dirk Stallaert. In 2024, the Marc Sleen Foundation announced that from 1 January 2025 on, all comic characters created by Marc Sleen would prematurely enter public domain. This paved the way for 'De Babbelkousen' (2026), a 'Nero' story by Willy Linthout and Ann Smet.
'De Schat van Shaka Khan' (2026).
Way back in 1996, Deckers and his friends were spending time in a bungalow in Klein Zwitserland, a scenic area in the town of Mortsel outside of Antwerp. Out of boredom, he tried to draw his own 'Nero' comic book, but eventually gave up because it was too time-consuming. As fate would have it, the COVID-19 pandemic (2019-2022) forced the entire world to stay indoors, while all public events were put on hold. As a theater maker, Deckers couldn't work for months. Like so many others, he decided to take this opportunity to finally get some stuff done he always wanted to do. Since it offered distraction and was a fun challenge, he picked up drawing his 'Nero' story again. While he managed to complete more pages than before, it still wasn't done by the time normal life started again. However, since the publishing company of Peter Bonte had shown interest in publishing his comic, Deckers felt more motivation to push through and complete it. In June 2026, Bonte brought it out under the title 'De Schat van Shaka Khan'.
Drawn in the early 1950 black-and-white graphic style of 'Nero', 'De Schat van Shaka Khan' takes direct inspiration from classic albums from this period, most obviously 'Het Vredesoffensief van Nero' and 'Beo De Verschrikkelijke'. Deckers deliberately used dialect, as was common in Flemish newspaper comics from this period. The plot is a fun pastiche, centering on a treasure hunt set in an exotic country (in this case India), with many wild animals and stereotypical renditions of natives. In his attempt to capture the look and feel of a typical 'Nero' comic of the early 1950s, Deckers even refrained from using characters or elements that weren't used by Sleen during this era, including the iconic signature waffle feast that closed off every 'Nero' story since the launch of the color albums.
Since Deckers is a self-taught artist, he has made occasional "off-model" mistakes or other errors in proportion, perspective or dialogue placement in speech balloons. However, this isn't too far off from Sleen's own loose graphic style, where improvisational fun dominated over wrongly placed lines, continuity errors or plot holes. As Deckers pointed out himself, this is part of the charm of Sleen's stories. The same can be said about Deckers' story, which has an old-fashioned, nostalgic feel. His persistence to make a dedicated effort to mimic Sleen's style and characters, sometimes copying poses from pre-existing 'Nero' stories is admirable. In some cases, he copied Disney characters, like the Crocodile from 'Peter Pan' and Shere Khan the tiger from 'Jungle Book'. In an era where AI is used as a lazy, soulless and forgettable crutch for any creative endeavor, Deckers' labor of love can be seen as refreshing and impressive.
Frank Deckers in 2026.