In an unkind parlour game that was fashionable a few years ago, dinner guests were invited to name 10 famous Belgians. The idea was neither clever nor funny but it was none the less a challenge that few could rise to.

After exhausting the catalogue of Belgian painters - from Rubens to Magritte - participants often asked if fictional characters were eligible for consideration. Because the three most famous Belgians of all are imaginary figures - the detectives Maigret and Hercule Poirot and the cartoon character Tintin.

Of the three, Tintin has enjoyed the most enduring popularity, and the adventures of the boy reporter with that famous quiff have been translated into dozens of languages and spawned a huge franchising industry. Now Brussels, which already has a popular comic strip museum, wants to immortalise Tintin in a museum devoted to his creator, Herge.

"It would be unthinkable not to have an Herge museum here. This is something I want to accomplish," Belgium's regional economy minister, Eric Tomas, said recently.

The dream of an Herge museum is shared by the artist's widow, Fanny, whose Moulinsart Foundation, run with her husband Nick Rodwell, controls the rights to Tintin. Unfortunately, negotiations between the Rodwells and Brussels's municipal authorities have been stormy, and the city has yet to provide a plot of land for the museum.

One reason for the difficulties may be that Belgium's cultural elite view the Rodwells with some caution, and Herge's own reputation has received a number of blows in recent years.

Eight years ago, former Belgian fascist leader Leon Degrelle published a book called My Friend Tintin, in which he claimed to have inspired the cartoon character. The book alarmed Tintin fans and drew attention to the wartime activities of Herge. During the Nazi occupation of Belgium, the artist worked for the conservative daily Le Soir, which was run by collaborators. He produced comic strips under the title L'Etoile Mysterieuse, in which some of the villains were caricatures of Jewish bankers with names such as Blumenstein.

It remains unclear whether this dark episode in Herge's biography will be documented in the proposed museum, but the shadow of fascism has done little to harm the success of Tintin throughout the world. The French town of Angouleme, which hosts an annual comic strip festival, has just decided to build a 53-metre Tintin spaceship.

And Nick Rodwell, who says that it will take at least three years to build an Herge museum in Brussels, is convinced that, one way or another, the artist will be commemorated.

"It's our dream for Belgium to have an Herge museum. But if it doesn't, some other country will," he adds.