The Adventures of Hergé and Tintin

I've posted this piece before but in order to ride on the coattails of the Pierre Assouline's biography of Hergé, The Man Who Created Tintin, Oxford University Press, I'm running it again. I originally wrote it in 2003 for my then-9-year-old son.




Hergé is the pen name of Georges Rémi, the Belgian author and illustrator who created Tintin in 1929 and produced 24 internationally famous comic books centering around the young reporter and his faithful fox terrier.

Hergé's Tintin books were written between 1929 and 1970 and have been translated from the original French into 40 languages.

Georges Rémi was born near Brussels in 1907. At fourteen, he joined his school's Boy Scout troop where he was given the nickname of "Renard curieux" (curious fox). His first drawings were published in his school magazine. Later his drawings were featured in the monthly Belgian Boy Scout Magazine.

In 1924 Georges Rémi decided to sign his drawings by Hergé, the name which when pronounced with a French accent, is his inverted initials (RG).

Tintin appeared for the very first time on January 10th, 1929, in the weekly magazine, Le Petit Vingtième. Tintin's adventures were later reprinted as books.

Tintin appears to be an adolescent with no known family. His age is hard to pinpoint; sometimes he seems to be a teen, but generally he behaves like an adult. He never has a girlfriend. Women would interfere with the adventures that come his way. Though Tintin is supposed to earn his living as a reporter, he never sits at a typewriter. Fate has turned him into an adventurer and a detective.

Courageous Tintin never hesitates when confronting the forces of evil. The direct opposite of the majority of cartoon heroes, he has no remarkable characteristics. He uses his intelligence and common sense to battle the wicked and protect the weak. Occasionally he reveals hidden talents; he can fly an airplane, and he can beat a tiger.

Tintin's supporting cast of characters include his white fox-terrier Snowy, two dim-witted detectives, Thompson and Thomson whose antics reveal Hergé's attraction to slapstick humour, Captain Haddock, with his boundless taste for liquor and the absent-minded and deaf Professor Calculus.

In the original French, Snowy is Milou. The name came about thanks to a girlfriend of Hergé's whose name was Malou. Snowy is present in the first drawing of the first adventure, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. There are similarities between Snowy and Captain Haddock. Both are irritable and talkative and both are susceptible to drink. In fact, when Captain Haddock arrives on the scene as a permanent character, Snowy becomes less talkative. In a sense, Haddock replaced Snowy as Tintin's number one friend.

Always at the ready to arrest Tintin are the narrow-minded police officers, the Thompsons. Identical at first glance, they are neither twins nor brothers. Only the shape of their moustaches distinguishes them. As Hergé once explained, Thompson has a straight moustache whereas Thomson’s is slightly twisted. Their constant repetition of what the other says and their favorite expression, “To be precise” makes them comical despite their pompousness.

In Hergé's original French Thompson and Thomson are Dupont and Dupond. Around the world they are known quite differently. Here are some twists on their names: Uys & Buys, Schulze & Schultze, Tik & Tak, Hueber & Grueber Hernandez & Fernandez, Jansen & Jansens.

Throughout the years Hergé worked with various people. One who greatly assisted his work was the Chinese student Chang Chon-Jen whom he met in 1936 while starting on The Blue Lotus. Chang encouraged Hergé to do serious research for each place and country Tintin visited, instead of relying on other sources of information. Hergé became convinced of the importance of a soundly built storyline and of the need for documentation. He began to take seriously what was, up till then, just a bit of fun. Hergé and Chang became good friends, and he even based one of his characters, Chang Chon-Chen after him.

A Tintin magazine was created in 1946. The weekly publication, which showcased comics by other artists plus Tintin and Snowy, lasted until 1993.

In 1950, after beginning work on Explorers on the Moon, a story requiring much detailed technical work and research, Hergé enlisted a number of teammates and founded the Studios Hergé.

The result was a precise and visionary work of science fiction. Explorers on the Moon was incredibly futuristic, though it was 15 years before astronauts would actually visit the moon. In 1982 to celebrate Hergé's 75th birthday, the Belgian Astronomical Society named an asteroid after him. "Asteroid 1652" located between Mars and Jupiter became "Planet Hergé.

Hergé died in 1983. In 1988, in a Brussels subway station, a huge mural was unveiled depicting the cast of characters from the adventures of Tintin

More Tintin facts can be found at www.tintin.comSearch Amazon.com for tin tinSearch Amazon.com for tin tinSearch Amazon.com for tin tinSearch Amazon.com for tin tin