Some 200 million copies of his books in fifty languages have sold worldwide. But I am not sure how many American readers may have heard of Hergé or his creation, Tintin. This year is the birth centenary of Belgian born children’s author and journalist, Hergé. Georges Remi reversed the initials of his birth name and came up with the famous nom de plume – RG and Hergé sound alike in French. He began writing the illustrated series, The Adventures of Tintin in 1929 and continued until his death in 1983 leaving the last volume unfinished.
I discovered The Adventures of Tintin around age eleven. My friends and I couldn’t get enough of the short statured, boyish young man whose adventures took him to far corners of the world and on one occasion, even to the moon. Although I must have read more than twenty Tintin comics, I didn’t own a single copy because my school library in India stocked them and I read them there. In the late 1980s with my two kids in mind, I scoured the shelves of local libraries and bookstores in the US for Tintin comics – to no avail. No one had heard of Tintin, including the helpful librarians. (With the advent of Amazon.com, the books are now readily accessible.) During a trip to India where Tintin is (was?) very popular, more than a dozen books in the series were gifted to my children by my sister. Like most parents, I have discovered that children don’t always enjoy books or movies which thrilled their parents in their youth. There have been several incidents where my kids have rolled their eyes in boredom and disbelief on being exposed to what I promised would be an enjoyable reading or viewing experience based on my own nostalgic recall. So it pleased me greatly when both my daughter and son and their friends enjoyed the Adventures of Tintin, attesting to the books’ timeless appeal.
The enchantment of Tintin comics lies not just in the plot lines which take the young readers all over the world – to Turkey, Tibet, Egypt, the Amazonian jungles, under the sea, China and assorted fictional Balkan kingdoms given to skulduggery; Hergé’s skillful drawings go a long way towards making the books extremely attractive to the young and the old. Tintin stories are simple enough – conspiracy, confusion and perilous sojourns in exotic locales involving a charming cast of characters .. and always a happy ending.
Hergé spun his adventure tales with political, cultural and scientific happenings of the twentieth century as backdrop. But references to real events are vague enough that a youngster with a sketchy knowledge of history will not be left in the dark by fine nuances (unlike the more sophisticated and wickedly humorous series Asterix by Goscinny and Uderzo, where the stories playfully mangle recorded ancient history). The Adventures of Tintin are well tailored for the 10-13 year age bracket. There is just enough cloak and dagger to thrill but very few really nasty surprises. The predictability of the plot and the simple humor are a comfort for young fans. After going through a couple or three volumes, the readers become familiar with the cast and gain the confidence of an insider. For example, they know that no matter in which remote corner of the world the adventure unfolds, it will involve one or more of the following twists and turns:
Professor Cuthbert Calculus, the brainy and absent minded owner and inventor of invaluable top secret scientific formulae and designs, will be abducted by or willingly accompany some shady villain or the other.
The loud and curmudgeonly Captain Haddock will get drunk, insult anyone who gets in his way and exasperatedly utter maritime exclamations such as "blistering barnacles" and "thundering typhoons" several times through the book.
The operatic Bianca Castafiore, possessing a vast bosom, a shattering voice and priceless jewels, will be a target of thieves. She will also unwittingly drive Captain Haddock nuts by mispronouncing his name.
The identical (neither twins nor brothers) detectives Thompson and Thomson who can be told apart only by the slight variation in their mustaches, will be secretive, bumbling and wholly ineffectual. They will also on rare occasions identify themselves with the unforgettable lines, "This is Thompson with a P, as in Philadelphia" and "This is Thomson without a P, as in Vancouver."
In the end, Tintin the earnest young man with the tuft of hair sticking up on his head, and his white terrier Snowy will sort things out.
Accidental Blogger 
10 responses to “Hergé: The Tintinologist”
I’m a big fan of Tintin and his oddly indestructible dog. I actually read them all in my public library in Berkeley, growing up. Somewhere or other, I can’t remember where, I just read Tintin in America and Tintin in Tibet. Hilarious! I also read Asterix, which inculcated in my impressionable young mind a love of feasting — although in light of some experiences at the local Cheesecake Factory, feasting is more American than Gallic at this point.
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My son is a major fan of Tintin and Asterix, and insists on getting his paws on any missing book from the whole collection every time we visit India (much cheaper there than Amazon.com). We also have a complete VCD set of the animated Tintin series which the kids love watching repeatedly.
My first exposure was to Asterix in the original French and on reading the English translations later, I realized the cultural differences involved in the translation. One striking example was from Asterix in Corsica ( Asterix en Corse) where one of the characters was named Ocatarinetabellatchitchix in the French original ( lyrics to an immensely popular song by Tino Rossi, a singer of Corsican origin) became Boneywasawarriorwayayix in the English version, if I remember correctly.(Link to cultural references in Asterix– it’s in French, but fairly easy to make out.)
Don’t forget to check out the official Tintin site at tintin.com. Unfortunately, most of the fun features are in French only and available only to registered members of Club Tintin, the better to bombard your inbox with spam, I suppose.
I liked Tintin, but for some reason preferred the goofiness of Asterix and Obelix to the former.
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I enjoyed Tintin too when I was in school. It would be interesting to go back and read it again with a whole new sensibility that I now have. This time I would focus more on the politics of the comics. Conventional wisdom has it that its creator’s political instincts became more progressive over time but his earlier, overseas stuff, especially in the Congo, has a rather objectionable view of the locals. Many have also alleged sexism, pointing out the rare, diminutive, and negative roles women have played in his stories. Wonder if I would like it enough on a second reading to recommend it to a 10-13 year-old nephew or niece.
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Come, come, you can’t just say ‘maritime exclamations such as “blistering barnacles” and “thundering typhoons” ‘. The uninitiated reader doesn’t know what he’s missing out on until he knows the exclamations were actually “ten thousand thundering typhoons!” and “billions of blue blistering barnacles!”
I read through all the Tintin and Asterix books one summer in the Children’s Library at ITO. I have to confess though, that I much prefered Asterix to Tintin. Maybe that’s because I was already 13+, at the very top of the target age-bracket you mentioned for Tintins.
Ah, nostalgia! I have some Asterixes with me as e-books on my computer.. I know how I’m going to spend the rest of the day!
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Andrew: I am not surprised that you found Tintin books in Berkeley in your youth. My search was confined to the midwest. Two different planets culturally, don’t you think?
Sujatha and Hemanshu: I too was a bigger fan of Asterix than of Tintin – more sophisticated, clever and a whole lot funnier.
Namit: Yes, re-reading the comics with adult sensibilities is a different experience altogether. Here too, I found that Asterix withstood the test of time better. I had read somewhere that Hergé may have harbored Nazi sympathies during the early years of the Hitler regime. I am not sure of the veracity of this claim. He was also advised to be sensitive to Chinese culture by a well wisher familiar with China when he embarked upon writing the The Blue Lotus. But as you said, the man lived and learned.
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I have read some Tintin comics as a kid. But I still think that Asterix was the best comic strip ever. I have read every episode numerous times in Serbian and English and also noticed cultural differences (e.g., Getafix is Aspirinix). My son also read most of Asterixes and they are all still in his room.
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Sujatha and Coturnix:
Both your sons are acquainted with Tintin and Asterix because you yourselves were familiar with the comics in the respective countries you grew up in. I would like to know if any of your sons’ friends in the US are familiar with the series. If so, do they enjoy the books also?
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From what my son tells me, none of his friends have heard of Asterix or Tintin, much less read the comics. I do recall having seen an omnibus edition of Asterix, but it was shelved with the Advanced picture books that are usually the province of the K-1 set, rather than the 10-11 year olds.
Maybe the Tintin craze will take over when marketing for a planned 2009 Spielberg production begins.
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I am not aware of any of my kids’ friends ever having heard of Asterix or Tintin. It was me who bought all the Asterixes in the first place, when my son was just a baby – he discovered them on his own (well, they were on a bookshelf in his room) when he was about 12 or so and liked them ever since.
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Dean_Lister
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