Art on the Avenue

The upcoming Tintin movie trilogy has heightened interest in all things Tintin. Hergé the creator of the well known comic character Tintin will once again be in the mainstream consciousness. Hergé was the pen name of Georges Prosper Remi who was both writer and illustrator of all 23 Tintin albums dying before he could finish the 24th Tintin and the Alpha-Art.

Georges Prosper Remi was born in Etterbeek in Belgium in 1907 and was to become the father of the ligne claire style of illustration that was to influence artists such as Warhol. Remi was a keen sketcher from an early age and his primary school books were filled with doodles of the invading Nazi regime who occupied Belgium during the First World War. Remi was a natural and throughout his life had no real formal training apart from a few lessons taken at l’ecole Saint-Luc during his teenage years.

On reaching the age of 13 Remi studied at the college Saint-Boniface being taught by Catholic priests and joining the Boy Scout troop of the school. He was to be given the moniker “Renard curieux” (Curios fox). It was where Remi was to initially experience his illustrations being published firstly in Jamais assez, the school scout paper and then later to a bigger audience in Le Boy-Scout Belge, the scout monthly magazine where the pseudonym Hergé first appears.

It is within this environment that many believe heavily influenced Remi’s work and especially the character that became Tintin. It is clear that the ethics of the scout movement and the traveling Remi did with his group make up a great part of Tintin’s spirit.

In 1925 Hergé went to work for Le Petit Vingtième a Catholic newspaper edited by an abbot Norbert Wallez. Hergé was to publish his first cartoon series the following year, The Adventures of Tortor again in Le Boy-Scout Belge. It wasn’t until 1928 when Hergé was put in charge of producing material for the children supplement of Le Petit Vingtième that Hergé really came into his own.

Hergé began illustrating the adventures of Flup, Nenesse, Pousette and Cochonnet written by a member of the sports staff. Fortunately for the rest of the world Hergé wasn’t particularly enamored by this chain of events. It led to Wallez asking Hergé to create a young hero that would fight good all over the world and be a reporter to boot. Hergé filled with brio created a comic strip of his own influenced by the American innovation of using speech bubbles to depict the words coming out of the characters mouths.

Hergé created the now legendary Tintin in the Land of the Soviets that appeared in Le Petit Vingtième in January 1929 and ran until may 1930. The strip was a wonderful adventure through the Soviet Union, the young reporter Tintin with his trusty fox terrier Snowy. The character of Tintin is also said to be inspired partly by Remi’s brother Paul who was an officer n the Belgium Army. Tintin was a popular stip from day one. Remi was to produce other comic strips such as Quick and Flupke but Tintin was the one character that was to make him.

In June 1930 Tintin began his second adventure, Tintin in the Congo (which was at the time a Belgian colony) to be followed by Tintin in America and the Cigars of the Pharaoh.

The first Tintin adventures would take about a year to complete and then would be released by the Casterman publishing house. Hergé would continue to revise the adventure in subsequent editions, including later turning them into colour. These early works were also to age quickly as the century moved at break net pace with Tintin in the Congo having to be revised due to the fact Tintin in the original tale is seen giving a lesson to native students in a missionary school and proclaims “My dear friends, today I am going to talk about your country: Belgium” that was later edited into a math lesson.

Hergé soon began to learn some of life truths as he got older and there is definite water shed in his work around the time of his 30th birthday when he introduced Tintin and The Blue Lotus to the world. It can be seen as the start of a new era in the life and works of Hergé. Please visit my site to learn more about Herge and the latest Tintin movie news to be directed by Steven Spielberg.

As news of the Tintin movie to be directed by Steven Spielberg reaches fever pitch people will want to know about Tintin and his creator Georges Prosper Remi who used the pen name Herge. Hergé reached a watershed in his work around his 30th birthday and the release of Tintin and the Blue Lotus. The Blue Lotus was released in 1936 and was the fifth Tintin adventure. The end of the fourth album Cigar of the Pharaoh had led to a mention that Tintin would be off to China in his next adventure.

A University of Leuven professor one father Gosset got in touch with Hergé and asked for the illustrator to be perceptive about how he approached China in his next album. Gosset was the chaplain of the university’s Chinese students and introduced Hergé to a young Chinese sculptor called Chang Chon-jen who resided at the Brussels Académie des Beaux-Arts.

Hergé and Chang instantly made a connection. Chang introduced Hergé to Chinese history, culture and techniques of Chinese art that left a lasting impression on Hergé. In the Blue Lotus Hergé endeavored to become more correct in detailing the places that Tintin visited. The bond formed between these two artists is now cemented in history as Hergé called one of his characters “Chang Chong-Chen” in the young sculptor’s honor. Chang Chong-Chen is a young Chinese boy who befriends Tintin, with the character discarding some of the more outrageous fabrications about Chinese culture.

The bond formed with Chang resulted in Hergé heightened comprehension of the problem with colonialism and particularly Japan’s horrific assaults into China. A theme of anti-imperialism can clearly be read in the Blue Lotus which was contrary to common western beliefs that were compassionate to Japan and its colonial enterprise. Hergé took a lot of flack for the views from Japanese dignitaries in Belgium but history has shown that the Blue Lotus was vindicated.

In a sad tale after finishing his studies Chang went back to China and the two friends lost contact after the Japanese invasion and subsequent civil war at it was forty years before they met again.

Hergé was going to see a modification in Tintin’s style again. This was through necessity rather than choice. In September 1st 1939 the Nazi’s invaded Poland and Hergé as a reserve lieutenant had to stop his work on the Tintin adventure The Land of Black Gold. Belgium soon fell under German occupation along with most of Western Europe.

Le Petit Vingtième was closed down and Hergé found himself writing for Le Soir the mouthpiece of the Nazi occupational forces. Hergé began to write The Crab with the Golden Claw which was to be the first of six albums written during the war.

Hergé was unable t finish The Land of Black Gold due to its anti-fascist undertones. The war was to continue in earnest and led to Hergé changing his style. A paper shortage led to him having to publish Tintin daily in a three or four frame strip, rather than the two full pages every week as when he had worked for Le Petit Vingtième. The meant Hergé had to create drama at the end of each strip rather than the end of each page. Hergé by necessity introduced more frequent quips and a more rapid hustle of action.

Hergé had been quite political at times in his earlier albums but now under Nazi occupation this was no longer possible. The Tintin adventures turned to escapism with escapades to meteorites (The Shooting Star), a treasure hunt ((The Secret of the Unicorn) and a expedition to unravel an ancient Inca curse in (The seven Crystal Balls and Prisoner of the Sun).

Hergé now placed more emphasize on characters and plots and led to some of Tintin’s greatest characters being introduced to the globe. Captain Haddock and Cuthbert Calculus make their debuts during this era. This change of style was noticed by readers and these yarns have proved the most popular over the years.

In 1943 Hergé met Edgar Jacobs an American comic artist who he hired to help revise early Tintin albums. Jacobs was instrumental in redrawing many of the outfits and settings to make the albums for accurate and appropriate. Jacob’s was also to help on Tintin and the Seven Crystal Balls. By the end of the war Tintin had gone about a change of style and was more fashionable then ever and was on its way to be adopted by the French population.

The increasing demands the Tintin magazine placed on Hergé led to him having a breakdown in 1949 while he was working to complete Land of Black Gold. He then went on to suffer another breakdown in 1950 working on Destination Moon. It was at this point Hergé Studios were set up in April 6th 1960. This was another turning point in the Tintin world. Please visit my site to learn more about Herge and get all the the latest info and Tintin movie news.