The little black-and-white cartoon figure of Tintin first appeared in Belgium in 1929 in a Catholic newspaper where his creator, Herge, worked. Harry Thompson looks at the story of Herge, of Tintin and his origins, and beyond to when President de Gaulle could call Tintin 'his only rival'.
About the Author
Harry Thompson is the inventor and editor of many TV comedy series including Have I Got News For You and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. He is the author of acclaimed bestsellers, including Peter Cook: A Biography. His most recent book is a historical novel, This Thing of Darkness. He worked as a producer at Talkback TV and in his spare time ran an infamous cricket team, the Captain Scott XI. He died in November 2005.
Reviews
Praise for Tintin: Herge & His Creation -- --- 'As biographies go, they don't come much more definitive than Harry Thompson's hugely enjoyable account of Tintin' -- James Delingpole, Sunday Telegraph 'Harry Thompson rings all the right bells...a joyous Tintinabulation' -- Piers Brendon, Mail on Sunday 'A major biography...witty and sympathetic' -- Jonathan Sale, Financial Times 'Thompson...is motivated by such admiration for Herge and such affection for Tintin that his pleasure is communicated. I am keen to reread Tintin in the light of what I know now' -- Nicholas Garland, Daily Telegraph 'A delightful portrait...well-organised and well researched...witty, fascinating and just a little mad...it is more or less impossible not to like this book' -- The European 'As a broad, bright Herge-like brush-stroke, it has genuine appeal' -- Guardian 'The first book in English on Tintin to have an idea in it' -- The Times 'An admirably organised double biography... For specialists and for the myriad devotees of the stories this book is a must' -- Frank Muir, Sunday Express 'Immensely detailed...it contains a great deal of fascinating information' -- GQ
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Reviews
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This fascinating and revealing book combines a biography of the creator of Tintin, Herge (George Remi) with tracing the development of the Tintin albums.
We learn how Herge's personality, experiences and outlook shaped Tintin and his friends and foes, and some of the extraordinary happeings behind the scenes.
Tintin's pet dog Milou (in the original French) was named after a teenage sweetheart of Herge's.
We explore just how the character that is featureless, ageless, sexless and seemingly unburdened with a personality, has endeared millions and millions of fans across the world over several generations.
Children around the world still love Tintin today, as they did since the 1930s.
We learn of the political and historic events of some of the works, and the reflections of Herge's life and various experiences in others.
For example one powerful example of Herge's creativity are his celebrated dream sequences.
I disagree with the author of this book about Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (The Adventures of Tintin) and see no reason why Herge apologized. This was not propaganda as the author and so many others claim, but brilliant political satire with much truth in it about the Soviet tyranny.
The episode of the anti-semitic stereotype of the international banker Bohlwinkel in The Shooting Star (The Adventures of Tintin), Herge insisted was a genuine error with no malicious intent, while Hitlerism and Fascism are clearly attacked in King Ottokar's Sceptre (Tintin).
In Cigars of the Pharoah (The Adventures of Tintin) "Rastapopulous and Snowy, in Egyptian dress, carry Tintin off, while Sarcophagus rocks the baby Tintin in a crib and smokes one of the Pharaoh's cigars. Tintinologists have long tried to find the hidden meaning in these dreams, but if anyone was dreaming then it wasn't Herge.
He merely used the illogic of dreams for comic effect. When Captain Haddock sat naked in an audience of parrots in The Castafiore Emerald (The Adventures of Tintin), for instance Herge was not interested in any subliminal meaning, only that he found the idea funny".
Then there is a whole geography that Herge invented, which is one of his greatest creative achievements.
" By the 1970s, it was posible for Tintin to board a plane in Sondonesia (not a million miles away from Indonesia)and fly to Khemed, a desert nation betwen Saudi Arabia and the Lebanon, which was curiously reminiscent of Jordan. Or he could visit the Bordurian capital Szohod, a merciless parody of a pre-glasnost East European city, right down to the many representations of the dictator Marshal Kurvi-Tasch, a figure with an uncanny resemblance to Stalin. Or perhaps Klow, the mineral water capital of the world, in a guardedly friendly but authoritarian Syldavia, whose mosques, hills and coastline look for all the world like Yugoslavia's". (I would say Albania).
An incredible insight into the mysteries behind Tintin and Herge.
One can return to read each of the Tintin adventures with renewed insight.
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