Hello Everyone

Hello readers!

My name is Stephen,and due to a new time consuming business Chris Tregenza is very busy working on right now,I will be assisting him to keep this blog alive and running. It is just too great a blog to let fade away,and I jumped at the opportunity to help write the occasional blog post. I by no means plan on substituting Chris and as a fan of this blog will continue to look forward to his posts,but at the moment he does not have much time so I will probably post more than he will be able to for a while. I will work hard at keeping my posts up to the high quality of the blogs posts and the high expectations of the fans who follow this blog.

Let me tell you a little bit about myself.

I have been an enormous Tintin fan since I was in the second grade and my father gave me a 3 album set of Tintin in America and the two following albums. Since then Tintin has been more than just my favorite comic book character. For me he has outdone any fictional character from any comic book,novel or other story I have ever read,or from any movie I have ever seen. I own every Tintin album and have read each one so many times I lost count. A trip to Brussels for me meant a trip to the Tintin gift shop and the hand painted subway stop done by Hergé.

My favorite albums are the two moon albums,The Calculus Affair,and after that The Secret of The Unicorn duo. Since I heard of the project of a Tintin movie coming out for today’s modern audiences directed by 2 of the world’s best directors I have been sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting about as patiently as Captain Haddock waited for his broken stair to be replaced.  Right from the beginning I followed this blog,and you may rest assured that another true Tintin fan and Tintin movie fan is assisting with this blog. I will be checking leads and posting on new news as soon as I find things out.

I am such a huge Tintin fan for many reasons. For one thing Tintin and I instantly clicked in that we both love to travel. As a matter of fact I probably got a good part of my love for traveling reading Tintin. I have currently visited 10 countries. I loved,and still love,reading the books and being transported from my room,the car,or wherever I’m reading to the Land of Black Gold,to America,to Scotland,to Borduria…volcanic islands and tropical jungles, the Sahara dessert and the Artic ocean…and even the moon! Although this could be true with many fiction stories, it is a rare occasion to find all these great locations,especially in the world of comic books, mixed with delightful interesting stories and beautiful art. Tintin is not only fun to read,but it is fun to look at.

That’s one of the reasons I look forward to seeing the Tintin movie in 3D. Using the miraculous technology they have today they won’t reproduce something that looks like the exact drawings Hergé painted,but they will preserve the effect the stories give regarding how the viewer feels like he is literally right there with Tintin and Snowy searching for Red Rackham’s treasure,enjoying the storyline and visuals every step of the way. Digital 3D is a great way to do that and although we cannot know for sure I believe Spielberg and Jackson will pull it off.

Another thing I love about Tintin is the detail put into each book. Each page,each panel even, has lots of detail in it. I love going back and just reading the signs in Chinese,although I don’t understand them,or the numbers on the side of a tank,or some antique I never noticed before in Marlinspike Hall’s basement. I have always been one to make a big deal out of the little things. Tiny pieces of trivia fascinate me.  I love reading books or magazines with tidbits of useless Trivial Pursuit material. I don’t care if I’ll never need the info in real life. It’s just something that I have fun with,that interests me.  It’s cool to feel like you know something or noticed something that probably very few people on Earth know. After all who doesn’t like to learn a neat fact that they can show off around their friend’s with?

One of the things I hope to post is clever Tintin Trivia. I will work on posting on Tintin Movie news,but often there won’t be any,so I will work on finding information and news about Tintin. Tintin is so much more than just another comic book,and I’m convinced you could read the same book 20 times and still not see half the details and work Hergé put into his masterpiece. In a more modern sense the motion capture team is doing something similar with the Tintin movie. Just as Hergé put detail into every panel of his books, it’s clear from the first images that the makers of Tintin movie are putting immense detail into each frame of the movie. Unlike previous Tintin movie’s that seem to tone down the beauty and work Hergé put into the books,on this one they are working hard to make sure that it’s worthy of living up to it’s name. I am confident that will show on the big screen.

Of course there are more reasons,the characters,the humor,the suspense,.. but basically these are the biggest reasons why I am a Tintin fan and why I am looking forward so much for the Tintin movie. If you are new here and haven’t read Tintin I strongly recommend you do. To those of you who have followed this blog for a long time, I hope that you think of me not as a strange new writer on the blog but as a fellow fan who wants to make other Tintin fans happy. It’s my privilege to keep this blog alive and running.  Feel free to check here regularly for posts,I will do my best to post as much as possible.

Again,I hope to keep this blog as informative,as interesting and as much fun as possible. If any of you find a source to follow or write to, anything you think should be posted here, or even anything that just might be worthy of a post,feel free to write an email or leave a comment.

Stephen