The creator of Alix and numerous other bande dessinee has died aged 88. In the fifties he worked for Herge’s studio and was responsible for some of the background in Tintin in Tibet.

One of Hergé’s most important assistants through the 1950s and 60s (notably on the South Sea Sharks and Tintin in Tibet) and one of the pillars of Tintin Magazine, he acrimoniously struck out on his own in 1972 to concentrate on his own comics, which in some ways owed more to the other great master of Belgian adventure comics of the time, E. P. Jacobs.

Source and Copyright: MetaBunker Jacques Martin RIP

Enjoying success in his own right after his creation Alix sprang from the pages of the Tintin magazines to become its own brand, Strasbourg-born Martin plundered Imperial Rome, Egypt and the Napoleonic era for the backdrops to his stories.

Source and Copyright: The Independent Alix creator, Tintin artist Jacques Martin dies aged 88

Alix was a historic comic set around the time of the Roman Empire, travelling the known world at the time. He also created the comic Lefranc in 1952 and collaborated on the medieval architect comic Jhen in 1978, the French revolutionary officer Arno in 1984, Athenian Orion in 1990, Egyptian Keos in 1992, and Loïs in 2004, set in the court of Louis the sun king of France. Alix has continued publication to this date, though due to failing eyesight, Martin delegated artistic duties from Rafeal Morales from 1998.

Source and Copyright: Bleeding Cool Alix Creator Jacques Martin Dies, 88

(c) Richard Wainman

This beautiful but presumably unauthorized christmas image is by artist Richard Wainman. He has several other Tintin related images on his deviantArt gallery, including two Tintin christmas images (Card No 1. and a card for 2006), Thompson, no Thomson, Tintin and Haddock on the Moon and Sir Francis Haddock.

Have a merry christmas everyone.

Jamie Bell (Tintin) is currently filming The Eagle Of The Ninth in Scotland. The film is about a Roman legion that went missing in 2AD. Currently there is a dispute because local builders are being snubbed in favour of Hungarian builders. And where is all this taking place? On the shores of Loch Lomond, source of Captain Haddock’s favourite tipple UPDATE: See comments below.

This beautiful image of Tintin taking tea with a Timelord in Tibet is by Neill Cameron who is putting together an A-to-Z of popular culture. It has a distinctive British slant (I’m not sure many people outside the UK will recognize Hagar the Horrible or Ford Fiestas) but that just makes it better. My favourite is (apart from Tintin & the Timelord) is another Timelord – Doctor Who Defeating Doctor Doom in a Deadly Disco Dance-off though Captain Britain Cuddling Cerebus is a close second.

Thanks to The Ephemerist for spotting this.

There is a short piece of bad journalism by Oliver Kamm on the Times website entitled: Was Tintin a Nazi? This regurgitates the reoccurring question of Herge’s wartime action but it is clear that Kamm failed to do any research on the subject. He also dismisses Tintin as ‘a dreary hack work’ and as having ‘no jokes, no learning and no real interest’.

Such a lazy piece of writing needs to be challenged and I wrote a long comment putting Herge’s wartime record in context and answering Kamm’s criticisms. However the Times website would not accept the comment for some reason, so I’ve reproduced here.

The obvious point being, Tintin is a fictional character and Nazism did not appear in his fictional world so no, Tintin is not a nazi.

If you mean, was Herge’ a nazi, the answer is still definitely not.

After the invasion of Belgium, Herge’ lost his job with Le Petit Vingtième when it was shutdown by the Nazi. He was also visited by the Gestapo who expressed a dislike for some of his earlier work, notably King Ottokar’s Sceptre.

Herge found work at Le Soir which, like all newspapers, was controlled by the Nazis. During this time he wrote some of the most fantastical Tintin adventures, deliberately avoiding anything political. After the war Herge was arrested several times as a collaborator, as were just about everyone else who worked for Le Soir. Eventually, Raymond Leblanc, a prominent resistant fighter supported Herge and he was able to resume work on Tintin’s adventures.

To accuse a man, who cannot answer back, of being a Nazi when the people at the time, including those who risked their lives fighting the Nazis, cleared his name is just cheap and lazy journalism.

Maybe, he continued to work at Le Soir out of naivety. Belgium had been invaded by the Germans during his childhood and perhaps he thought this occupation would be no different. Maybe he was simply frighten and tried to keep out of trouble. We can never know but the idea he worked for the newspaper because he was a Nazi is ludicrous.

As to your personal preference of Asterix, that is your choice, but only an ignorant person would claim that Tintin has no jokes, learning or interest.

The nature of the jokes in Asterix and Tintin are very different. Rather than clever word play, Tintin relies on visual gags, slapstick and on the simply ludicrous settings.

Learning? How about number of different cultures Herge depicted with reasonable accuracy (given the time of writing and the resources he had available). Or what about the cutting edge science Herge included in the books (submersibles in Red Rackham’s treasure, swingwing aircraft in Flight 714). These seem mundane now but Herge was writing about what was cutting edge technology at the time.

No Interest? What about the author’s mental state and his work, notably Tintin in Tibet. How about his huge personal journey from right wing puppet (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets) to being recognized by the Dali Llama for his work promoting peace and racial harmony? Or even how his work responded to the German occupation?

Humour – Yes, Learning – Yes, Interest – Yes.

Tintin’s 80 year success is because he and Herge have these attributes in buckets.

The are questions about Herge’s wartime service and about his political views but sloppy journalism designed to grab headlines does nothing to answer them.

Source: Was Tintin a Nazi?

This pile of Swedish Tintin covers is just a small part of a collection of Tintin covers from around the world on a dutch website: gill4kleuren.nl.

The best part of the site is the Language page with links to images of Tintin cover art in about 30 different languages such as this one of Tintin in Tibet in tibetan.

VGRetro is a series of vidCasts reviewing old computer games and episode 11 features a review of Tintin in Tibet for the Sega Mega Drive. I had no idea there had been Tintin videos games before though no doubt there will be for the new films. I’m not going to give too much away but here is the brief summary from the web site “Tintin: It had great books, but an awfully bad game… “

Below is a photo from the 1942 – 1943 Tolstoy Expedition to Tibet, a secret American mission to find a supply route between India and China. The expedition found the a route but political problems between the Tibetans and the Chinese prevented its use. Had the mission been successful the Americans and British could of supported their ally, China, in the fight against the Japanese with weapons and equipment.

Though the mission failed, the expedition took a series of photographs. They are remarkable because they capture Tibet and its people only eight years before the Chinese invasion and occupation. Few if any photographs were taken between the expedition and the early 1980s when China relaxed its iron fist slightly and allowed a handful of Western tourists into the area.

It is unclear what sources of information Herge had on Tibet when writing Tintin in Tibet. It has always been a remote and isolated country where few Westerners have travelled but Herge must of had good photographic sources for his drawing. Did he see photos from the Tolstoy Expedition? Probably not but these photographs are the last permanent record of country and way of life that no long exist.

Source: Travelin Tibet – Note the text accompanying the photos is unconnected to the Tolstoy Expedition.

Herge’s personal and spiritual growth in understanding other cultures and combatting his own prejudices is remarkable. He grew from a young man writing the colonial tracts like Tintin in the Congo to the great writer who received the Dalai Lama’s Truth of Light award for his work on Tintin in Tibet.

To celebrate this I’m declaring today Chang Day in memory of the fictional Chang in The Blue Lotus and Tintin in Tibet and the real life Zhang Chongren who inspired him. Zhang Chongren visited Belgium in early 1930’s, became close friends with Herge and his influence helped shape the next Tintin 70 years of Tintin.

Zhang returned to China in 1936 and the pair lost contact during the turbulent years of the Second Sino-Japanese War. It wasn’t until the 18th March 1981 that the two were reunited.

Let’s celebrate cultural diversity and the undying bond of friendship – Chang Day – March 18th.

Today marks 50 years since the exile of the Dalai Lama from Tibet.

His flight and exile from his native country followed an unsuccessful uprising against the invading Chinese army. Since then, the Dalai Lama has campaign for justice for his people. According to the Dalai Lama, five decades of repression has caused untold suffering amongst the ordinary people of Tibet.

It is somewhat ironic that in The Blue Lotus, Herge went out of his way to depict the Chinese people as being a sophisticated, civilized people, repressed by the brutal Japanese. Eighty years on, it is the Chinese who are the brutal invaders, repressing the Tibetan people who Herge depicted in his greatest book, Tintin in Tibet.

Campaign for a Free Tibet