For those of you who may have found this through google or some other way and are not a regular follower of this site, I can assure you that while you will find many, many reviews of ”The Adventures of Tintin” on the internet, you will find very few written by somebody who has been an avid Tintin fan for years to the extent that he has been following every last piece of information available about the progress of this movie since it was first announced almost five years ago that Spielberg was going to pick up his old project and finally make a Tintin movie. Here you will find two such reviews. One is Chris’ review, the guy who started this blog and wrote everything until his schedule got busy and allowed me to write posts. Shortly after the movie premiered over in Europe he wrote a great review for both the Tintin fan and the man who’s never heard of him until now alike. I recommend you check it out here

The other such review of course is mine. I’m probably the biggest American Tintin fan you’ll ever meet. For those of you clueless people out there, Tintin is a very well known comic the Belgian George Remi (pen name Herge) drew from the late 1920s to the 70s. Tintin is a reporter that always finds himself on incredible adventures with his faithful white fox terrier, Snowy. He’s never been popular in the USA, but just about every other country in the world has heard of him. If you think that’s an exaggeration, check out how well Tintin did in the box offices over seas. I’ve been looking forward to seeing this movie much more than I’ve ever looked forward to see any other movie in my life. Did it live up to my expectations? In a world where movie tickets are expensive, is it worth your cash? What if you’re not a Tintin fan? Will you enjoy it?

I hate spoilers as much as you do so need not worry about reading any here. First of all, if you are new to Tintin you will not be lost. The movie does a terrific job of introducing the movie’s main characters. If you are a fan, you will recognise all of them as the characters you know, not as some horribly distorted version of them Hollywood threw together. Everybody making this movie went to great lengths to make sure that the original stories and artwork were respected as much as possible. The movie actually combines two Tintin albums, ”The crab with the golden claws” and ”The Secret of the Unicorn (there’s also a little bit of ”Red Rackhams treasure” in there, but not much), but you’d never know they weren’t one fluent storyline if you’ve never read the books because they are so magnificently blended together. As a matter of fact, while there are certain things that surely only a Tintin fan will appreciate when they watch the film, there are some things only somebody who is not at all familiar with the storyline will experience fully. I had very few problems while I was watching the movie, but one of them was really my own fault: I know the story of ”The Secret of the Unicorn” like the back of my hand. As a result I already knew almost everything that Tintin discovers little by little throughout the film. At some points I thought that the mystery side of the movie had been a bit overdramatized and that Tintin was taking just a little too long to put all the pieces together (quite literally), but again, the answer to the mystery is obvious once you already know the secret. But even when I knew what was coming, I still thoroughly enjoyed the film. There are lots of hilarious lines in the film, many straight from the books but most just clever new lines the excellent writers came up with. Don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking that actors only did the voices in this film: every movement from their bodies and faces has captured by computer, and the animators then did an excellent job of putting ”digital makeup” on. Jamie Bell did a very good job as Tintin. Some people have complained in other reviews that the movie is so action packed there is little time for Tintin’s character to be really developed. But the truth is that we know very little about Tintin, and Jamie Bell did a great job at not answering those questions for us. We don’t know who his boss is or who his parents are. We don’t really care. What we do know is that once he sets his mind to do something, he heroicly keeps going against all odds no matter where in the world danger takes him. And the movie does a wonderful job at taking us on the adventure with him.Pretty much every frame of the movie is a piece of art…You could get a sense of what I’m talking about by checking out some of the movie stills or watching the trailers, but you really won’t understand just how great it looks until you see it in the movies. Especially the city of Brussels and the port in Morocco are bright,colorful and incredibly detailed. As far as the people go, they look wonderful to me. They still look like the cartoon characters from the comics, but when you see each individual hair on their heads and the sand and the sweat on their faces as they trod through the desert, you have to remind yourself it isn’t real and congrutalute Weta for their great job. The movie is in a number of formats, but I recommend you go see it in IMAX 3D like I did (if you can find one that doesn’t have all of it’s showtimes filled up with ”Mission Impossible 4”). Chris didn’t particularly like the 3D, but I’ve always been a big fan of IMAX 3D and really enjoyed certain sections when it looked like the dust Tintin’s flashlight was hitting or the woodchips that were exploding or even Captain Haddock’s nose were really in front of my face. Aside from a few moments when the camera pans so quickly a few things seem out of focus, this is a movie that the 3D really works well in, especially on the enormous screen. However I’d say that if you see it in 2D you shouldn’t feel like you’re missing too much because the 3D is more of a fun added bonus to the movie experience.

This is a movie you can take your kids to (they’ll LOVE Snowy), but it’s not just a movie for kids. I fear that many people will go to action packed Mission Impossible 4 and miss one of the best movies that came out this year. What really made the movie for me was Andy Serkis’ brilliant performance as Captain Haddock. Haddock is absolutely hilarious. When you’re not laughing at what he’s doing, you’re laughing at his lines, and when you’re not laughing at his lines you’re probably laughing at his face. He has a Scottish accent in the film (most of us didn’t see him that way in the books) but I fell in love with this version of Haddock immediately as Serkis brought it to life before my eyes. There were times when shots Haddock and a flashback of Sir Francis alternate with a fluency that could only really be acchieved using motion capture.The Thompsons also have a great part in the film, and the only thing I regret about their parts is that I wish they had appeared more in the movie! ”Tintin 2”, which has been officially confirmed, is said to give them a larger role. Daniel Craig did an awesome job as the villain Sakharine, and it’s funny to recognise James Bond playing a villain’s part. He is not the most evil of villains, but he certainly beats (in my mind anyway) the ”Bird Brothers” that were the somewhat pathetic villains in the original stories. I disliked to some degree how Allan, who was a main villain in ”The crab with the golden claws” became more of a wimpy sidekick to Sakharine, but it did work well in the story.

For Tintin Fans (the only spoilers here will be spoilers to non-Tintin fans)

If you are a Tintin fan worried that they’ve taken the stories and thrown in too many pointless action scenes, don’t worry about it. There were really very few sections that I didn’t instantly recognise from one of the books,even when the trailers sometimes make it seem like there are more, and they were anything but annoying. Actually I was very pleased that finally Tintin was doing something new because much of the fun for me in watching the movie was seeing what fun new things the writers could come up with for Tintin to do without insulting the fans. As I said before, the storyline was very familiar to me, and it was good to see some changes to it to make the movie more exciting. The scene in Bagghar with a brilliant cameo appearance of Castafiore and the chaos that follows is actually one of my favorite parts. If Herge could see it today, I think he’d laugh. And the other new scene at the end,a final clash between Haddock and the villain,is a great way to finish their side of the story. Never once do the new scenes seem to make the characters do something against their personality, and if they slow down the story at all it’s only so you can take a moment to enjoy yourself and laugh at what’s going on.
Tintin DOES use a gun (just like he does in the books) but as far as I could tell he never once killed anybody and hardly if ever wounds somebody. He shoots at motors or ropes to get what he wants or protect himself.
Any Tintin fan would be a fool not to go see this in theaters while they still can! Herge’s artwork is apparent from the first 3 seconds of the movie, and both the style and music of the intro feels like you’re watching the beginning of ”Catch me if you can” with about 14 million tributes to the different Tintin albums thrown in. It’s fun to watch moments throughout the movie that have elements thrown in from different books. There are more easter eggs in this movie that any I’ve ever seen, and if you have a good Tintin fan that can go with you to watch the movie you’ll enjoy yourself that much more, because you’ll both be the only people in the theater that know why you’re laughing at what’s on the screen. I won’t say what it is, but there’s a magnificent tribute to ”Explorers on the moon” that I really enjoyed. I can’t wait to own this movie on blu-ray and watch it with all the pizza and popcorn I couldn’t afford when I watched it in IMAX, this time with the remote control to pause the image and read newspaper clippings, compare character’s faces with the albums or look for more references.

Conclusion

You really have to see this movie. Europe loved it for good reasons. If you don’t know who Tintin is, you don’t know what you’re missing. If you DO know who Tintin is, you would make a grave error to not watch this because you are worried about ”what they’ve done to Tintin”. Don’t worry about it, trust me. No matter who you are, this is a must see. It’s the biggest installment in Tintin’s history since Alpha-Art was published.
If I could make a suggestion for the next film it would only be that the next story not revolve as much around a mystery and more around whether or not Tintin will be able to complete his clearly defined objective at all (i.e save Calculus from the Bordurians…hint hint…) I love that heroic side of Tintin that will do anything to save a friend, and I hope to see that developed more in the next film.

Go out America, and enjoy the film. Spielberg, Jackson, Weta, and the whole massive team in the credits, I applaud your hard work. The wait was worth it.

Stephen

For those of you newbies to Tintin, he is such an icon that the Vatican’s official newspaper actually just recently wrote an article on him. Specifically, on the debate that’s been going on in court on whether or not to ban ”Tintin in the Congo” for racism. Now, one might think that just because of the Vatican’s very nature the article would certainly be defending those poor congolese people of the past that were portrayed far from accurately. But the author actually took the time to look at the facts of the article and has chosen to vigorously defend Tintin as his movie comes out around the world, stating that Tintin has been a good example of Catholic values throughout the ages. The article must be remembered and pulled out in the future to hopefully silence all of those foolish people that talk of Tintin being racist, gay, nazi,…you fill in the blank. The article is especially upset that Tintin in the congo has, in the UK, been ”wrapped up like a pornographic magazine and consigned to the adults-only section” of British book shops.

Like an excellent lawyer in Belgium at the moment arguing that the book is simply showing stereotypes from the time of Hergé, ”L’Observatore Romano” also holds to the obvious fact that ”Tintin in the Congo” is simply a reflection of its time, the fruit of a man who had never seen what Belgium was really doing there and only had false stereotypes to go on. We know how much effort Hergé put into researching his future albums, so it would be unfair to characterize hardly any of his other albums based on this one album. Furthermore, the African people, while certainly shown as unintelligent and naive people, are not even portrayed as villains in the story, but rather the gangsters Tintin deals with there. Tintin has nothing against these people and neither did Hergé. There is really nothing in the book that would lead anybody except the most sensitive of Congolese person to truly be offended by the book, and then that guy would probably just see how his people were drawn on the front and find some other comic to read (or take Moulinsart to court…). As the Vatican put it, ”The comic book was published in the 1930s, and for that reason expresses the values of the era – but can it really perturb young Britons of today, raised as they are on the Internet, video games and fish and chips?”

The Vatican praises Tintin’s character, calling him ”an angel” helping widows and orphans…Tintin is said to be driven by ”a sacred moral imperative – to save the innocent and conquer evil….Tintin is a Western knight of modern times, an unstained heart in an invulnerable body.” It’s great to see people still defending Tintin in the press. ”Le Soir” was a Catholic newspaper when Tintin was around, yet another reason that the Vatican would be pleased with kids reading Tintin. I myself am not catholic, but I certainly support kids reading about Tintin’s heroic virtues rather than all of the junk out there for them to read.

Interestingly enough, while the Vatican sings Tintin’s praises, one zealous worker in Lebanon tried to cover up Spielberg’s name from a Tintin poster. Circuit Empire, in charge of cinemas in Lebanon, commented that ”He knew that Spielberg was blacklisted and he took it upon himself to black out his name,” pointing out that this was not some movement of several men but just one worker. The name was quickly uncovered and the posters are still seen today. Of course this was nothing against Tintin, but it’s funny to watch how different countries react to big American films like this and how it affects Tintin’s release. I found it interesting they also commented that technically according to the strict laws in Lebanon Tintin should be banned, but due to the popular black market selling films the law would be impossible to implement and people are allowed to see it on the big screens.  There’s a unique piece of Tintin trivia you can remember and tell other Tintin friends in the future…

Sources: http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/246045/20111109/vatican-banning-tintin-book-politically-correct-lunacy.htm

               http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10765314

Its been a week since the Empire Tintin Issue came out and I’ve had time to digest the images in it.

Below are my thoughts on those images. Note, the images, not the film itself. There is a big difference between a handful of stills and a full length film. Not to mention there is still a year to go and a lot can change. When the film is released I will judge it on its own merits and not pre-judge it.

However, several stills have been released by Spielberg and Co. so they are fair game. It has always been my intention with this blog to write what I think about the film. When I like something, I say so. When I dislike something, I will also say so. You are free to disagree with me and voice your own opinions in the comments in a polite manner fitting of Tintin fans.

The Good

Scanned from Empire Magazine

This shot is the cream of the crop.

The texture of Silk’s beard, the look of the Twins, the detailed background, the composition of the shot, the lighting – they are all perfect.

The Not As Good But Still Good

Scanned from Empire Magazine

Dark and moody, full of portent and potential action. The low camera angle and heavy shadows gives the shot a nice feeling of tension.

From Empire’s online gallery

I wrote earlier that I didn’t like “the harsh light behind Haddock”. Interestingly, the print version of this image is much, much darker. This is down to the technological and production differences between VDU displays that emit light and printed matter that reflect light. In the print version, the back lighting looks less out of place and I much prefer the image even though it is harder to make out the details.

The Worrying

From Empire’s online gallery

A close up of a scanned image from Empire. Click the image for full size

These two images are the only ones from the film that show the full body lengths of our main characters plus Snowy. In both of them, something looks off-key. Haddock in particular look unnatural in his pose in both. Maybe this is just Andy Serkis’s acting of a drunk and it will look OK in context.

Snowy also doesn’t look right. This may be because he is the only true character animation in the film whilst everyone else is motion-capture.

Given the quality of everything else, I willing to bet that in the film everything will look right but it does leave me with a Polar Express type worry.

The Bad

I really don’t like this cover. The detail is exquisite but both Tintin and Snowy look really unnatural but without any of Herge’s charm. It would of been much better if they had only used actual images from the film. I suspect that this image is influencing my opinions and unduly increasing my worries about the two previous images.

Am I Excited? You Bet!

Despite all the quibbles and doubts I have about the images, all the signs are that will Spielberg & Jackson capture the look and the spirit of the books. Roll on October 2011!

The world has had a chance to digest the first Tintin images for a whole day now. So what is the world thinking?

Based on the comments on this web site, most Tintin fans are excited about it. With only one or two dissenting voices raising concerns about the nature of the animation. In the wider world, reaction is more mixed and seems pretty polorized with very negative and very positive comments in equal measure.

Wading Through the Bullshit

One of the problems with the internet is that people love to hate. The Trolls who live on forum and write blogs vent bile because it gives them a sense of purpose, not because they have anything interesting to say. Filtering out the nay-sayers from those with a genuine ability to analysis and criticise is hard.

Of those commentators and writers who can put together an articulate sentence, most appear positive.

What Do I Think?

Having run this web site dedicated to the Tintin movie since the films were first announced over 2 years ago, what do I think?

My personal feelings about the images is mixed but part of the problem is that the film’s producers / Empire magazine made a mistake.

By having the cover as a specially created image and basing it on an iconic Tintin image, they were only ever going to highlight the differences between Herge’s artwork and the film’s style.

The cover image itself is not that good either. The detail is amazing but most people don’t see the detail, they see something this size ….

And it does the film no favours. Tintin looks a bit unnatural but Snowy look stuffed. An albino Scooby-Do was how one person described him and I’m with them on that.

It is in the stills from the actual film that we learn a lot more. Here, the context, the background and the story all come into play. They will also of had more time and attention payed to them than the cover.

This instantly recognisable scene is great because you can instantly recognize it. The world around the characters is wonderfully detailed and lifelike but…

… there is something about the posture of the three charaters, Haddock and Snowy in particular, that looks wrong. Snowy seems stuffed again and Haddock looks like he is suffering from a bad case of rag-doll physics.

Oddly, in this scene, the problem is reversed. I think this is from the first meeting of Haddock and Tintin and here the characters look wonderful. The real emotion on Haddock’s face is there for all to see. His hair and imperfect, aged skin really give a realism to the character.

However, the background could be fantastic but is mostly blotted out by the harsh light behind Haddock. This is a real shame as the sou’wester on the right looks great. The lightning in this still spoils it by distracting from the character and the background.

So What Have We Learnt From The First Images?

The visuals have had a mixed response but the film was always going to generate this sort reaction. Unless it looks 100% like the original artwork it is inevitable that people will complain. Personally I’m excited by them, trusting to the directors to make the look of the film work within the context of a 3d movie, not as a magazine cover.

What is far more important is wether the film captures the spirit of Tintin – the sense of adventure, the humour and above all, the characters. To answer these questions, we must wait another year.

There are a lots of words that can describe Nick Rodwell but popular is not one of them.

As head of Moulinsart and husband to Herge’s second wife Fanny, he holds in his hands one of the biggest, most iconic and most loved characters of the 20th Century. A man in this position has to make some hard decisions and will inevitably step on some toes but Nick Rodwell does seem to have a special gift when it comes to annoying people. Not many publishers are on the receiving end of a 200 pages of a book criticising nearly everything they have done.

Stéphane Steeman, Belgian humourist, radio presenter, writer, Herge collector and longtime president of The Friends of Herge has self-published a new book L’escalade. It is not all about Nick Rodwell but about The Friends of Herge and how the actions of Moulinsart destoryed his love for Herge’s works.

… censorship, bans, subpoenas, legal threats, blackmail and so forth, out of decency of our members I never mentioned the name of Mr. Rodwell in our reviews, I never criticized Moulinsart … And yet, I’m in a squad that Mr. Rodwell was nicknamed “The Black List”

It is hard to tell from the sources if this book is born out of personal bitterness against Nick Rodwell and Moulinsart or a genuine, well rounded criticism of the man and the company. Mr Rodwell’s behaviour has certainly been far from the standards set by Tintin and the company’s legitimate desire to protect its copyright has at times appeared self-defeating.

Boycott Moulinsart!

One of the company’s ongoing legal battles is against Bob García. As we reported earlier, Mr Garcia published five Tintin related books. Two of these books used a handful of images that are owned by Moulinsart that the author believed were usable under the idea of Fair Use. At the initial trial, the judge found in favour of Bob Garcia however Moulinsart won on appeal and are now forcing Mr Garcia into bankruptcy to collect damages. Some fans are now trying to organise a boycott of Herge products on behalf of Mr Garcia.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this particular case, it is certainly doing the image of Moulinsart and Nick Rodwell no good at all.

Sources: Stéphane Steeman consacre un livre à Nick Rodwell, son pire ennemi, Los fans de Tintin amenazan con boicotear la película de Spielberg, L’ESCALADE, de Stéphane Steeman

Win a Copy of Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin

I have three copies of the new biography Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin to give away in a very simple competition:

If Herge was still writing today, what would his next Tintin book be called?

The best suggestions for 21st Century Tintin titles will get a free copy of the biography. They can be silly or serious, I don’t mind. The winners will simply whichever ones I think are best.

To enter, you can put your suggestion in a comment below or send it via Twitter. Just use the hash tag #21cTintin. If you are a winner, I will contact you via a Twitter or email to get your postal address.

A special thanks to Emily at Oxford University Press for supplying the books.

The competition starts now and will run until the end of the week. So plenty of time to get thinking that ultimate 21st Century Tintin title.

EDIT: Copyright Concerns

We have had some wonderful entries and many of you have written plot summaries to go with the titles. Thank you everyone for your imagination and hard work.

However this puts Tintinology in a dangerous place regarding copyright. The plot outlines can be considered derivative works and are not covered by fair usage. To avoid having the 800 pound gorilla of Moulinsart legal team jumping on my head, I have edited out everything except the titles.

Thank you for everyone who has gone over and above the call of duty to write these wonderful and amusing plot outlines but we have to respect the law of copyright.

Glancing down Pierre Assouline’s own history, it is clear he is perfectly suited for writing a biography of Herge. The targets of his five other biographical studies read like the cast list for a Tintin story: Marcel Dassault (aeronautics pioneer), Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (art dealer), Gaston Gallimard (publisher), Henri Cartier-Bresson (photographer) and Georges Simenon (detective novelist). But in tackling Georges Remi, Assouline is not documenting the life story of one man, but the story of Georges Remi, his public persona of Herge and his creation Tintin.

With the translation of Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin, English speakers get a chance to read Assouline’s take on this remarkable man and his creation. Thanks to the publishers, Oxford University Press, I got a chance to ask the man himself some questions about the book and his take on Herge.

Remi’s life (1907 – 1983) covered a turbulent time in history and the biography tells the story well over its 235 pages, splitting Herge’s life into three phases: the early years up until 1944; the dark years of isolation and rejection from 1944 to 1950, and the final years of reconciliation and personal growth until his death. Assuoline had full access to the Moulinsart archives and interviewed many people closely associated to Remi. However the results he draws are not flattering to the man.

Compared to the avuncular persona of Herge, Remi is a very different man. He appears a workaholic and a control freak, overly protective of his work, and later his Herge persona. Something that persists today in Moulinsart’s approach to his memory. Even his admirable qualities, such as his loyalty, are flawed and lead into his wartime choices and post-war problems. However Assouline believes this blind loyal was core to who Remi was.

“Hergé has never been a traitor to his country, to his faith, to his friends. [It is ] impossible to separate all his loyalties. That’s the man.”

One area where Assouline’s biography does fall down is his avoidance of Remi’s personal life. His first marriage lasted some thirty years but Germaine rarely is mention, despite his several affairs. When queried about this omission Pierre said “[The] french biographer will be always more discreet about private life than an Amercian or an English one…”. Which certainly is true but in missing an important part of a man’s life out of the book it leaves the reader unable to form a full picture of the man.

If the avoidance of Remi’s private life is an omission, the book excels during the coverage of the most provocative aspect his life, his wartime record. It is here that the friendly image of Herge that he and later Moulinsart tried to create is most at odds with reality.

The facts are not disputed. When the newspaper he was working on was shutdown by the German occupying forces, Remi went to work at the leading french language Belgium daily paper, Le Soir. Whilst not run by the Nazis, it was certainly an approved paper and its content heavily controlled, having been seized from its rightful owners. For producing Tintin (already a national figure) in a German controlled newpaper for four years, Herge was branded a collaborator.

Herge himself explained that he never considered his work any different from being a tram driver or coal miner and they were not called collaborators for working under German rule. However Remi did for work for a right-wing newspaper before the war and his seeming obliviousness to the how other people saw his collaboration will always raise questions about his motives. Assouline’s remarks that Herge “… never expressed any regrets. He never thought he was wrong.”.

We may be judging Remi too harshly. According to Assouline “About the concentration camps, [Herge] always said afterwards that, at the time, it was impossible to know anything about the holocaust”. To Remi, a man devoted to boy scout ethics, it probably seemed natural to keep working and to trust is superiors. In the biographer’s words “… he was loyal to his youth ideas and ideals, loyal to his friends …”

In dealing with this subject, and the similar hot potato of racism / anti-sematism, this biography does not draw any conclusions itself. It presents the facts but does so in a way that that is unflattering to Remi. Whether the man was criminally naive, willfully ignorant or had right-wing sypathies is left for the reader to decide.

This is both the great strength and weakness of the biography. It tells the story of three people: George’s Remi, the public persona of Herge, and Tintin but it never declares an opinion about any them. This is refreshing compared to the near hagiographies some writers have produced but it does leave the reader wanting more.

An exclusive extract from Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin by Pierre Assouline.

Chapter 12: The End of a Life, the Culmination of His Work 1973-1983

From then on, Hergé did not want to hear about film options. His position was expressed in a letter he wrote to a young reader unhappy after having seen the animated Temple of the Sun: “I don’t like Captain Haddock in the film. He doesn’t have the same voice as in the book.”

This remained Hergé’s stance in 1983 when he received one of those offers that, seemingly, could not be refused. At thirty-six, Steven Spielberg already had an impressive filmography—Duel, The Sugarland Express, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1941, and ET had all been international successes with record-breaking attendance and receipts. Despite his reservations, Hergé was impressed enough to give Spielberg’s proposal serious consideration and be flattered by the project.

Negotiations went on for months. Spielberg was European only in his passion for François Truffaut. About everything else he remained completely American. The contracts went back and forth between Los Angeles and Brussels and between their respective lawyers. Hergé was anxious lest Spielberg would Americanize his story too much and lose the spirit of his books. These fears were premature, because it was not at this point a question of the script nor of adaptation but only about business.

As Spielberg was to be both producer and director of the film, Hergé conceded more and more at the commercial level to give the project the best chance of succeeding at the artistic level. Making less was less important than making sure Tintin came out triumphant. Alain Baran, his private secretary, and Eric Osterweil, his lawyer in Brussels, did everything possible so that the Americans, represented by Kathleen Kennedy, would advance the project.

Spielberg’s demands were draconian. He wanted total control of the merchandising of the film, thus of the characters created by Hergé; he wanted to keep for himself the rights from the comic strips and any television series derived from them; and he wanted sole artistic and commercial control of the whole project. Hergé agreed.

At the moment of signing the contract for a thirty-month option, Hergé’s advisors realized that the Americans had added a new clause, stipulating that in case the screenplay ordered by Steven Spielberg from his collaborators was satisfactory, he, Spielberg, reserved the right to assign the making of the film to someone else. For Hergé such an eventuality was unacceptable. He had made all the financial concessions because Spielberg himself would be in charge of the film. It had been difficult enough for him to accept the fact that Tintin, Snowy, and Haddock would appear on hundreds of millions of objects, articles of clothing, and gadgets without Hergé’s receiving any benefit. But it was unthinkable that he would consent to allowing anyone else to make the film. Both parties went their separate ways. However, the business would not be a total loss.

Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin by Pierre Assouline is a brand new biography being launched this week in the UK and in the USA in a couple of week’s times. Published by Oxford University Press. It is available on Amazon.co.uk and on Amazon.com.

Text (c) Pierre Assouline and used with permission.
Tintin is a registered trademark of Moulinsart, who are not associated with this book or this blog.

An exclusive extract from Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin by Pierre Assouline.

Chapter 9: Toward Fulfillment, 1950-1958

Some felt that Hergé had reached his peak with The Red Sea Sharks. Here was the culmination of his golden age, which had started more than twenty-two years earlier with The Blue Lotus. As always, Germaine’s influence could be felt throughout the book; she was with him his wife during good and bad times over three decades. Her mark on the work is less in the technical details than in the moral dimension of the story. She was upright, rigorous, and demanding about all things, traits largely inherited from her long work with Father Wallez. This encouraged perfectionism in her husband, pushing him toward the heroic and his Boy Scout instincts, which had always remained a part of him. Her impact on his behavior seems less profound, as he would always be the first to concede.

His readiness to acknowledge his indebtedness to Germain may have been sincere, but it was also colored by guilt. In 1952, between two interims of crisis resulting from his depressive state, the Hergé couple went through a terrible year. Speeding along the highway at the wheel of his Lancia, Georges Remi had a serious accident. He emerged unscathed, but Germaine was left with a limp for the rest of her life. In addition, their friend Father Wallez succumbed to cancer. Toward the end, to help him recover from the effects of his imprisonment, the Remis took him into their home for three months. Georges, who stayed by his bedside as he lay dying, attended his funeral in his native village, one of only a few people present. He felt that he had lost a father.

In 1957 Hergé had turned fifty. To his readers, especially those of The Red Sea Sharks, he would always remain the same. However, he had changed, and he went through another serious crisis of conscience, which threw him into paroxysms of depression. Few outside of his very close friends and colleagues at the Studios were aware of it. It was there, where he least expected it, that the roof fell in.

In June 1956, Fanny Vlamynck, a lovely young woman of twenty-one, was hired as a colorist. After a trial period she was assigned regular duties. She had expected to meet a serious old man and instead discovered a mature man, reserved but warm. She admired him instinctively, the man more than the artist. Like everyone else, she had read Tintin though had never been a devotee of comic books. They seemed to understand one another, and at the usual afternoon tea, when the little group at the Studios came together to relax and laugh, their glances crossed.

Five months after she had been hired, just before the weekend preceding All-Saints’ Day, they found themselves alone in the elevator at the Hergé Studios. They kissed between the fifth floor and the lobby. On leaving her in front of the door at 194 avenue Louise, Hergé was no longer the same man. From now on there would be a before and an after in his life, and, consequently, in his work.

Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin by Pierre Assouline is a brand new biography being launched this week in the UK and in the USA in a couple of week’s times. Published by Oxford University Press. It is available on Amazon.co.uk and on Amazon.com.

Text (c) Pierre Assouline and used with permission.
Tintin is a registered trademark of Moulinsart, who are not associated with this book or this blog.

An exclusive extract from Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin by Pierre Assouline.

Chapter 7 The Plight of the Inciviques, 1944-1946

The day Brussels regained its liberty, Hergé lost his. On Sunday, September 3, 1944, while Lieutenant General Adair’s Armored Division of the Welsh Guards drove the Germans from the city, Hergé was arrested in his home at 17 avenue Delleur in Boistfort.

The self-appointed representatives of the law were not after Hergé but a certain Georges Remi, and from the evidence it seemed that the relationship between the two was unsuspected. Hergé didn’t know whether he should be glad about this. The celebrations taking place throughout the capital only made it more confusing. The moment the First Belgian Brigade under Colonel Piron entered the city, no one knew who was doing what or by what authority. There were several days of tension and confusion.

After accusation followed denunciation, which was the same thing as during the Occupation but without the instigation of a foreign power. This was a matter among Belgians. The British soldiers often couldn’t hide their disgust at witnessing this settling of old scores.

The members of the Resistance who showed up at Hergé’s home had read the last issue of L’Insoumis (The Undefeated), a bulletin of information for fighting enemy Belgians. It contained a sheet called “Gallery of Traitors” subtitled “From the Lair of The Ersatz-Soir, and it provided photographs, names, addresses, curriculum vitae. For anyone hesitant about administering justice, there was a brief note of encouragement: “Dear readers, look at these faces! Vice is written on these faces. All commentary is unnecessary; these people’s crimes are known. The punishment that we will exact from them is merciless.”

Of the forty journalists denounced, Hergé is the only one listed twice. The first listing, as “Hergé,” includes his photo, address, and some biographical details: “According to our information was a Rexist, but could not confirm.” The second listing, “Georges Remi,” had no photograph but this commentary: “Impossible to obtain any information on this individual. Everything indicates that he must be closely watched.” They had not made the connection between the two. Georges Remi would be arrested four times: by State Security, by the Judiciary Police, by the Belgian National Movement, and by the Front for Independence. Each time he was set free.

Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin by Pierre Assouline is a brand new biography being launched this week in the UK and in the USA in a couple of week’s times. Published by Oxford University Press. It is available on Amazon.co.uk and on Amazon.com.

Text (c) Pierre Assouline and used with permission.
Tintin is a registered trademark of Moulinsart, who are not associated with this book or this blog.