Why is it that comics and children’s books incite such stupidity?

The Brooklyn Public Library has moved Tintin in the Congo from its public shelves and placed it under lock-and-key as part of “a special collection of historic children’s literature that is available for viewing by appointment only”. This censorship was done after the library received just a single complaint. Yet, the library has received over two dozen complaints about other works in the last few years and not one other book has been moved off the shelves.

There is no denying the racist elements of Tintin in the Congo, a work by a naive and unenlightened creator but the nature of public libraries is that they will contain material that is offense to some, or indeed many, people. Obvious examples include Hitler’s anti-sematic Mein Kampf ( Brooklyn Library’s has 10 copies) and Vladimir Nabokov exploration of child sex Lolita (seven copies). So why has this one work been singled out?

The answer lies in the medium and the audience – Comics and Children.

Comics in America have always been seen as something only suitable for children and worthy of special treatment regardless of 1st Amendment Rights. In the 1950′s, the Comics Code Authority (CCA) was formed to regulate the content of comics. Though it had no legal authority, its used public opinion and panics over of juvenile delinquency to force major publishers to either go along with the code or go bankrupt. The strict rules the CCA imposed restricted the growth and development of the comics medium in the US and to a lesser extent in the UK. In Europe and Japan, where no such rules existed, the medium flourished and explored a wide range of themes for a wide range of age groups.

However it cannot be ignored that Tintin in the Congo is a children’s book and that the stereotype’s children are exposed to can have significant impact. Herge himself is a great example of this. The images he drew in Tintin in the Congo reflect the images of black people that he grew up with. There is a real case to be made that Herge’s first two books should not be in a children’s section or at least come with some sort of warning for parents but that is along way from locking a book up away from public view.

The debate about Tintin in the Congo is not an abstract discussion about censorship and civil liberties. It is a real problem having real impacts. Already, white supremacists are using the book as a rallying point for their vitriol (see Tintin on the Front Line of Racism).

By focusing on one aspect of Herge’s work we are losing the sight of how Herge’s life exemplifies the battle against racism. His is a story about how one man overcame his prejudices to become an ambassador for peace and understanding across cultures but to understand this story we must be able to read all of it.

Source: A Library’s Approach to Books That Offend, Image of original complaint, Brooklyn Public Library, Tintin au Congo’s library card ( 1 copy ).

Hergé, rowing on the river Scheldt, 1928.

Source: A La Recherche Du Tintin Perdu.

The blog of Nick Rodwell, head of Moulinsart and owner of the rights to Tintin, has been suspended by the editors of Tintin.com.

Mr Rodwell apparently used the blog to launch a unrestrained attack on certain journalists and newspapers. One French newspaper reporter was described as “The Liar” and described two French and Belgian television reporters as having an “hatred towards me”. The full text of the attack is not available but reports in the Belgium press suggest it also included personal insults and comments about the journalist’s families.

In an announcement on the Tintin.com website there was no apology but “In a spirit of appeasement, we have decided to remove the contested texts and comments”.

It is not clear what sparked the diatribe from Nick Rodwell but he has received a lot of criticism for his tight control over the use of Tintin. He is married to Fanny Vlamynck, the Herge’s second wife and together they have ruled over the world of Tintin. When the Herge museum opened, journalists from all other the world arrived only to find that were not allowed to film inside the building. In the past, Moulinsart has tried to ban work by Danish artist Ole Ahlberg, succeeded in shutting down fan sites and had a very public dispute with Tintin’s publishers, Casterman.

Source: Tintin blog shut down after attack, Nick Rodwell’s blog closed in response to criticism.

UPDATE: Thanks to Mark, who has provided a link to the original text in English. It is a rambling, incoherent and absolutely unjustified invasion into the privacy of the journalists and their children. One can only speculate as to why an a clearly intelligent man would stoop to such attacks but it is clear the Mr Rodwell could do with some time off.

Found on Flickr: “Esclave de Tintin”

Oddly, it is not the only picture of Tintin with a cat o’ nine tails.

The early Tintin adventures, particularly Tintin in the Congo, were racist. Though the mind set they incorporated was common throughout the European and colonial powers. What redeemed Herge and his work was his ability to recognise and overcome his own prejudices. He became an ambassador of hope and for much his life, Herge worked to educate his readers about different cultures of world and show how, regardless of race, creed or colour, we are all the same.

Unfortunately the message Herge embodies – that we can overcome our fears and predjuices to be better human beings – is lost on people from the far left and the far right of politics. Calls for his books to be banned miss the point and play into the hands of extreme right wing racists.

Black People “look like monkeys and talk like imbeciles”.

This quote from the UK’s Commission for Racial Equality ( CRE ) is the title of a thread from the white supremacists site Stormfront.org [ WARNING: This is a site dedicated to 'White Pride World Wide' and all the hate and stupidity that involves ]. The idiots who frequent the site have focused on using the CRE’s statement and have spouted some predicable racist claptrap in support of Herge and Tintin.

This subversion of the Herge’s work in support of such a perverse agenda is sickening and it highlights the dangers of either side of the political spectrum focusing on a narrow aspect of an author’s work. The subject of Herge’s and racism is complex, inexplicably tied to the culture he grew up in and above, a message of hope and humanity.

Note: Clicking the links to the Stormfront web site will cause offense to all right-thinking people. In the HTML, I’ve have marked them as ‘no follow‘ so that the search engines will ignore these links.

This is the best write-up of the Herge Museum I’ve seen.

Walking out room 2 I stepped into the light from the dark receptacle of the mind. On a walkway between the two rooms I stood looking through the enormous glass expanse, stunned suspended, silent watching the oak trees shift gently in the breeze, movement on the floor below, ahead a door and gently shifting colours. I’m still not sure of how to describe it to you, was I in a comic book panel or trespassing in the mind of a man or was it a little of both. I don’t know but it was a grand moment in time.

From: Musee Hergé, monument to a comic book master.

I thought I was being obsessive by mapping out Tintin’s travels but no matter how much of a Tintin fan you are, there is always a bigger fan waiting round the next corner.

Les autos de Tintin is an English & French web site detailing all the cars that appear in the Tintin albums.

It is an impressive piece of work that identifies the real cars Herge used as models. A few remain unidentified so you may be able to help out. You can view the range of cars by chronological order and also interesting changes between different versions of the albums.

This fantastic reworking of the Herge Museum comes from the famous Dutch Tintin blog of Popokabaka, arguably one of the biggest tintin collectors in Europe. He writes daily about fraud on tintin auctions and his weird life as a collector. Having no Dutch I’m using Google Translator to read the blog.

Many thanks to Raymond for bringing this to my attentions.

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?