Rare vintage Tintin toys: Blistering Barnacles! These vintage sculptures and hat made a huge splash at our stores…

The web comic, Full Frontal Nerdity, ran a strip on the Tintin Movie.

Aaron Williams, creator of Full Frontal Nerdity does have a point. It is going to be very difficult for the film to walk that line between being faithful to the source material and bringing it up-to-date for a modern audience. The ideas behind Tintin, such his faithful dog Snowy, are very dated and out of place in our cynical culture.

But this I see as the great opportunity for the films.

Tintin is a way of reintroducing the idea an innocent hero. The true, upright figure that you can respect. We may be a massively different society now than we were when Tintin was first created but humans always have a need for escapism. We need our heros to ride in on their white-horses as a distraction from troubles of our world.

The top European comics festival has kicked off for the 36th time in the French city of Angouleme. Comics, including Tintin, are serious cultural in Europe so this isn’t the usual hoard of fanboys you might find at an American or British comics fair.

Fearless reporter Wim Lockefeer, best known for his excellent The Ephemerist blog has a special report on Angouleme on the Forbidden Planet blog. It has some Tintin related nuggets and is well worth a read.

It has been a busy week in Tintinland.

• Nestor gets a mention as one of the Ten Best Butlers
• Tintin, Nazi Germany and contemporary art looks at Tintin from a New Zealander’s point of view.
• Tintin turns out to be Danish – Tintin displays his Danish roots
• There were lots of responses, especially from the French, to the Times article about Tintin being gay, but I liked this because it hits the nail on head – Tintin is Gay; an African Response
• Tintin’s 80th birthday got plenty of coverage as well, including this from the Chinese new service CCTV: Cartoon legend Tintin celebrates 80th birthday

The Times has run an article entitled Of course Tintin’s gay. Ask Snowy. A rather predictable but occasionally amusing look at Tintin’s sexual preferences.

But for the truth about Tintin’s sexual development, you must read Why has Tintin Never Reached Puberty?

Things are very quiet over the festive period for Tintin and his friends so there are only a couple of titbits of Tintin related news for you.

• Man changes name to Mr Tintin Captain Haddock Confused Brewer – Bizarre name change rates on the rise
• Tintin versus Batman – an unlicensed parody from the 1990s.

The Economist has a great article trying to explain Tintin to Americans.

IT IS one of Europe’s more startling laws. In 1949 France banned children’s books and comic strips from presenting cowardice in a “favourable” light, on pain of up to a year in prison for errant publishers. It was equally forbidden to make laziness or lying seem attractive. The law created an oversight committee to watch for positive depictions of these ills, along with crime, theft, hatred, debauchery and acts “liable to undermine morality” among the young.

A very European hero

The Tintin Blog brings us news that a Canadian School Board is considering banning Tintin because its ethnic stereotypes. This is just a continuation of people missing the social and culture context of the Herge’s work. What is worse is that the school board is even trying to stop local shops selling the book.

Read the full story: Canadian School Board Considers Banning Tintin

Found on Flick: Tintin Art Car

Radical, revolutionary Tintin revealed in Tintin and the Scum

John Hodgman, best known as PC from the Apple adverts and his Daily Show appearances is a fan of Tintin: Best books … chosen by John Hodgman

Tintin is being published in Welsh after an absence of 25 years.