It turns out the new photos from the filming of the Tintin movie I reported on the other day are not so new after all.

According to regular readers Sam and Proman, these have been out for a while and originally appeared on Tintin.com. Somehow I had missed then when they first came out and despite having looked twice, I still cannot find their original appearance.

Note: The photos below are copyright to someone, probably the production company behind The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn or Moulinsart.

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

The owners of Tintin have made an official comment on copyright as an indirect response of the persecution of Tintin fan Bob Garcia. Unfortunately they have completely misrepresented the law of copyright as it stands in the UK and most of Europe.

Some maintain that Moulinsart keeps an iron grip on the rights it has acquired; on the contrary, we are the first to respect the freedom of expression. We have never prevented anyone from writing a book about Tintin, or any other aspect of Hergé’s life and work. We have total respect for authors!

If the author of a book about Tintin wants to illustrate it with pictures or photos taken from the work or life of Hergé, then it is only normal that we ask to read the manuscript first. This is also simply a basic freedom.

If a book is lacking quality or is intentionally negative, it is quite normal for us to feel that we shouldn’t allow the reproduction of frames taken from Hergé’s books, or drawings the author realised: if we were to allow the use of such images, we would give the impression of supporting the work in question….

Every year, hundreds of requests to use one or a number of pictures by Hergé are authorised, … In 2009, less than 10 requests were turned down: … We clearly inform those who would like to use one of Hergé’s drawings about certain rules which they are expected to honour.
(c) Moulinsart

Moulinsart are misrepresenting the law here.

Fair Dealing allows producers of books and other works to incorporate copyright images WITHOUT THE OWNERS PERMISSION. An author does not need seek permission from Moulinsart. An author does not need to send Moulinsart a copy of their work to get it approved. All an author needs to do is ensure that the use of copyright material is limited to a reasonable amount and acknowledge the copyright holder’s ownership.

This does not mean that anyone can grab a picture of Tintin and use it to sell their product. Fair Dealing only applies to reporting and critical analysis. I can use the copyrighted text above without asking permission only because I am analysing what they have said. This legal right places no restrictions on the quality of my work. This article could be rubbish or completely hostile to Moulinsart and I would still enjoy the legal protection of Fair Dealing as long as I limited the text I quote to a reasonable amount.

It is the question of “What is reasonable?” that Bob Garcia appears to have run foul of.

There is no defined legal limits as to how much can be used under Fair Dealing. It could by 10% or it could be 90% depending on the circumstance. Reproducing 100 words from a 200 word article is different from reproducing 100 words from a 100,000 word book.

The use of copyrighted materials also has to be relevant. I can quote the article above because it is relevant to the subject but I could not scatter this article with images of Tintin because they would not be relevant.

What is reasonable is a highly subjective issue and this is where authors and publishers get into trouble.

In the Bob Garcia case, it appears that he was right on the border between acceptable and unacceptable usage. When Moulinsart first sued, Mr Garcia won the initial case based on the idea of Fair Dealing. However Mounlinsart appealed and won.

No one is saying that Moulinsart should not protect their intellectual property rights. No one is saying that everyone should be able to use Tintin images to sell their products. What people are saying is that bankrupting a Tintin fan like Bob Garcia for producing a pamphlet in good faith is heavy handed and mean spirited.

Source: Tintin.com Copyright: the latest from Moulinsart.

Thanks to Boing Boing picking up a two month old article in the Daily Telegraph, Moulinsart’s persecution of Tintin fan Bob Garcia has become a hot topic.

Bob Garcia published two short books about Tintin that included copyrighted images that Mr Garcia used under the concept of Fair Dealing / Use. Moulinsart sued and initially lost, the judge upheld Garcia’s claim that the use of these copyrighted works was acceptable academic practice. However, Moulinsart appealed, Garcia lost and was presented with a £35,000 bill.

Unable to pay the bill and facing bankruptcy, Bob Garcia hoped to make some accommodation with Moulinsart and at first it look promising with Moulinsart making a statement on the situation. “We had the intention to find a solution. It is now discussed between lawyers”. According to Garcia, Moulinsart’s lawyers have never made any attempt at contact.

Since then the bills have continued to pile up for Mr Garcia. Just before Christmas he received a bill for €8000 from his lawyers.

To get a taste of Bob’s work, watch this short video of him being interviewed about the book. It is worth watching even if you don’t speak French, just to see the sort of images that Moulinsart think are a breach of copyright.

Show your support for Bob by joining his Facebook group.

Sacrilege!

In 2006, a worldwide protest was created by the publication of a series of cartoons of Muhammad appeared in Danish newspapers. According to the protestors, such images were sacrilege and affront to muslims everywhere. So strong were the Islamist feelings that Danish flags were burnt, embassies attacked and over 100 people died in violent confrontations with the police.

Photo (c) sgrah, CC Some Rights Reserved

The Truth

The real story is much more complicated than that.

The protests were the result of a concerted effort to generate outrage that took several months to bear fruit. This included the creation of new cartoons by the agitators that were far more offensive than the original images. The irony of muslims deliberately creating offensive images to incite muslims over offensive images appears to be lost on the extreme elements of the muslim world.

The whole concept of banning images of Muhammad is itself relatively new and limited only to certain parts of the muslim faith. The image below show a young Muhammad meeting the monk Bahira. The image dates from around 1315 AD.

Tintin Meets Muhammad

In the May 17, 1977 edition of the Nouveau Tintin, the French language Tintin magazine ran an piece on the life of Muhammad. This sort of historical article was common in the Tintin magazine because Herge had very strong ideas about educating and informing the children who read his publication.

The article covered all of Muhammad’s life and he was repeatedly shown. His early life had simple illustrations but his later life is depicted as a full comic strip. In the sample page below, Muhammad is in the red turban, being wounded by an arrow.

Image (c) Nouveau Tintin magazine

For more on this, visit the Mohammed Image Archive

There are growing signs of a public relations disaster for Moulinsart over the Bob Garcia case with several UK newspapers running stories about a potential boycott.

Trouble started when Moulinsart sued Bob Garcia over five short books he published about Tintin. In two of the books, he reproduced images owned by Moulinsart believing he was covered by the doctrine of fair use. At the initial trial Mr Garcia won but lost on appeal and is now facing bankruptcy over a €40,000 bill for damages.

Bob Garcia’s own blog contains no mention of a boycott. It does have some quotes that are alleged to have been made by Moulinsart to journalists about “Moulinsart [being a] victim of harassment by Bob Garcia” which is certainly an interesting spin on the situation.

Both the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail have run stories on the case. For two major UK papers to cover a French story about copyright infringement is a demonstration of the power of Tintin’s name and the size of the potential PR disaster the Moulinsart are facing.

Help! (Or Should That Be Aider!)

My French is shockingly bad and I rely mostly on Google Translate to read non-English news coverage. If any of my readers are following this case (and other Tintin news) in the French or Belgium media, could you please keep me updated with any interesting links or developments.

I’m particularly interested in finding the Facebook group set-up in support of Mr Garcia. If you can track it down, please let me know. UPDATE: Thanks to @muziejus for tracking down the Support Bob Garcia Facebook group.

If you have any links or news you want to share, please just comment to this or any other post on the site, or email me: Chris [at] TintinMovie [dot] org.

Sources: Tintin fans threaten boycott of film after aficionado sued over pamphlets of comic hero, Tintin film boycott threat over row with Hergé widow’s British husband, Video of Bob Garcia in 2007 being interviewed on French TV about his books.

UPDATE: Some coverage on US web sites: Spielberg’s ‘TINTIN’ Euro Release Stirs Legal Debacle

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

On the blog of Pierre Assouline (author of Herge: The Man who Created Tintin) there is news of Moulinsart using their legal muscle to push a small publisher to bankruptcy.

As everything is in French and I’m relying on a Google Translation, I cannot sure of the facts of the case. What appears to have happened is that Bob Garcia, writer and Jazz Musician, published some work that included images of copyright images of Tintin. Moulinsart sued and initially lost but won on appeal.

Without seeing the work concerned, it is impossible to see whether this action is justified. But the Nick Rodwell and the company have a track record of heavily enforcing their copyright and trying to go beyond what they are legally entitled to (see Bad Press for Moulinsart, Moulinsart Washing Dirty Laundry in Public, Fan Site Killed by Legal Threats and Moulinsart Versus Art).

Source: Moulinsart l’a tué, presque

This week it was a Congolese accountant suing Moulinsart over the racist images in Tintin in the Congo. Last week it was Brooklyn Library’s decision to lock the book up. Before that is was the British Commission for Racial Equality who attacked the book.

With a high profile film on the way, Moulinsart must be wondering what to do about this never ending stream of bad publicity. There is a very real danger that Herge’s name and reputation will become tarnished by this 80 year old comic but their options are limited and none of them are ideal.

Publish and be Dammed

Ignoring the fuss and sticking to the line that Tintin Au Congo is a work of a young writer living in a very different time is certainly the most honest and intellectually sound idea but it all to easily could look like they are condoning racism.

The investors in the movie will be nervous about how this will play in America. At the moment, Tintin is almost unknown so no one really cares but in 18 months time, it will be a different story. Images of black protestors outside of cinemas would critically damage the film in the race conscious USA. With a reported $130 million invested we can be sure that the studios executives will be on the phone to the head of Moulinsart, Nick Rodwell, demanding that something is done.

Bury It

The simplest option is for Moulinsart to make an announcement saying that the book is out-dated and to stop publishing the book, removing all traces of it from their product line. Rather like the victim of a Stalinist purge, Tintin Au Congo will be airbrushed out of the official history, leaving behind an idealised image of Herge and his creation for public consumption. Certainly, real Tintin fans would know about the book and rumours would circulate in the general public but the charges of racism would be effectively blunted.

To an extent this has been done already, with its withdrawal from the US market but in order silence the critics, they need to withdraw it all languages and all editions, including the facsimile editions. This approach is the easiest option and will cost the company relatively little in lost sales.

The Sacred Cow

Herge left strict instructions that no one else should write or draw Tintin after his death and Moulinsart have devoutly stuck to this. The temptation of the millions a new Tintin book could make has been suppressed by the overwhelming desire to protect Herge’s legacy and honour his life work. But can this commitment stand up to the pressure of public opinion and the demands of studio executives? Would Moulinsart release a modified, updated version of Tintin in the Congo?

This would be a major step for Moulinsart and one that may open the floodgates to new Tintin material but it would have a number of advantages. It tackles the accusation of racism without creating the skeleton in the closet that simply burying the book might create. It would be profitable as well as millions of Tintin fans buy the new edition and it generates a huge amount of positive publicity.

No Right Answer

Each of these potential solutions create their own problems and picking between them is no easy task but it seem unlikely that doing nothing is a viable option. A constant stream of Tintin is Racist headlines will damage Herge’s reputation and the prospects for the film.

Personally I think they should publish and be dammed. Herge’ life story is complex but overall it is a positive one. Trying to hide or deny Europe’s colonial and racist past helps nobody in the long run. Tintin exemplified the boy scout idea of being honest and doing the right thing. Let’s be honest about Tintin’s past.

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.