Blaze’s reference to Kipling is significant, since Kipling’s work is often seen to impart what are considered as “colonial values”, as they superimpose empire and imperialism. Values such as “uprightness”, “chivalry”, “honesty” and “loyalty” become key variables in the colonial map and Kipling’s writing often draw on this selection. As a convenient and random example, if we are to consider Kipling’s celebrated poem If, at its heart is the guide book by which any healthy colonial is to stand. Edward Said, in his Orientalism locates how the imperialist programme of Europe channels the “non-European” world through Euro-centric assumptions and convictions. In the process, Said seems to argue, the land mass and the diverse cultural plurality of the “conquest” get trivialized and undermined in order to appease European imperialist tastebuds. The career of the imperialist, therefore, is to submit the unruly non-European “other” to the benefit of “order”, “method” and “civilization”, which, by default, is the bedrock of the “superior” European culture. The legitimizing of this trajectory is officially documented: a popular instance being Lord Thomas MacCaulay’s Minute on Indian Education, in 1835.

Herge reconstructs a sacrificial ritual of the Incas with our hero TinTin caught in the midst of it all. From the “Prisoners of the Sun”.

The manifestation of “non-Europe” in colonial literature is best seen in adventure novels and stories which deal with travel, where the European protagonist often ventures into the distant and unknown lands and peoples. A series of work which deal with “lesser civilizations” – irrespective of the writers’ sympathies – can be seen in travelogues, adventure novels, colonial histories and such. This corpus extends from the likes of Herman Melville (Moby Dick), William Bligh, Rider Haggard (The Last of the Mohicans, She, King Solomon’s Mines), Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan), to writers such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling. The diverse range of these writers, the varying concerns they showcase as well as the different backgrounds and baggage they come with only intensifies the extent to which the “colonial image” of the “lesser civilizations” have affected writing as a whole.

The “non-European other” is more graphically represented in comic books which become popular in the early decades of the last century. Among the comics that have stood the test of time – and have later been transcreated into other genres such as film and TV – is TinTin, the adventures of a young reporter with an unmistakable tuft of hair. In the many TinTin adventures, the hero(es) are brought into contact with numerous “non-European” peoples – the list extends from Native Americans to Chinese; and from Central Asians to a hidden civilization of Incas. The configurations of the non-European nationals show much prejudice, reflected in the graphics of the caricatures. The bent, bony, stooped back Arab, for instance, is a recurrent figure in a series of TinTin comics. The chaotic street scenes, maze-like housing arrangements, impoverished, browbeaten inmates of constantly terrorized, tyrannized Arab is forcefully outlined in stories such as The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Red Sea Sharks as well as The Land of the Black Gold.

The contenders for the banana —- Alcazar and Tapioca, the rival Generals who are consistently throwing each other out of office through coups, in Herge’s prototype for a ‘Banana Republic’: San Theodoras.

The Indian in TinTin is either of exotic, extravagant nobility (such as in the Maharajah of The Cigars of the Pharaoh) or of wily, scheming, evil manifestations. The Fakir who shoots darts with Rajaijah poison is a prime example, though not the only one. The evil Mitsuhirato of The Blue Lotus showcases “Japanese cruelty”, while the Chinese of the same book, iconized by the Wang family, are docile, submissive victims. TinTin and the Broken Ear takes us to the Amazonian region, where an oversimplified caricature of the tribal customs is amplified through Herge’s representation of the “Arumbayas”. The dark colour codes used in the Arumbaya episode do not fail to detain the reader’s attention. The dress, the skin tones as well as the preferred colours of these people are the same as the wild jungle that surrounds them. The two men who stand out are the two “white” men, TinTin and Ridgewell; not to mention TinTin’s dog, Snowy (who, true to his name, is white). The Indo-Javanese natives of Flight 714 are seen as primitive in their impulses and clumsy in aptitude. They need to be closely directed, but even then fail to deliver appreciable results. At the height of crisis – when a long passive volcano ignites – they abandon camp before any of the rest.

One of the most memorable TinTin characters is General Alcazar – the General of a South American-like geo-political unit (named San Theodores), who is consistently thrown out of office through militant coups engineered by his counterpart, General Tapioca. San Theodores is the imperialist stereotype of the Banana Republic with an ignorant, chaotic mass with little social or moral enhancement. Mutiny succeeds mutiny, with no room whatsoever for cultural uplift. In a varying career, spinning across four TinTin comics, Alcazar is seen playing a variety of roles, from General (The Broken Ear), rebel leader (TinTin and the Picaros), stage artist cum knife thrower (The Seven Crystal Balls), buyer of fighter planes from black market dealers (The Red Sea Sharks) etc.

The trench coat wearing “agents of dark” in The Calculus Affair represent a strong Central Asian accent, even though the actual crystallization incorporates a series of variables extracted from Fascist or totalitarian forms of government the “liberal West” was irreverent to. The names have a definite Central Asian ring, with germs of Russia’s KGB not absent in Herge’s characterization.

The Picaros from the comic of the same title.

What we see in Herge’s TinTin, therefore, is a conflict of civilizations – where the naturalized value system of the European Imperialist is contested by “non-European” agencies who, for the writer’s purpose, are deemed as “evil” and as “ignoble”. To satiate the end of the comic series, TinTin and Captain Haddock essentially overcome whatever difficulties the “bad ones” throw in their way, while maintaining the European power balance and upholding its values and ethics. These values, in turn, are naturalized into the growing mind and consign in the young reader the need to be like TinTin, being perceptive to the “bent nature” of the non-European world. That, of course, is the double-edge of the text; for, among the readership are those to whom TinTin need not be the greater fascination.

C’était (y). Une sorte de bulle d’humanisme et de sentiments sincères, à l’abri de notre monde sinistre et de sa noirceur infinie.

Les photographies prises à l’aide d’un cellulaire 2.0 sont de Jordan “Supernova” Roncins. Dieu le blesse.

Tintin et ma sœur Gaëlle

Un concert et des gens qui dansent. Ou alors c’est bien imité.

Onlivier. Ou alors c’est bien imité.

Onlivier et moi-même occupés à pratiquer la “danse du cul par terre”. Ou alors c’est bien imité.

Onlivier et moi-même en train de faire des trucs mystérieux. Ou alors c’est bien imité.

Why go?

Brussels, “Capital of Europe” – it sounds modern, thrusting and perhaps a little soulless. But Brussels is none of these things. Instead it is a city on a human and eminently manageable scale (virtually all you want to see and visit is within walking distance), in touch with its medieval origins, and tweaked by its own distinct, rough-edged character and bubbling conviviality.

This was the city of Brueghel, Magritte, Victor Horta (inventor of Art Nouveau architecture), Hergé (creator of Tintin) and Jacques Brel, and it does not take long to see why they were attached to it. Beneath its self-effacing veneer lie numerous treasures – first-rate collections of art, supreme cooking, unique beers, and master-chocolatiers.

When to go?

The north European climate divides the year into four clear seasons – and all have their attractions. Spring is upbeat and green, while autumn turns the beech woods golden as the low angle of the sun gilds the skylines. A Christmas Fair that spills across the city centre helps dispel the darkness of December.

But summer is particularly agreeable: when the sun shines the pavement cafés throng with life, and Brussels is quickly into party mode. Life in Brussels centres around friends and conviviality: on a summer’s evening head down to the newly trendy area around the Place du Châtelain in Ixelles to get a measure of it .This is also the season of classic Brussels events, notably the Ommegang pageant (July) and the “Carpet of Flowers” in the Grand Place. Be warned, however: it rains frequently in all seasons – pack an umbrella, whatever the forecast.

via Brussels city break guide – Telegraph.

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“These heavy walls to me had grown”

The mysteries of being a child, of living and thinking with a child’s mind, made me certain of the boundaries of reality. A toy was never to be thrown away or left to die outside and the books I read at night were far more real than the cold 6am bus ride to school.

For many years when I was younger I lived in Moulinsart.

I am almost sure I lived there.

How can I remember it so well if I didn’t?

“To tear me from a second home”

I countlessly walked the same wide brown path up to the main door, a forest to my left, a forest to my right, up to the rigorously symmetrical house with the exact proportions a house should have. I am sure that on the list of platonic solids, right after “Cube”, you will find “Chateau de Moulinsart”. With the demanding criteria that Plato liked to apply to his solids, only Moulinsart had a chance in hell of making the list.

I was sure to someday inherit this property which I already thought mine, one day be Nestor’s young master and stroll down the unrepaired stairs wearing golfing trousers.

I’ve collected other memories since, mixed them up with these older ones, making them only more potent in the involuntary way they rush up to my head.

Apparently Hergé had two models for Captain Haddock’s family manor: the “Chateau de Cheverny” donated its central section for Moulinsart’s exterior proportions and the dungeons at the “Chateau de Chillon” close to Lausanne, Switzerland, were the model for the basement where Tintin is locked up in “Le Secret de la Licorne”.

Bonivard’s Prison at the Chateau de Chillon

Tintin escaping from Moulinsart’s dungeons

These are the same dungeons that inspired Lord Byron to write his ode “The Prisoner of Chillon”.

If by now I have any stamina left to work through a design, chipping and chiseling an informal block of bad ideas, it’s because I am still hopeful to someday find in the midst of my debris some sort of a Moulinsart.

So when in a couple of years you pass by an isolated building with a unsettling proportion, halfway between a doll house and a palace, not really sure which one it references more, you’ll know who thought it and you’ll know why.

“My very chains and I grew friends,
So much a long communion tends
To make us what we are: – even I
Regain’d my freedom with a sigh.”

P.S. – Even though I read most of Hergé’s strips in my native Potuguese, I wrote this post using the original French names for characters and places, which are closer. The English “Marlinspike Hall” evokes absolutely nothing to me. Here are the other names my own little castle has gone by (courtesy of Wikipedia):

Arabic: Mulan

Bengali: মার্লিনস্পাইক (Marlinspike)

Catalan: Molins de dalt

Chinese: 马林斯派克(Marlinspike) or 穆蘭薩城堡(Moulinsart)

Danish: Møllenborg Slot (literally: Millburg Castle)

Dutch: Kasteel Molensloot

Finnish: Moulinsartin linna

French: Château de Moulinsart (original)

German: Schloss Mühlenhof (literally: Millfarm Castle)

Icelandic: Myllusetur

Italian: Castello di Moulinsart

Persian: کاخ مولنسار (Ka’kh-e-Moulansar)

Polish: Księżymłyn

Portuguese: Castelo de Moulinsart

Russian: Замок Муленсар

Spanish: Castillo de Moulinsart, Castillo del Molino, Mansión Pasador

Swedish: Moulinsarts slott

Turkish: Mulensar Şatosu

Penuh dengan informasi menarik dan cerita seru yang berhubungan dengan Tintin

Misalnya Herge ternyata sangat akurat  dalam membuat Petualangan Tintin. Dari pesawat sampai senjata, lokasi, pakaian, flora, dan fauna semua digambarkan berdasarkan arsip luar biasa berupa kliping, kartu pos, katalog dan selalu diperbarui pada edisi revisi.

Dengan buku ini kita akan semakin menikmati kisah-kisah yang da dalam petualangan tintin.

List Price : Rp. 165.000,00

Your Price : Rp. 148.500,00

Penulis : Michael Farr

Bahasa : Indonesia

Anyway, I know it’s a Writing Wednesday, but I’ve got birthday celebrations to attend to. (Singin’ in the Rain isn’t going to watch itself, you know!) So, today I’m outsourcing the bulk of the writing to you guys. Please leave a comment letting me know what you’d like to see me draw for next Monday’s update! I’ve gotten a lot of sweet birthday wishes today, so I want to pay some of that forward and do something nice for you guys, my loyal readers. ;)

In the meantime, here’s a small doodle to hold you guys over until Friday. I only recently switched to Timeline over on Facebook, and I wanted to come up with something fun to do with the “cover photo” function. Here’s what I ended up with:

Fans of Hergé will recognize the background from the endpapers of certain editions of the Tintin comics and the profile picture from my attempt at drawing myself in Hergé’s style. It was pretty challenging, especially because of the difficulty of finding reference pictures of young women in his work. I looked at a lot of crowd scenes to figure out how to translate my features into a character who would fit into Tintin’s world. Never in my life have I regretted not looking like Bianca Castafiore so much.

All right, that’s it for me tonight! I’ll see you guys on Friday with some fanart. :)

Tintin au Tibet

par Hergé

Editions Casterman

I also really enjoyed the idea of collecting a list of some of the books I have. Being able to display their covers also quite satisfies the Book Nerd within me, but the Completionist part of me is still looking for a few image covers – like Graham’s Ruined Man for instance.  And so somewhat after Graham’s great post here – where he introduced me to share your shelf – here’s a link to the 100 or so books I’ve added to my Goodreads page so far, check it out if you’re curious about some of my favourites!

100 or so favourites

I came across this video of Herge drawing TinTin, and thought it might be fun to put together a compilation of cartoonists drawing their characters on film. While I couldn’t find any videos of Bill Watterson drawing Calvin and Hobbes, or Gary Larson drawing The Far Side, I was able to find some other gems.

Charles Schulz drawing Charlie Brown:

The production of a Garfield comic strip by Jim Davis:

Scott Adams drawing Dilbert:

Mort Walker drawing Beetle Bailey:

A little while ago, there was a commotion concerning the comic book “Tintin in Congo”. The book was one of the first published by Belgian cartoonist Herge, and it was deemed to be prejudiced, portraying Africans in a demeaning manner. An NGO accused Herge of stereotyping Africans, and requested the removal of the book from bookstores.

I am a huge fan of Tintin, and in fact, I did not like Tintin in Congo. It was one of Herge’s first albums, and like Tintin in America, seemed quite undeveloped in reference to his latter work. The storylines are poor, the drawing spotty, and characters undeveloped. Stereotypes abounded in Herge’s work, whether the subject was a Portuguese merchant, an Indian prince, Chinese, Arabs, Greek tycoons, sea captains, mad scientists, opera divas, etc etc. In fact, stereotypes have always ruled in comic books, old and new. Period.

Given that Tintin in Congo was written in Al Jolson’s time, the portrayal does not seem prejudiced, rather, it was typical of the time. Of course, we now live in an age of political correctness, and Herge’s criticism of Belgian imperialism seems lost on current readers, as the Belgian Congo has been “free” for almost fifty years. Herge just looks the villain now.

It is noteworthy, however, that a lot of old comic books and cartoons contained stuff that would probably be considered improper, today. Betty Boop seemed very risque to me, even for today’s standards. And Donald Duck was forbidden in Finland, of all places, because he wore no pants! So much for Scandinavians being liberal. Talk about stereotype – Joe Carioca is portrayed as a lazy, samba dancing, bon vivant Brazilian. So on, so forth.

There is an interesting Little King cartoon which, to my knowledge, people did not take exception to at the time. In that cartoon, the Little King befriends a beggar off the street, and brings him to his castle for Christmas. In one scene, the Little King and the beggar take a bath inside the same tub (more like a huge bucket). There is no blatant nakedness or touching. I wonder what the reaction to this be today. Would political correctness consider this `inclusiveness`, therefore, desirable, or improper imagery for youngsters? Of course, not that many people even know who is Little King, and Tintin is still a subject of awe in many circles, and the books still sell well.

Food for thought.

Mostly because I love Tintin and picking on Herge’s classic creation could potentially make my childhood cry hot, bitter tears.

But it’s no secret that the iconic character’s beginnings were about as politically correct as…

 Oh sure even later Tintin books occasionally lacked tact…

Pfff, Mitsuhirato you crudely drawn fool!

You can’t stop me, no-one can!

Sorry General…

Viva Alcazar!

But nothing even comes close to this:

Yes, Tintin In The Congo.

Instead of mindlessly picking on the dated book, which is so easy to do it’s almost redundant. I just wanted to recount my experience of growing-up with it.

Reading it as a little kid, I HATED it.

The obvious racist content, I realised later, was probably the main reason I found it so unpleasant to read through in the first place. But there was just something WAAAAAY off about the whole book, even if you somehow manage to hypnotise yourself into not seeing the offensive nature of the comic.

Tasteful.

Tintin was an asshole in this!

Not only was he a colonialist douche, showing up in Congo and acting like he owned the place but he was just rude and condescending to others the entire time. What kind of hero was this?! You could have easily made Tintin the villain in this book.

In this part, he yells at these people to “get to work” and put their locomotive back on the rails but he’s not really helping himself, he’s just spouting out orders. And because, apparently everyone in Congo is lazy and cowardly, Tintin has to force them to fix their own problems even though… I’m pretty sure they would have done it anyway.

Look, even Snowy’s being a jerk!

It doesn’t help that everyone in that country treats Tintin like he’s Belgium’s answer to Jesus.

These guys are right: whole world do know him.

Hell, the book ends with everyone figuratively kissing Tintin’s ass out loud!

But here’s what REALLY freaked me out as a kid:

JEEZ!!!

First the snake swallows Snowy, which was disturbing enough, but then Snowy pierces through the snake’s belly with its legs (ouch), Tintin shows up, the snake attacks him but instead of simply running away or shooting the snake, Tintin makes it EAT ITSELF!

That’s… just… sick!

It’s cruel, unnecessary and a really unpleasant image. I’m sitting here chewing on my unhealthily delicious French cereal, I’m like 4, I’m reading a comic-book and I feel like puking my ass out!

Thanks Herge!

Pretty sure Tintin kills a gorilla and wears its skin as well later. And shoots a bunch of other animals as well.

Because no-one f***s with Tintin, motherf****ers!

Thankfully, the character was made likeable eventually and as stereotypical as some of the following books could get, they never even came close to Tintin’s Congo outing which is just not ok. I don’t think the books should be banned or anything because it’s part of history and you shouldn’t just wipe away something like that and pretend like it never happened, sweeping it under the rug and all, but I don’t think kids should read it because…

It’s ass.

And…

INSANE.

(skin lol)

AE

There are 24 stories written and drawn by Herge (Georges Remi) between 1929 and 1976, which send the boy reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy all over the globe and beyond chasing mysteries and criminal spies. He was a fearless and intrepid youngster, often calling upon his adult friends, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus, to assist in unraveling sinister plots threatening good citizens everywhere. My favorite adventure was, and is, Destination Moon, which dovetailed with my thrill of watching Neil Armstrong step on the moon on black and white TV just months before. The books were portfolio sized to exhibit Herge’s colorful and talented artwork.

Herge’s stories, while simply boys’ adventures, still ran into censorship over the years: first by the Nazi’s who occupied Herge’s native Belgium, and watched him closely to make sure his villains didn’t represent the Gestapo too closely, and later by the police of political correctness that bristled at his caricatures of other ethnic peoples (as if Herge was to step out of the norms of his time and anticipate the sensibilities of the late 20th century), though no bigotry existed in his story lines.

Both of these factors have faded away, and a new motion picture has introduced Tintin to an American audience. Even better, Herge’s publisher, Little, Brown and Company, has released a new edition of the adventures, which I’m enjoying reading all over again, four decades hence.

Editor’s note: This piece is part of a symposium in which a variety of writers and thinkers weigh in on the topic of “Language in the Digital Age.” Look for further contributions on this topic (like this one and this one) throughout the week on Acculturated.

Yesterday at the local grocery, I witnessed a child of perhaps five or six accosting her mother loudly. I could not discern what the little girl wanted, but it had clearly been denied to her, and she was determined to embarrass her mother—who stood silently in line, loading foodstuffs out of the cart—for this vindictive crime. The child was wailing as youngsters do, but with a difference: her baleful screams were punctuated by R-rated profanities.

Of course, perhaps this is barely worth noting these days, when the real problem with youngsters using profanity isn’t the words they use, but the implication that they might be youthful homophobes, as Bristol Palin learned recently when her four year old was bleeped while using the F-word. According to Cursing in America author Timothy Jay’s research, while the average adult isn’t swearing more than they have in recent decades, children are swearing more than ever before, and at earlier ages. Typically, in reaction to this sort of thing, dour people shake their heads and murmur “television.” They could be right. Or perhaps this DC-area child was simply affected by her environment. But whatever the reason, let’s remember that washing a child’s mouth out with soap is not child abuse. At least until the United Nations gets involved.

There is not enough appreciation for how this coarser approach to language in our social interactions—not just around children, online, or in reaction to your team’s performance, but in the workplace and the home—changes our perception of what these words mean. It raises their appropriateness for common discourse and lowers the barriers to escalated verbal conflict with those who don’t have a similar experience. But the more troublesome trend may be how the ubiquity of profanity lowers our appreciation for language and grammar generally, becoming a crutch for bad writing in the same way shock-humor is a crutch for a bad comic. This blog post on the rise in profanity from a New Yorker copy editor is depressingly accurate: “What was the point of making a fuss over a ‘than’ for a ‘then’ in a piece so full of profanity?”

Of course I do not insist on everyone adopting the language of the Puritan. But at least recognize that the prevalence of profanity in modern literature and art is grating and pointless, as if the authors of pulp fiction and screenplays are still operating under the impression that the act of swearing is daring instead of banal. At least we could demand more interesting profanity from our entertainment. Captain Haddock, grizzled sidekick to Hergé’s Tintin, was particularly inventive with insults that could be published in the family newspaper. That would at least make swearing what it ought to be—a cathartic moment, not a confrontational one.

Yet the better way would be for those who value language to recall George Washington’s order to the troops at Valley Forge:

The General is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice hitherto little known in our American Army is growing into fashion. He hopes that the officers will, by example as well as influence, endeavor to check it and that both they and the men will reflect that we can little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our army if we insult it by our impiety and folly. Added to this it is a vice so mean and low without any temptation that every man of sense and character detests and despises it.

Better language, Washington understood, makes better men.

Benjamin Domenech is a research fellow for The Heartland Instituteand editor in chief of The City, an academic journal on politics and culture. He edits and writes a popular daily email newsletter, The Transom, and co-hosts the daily Coffee & Markets podcast.

Also on Acculturated:

• “Acculturated Symposium: Language in the Digital Age” by Emily Esfahani Smith
• “The Case for Emoticons” by Diane Ellis
• “How Technology Democratizes and Degrades Writing” by Mark Tapson
• “How Do You Say ‘I’m Sorry Your Grandma Died’ on Facebook” by Alexi Sargeant
• The Regrettable Rise of “OMG!”

Two weeks ago we did a whistle stop tour of Brussels, Ghent and Bruges. I observed the Belgians and found that their absurdist side is filtered through a very sensible prism. Indeed, Magritte himself used the very tools of mundanity – a bowler hat and a pipe, as props for his whimsy. Perhaps just the echo of a chuckle accompanies his work. In Bruges our deadpan hotel guide showed us the giant red poodle in the garden. I found myself nodding an ‘Oh I see,’ as if he had just explained the fire drill.

The best food we had was in Brussels at ‘T Kelderke , just off the Grand Place. Stoemp is mashed potatoes, with other things in it, turnips, carrots, bacon, celeriac, that kind of thing. I had Flamande a la biere with the Stoemp. Beef in beer, reliable as a Belgian train.

My terrible admission is that I don’t much care for Belgian beer. Too strong and too sweet. Mind you, the lambic I had at ‘T Kelderke wasn’t too bad.

Flemish food is like the Flemish language. When you listen to people talking in a pub you overhear words and even snatches of sentences that you kind of understand, reminding you that Flemish is a kindred tongue to English. It is like listening to a gang of relatives gossiping about you in a distant room.

So too with the fodder. The Stoemp and the Flamande were perfectly acceptable, oddly familiar and only one step removed from my granny’s sound cooking.

That said, I decided yesterday to make my own Flamande. Ever the contrarion, I trawled the internet and assembled the ingredients. I chose a Chimay and some shin of beef. It was a cool rainy morning and as I was working from home I had the chance to get some long slow cooking done. Things went well, the kitchen murmured with solid low country aromas, until the day brightened up and I couldn’t face the idea of stew for dinner.

I think Magritte would have approved of me. After hours of cooking, I set the Flamande aside and then roasted a chicken with lemon, thyme and garlic. We jazzled our palates with the flavours of the south.

Oh La fatigue du Nord!

I love Tintin. I always have. It was my favourite comic book growing up! I remember our local library in Madras, India had loads of Tintin books that we used to borrow over and over again. I swear I have read through each of the 24 adventures numerous times. The thing that I love most about Herge’s art is the fact that his drawings are so realistic and vivid. Whether it is a night scene at a harbor showing a drug smuggling ring in operation or Tintin and his faithful dog Snowy hijacking a steam train across the Wild West, the stories really keep your attention. Reading a Tintin book to me is like watching a movie. I remember that I used to love Herge’s drawings so much that it inspired me to create my own comic book, though of course it was no way as good as the original. But I used to draw a lot as a kid, quite nicely if I may add. And it was largely inspired by Herge.

Last year when Steven Spielberg came out with a Tintin movie I was very excited. And it turned out to be a really entertaining watch, though it didn’t quite compare to the wondrous world showcased in the books. But nevertheless I was happy that characters like Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock and the Thompson twins were once again in the public eye after several years. Some people were discovering these characters for the first time and others like me were reliving their childhood memories. Watching the movie made me miss the books. So I went out to a local bookstore and bought a Tintin comic book, ‘Tintin In America’. I also chanced to notice this book titled ‘Tintin: Herge & His Creation’ by Harry Thompson. Quickly flipping through it, I saw that it had chapters on every single of the 24 adventures. It was not new… first published in 1991, but nonetheless I decided to buy it.

I have just finished reading this book and it is a fantastic read! The author starts at the very beginning in the early part of the 20^th century and describes Herge’s childhood in a conservative family in Brussels. Georges Remi was his real name and he started drawing Tintin for the national newspaper Le Vingtieme Siecle and later a publication called Le Soir before bringing out the books that we know now. The book wonderfully chronicles his journey from the 1930’s to the 1970’s and talks in detail about what went behind the making of each and every adventure. The author also throws light on how major happenings like World War II, Nazi fascism and the Cold War influenced Herge’s thinking. The Shooting Star in particular is one book for which Herge was unfavorably judged after the war. The author even talks about how the characters developed as the stories went on. Tintin’s dog Snowy talks a lot in the early adventures but not so much later on. Captain Haddock’s personality also changes as the years go on. There are several other fascinating aspects concerning the attention to detail that Herge gives to each of the adventures. But I will not spoil it for future readers by discussing them here. All I can say is that for serious fans of Tintin, this book is a real treasure to read through.