Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
Young and old are familiar with the character Tintin, a reporter created by the Belgian Georges Remi, a.k.a. Hergé.
An Overview of Tintin
Hergé started drawing his comics series The Adventures of Tintin in 1929 for Le Petit Vingtième, the children’s section of the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle. During World War II Tintin appeared in the Brussels daily Le Soir; and after the war he appeared in his own magazine, Tintin (founded by a member of the Resistance, Raymond Leblanc) until Hergé’s death in 1983.
Tintin is a reporter, and Hergé uses this to present the character in a number of adventures which were contemporaneous to the period in which he was working. Hergé also created a world for Tintin which managed to reduce detail to a simplified but recognisable and realistic representation, an effect Hergé was able to achieve with reference to a well-maintained archive of images.
Tintin becomes involved in dangerous cases in which he takes heroic action to save the day. Almost every adventure features him hard at work at his investigative reporting, but he is rarely seen actually turning in a story. He is a young man of more or less neutral attitudes and is less colourful than the supporting cast. In this respect, he represents the everyman.
Books, videos, posters on Tintin
Snowy, a white terrier, is Tintin’s four-legged companion. They regularly save each other from perilous situations. Snowy frequently “speaks” to the reader through his thoughts (often displaying a dry sense of humour), which are supposedly not heard by the characters in the story.
Like Captain Haddock, Snowy is fond of the Loch Lomond brand of whisky, and his occasional bouts of drinking tend to get him into trouble.
Captain Archibald Haddock, a seafaring captain of disputed ancestry (he may be of English, French or Belgian origin), is Tintin’s best friend, and was introduced in The Crab with the Golden Claws. Haddock was initially depicted as a weak and alcoholic character, but later became more respectable. He evolves to become genuinely heroic and even a socialite after he finds a treasure from his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock (François de Hadoque in French), in the episode Red Rackham’s Treasure. Captain Haddock lives in his luxurious mansion called Marlinspike Hall (“Moulinsart” in the original French). He is a hard drinker, particularly fond of Loch Lomond whisky, and his bouts of drunkenness are often used for comic effect.
Hergé used his cast of supporting characters to create a realistic world in which to set his protagonists’ adventures. To further the realism and continuity, characters would recur throughout the series. It has been speculated that the occupation of Belgium and the restrictions imposed upon Hergé forced him to focus on characterisation to avoid depicting troublesome political situations. The major supporting cast was developed during this period.
The settings within Tintin have also added depth to the strips. Hergé mingles real and fictional lands into his stories, along with a base in Belgium from where the heroes set off. This is originally 26 Labrador Road, but later Marlinspike Hall. Other fictional lands include San Theodoros, San Paolo and Nuevo Rico in South America, the kingdom or administrative region of Gaipajama in India, Sondonesia in Australasia and Khemed in the Middle East. Along with these fictional countries, he also included real countries and places; the United States, Soviet Union, Congo, Japan, Belgium, Egypt, India, Sahara Desert, Germany, Switzerland, Scotland, England, Peru, Tibet and China. Another setting was the Moon, and in the first edition of Land of Black Gold, Palestine, though this was later replaced by the fictional Khemed.
The Adventures of Tintin have been adapted in a variety of media besides the original comic strip and its collections. Hergé encouraged adaptations and members of his studio working on the animated films. After Hergé’s death, the Hergé Foundation became responsible for authorising adaptations and exhibitions. The Foundation has stated that its role is to protect “Hergé’s work … ensuring that it is respected, both in its content and in its spirit.”
There have been both live-action and animated film adaptations of The Adventures of Tintin.
Dreamworks is handling the movie version of Tintin. Steven Spielberg is a lifelong fan of The Adventures of Tintin. Spielberg’s love of the character is thought to have influenced the atmosphere and lead characterization in his Indiana Jones trilogy.
The 100th anniversary of Hergé’s birth was commemorated with a large exhibition at the Paris museum for contemporary arts, Centre Georges Pompidou, from December 20, 2006 until February 19, 2007, featuring a.o. all 120 original pages of The Blue Lotus.
Tintin’s image has been used on postage stamps and on coins.
Extracted from : http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintin
A fascinating Tintin fan site to visit is: http://www.tintinologist.org/
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