‘Moi, Tintin.’ A retrospective on Hergè and his most iconic character.


Tintin and Asterix were the first comics that I became truly obsessed with. I will always remember lying in bed reading those big, musty smelling hardbacks from the 60′s and 70′s that lined the walls of our attic.

Tintin was always a more ‘serious’ read, however, the satire and social commentary which the books contained was no less hilarious than what was on offer in that little Gaulish village. There is no real point in comparing the two, as it would be like trying to chose a favourite grandparent.

I am as of yet unconvinced that Peter Jackson’s imminent Tintin movie will capture the true essence of the stories, because as this documentary shows, they were very much a work of their time. Hollywood already owes a lot to Tintin, with many adventure films, in particular the Indiana Jones series, borrowing heavily from the plot points and structures used in several of the books.

This is an extremely moving and informative documentary and will benefit and delight anyone with even passing familiarity to Hergè and that inquisitive reporter that he devoted his life to telling the stories of. Backgrounds of characters and situations are explained, and the origins of Hergè’s desires and influences are detailed like never before, including a very emotional reunion with his old mentor. A rather heartbreaking experience to witness.

So, for any kid who ever spent a day off school, with a hot chocolate and a stack of Tintin books beside his bed, take an hour and let yourself revel in the delights once more.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, yes, I thought that the cartoon series was dope!

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zombiehamster on July 22, 2009 | Filed Under Art and Photography, Comics, Film

2 Comments

jock123  on July 22nd, 2009

The dubious practice of pirating and posting a commercial film aside, you are certainly wrong to say that the Indiana Jones movies borrow from Hergé – it is often said, but doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Spielberg who is the Tintin fan, and he didn’t create the character or the situations or write the films; he also only found out about the books after Raiders came out.

It would be better to say that Hergé and the Indy films shared common roots in adventure fiction.

http://www.tintinologist.org/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=7&topic=2804&page=0#msg23669

zombiehamster  on July 22nd, 2009

Pirates? Where? Damn. If they are approaching please let me know! No one has directly pirated any material here though my friend, so kindly refrain from such defamatory and implicative statements in the future if you please. If there is an embeddable version of something up online with ‘share’ written beside it, then ‘share’ I shall. Especially if it is something rare and difficult to trace, such as this documentary, which you can’t exactly pick up in your local HMV.

I checked the link and read your post, which contains many valid points. The addage of ‘who stole what from who’ is an age old argument which, like I said, you have made some very valid points on. So yes, I agree with you fully. Let’s say that they both share roots in the genre of Adventure Fiction. (But we’ll avoid the Lucas/Kurosawa debate ^_^)

Anyway, the main point is, no one’s here to start a fight. I am all about the love! In this case; Tintin love! So, thank you for commenting and dropping by! ZH

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