Star of twenty three best selling comic books, Tintin, the ever young boy reporter is still going strong. But where did he come from and why has does this unlikely hero have such staying power?

Tintin is the boy who never grew up yet has had a lifetime of adventures around the world, under the sea and on the moon. First appearing in 1929 in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, his distinctive tuft and his plus-four trousers, made him an instant icon but it was his boy-scout, do-the-right-thing attitude that made children admire him. With a growing fan base, Tintin had more adventures in the Congo, America and then Egypt. However it was Tintin’s next adventure, in China, that made Tintin.

The early works, particularly Tintin in the Congo, where very one dimensional. A series of fast paced scenes and gags that were perfect for a newspaper comic strip. No thought was given to the structure of the story or any depth to the characters. Unfortunately, with Herge’s right-wing, strict Catholic upbringing, this led to the non-white characters in the story appearing as crass racial stereotypes. Seventy seven years after it was written, there are many who accuse Herge of racism.

With the Blue Lotus, started in 1934, everything changed. Herge was introduced to a chinese student, Chang Chong-jen, who was living near-by and this opened a whole new world for Herge and Tintin. Chang opened Herge’s eyes to other cultures and allowed him to see them as sophisticated and civilized as Herge’s own. Immediately Herge started to put far more detail in the places he drew and every detail was researched. Herge took great pains to get everything accurate but this would place end-up getting Herge in trouble and damage is reputation further.

In 1938, Herge started on King Ottakar’s Sceptre in which Tintin foils a plan by Borduria, a Fiction European country, to invade Syldavian, a neighboring fictional country. Using the techniques learnt during The Blue Lotus, Herge based Borduria’s planes and uniforms and aggressive attitude on Nazi Germany who had already expanded into neighboring Austria and the Sudetenland. When Germany invaded Belgium, Herge received a visit form German officials who warned him off writing anything that showed Nazi Germany in a bad light. Shortly afterwards, the newspaper Herge worked for closed down and out of desperation, he ended up writing Tintin for the pro-German Le Soir newspaper. After the war Herge was investigated for collaboration and was cleared. However his reputation was tainted by this period and is sometimes used against him to support accusations of racism.

Despite the problems caused by the war, Herge went on to produce twenty three complete books. During these post-war years Tintin became a worldwide hit. Children loved his adventures and marveled at the intricate, colourful world he occupied. It is the vibrant artwork combined with the simplicity of the Tintin’s own form that give the books their power. In a child’s imagination, it is not Tintin who walks through the bazar in Egypt or flies to the moon, but the child themselves. This is Tintin’s power.

The complete works of Herge and Tintin are available from the Tintin Movie Shop and see where Tintin’s adventures took place on the Tintin Map.