Tintinology [tin-tin-ol-uh-jee] noun — The study of the works of comic creator Hergé and the cultural impact of Tintin, his best-known and most influential character.
The adventures of Tintin and his dog, Snowy, have captivated people worldwide since they first appeared as an insert in the Belgian Catholic newspaper Le Vintième Siècle in 1929. Available for the first time in English, this insightful biography delves deep into the psyche of Tintin creator Georges Remi and his public persona Hergé.
Author of the critically acclaimed Tintin and the World of Hergé and the last person to interview Remi, Benoît Peeters tells the complete story behind Hergé’s origins and shows how and why the nom de plume grew into a larger-than-Remi personality as Tintin’s popularity exploded. Drawing on interviews and using recently uncovered primary sources for the first time, Peeters reveals Remi as a neurotic man who sought to escape the troubles of his past by allowing Hergé’s identity to subsume his own. As Tintin adventured, Hergé lived out a romanticized version of life for Remi.
Millions have traveled alongside Tintin and Snowy through books, animated television series, theatrical performances, exhibitions, documentaries, and movies, including Steven Spielberg’s fall 2011 The Adventures of Tintin. Now Tintinologists have the opportunity to better understand the complex and sometimes dark personality of Tintin’s creator and his carefully crafted public persona.
The Johns Hopkins University Press
— Paul Gravett
Model of economy and grace, mixing meticulous detail and stylized tableaux in perfect proportion so that the story is neither generic nor bogged down by excessive rendering.
Hergé is a granular biography that pingpongs back and forth between the artist and his art, looking to build bridges of epiphany and exposition between the ideas expressed and the life lived.
— Cullen Murphy
A 'must' for any TinTin or Herge fan.
Why should readers consider another book on Georges Remi (Hergé), the creator of Tintin? Because this one was written by a comics writer himself, a man who knows the medium from both its theory and practice, who interviewed Hergé and those close to him, and who had access to a trove of vital letters, papers, and notebooks.
In this enthralling, deeply considered synthesis, brimming with anecdotes and perceptions, [Peeters] has enhanced our understanding and appreciation of the creator, the creation, and above all, the man.
Well, Blistering Barnacles!, as Captain Haddock would say. The great merit of Hergé, Son of Tintin is that Georges Remi is allowed to emerge in three dimensions as what he in fact was: not an intellectual, not an activist, not a saint, but an ordinary man of his times.
In this enthralling, deeply considered synthesis, brimming with anecdotes and perceptions, [Peeters] has enhanced our understanding and appreciation of the creator, the creation, and above all, the man.
— Paul Gravett
Introduction xi
Part I Georges Rem I (1907-I927)
1 White 3
2 Gray 5
3 Black 16
Part II Le Petit VingtièMe (1927-1934)
4 The Doorway to Le Vingtième Siècle 27
5 The Birth of Tintin 34
6 A Young Man on the Page 42
7 The Conqueror 52
8 Under the Sign of Kih-Oskh 62
Part III Chinese Ink (1934-I940)
9 Another World 73
10 Learning the Story 82
11 Counterfeit Money 89
12 History on the Spot 97
13 The West, Always the West 102
Part IV Spoils Of War (1940-1944)
14 The Street-Singer's Career 111
15 Here We Are, Captain! 120
16 An Unlucky Star 128
17 The Color War 136
18 This Castle Is No Longer for Sale 143
19 Anxieties 149
Part V Intermittences (1944-1953)
20 The Hangover 159
21 The Launch of Tintin 171
22 The Forty-Year Alarm 178
23 The Terrible Year 190
24 Hergé Has Disappeared! 209
25 Asking for the Moon 218
26 A Black Hole 226
27 Chills 233
Part VI The Boss (1953-1959)
28 The Middle Years 247
29 Fanny 260
30 "International Tintin" 264
31 The Demon of Purity 269
Part VII Monsieur Herge (1960-1983)
32 The Final Bouquet 285
33 The Studio Trap 291
34 Another Life 300
35 Building the Myth 306
36 A Time of Pretenses 322
37 The Alpha and the Omega 326
Epilogue: An Impossible Legacy 335
Appendix: Character Names in French and English 341
Notes 343
Bibliography 577
Index of Names 385
Index of Works by Herge 392
Overview
Tintinology [tin-tin-ol-uh-jee] noun — The study of the works of comic creator Hergé and the cultural impact of Tintin, his best-known and most influential character.
The adventures of Tintin and his dog, Snowy, have captivated people worldwide since they first appeared as an insert in the Belgian Catholic newspaper Le Vintième Siècle in 1929. Available for the first time in English, this insightful biography delves deep into the psyche of ...