Tintin

[Nacho]

George Remi (Better known as Hergé) was born 100 years ago. Many institutions are making tributes to him and his characters, specially Tintin. As an example, the exposition at Pompidour Centre.

I really liked Tintin, the humour, the adventure, and the tecnique... Clear ink line and plain colours. I loved the details and the character developement. I learned a bit of graphic art when I was a child copying my Tintin favourites vignettes.

Here goes my little homage! 

Did you like Tintin? Do you think it' s over rated? And the graphic gurus... Discuss about the style! Discuss about the rumours about new films by Spielberg and about Tintin' s future. Discuss!

[zabnat]

Well I must say that I generally don't like Tintin. It's somehow too preteen-adventure-book-like or something 
I also dislike the later clear graphic style.
But I do like captain Haddock and Dupont and Dupond  And I really like the two first albums, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo. They have a little different drawing style and while they still are silly adventures, they don't have any stupid political correctness you get these days.

By the way, inspired by the Tintin SNES games, I've played with an idea to make a Tintin point'n'click adventure but that'll probably won't get realised ever because of copyright issues and general laziness...

[Tuomas]

I love Tintin. The comics are full of great humour, and the stories are brilliant. Even though the author is a known fascist (not).

[ildu]

Tintin is my ultimate comic favorite ever. In fact, I'd love to BE Tintin . The drawing style is incredible (I don't think anyone can dispute that), the stories awesome and the humor splendiferous.

And I too have thought about making a game based on Tintin. I'm totally up for it too, if anyone else is. I'd love to do bgs, sprites and animations for such a project. I doubt there'd be any copyright issues.

[Tuomas]

Having read them all we could possibly write every comic into a game, right? that'd make a successful series of games with great plots

[space boy]

Even though the author is a known fascist.

No, he was not.

[Rincewind]

Mm, I am very fond of Tintin, indeed. One of the few comics that I read from my childhood that still is entertaining to read today. The artwork, the amount of detail in his drawings and the ligne claire-style is just pure brilliance all the way through. Truly one of the biggest inspirations in my life.

However, I to say that Hergé was a known fascist is a bit of an overstatement, methinks... Even though he did work at an ultra-conservative, right-wing catholic newspaper during the war, that was not out of political reasons - He was just happy to get to keep on doing Tintin. He even satirized nazi Germany and the fascism in Italy in the album "King Ottokars Sceptre", which was made during the war, so I do highly doubt it... (The main villain of the story is called Müsstler, a combination of Mussolini and Hitler, and the storyline is more or less about a failed "anschluss")

I do recommend the brilliant documentary "Tintin et Moi"(Tintin and I) if you can get a hold of it. Hands down one of the best documentaries I've ever seen, and that's not just because I am a Tintin-fanatic. Hah. A fascinating view into the life of Hergé.

[Snarky]

That's ridiculous, Tuomas.

George Remi may have started out as a conservative Catholic, and the early albums had material that would be considered racist today (but was commonplace at the time). However, he broadened his horizons considerably with age (in large part through his thorough research for the comic), and the late albums are decidedly liberal, even radical in tone. The Castafiore Emerald deals with the plight of gypsies, The Red Shark Sea with human trafficking, Tintin in Tibet (obliquely) with the Chinese annexation of Tibet, and Tintin and the Picaros takes a jaundiced look at South American juntas. Even an early title such as King Ottokar's Sceptre is pretty clearly a satire of the Anschluss, and The Blue Lotus is a scathing critique of European colonialism and Japanese imperialism in pre-WWII China. For all its racial stereotypes, the clearest statement on minorities in Tintin in America is the radio report about scores of blacks being lynched, all on suspicion of the same crime.

As you might guess, I think Tintin is a marvelous comic, which broke new ground both in writing and art. It is perhaps the only children's adventure comic to deal seriously with politics and real-world problems such as drugs and human rights abuses. At the same time they always provide ripping yarns with a healthy dose of humor. The artwork formed a school, but I don't think any of the imitators come close to the meticulous work of Hergé and his assistants. Yeah, I can understand that some will find Tintin's boyscout goodness and the simple morality of (much of) the series naive, but remember that this is a comic for kids. And if it's starting to feel a bit dated, well, the oldest stories are about eighty years old at this point. And what they're losing in freshness, they're gaining as historical documents.

Incidentally, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson have just announced that they're making a series of three Tintin movies, directing one each (the third director has yet to be announced). They will be realistic-looking CGI, and I can't say that sounds promising.

[zabnat]

Incidentally, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson have just announced that they're making a series of three Tintin movies, directing one each (the third director has yet to be announced). They will be realistic-looking CGI, and I can't say that sounds promising.

Uhh, realistic-looking CGI. Now I'm waiting the announcement that the third director will be Uwe Boll. 

And I too have thought about making a game based on Tintin. I'm totally up for it too, if anyone else is. I'd love to do bgs, sprites and animations for such a project. I doubt there'd be any copyright issues.

Well maybe not copyright issues (except in my head), but the general laziness is hard to overcome
I would probably also be up for it doing graphics, animations and scripting. All we need now is some good story and puzzles

[SinSin]

I bought all the DVD's Last year and actually started working on a TinTin Adventure game last year but i failed to keep at it (due to stuff) I did draw this as a certain character tho



And toumas if you put all the episodes in order they all link together making one big adventure 

[Andail]

Yep, George Remi was the boss, 'nuff said.

Don't feel the need to say much more than was covered in Snarky's post.

[Tuomas]

Even though the author is a known fascist.

No, he was not.

Apparently not that known then, sorry. Apparently he only worked for a nazi newspaper, but was never one himself.

And in the name of God, please, no Tintin movies by crappy directors. Way to rape a good character. Oh dear.

[Nacho]

Some of the Jews who died in Auschwitch worked for the Nazi industry as well...

[Tuomas]

Yes well excuse me for just telling what I was told once.

[Steel Drummer]

Having read them all we could possibly write every comic into a game, right? that'd make a successful series of games with great plots

Maybe that could be our new 'RoN-ish' series.

[Helm]

Snarky's post is generally correct as far as I know about Herge. However even late in his career he couldn't help but provide Tenten with cute racial-stereotype young boy adorable sidekicks, which is a bit nnngghhhish as far as I'm concerned.

[Nacho]

I' d like to know your opinion as a graphic guru, Helm, since I have in mind that, whereas popular for the great public, Hergé is not in such a predominant position in the "professional circuit", being behind Moebius and some others...

[Helm]

I am a mediocre comic artist, I am no guru. Herge recieves mad respect by any comic artist (myself included) because he invented half of the visual lexicon we use when we make comics. I'm not kidding here. Like cinematography in cinema, comics have their own visual language, half of which is the result of Herge's work. We all love him and owe him much.

The famous 'clean line' school still idolizes and tries to draw like him and his crew, with variable results. Whereas I personally haven't picked up any technique from him consciously, a page by Herge is something to study, yes.

He's not flashy like Moebius, but he's equally important.

[Nacho]

Thanks for your reply...

I remember you talking about that "languaje" in a comic you did (The one you took to Agia Anna, with the flashback buildings in the background...). You said something like "This vignette is wrong, I wanted to express that something was going wrong and I made the character entering from a side, and to be perfect it should have been entered from the other") It made me feel interested about the hidden languaje in the comics. Is there any link commenting that? Comic lexicon for dummies or something?

It was really interesting and it is nice to read that some of this lexicon was invented by Hergé.

[Helm]

Hehe yes, for western audiences, when positive progress is being made in the story, there should be left-to-right implied motion. Tin-tin moves from left-to-right when he approaches the outlaw shack, but runs from the right to the left when they find him out and shoot at him! Adversity! (Also for you Manga readers out there, if you were trying to place why you sometimes feel odd when you read unflipped manga... here's why, along with page flow which has to do with from what panel the eye moves to the next panel. Westerners and Japanese have flipped systems there too.)

I guess you could start with 'Understanding Comics' by Scott McCloud. It gets more complicated than that, but it is a famously good place to start, and it's a comic!