Adventures of Tintin and Milou

the Adventures of Tintin and Milou is the title of a series of Cartoons created by the Belgian draftsman Hergé (1907-1983), whose pseudonym was formed of the reversed intiales of its true name: Georges Remi.

The series was published for the first time in Small the Twentieth , supplement for children of the Belgian newspaper the Twentieth Century , on January 10th, 1929. The Adventures of Tintin proceed in a universe reproducing ours thoroughly, swarming characters with the well defined character traits. This series has been thus voted by plebiscite without slackening for more than 70 years by the readers and the critics.

The hero of the series is the character éponyme Tintin, a young person Reporter and Belgian globe trotter. He is accompanied during his adventures by his faithful dog: Milou. Later, several popular figures came to be grafted with the Aventures , of which the Capitaine Haddock, as well as other high supporting characters colors.

These successful series were published in the shape of albums (23 on the whole), became a magazine with great pulling ( the Newspaper of Tintin ), and were adapted at the same time to the cinema and the theater. the Adventures of Tintin belong to the most famous European cartoons of the twentieth century. They were translated in approximately fifty languages and were sold with more than 200 million specimens.

The cartoon Tintin is appreciated for a long time for her at the same time stripped and alive drawings, in the line line of the style created by Hergé, the clear Ligne. The captivating and well documented intrigue albums of Tintin mixture kinds: adventures of wraps and sword with a key of Fantastique to the police investigations, while passing by the stories of Espionnage, or the Science-fiction. The stories told in Tintin always make the good share with humor " skin of banane" (in English Slapstick ), humor counterbalanced in the more recent albums by a subtle direction of the irony and a reflection on the company.

Overall picture

Tintin is a Reporter, profession whose Hergé makes use to mingle its character with several contemporary events of the period during which it worked (in particular the Revolution Bolchévique in Russia and the Second world war), and even some more recent (the first landing on the the Moon). Hergé also created around Tintin a universe with the stylized details, but realistic. It managed to obtain this effect while taking as a starting point an important collection by photographs.

The adventures of Tintin follow a very linear screen - a solved enigma in a logical way - but Hergé presented them with a direction of characteristic humor. Moreover, it introduced there supporting characters who, although being foreseeable, are attaching and collect the attention of the reader. The draftsman had included/understood the mechanisms of the cartoon also particularly well, in particular on the level of the rate/rhythm. This direction of the rate/rhythm is obvious in the Jewels of Castafiore , an album whose action proceeds in a tended atmosphere, whereas it does not occur large thing there!

Hergé has in the first times created the adventures of Tintin while improvising, not knowing in advance how the hero would be left all his mishaps. It was brought to document and envisage its scenarios only after having finished the Cigars of the Pharaon . The impulse came from Zhang Chongren (Tchang Tchong-jen, or Tchang), a Chinese student who, by learning that Hergé was going to send Tintin in China for its next adventure, incited it not to hawk the generally accepted ideas that Europeans of the time had on China. Hergé and Zhang thus worked together on the following episode of the series: the blue Lotus , which is regarded by the critics as one of the masterpieces of Hergé.

External events also obliged Hergé to carry out other changes in the manner that it had to create its cartoons. The Second world war and the invasion of Belgium by the armies of Hitler involved the closing of the daily newspaper in which the Adventures appeared. Hergé worked at this time on Tintin with the country of the black gold . Tintin in America and the Black Island , already published, were prohibited by the critics Nazis, were opposed by the way in which the United States and Great Britain were presented there. Nevertheless, Hergé could continue the adventures of Tintin, by publishing five albums, and while making appear two other episodes in a newspaper approved by German, the Evening . During and after the German occupation, Hergé was shown to be a collaborator, because this newspaper was controlled by the Nazis. He was briefly imprisoned with the Libération. It was defended by claiming that it had quite simply made its trade during the Occupation , like would have made a plumber or a carpenter. Its work of this period, contrary to its production of before and of post-war period, is politically neutral, and gave traditional adventures, like the Secrecy of the Unicorn or the Treasury of Rackham the Red . However, the apocalyptic album the mysterious Star translates the doubts of Hergé during this politically disturbed time. The paper shortage of the immediate post-war period involved a change of format of the Aventures . Hergé had as a practice to give to its albums a number of pages necessary to the development of its scenarios. However, because of the paper restrictions, the publisher Casterman required of Hergé to draw smaller boards, and to adopt an arbitrary length of 62 pages per album. Hergé increased its team (the first ten albums had been designed by itself and his wife), which it ended up transforming into studio.

The adoption of the color made it possible Hergé to give a greater scale to its work. Its manner of using it was more subtle than that of the Americans, with values returned allowing better the use of the Quadrichromie and, so a cinematographic approach of the light and shades. Hergé and its studio made use of images to fill of the half-pages or, quite simply to detail and propose a scene. The use of the color emphasized the important details. Hergé insists on this point while affirming: " I regard my stories as films. Therefore, not of narration, not of description. All the importance, I give it to the image".

The personal life of Hergé also influenced the series, with for example Tintin in Tibet , strongly marked by its depression. Its nightmares, which it would have described as being " all blancs" find an echo in the snow-covered landscapes of the album. The intrigue is based on the research undertaken by Tintin to find Zhang Chongren, previously met in the Blue Lotus . This episode does not put in scene any gangster and Hergé, which abstains from any value judgment, refuses to qualify the Man of Snows (the Yéti) of " abominable".

The adventures of Tintin finished prematurely with the death of Hergé on March 3rd, 1983. The twenty-fourth ventures, Tintin and Alph-Art, remained unfinished. In this album, Tintin evolves/moves in the world the Modern art, and the history finishes on a scene where Tintin is likely to be killed, locked up in Plexiglas and exposed like a work of Article.

Albums

Original albums of Hergé

  1. Tintin with the country of the Soviets (1930)
  2. Tintin in Congo (1931)
  3. Tintin in America (1932)
  4. Cigars of the Pharaon (1934)
  5. the blue Lotus (1936)
  6. the broken Ear (1937)
  7. the Black Island (1938)
  8. the Sceptre of Ottokar (1939)
  9. the Crab with the gold grips (1941)
  10. the mysterious Star (1942)
  11. the Secrecy of the Unicorn (1943)
  12. the Treasury of Rackham the Red (1944)
  13. the 7 Crystal balls (1948)
  14. the Temple of the Sun (1949)
  15. Tintin with the country of the black gold (1950)
  16. Objectif the Moon (1953)
  17. One went on the Moon (1954)
  18. the Business Sunflower (1956)
  19. Coke in stock (1958)
  20. Tintin in Tibet (1960)
  21. Jewels of Castafiore (1963)
  22. Flight 714 for Sydney (1968)
  23. Tintin and Picaros (1976)
  24. Tintin and Alph-Art (1986, republished in 2004) ( unfinished )

Unfinished projects and ever published

  • the Indian Track (1958)
  • : Project of adventure being held only in one airport, attended by a good number of picturesque characters. Given up with the profit of the Alph-art .

Adapted albums of films

  • Tintin and the mystery of the Golden Fleece (1962) adapted Film live éponyme with actors. Constituted of photographs extracted film.
  • Tintin and blue oranges (1965) adapted film live éponyme with actors. Constituted of photographs extracted film.
  • Tintin and the SGM (Belgian General society of the Ores) (1970) delivers stitched of 50 pages, published by Publiart (Guy Decissy) /Casterman , adapted cartoon film of the same name produced by Belvision the same year (of 10 ' - boxes extracted film, to see).
  • Tintin and the lake with the sharks (1972) adapted cartoon film. Scenario of Greg, the boxes of the boards are extracted from film. There exists a version entirely drawn by the Studios Hergé.

Except Series

  • Portfolio:
    • Portraits " Tintin" (1966 - Casterman)
  • Stories:
    • Dupond and Dupont detectives , written by Paul Kinnet, illustrated by Hergé (1943 - the Evening - Rombaldi volume 6)
    • Tintin and Milou in the Toreadors , written by Jean Roquette (1947 - Valiant Hearts)
  • Illustrations:
    • Chromos " See and Savoir" (1953 with 1963 - Newspaper of Tintin, with Jacobs, Jacques Martin, Bob de Moor, Roger Leloup and Excavated Georges, with the decorations) (see and)

Principal characters

Tintin and Milou

Tintin is a young person to defer Belgian who finds himself mingled with dangerous businesses in which it passes heroically to the action to save the setting. Practically all the adventures show Tintin achieving with enthusiasm its tasks of journalist of investigation, but except for the first album, one never sees it writing articles. It is an young man adopting a more or less neutral attitude; he is less picturesque than the supporting roles of the series. In this respect, it is with the image of Mister-all-the-world ( Tintin means besides literally in French " nothing the tout").

Milou, a white Fox terrier, is the companion with four legs of Tintin. They regularly save one and the other of perilous situations. It " parle" frequently with the reader via his thoughts (often posting a humor deadpan), which are supposed not to be understood by the other characters. Like the Haddock Captain, Milou adores the whiskey Loch Lomond. The few times where he drinks attract him troubles, and cause in him violent a Arachnophobie. The name of Milou is generally regarded as an indirect reference to an young love of Hergé, Marie-Louise Van Cutsem, whose nickname was " Malou".

One can differently explain the origins of the two characters. Some claimed that Robert Sexé, one to be press photographer whose exploits were told in the Belgian press of the medium at the end of the Twenties, had inspired the character of Tintin. It is famous for its resemblance to this last, and the Hergé Foundation recognized that it was not difficult to imagine that the adventures of Sex could influence Hergé. This moment, Sexé had traversed the world on a motor bike manufactured by Gillet and Herstal. Rene Milhoux was a champion and recordman of motor bike of the time. In 1928, whereas Sexé was at Herstal speaking about its projects with Leon Gillet, Gillet put it in liaison with its new champion, Milhoux, which had just left the Ready motor bikes for the Waistcoat-Herstal team. The two men bound friendship quickly and spent the hours to speaking about motor bikes and voyages, Sexé asking Milhoux to transmit its knowledge to him on the mechanics and the motor bikes pushed beyond their limits. Thanks to this mixture of scholarship and experiment, Sexé carried out a great number of voyages throughout the world; it published the many ones account-returned in the press.

The general secretary of the Hergé foundation admitted that one could easily imagine that the young person Georges Remi could be to be inspired by the mediatized exploits of the two friends, Sexé with his voyages and his documentary, and Milhoux with its victories and its records, to create the characters of Tintin, the famous journalist globe trotter, and of his faithful Milou companion.

The Haddock Captain

The captain Archibald Haddock, a commander of marine to the disputed ascent (it is perhaps English, French or Belgian origin), is the best friend of Tintin. He appeared for the first time in Crab with the gold grips. Haddock was initially depicts like an unstable and alcoholic character, but it became more sizeable thereafter. It is transformed into true hero, and even into fashionable personality after having discovered the treasure of its ancestor, François de Hadoque, in the Treasury of Rackham the Red. The human side and bourru, the sarcastic remarks of the Captain come to moderate the incredible heroism of Tintin. It is always prompt to strike a comment slicing with each time the young person to defer seems too idealistic. The Haddock Captain lives in luxurious Château of Moulinsart. Haddock uses a coloured pallet of insults and swearwords to express its bad mood, such as: " Thousand million billion thunder of Brest" , " Troglodyte " , " Bashi-bazouk " , " Kleptomane" , " Anacoluthon " , " Cholera " , but none is really regarded as a coarseness.

Haddock is a become inveterate drinker, unconditional whiskey amateur Loch Lomond. Its moments of intoxication are often used to cause a comic effect.

Hergé affirmed that the family name of Haddock was inspired by a " sad English fish which drinks beaucoup" , in other words the smoked haddock - or haddock - that he appreciated particularly. Haddock remained without first name to the last album, Tintin and Picaros, where the Archibald first name is evoked.

Supporting characters

See also: List of the characters of the Adventures of Tintin and Milou

The supporting characters of Hergé were recognized as being packed than the central figure. Each one of them is equipped with a certain strength of character and a complex personality which were sometimes compared with those of the characters of Charles Dickens. Hergé used the supporting roles to create a realistic universe being used as framework with the adventures of its characters. For more realism and of coherence, these characters reappeared throughout the series of albums. It was claimed that the occupation of Belgium and the limits imposed on Hergé had obliged it to be focused on the description of the characters to avoid having to speak about the difficult political context about this time. The major part of the character secondaries of the Aventures of Tintin was created during this period.

  • the Professor Tryphon Sunflower, physicist head-in-the air and hard of ear, is a character of importance secondary - but recurring - at the sides of Tintin, Milou and the Haddock Captain. It appeared for the first time in the Treasury of Rackham the Red. Sunflower is partly inspired by Auguste Piccard (a Swiss physicist). With the departure badly accommodated by the pincipaux characters, his generous nature and its scientific competences enabled him to tie durable bonds with them.

  • Dupond and Dupont is two empotés detectives who, while not having any family ties, seem to be two twins of which the only visible difference would be forms it of their moustache. They mainly contribute to comic of the Aventures by their chronic tendency to make contrepètries and their obvious incompetence. The two detectives, inter alia are inspired, by the father and the uncle d' Hergé, the twins who carried both an identical bowler hat.

Other characters play also a part in a more or less recurring way:

  • General Alcazar

  • the emir Ben Kalish Ezab
  • Castafiore
  • the senhor Oliveira da Figuera
  • Seraph Lampion
  • Doctor Müller
  • Nestor
  • Rastapopoulos
  • the colonel Sponsz
  • Piotr Szut
  • Tchang
  • the lieutenant (then captain) Allan

Landscapes

The landscapes represented in Tintin add depth to the labels drawn by Hergé. It mixes real and imaginary places there. The starting point of its heroes is the Belgium, with, initially the 26, rue du Labrador, then the castle of Moulinsart. The best example of the creativity of Hergé on the matter is visible in the Sceptre of Ottokar, where Hergé invents two imaginary countries (the Syldavie and the Bordurie), and invites the reader to visit them while inserting a tourist booklet during the history.

Development of the albums

Information retrievals

Hergé with undertaken its first thorough information retrievals for the album the Blue Lotus , which it confirms itself: " It is at that time that I put myself to document me, and that I tested a real interest for people and the countries in which I sent Tintin, achieving a kind of having of credibility near my lecteurs". The documentation of Hergé and its funds photographic helped it to build a realistic universe for its hero. He went until creating imaginary countries and to equip them with a political culture which was clean for them. Pierre Skilling affirms that Hergé saw monarchy like " a form legitimates gouvernement" , noticing with the passage that " the values seem absent in this type of traditional cartoon franco-belge". Syldavie, in particular is described with many details, Hergé having equipped it with a history, habits and of a language. It locates this country some share in Balkans, and it is inspired, of the consent of the author himself, Albania. The country is found attacked by its neighbor, the Bordurie, which tries to annex it in the Sceptre of Ottokar. This situation recalls obviously that of Czechoslovakia or Austria vis-a-vis the Nazi Germany right before the Second world war.

One can quote as example the months of preparation necessary to Hergé to imagine the lunar forwarding of Tintin, described in two parts in Objectif the Moon and One went on the Moon . Research preliminary to the development of its scenario was commented on in the New Scientist : " The considerable research undertaken by Hergé enabled him to create a space behavior very near to that which would be used for future the lunar voyages, even if its rocket were quite different from what existed " thereafter;. For the latter, Hergé actually took as a starting point the German V2.

Influences

Hergé admired, in its youth, Benjamin Rabier. He acknowledged that many drawings of Tintin to the Country of the Soviets reflected this influence, in particular those representing of the animals. The work of Rene Vincent, the fashion designer of the period Art Déco, also had an impact on the first adventures of Tintin: " One finds his influence at the beginning of the Soviets, when my drawings start from decorative, a line in S, for example (and the character has to only manage to articulate itself around this S!)".

Analyzes

Tintin and international topicality

In good number of albums, one finds more or less explicit references to the international topicality of the time. Tintin with the country of the Soviets is a virulent lampoon against the Soviet Union. In the blue Lotus , Hergé depicts the occupation of the Mandchourie by the Japan board in 1931 and the incompetence of the SDN (the Company Of the Nations) to which will succeed UNO. Hergé criticizes here highly the expansionist policy of the Japanese in Asia. In the broken Ear , it denounces the Guerre of Chaco led for dependant financial interests aus natural resources and to the sale of weapons between the Bolivia and the Paraguay: the Gran Chaco becomes in this album Gran Chapo. Then in the Sceptre of Ottokar , appeared in 1939, the Plot and the project of attack of Bordurie on Syldavie that Tintin manages to ruin can be seen like the metaphor of a Anschluss missed. It is also noticed that the name of the chief of the conspiracy " Müsstler" , is a quite convenient contraction of Muss olini and Hit tler .

But, with the wire of the albums, Hergé the topicality in an increasingly neutral way describes.

Indeed, contrary to the first albums where it makes a clear decision, in the Business Sunflower , appeared in 1956, into full Cold war, it describes the arms race that the the United States and the the USSR are delivered, but it is extremely difficult to say if Hergé gives an opinion for a camp or another. It is noted just that the Syldavie represents the Occident rather while the Bordurie and its chief Plekszy-Gladz, who strongly resembles Stalin, make think of the communist bloc.

In the same way, so in the first version of Tintin to the country of the black gold , one finds many completely explicit references to the premises of the israélo-Palestinian Conflit this which precisely dated the album it does not have there no standpoint in favor of one or the other of the protagonists and the later version will gum any reference to a historical topicality.

The Général De Gaulle has one day pointed out: At the bottom, I have one international rival: it is Tintin (the small one which is not afraid of large, to some extent).

An ideology in Tintin?

Some see in the Adventures of Tintin and Milou a political character and ideological doubtful. The defenders of Hergé answer that it acts above all of a humanistic work, which was the subject of erroneous interpretations.

Even if the first album, Tintin with the country of the Soviets , is clearly anticommunist, which is not surprising knowing that it appeared at the time - the years 1930 - in a catholic newspaper, it is in fact difficult to release a clear ideology in the whole of the adventures of Tintin.

One sometimes reproached Hergé for giving a tone Raciste and colonialist to his albums, fascinating like example Tintin in Congo which in fact illustrates simply the existence and the sight of Belgian Congo of its time, or Tintin in America in which it is necessary nevertheless to take account of certain labels of virulent denunciation such as that of the expulsion of the Indians by the white rangers and of the American Blacks employed with the trades subordinates.

This point of view attenuates considerably in the following albums. As of the blue Lotus , kind of plea anticolonialist, the content of the speech changes appreciably, although the album describes the Japanese with little indulgence it is not more to tend with the white present in the concessions. In fact, the scenario was written during the war of Mandchourie, time to which Japan did not shine by its kindness. It is with this album that Hergé, then conscious of success that Tintin was gaining, decided to be documented more seriously on the countries crossed by its character. He came then into contact with a young Chinese student, Tchang Tchong-Jen, which brought all the necessary informations to him. To thank it, Hergé utilized it in its album, without very changing its name, and a strong friendship will bind thereafter the characters of Tintin and Tchang (just as, in reality, Hergé and Tchang Tchong-Jen). The following albums will show of an increasing documentation and a care supported more and more as for the description of the visited countries. It is as in this album as is denounced media handling and the uselessness of the international agencies (the SDN which will become UNO is particularly aimed).

Some also sought a possible catch of party by Hergé in the mysterious star , with respect to the country occupying Belgium of the time (in fact: Germany hitlérienne). Indeed, in this album left in 1942, and published as a preliminary in the Belgian newspaper the Evening then under occupation, Tintin embarks in a forwarding, in the search of a fragment of meteorite fallen into the ocean, in company of famous scientists of nationalities allemande, Spanish, French, Swedish, etc (either, for the majority, originating in the countries allied or occupied by Germany at the time).

Nevertheless, totalitarianism and those which benefit from it are regularly attacked by Hergé. The arrogant and racist attitude of some which occupied of the positions of responsibility in the Western concessions was already denounced in the blue Lotus . And always from this point of view Tintin and Picaros watch, between the first and the last label of the album, that the regime change involves that of the uniforms but not necessarily the attitude of those which carry them nor the living conditions of the people concerned.

Lastly, of the updates a posteriori of the albums made disappear certain boxes, even of the whole pages. Thus, in Tintin with the country of the black gold , the part where one sees operating a commando of the Irgoun which removes Tintin, was removed in the last version of the album.

One will note also certain modifications in Coke in Stock (which denounces the traffic of slaves still in progress between Africa and the Arabic Peninsula in the Fifties) between the version published in the Newspaper of Tintin and the version published in the form of album: one will notice the rewriting of the letter which the Sheik addresses to Tintin, passing from the orthographical difficulty to a poetic drafting, and the rewriting of the dialogs of the captive Africans, who pass from French badly controlled to a punished expression while the Captain continues to address himself to them in " small nègre". These evolutions marked in time reflect well the awakening of the author like that of the whole of the Western company on these subjects.

The French National Assembly, by play, created a named commission " is Tintin of right-hand side or left? " , by specifying as of the creation of this one that to in no case it would not be answered the question. That allowed some deputies divergent political opinions, but dividing same the tintinophilie, to work this time in any harmony.

DEBATEs around Tintin

In China, the album Tintin in Tibet initially had as a title Tintin in Chinese Tibet according to the translation made locally by the editor. The widow of Hergé intervened vigorously to recall that " Tintin did not make a politique" , and threatened not to grant rights for new pullings. Following pulling carried only in its Chinese translation the title Tintin in Tibet .

See also the work discussed of Leon Degrelle, appeared after its death, which affirms to have inspired the character of Tintin with Hergé ( Tintin my buddy , editions of the gold Pelican).

Adaptations

Cinema

The photographs of these films were the subject of publications in albums (and this in the form of strip for the lake with the sharks ).

Tintin trilogy

See also: Trilogy Tintin

The May 15th 2007, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Stacey Snider ( Dreamworks ) officialized the realization of a Trilogie adapted adventures of Tintin, carried out in Synthesized images. The first film, carried out by Spielberg, is planned for 2009, the following will be carried out by Jackson and the third by a realizer still to be determined.

Unfinished projects

  • In 1967, a third film with Jean-Pierre Talbot was envisaged, but was finally cancelled.

  • With the beginning of the year 2000, the project to adapt Tintin to the cinema remade surface. Several realizers were had a presentiment of then contradicted, in particular Jaco Van Dormael, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Roman Polanski, all three tintinophiles proven. So in the majority of the cases they are above all rumors, Jeunet was really interested by the project, but in 2002 he announced that it renonçait there: " the locking of the heirs to Hergé makes too complicated, I met them and I understood that they were going to break me the feet. ".

Television

After one 1 attempt in not colorized semi-animation, carried out by Jean Nohain, appear:

Theater

  • 1941 : Tintin with the Indies, or the Mystery of blue diamond , part written by Hergé and Jacques Van Melkebeke, which is adapted of no album in particular.

Musical comedy

Video games

See too

Related articles

External bonds

  • Official site

  • interactive Site of the friends of Tintin
  • Le Monde de Tintin
  • Québécois Gate of the world of Tintin
  • E-Tintin | Site general practitioner
  • Intertintin: Tintin - Kuifje: publications by country.
  • Moulinsart in 3D
  • Our Friend Tintin: Actus, files, articles, forum…
  • science through the albums of Tintin - audio, Sky & Space radio operator, Roland Lehoucq
  • in, Wikipedia, _Traduction_des_aventures_de_Tintin

Tintinophiles authors

  • pol. Vandromme the world of Tintin : Gallimard, Paris 1959. Republication the Roundtable, Paris, 1994.

  • Albert Algoud, to see bibliography.
  • Benoit Peeters, " Le Monde d' Hergé" , Casterman, 1983.
  • Benoit Peeters, " Hergé, wire of Tintin" , Flammarion, 2002, republication in collection Fields-Flammarion, 2006.
  • Jean-Marie Apostolidès, Metamorphoses of Tintin , Seghers, 1984.
  • Frederic Soumois, File Tintin (Sources, Versions, Topics, Structures) , ED. Are Jacques Antoine, Belgium, 1987.
  • Michael Farr, the dream and reality , Moulinsart Editions, Belgium, 2001,208 p.
  • Roland Lehoucq and Robert Mochkovitch, But where thus the temple of the sun? Scientific investigations with the country of Hergé , ED. Flammarion, 2004. Checking of the scientific validity of the Adventures of Tintin and Milou through the albums the Temple of the Sun , Objective the Moon , One went on the Moon and the mysterious Star .
  • Michel Greenhouses, to see bibliography.
  • Serge Tisseron, to see bibliography.

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