- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Sceptre; New edition edition (4 Jun 1992)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340564628
- ISBN-13: 978-0340564622
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 373,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Tintin, the young reporter, has become a worldwide cartoon phenomenon, rivalled only by Asterix, a cult with a following among adults and children alike. How did this apparently simple character gain such a hold? What is the secret of his appeal? And what was his shadowy creator - Georges Remi, "Herge", really like? Harry Thompson, a lifelong Tintin fan, has written a dual biography. On the one hand he charts Tintin's progress from a doodle on a school exercise book during World War I to the young reporter used first for propaganda, then for political satire under the guise of adventure stories, into character comedy and even on to the moon, well ahead of real-life astronauts. And on the other he tells of a strongly moral man, the researcher and perfectionist, who turned himself into a great artist through sheer effort and travelled the world, escaping from the boredom of a desk-job in Brussels. He examines accusations against Remi of collaboration during the last war, his wariness in relationships, and his loss of creativity.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is not simply good or informative, it is phenominal.
Each book is studied in incredible detail. The historic background to each story is very concise, as Harry Thompson has researched news events of the period, and Herge's life. This is not simply for idle interest either, the information is tied directly to events within each individual Tintin story, to offer an all round look at the circumstances in which each book was written.
Harry Thompson is quick to call himself a 'life-long Tintin fan.' This may seem irrelevant, and obvious, as he has written a book about Tintin, but in fact this ddevotion to Tintin serves to add the final piece of brilliance to this book. Harry Thompson reveals and analyses shortcomings in some of the Tintin books, but he does not reprimand Herge for this, but instead looks for answers in the events surrounding the books being written. For example, artistic shortcomings in the jungle scenes of the Broken Ear are explained by a lack of paint owing to the war. This love of Tintin and Herge's work allows Harry Thompson to revel in Herge finest moments, and a geniune sense of respect and awe at Herge's work has diffused throughout this book.
This does not mean that negative issues, such as Herge's questionable political stance during and after the war are avoided, they are treated with the same interest and professionalism that every issue is.
The book is excellently written, and Harry Thompson's enthusiasm for Tintin allows this book to inform the reader, and increase their appreciation of Tintin. It will certainly not ruin these books for anyone, as throughout, Harry Thompson maintains nothing but respect and enthusiasm for Herge.
Each book is studied in incredible detail. The historic background to each story is very concise, as Harry Thompson has researched news events of the period, and Herge's life. This is not simply for idle interest either, the information is tied directly to events within each individual Tintin story, to offer an all round look at the circumstances in which each book was written.
Harry Thompson is quick to call himself a 'life-long Tintin fan.' This may seem irrelevant, and obvious, as he has written a book about Tintin, but in fact this ddevotion to Tintin serves to add the final piece of brilliance to this book. Harry Thompson reveals and analyses shortcomings in some of the Tintin books, but he does not reprimand Herge for this, but instead looks for answers in the events surrounding the books being written. For example, artistic shortcomings in the jungle scenes of the Broken Ear are explained by a lack of paint owing to the war. This love of Tintin and Herge's work allows Harry Thompson to revel in Herge finest moments, and a geniune sense of respect and awe at Herge's work has diffused throughout this book.
This does not mean that negative issues, such as Herge's questionable political stance during and after the war are avoided, they are treated with the same interest and professionalism that every issue is.
The book is excellently written, and Harry Thompson's enthusiasm for Tintin allows this book to inform the reader, and increase their appreciation of Tintin. It will certainly not ruin these books for anyone, as throughout, Harry Thompson maintains nothing but respect and enthusiasm for Herge.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book deserves far more attention.It is an absolutely brilliant read which really engages the reader in the creation of the Tintin phenomenon and the psychological struggles faced by Herge. It also puts all the stories into historial context. The development of the graphical brilliance which still marks out the Tintin dtories is also carefully charted. Harry Thompson is a master of digging deep into the minds of his subjects - as illustrated by his other books - which makes this book outstanding.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
The man behind the mystery
28 Nov 2007
Format:Paperback
This fascinating and revealing book combines a biography of the creator of Tintin, Herge (George Remi) with tracing the development of the Tintin albums.
We learn how Herge's personality, experiences and outlook shaped Tintin and his friends and foes, and some of the extraordinary happeings behind the scenes.
Tintin's pet dog Milou (in the original French) was named after a teenage sweetheart of Herge's.
We explore just how the character that is featureless, ageless, sexless and seemingly unburdened with a personality, has endeared millions and millions of fans across the world over several generations.
Children around the world still love Tintin today, as they did since the 1930s.
We learn of the political and historic events of some of the works, and the reflections of Herge's life and various experiences in others.
For example one powerful example of Herge's creativity are his celebrated dream sequences.
I disagree with the author of this book about Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (The Adventures of Tintin) and see no reason why Herge apologized. This was not propaganda as the author and so many others claim, but brilliant political satire with much truth in it about the Soviet tyranny.
The episode of the anti-semitic stereotype of the international banker Bohlwinkel in The Shooting Star (The Adventures of Tintin), Herge insisted was a genuine error with no malicious intent, while Hitlerism and Fascism are clearly attacked in King Ottokar's Sceptre (Tintin).
In Cigars of the Pharoah (The Adventures of Tintin) "Rastapopulous and Snowy, in Egyptian dress, carry Tintin off, while Sarcophagus rocks the baby Tintin in a crib and smokes one of the Pharaoh's cigars. Tintinologists have long tried to find the hidden meaning in these dreams, but if anyone was dreaming then it wasn't Herge.
He merely used the illogic of dreams for comic effect. When Captain Haddock sat naked in an audience of parrots in The Castafiore Emerald (The Adventures of Tintin), for instance Herge was not interested in any subliminal meaning, only that he found the idea funny".
Then there is a whole geography that Herge invented, which is one of his greatest creative achievements.
" By the 1970s, it was posible for Tintin to board a plane in Sondonesia (not a million miles away from Indonesia)and fly to Khemed, a desert nation betwen Saudi Arabia and the Lebanon, which was curiously reminiscent of Jordan. Or he could visit the Bordurian capital Szohod, a merciless parody of a pre-glasnost East European city, right down to the many representations of the dictator Marshal Kurvi-Tasch, a figure with an uncanny resemblance to Stalin. Or perhaps Klow, the mineral water capital of the world, in a guardedly friendly but authoritarian Syldavia, whose mosques, hills and coastline look for all the world like Yugoslavia's". (I would say Albania).
An incredible insight into the mysteries behind Tintin and Herge.
One can return to read each of the Tintin adventures with renewed insight.
We learn how Herge's personality, experiences and outlook shaped Tintin and his friends and foes, and some of the extraordinary happeings behind the scenes.
Tintin's pet dog Milou (in the original French) was named after a teenage sweetheart of Herge's.
We explore just how the character that is featureless, ageless, sexless and seemingly unburdened with a personality, has endeared millions and millions of fans across the world over several generations.
Children around the world still love Tintin today, as they did since the 1930s.
We learn of the political and historic events of some of the works, and the reflections of Herge's life and various experiences in others.
For example one powerful example of Herge's creativity are his celebrated dream sequences.
I disagree with the author of this book about Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (The Adventures of Tintin) and see no reason why Herge apologized. This was not propaganda as the author and so many others claim, but brilliant political satire with much truth in it about the Soviet tyranny.
The episode of the anti-semitic stereotype of the international banker Bohlwinkel in The Shooting Star (The Adventures of Tintin), Herge insisted was a genuine error with no malicious intent, while Hitlerism and Fascism are clearly attacked in King Ottokar's Sceptre (Tintin).
In Cigars of the Pharoah (The Adventures of Tintin) "Rastapopulous and Snowy, in Egyptian dress, carry Tintin off, while Sarcophagus rocks the baby Tintin in a crib and smokes one of the Pharaoh's cigars. Tintinologists have long tried to find the hidden meaning in these dreams, but if anyone was dreaming then it wasn't Herge.
He merely used the illogic of dreams for comic effect. When Captain Haddock sat naked in an audience of parrots in The Castafiore Emerald (The Adventures of Tintin), for instance Herge was not interested in any subliminal meaning, only that he found the idea funny".
Then there is a whole geography that Herge invented, which is one of his greatest creative achievements.
" By the 1970s, it was posible for Tintin to board a plane in Sondonesia (not a million miles away from Indonesia)and fly to Khemed, a desert nation betwen Saudi Arabia and the Lebanon, which was curiously reminiscent of Jordan. Or he could visit the Bordurian capital Szohod, a merciless parody of a pre-glasnost East European city, right down to the many representations of the dictator Marshal Kurvi-Tasch, a figure with an uncanny resemblance to Stalin. Or perhaps Klow, the mineral water capital of the world, in a guardedly friendly but authoritarian Syldavia, whose mosques, hills and coastline look for all the world like Yugoslavia's". (I would say Albania).
An incredible insight into the mysteries behind Tintin and Herge.
One can return to read each of the Tintin adventures with renewed insight.
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