On The Media is produced by:
Between 1929 and 1976, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, aka Hergé, penned the Tintin series. On the occasion of Hergé’s 100th birthday, cartoonist R. Sikoryak talks about why the books, hugely popular around the world, never gained a mass following in the U.S.
I used to read Tintin in French in a suburb of Montreal, Quebec,
Canada, circa 1960.
Sincerement,
Le Roi Du Nord
i was upset that the guest felt obligated to apologize for the fascistic, racist and paternalistic beliefs of the mr. remi. his choice to kindly assess his writings as "naive" was highly offensive and problematic. i would have liked for OTM to compel him to defend such remarks.
Hi,
I used to read TINTIN in 1990's when I was in BHUTAN!! I love snowy and the captain. I have forgotten tintin since. cant wait to catch him again.
Roshan Kolar
www.3dnirvana.blogspot.com
Unfortunately the guest gets the Nazi / Racism / Herge thing entirely wrong.
He missed the uplifting, anti-racist story of Herge’s own life. Born and brought up in a strict, right wing society that saw non-whites as being sub-human, Herge at first reflected those beliefs in his early works like Tintin and the Congo. However Herge’s eyes were opened by his friendship with the artist Chang Chong-jen. Ever since Tintin and the Blue Lotus Herge worked hard to depict the non-white peoples in a positive light.
Just before WWII Herge produced the Calculus Affair. It showed thinly disguised Germans invading a peaceful neighbor. When the Germans invaded Belgium, the Nazis visited him and warned him him about it. Shortly afterwards, the paper he worked for was closed for its anti-German stance prior to the war. His only option was to go to work on one of the other papers. As ALL papers and press were controlled by the Nazis, as a cartoonist, he did not have any option but to work for a Nazi controlled paper. During this time he wrote the more escapist of his adventures.
More information can be found on TintinMovie.org
Please keep your comments relevant to this entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments on On the Media are moderated. On the Media reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the onthemedia.org Comment Guidelines before posting.
Back to Episode
