And that first step was taken almost a hundred years ago… 10 January 2024 marks the 95th anniversary of Tintin’s first adventure in the Belgian newspaper ‘Le Petit Vingtième’. Its creator was Georges Remi, known worldwide by the pseudonym Hergé, formed from the inverted initials of his real name.
Born in Brussels on 22 May 1907, Hergé began working as an apprentice photographer and illustrator for the newspaper ‘Le Vingtième Siècle’ in 1927, after completing his military service.
He was commissioned by the newspaper’s editor, Norbert Wallez, to produce a youth supplement entitled ‘Le Petit Vingtième’, which come out in November 1928. Hergé created the main character of a daring young reporter who travels around the world investigating mysterious cases.
This journalist, named Tintin and wearing a singular fringe, is always accompanied by a faithful white fox terrier called Milou (Snowy), who saves his life in various situations. He also has several acolytes: the grumpy sailor Captain Haddock, the incompetent detectives Dupont and Dupont (Thomson and Thompson), the great opera diva Bianca Castafiore and the unforgettable Professor Tournesol (Calculus), always going from adventure to adventure to the delight of hundreds of millions of readers across four generations.
On 10 January 1929, the first adventure of this singular character, ‘Tintin in the Land of the Soviets’, appeared in ‘Le Petit Vingtième’. It was published in serialised form, and was later compiled in album format in 1930. It was the first of a long list of 24 albums that appeared between then and 1986.
The Tintin saga includes a final album published posthumously. His last work, ‘Tintin and the Art-Alpha’, was left unfinished forever by the death of the author on 3 March 1983, who left specific instructions that Tintin was not to continue his adventures after he was gone. In fact, the album was published, just as Hergé had left it, in 1986, three years after his death.
The Adventures of Tintin has sold more than 200 million copies worldwide and Hergé’s albums have been translated into 125 languages, from Afrikaans to Wolof. The purity of his drawings, the extraordinary documentation of each of his books, the adventures of the eternally young journalist who moved like a fish in water through the world of politics, technology, archaeology and organised crime, continue today to captivate all those who approach these pages which, four decades after the death of their author, continue to maintain their freshness and relevance intact.
Let’s go Snowy… we have a lot of paths to go !