Arts: Tintin?s Father, Nobody?s Son

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Books Tintin's Father, Nobody's Son The complicated life of Hergé, in two new biographies—one written, one drawn. By Sam Adams Posted Thursday, Dec 22, 2011, at 09:45 PM ET Also in Slate, Dana Stevens reviews The Adventures of Tintin. In Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin, adapted from the comic books that have enthralled generations, the intrepid boy reporter joins forces with the perpetually soused skipper Captain Haddock to unravel the mystery of Haddock's birthright. But Tintin himself has no origin. He simply exists, with no ties to past or future generations, a fate that his creator might have wished for himself. The Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, better known as Hergé, became an international celebrity thanks to the success of Tintin's collected adventures, which have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide. But he showed little taste for the spotlight, and still less for those who wished to poke into his past. The Tintin books are models of economy and grace, mixing meticulous detail and stylized tableaux in perfect proportion so that the story is neither generic nor bogged down by excessive rendering. Two newly translated biographies, Benoît Peeters' traditional Hergé: Son of Tintin (Johns Hopkins University Press) and the comics biography The Adventures of Hergé (Drawn and Quarterly), attempt to achieve a similar balance, and together suggest the challenges in telling the story of a man who subsumed himself in his work. Georges Remi's back story is as convoluted as any of Tintin's adventures, if somewhat less romantic. His father, Alexis, was one of twin boys born to a Belgian chambermaid by a man who immediately disappeared. The boys' upbringing was provided ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate "We Own Wall Street": Spitzer Proposes a New Movement To Stop Corporate America's Worst Behavior The AT&T Merger Would Have Improved Mobile Service. The DoJ Was Wrong To Kill It. Rachel Maddow: Here's Why MSNBC Is Not Fox News for Liberals	Advertisement
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