Tintin
Kuifje: Vlucht 714
On 10 January 1929, the comic strip character Tintin (Kuifje) first appeared in a comic strip in Le Petit Vingtième, the weekly children's supplement of the Brussels newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle. Georges Remi (R.G., in French Hergé, 1907-1983) was the illustrator of the newspaper at the time and he coordinated the children's supplement. In his debut story, Tintin took a train trip to the Soviet Union as a reporter with Milou (Bobbie), a white fox terrier with human features. The newspaper wanted to show its readers the world and denounce communism.
Tintin becomes Tintin
The weekly adventures of Tintin turned out to be a great success. On the Wednesdays that Le Petit Vingtième was published, they boosted the newspaper's sales. Hergé followed Tintin au pays des Soviets with the stories Tintin au Congo (1930-1931) and Tintin en Amérique (1931-1932). Albums of these stories soon appeared and were eagerly received. A Dutch version of Tintin appeared in 1940 in a trial issue of the children's magazine De Bengel. The first complete story in Dutch - Tintin in Congo - started in September of that year in the Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. In October 1943, Tintin was renamed Kuifje for the Dutch public - in the middle of the story De geheimzinnige Ster.
Long journeys
Twenty-three Tintin albums were published, in which the eternally young reporter travels all over the world. From China in The Blue Lotus (1936) to Peru in The Temple of the Sun (1949). Five stories, including King Ottokar's Sceptre (1939) and The Calculus Affair (1956) are set in the fictional Eastern European country of Syldavia. Tintin was far ahead of his time: 15 years before Neil Armstrong, he set foot on the moon in Explorers on the Moon (1954). The last official album Tintin and the Picaros dates from 1976.
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De avonturen van Kuifje in de Sovjet-Unie
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De Zonnetempel
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Kuifje en de Picaro's
International success and political sensitivities
The adventures have been published in fifty-eight languages and have sold more than two hundred million albums. Tintin was not officially introduced in China until 2001 - partly because of sensitive stories such as Tintin in Tibet (1960), partly because of copyright obstacles. The Blue Lotus, in which Hergé sides with China during the Japanese occupation, was first published in Japanese in 1993.
Tintin and his co-stars
Tintin is an old-fashioned hero: brave and tireless, solid and incorruptible. The good guy is surrounded by entertaining fellow players, such as the good-natured, whisky-drinking Captain Haddock. Much attention was paid to Haddock's swearing vocabulary, including the well-known "a thousand bombs and grenades!" In addition, the blundering detective duo Jansen and Janssen, the opera diva Bianca Castafiore and the quirky and hard of hearing professor Zonnebloem appear.
Controversial topics
Hergé has often been accused of having a politically incorrect, prejudiced and discriminatory view of the world. That is why albums were partly or completely modified. In the first American edition of Tintin in America (1973), several stereotypical images of black Americans were omitted. For a reissue in 1971 of Het zwarte goud (1950), pages were modified to remove the Palestinian issue. And in 1954, changes were made to De geheimzinnige ster (1946): the villains were no longer Americans, but from the fictional Sao Rico. The ‘too Jewish’ name Blumenstein was changed to Bohlwinkel.
Tintin in Africa
But the album that has provoked the most resistance over the years is Tintin in Congo, later titled Tintin in Africa in the Netherlands. This has often been labelled as racist and colonialist. There was also criticism of the way animals were treated. The theme and tone of the story were whispered to Hergé by his employer Norbert Wallez, who wanted to teach Belgian youth something about the values of colonialism. Hergé later admitted that ignorance and paternalism were the causes of this ‘youthful sin’. He redesigned the album so that the references to Congo as a Belgian colony disappeared. In the 1970s, at the request of the Scandinavian publishers, Hergé removed a scene in which Tintin uses dynamite to blow up a rhinoceros. In 2005, a coloured version was published in English, with an explanation of the historical context. In 2007, following a ruling by the British Commission for Racial Equality, booksellers moved Tintin in the Congo to the adult section. This ruling led to the album selling very well in Great Britain.
Parodies and pastiches
Dozens of parodies have been made of Tintin. There are now more parodies in circulation than original titles. Many of these are politically anarchistic or pornographic in nature: such as Tintin in El Salvador and Tintin in Switzerland. But it is also recorded how Tintin battles another superhero in Tintin contre Batman. He works together with Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock et Tintin. Since the end of the last century, the Hergé estate has been taking strict action against Tintin parodies. In 1995, graphic artist and Hergé admirer Joost Veerkamp was accused of plagiarism: for Vrij Nederland he had drawn six full-page pastiches on Tintin covers. This case was eventually settled.
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Kuifje in Zwitserland
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Kuifje in El Salvador
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Kuifje en de Alfa-kunst
The Alpha-art
During preparations for the twenty-fourth Tintin album (Tintin and the Alpha-art), Hergé died. Of this story - about the trade in art forgeries and a mysterious sect - rough sketches, an unfinished scenario and a few pages remained. A facsimile edition of this was published in 1986. Various artists subsequently completed and published the album. In 1988, an anonymous edition of Tintin et l'Alph-art was published. Better known is the version by Canadian artist Yves Rodier from 1995. There are various editions of his interpretation; all pages of these can be viewed on the internet. Rodier spoke to Studio Hergé about a joint official version of the album. Because Hergé's widow refused to give permission, this never happened.
Tintin in the KB
In addition to the regular albums, the KB has a number of special Tintin editions. For example, a pop-up book Explorers on the moon from 1992 (application number BJ Z0314). There is also a game block from 1986 (application number ND 1986/2225) and from 1993 Tufke: Tintin in Frisian (application number 5054770). The books can only be viewed on request in the Special Collections reading room after requesting via this form. The relevant data can be found in the KB-catalogue books and periodicals.
