Tag: Tintin

R.I.P. Palle Huld, the Real-Life Tintin

The Danish man widely believed to be the inspiration for Hergé‘s famous traveling boy detective died last week at 98. The Independent looks into the mystery behind the creation of Tintin:

The young Huld wrote an account of his adventures which was published in several languages including English, in which it appeared in 1929 as A Boy Scout Around The World. It is known that Hergé read Huld’s account. It was perhaps no coincidence that the character of Tintin surfaced for the first time the same year in Le Petit Vingtieme, the children’s section of a Belgian newspaper. Palle Huld was happy to encourage the notion that he was Hergé‘s inspiration for Tintin. But Hergé, who delighted in utterly baffling Tintinologists by using the phrase “Tintin c’est moi,” liked to keep the source of his world-renowned character shrouded in mystery.

(Via The Book Bench)


A Tintin Tour of Jordan

The Guardian’s Georgia Brown made an unconventional trip to Petra—guided by a “Tintinologist” and a copy of The Red Sea Sharks. We’ve talked before about Tintin’s appeal to travelers, and in her dispatch Brown’s guide notes another aspect of that appeal:

Thousands of tourists visit Petra every week, but this summer I was part of the first small group of adventurers to arrive at the rose-red city in the footsteps of Tintin, led by one of the world’s leading Tintinologists, Michael Farr.

For Michael—who, dressed in beige linen suit and explorer’s hat, looks to have stepped from that golden era of travel—this is clearly part of the delight. A natural raconteur, he explains that Tintin creator Hergé’s drawings were astonishingly accurate, from his rendering of landscapes such as the Middle Eastern desert and local costumes, down to the accuracy of Egyptian hieroglyphs painted on a tomb or the Chinese lettering on a street banner. When fans of the comics see images of the real thing they perhaps cannot help but be reminded of the books in which they first saw them.

(Via The Book Bench)


The ‘Tintin’ Movie: ‘It’s Made’

The BBC has the latest on the “Tintin” movie we’ve been tracking. The filming and editing are complete, the Beeb reports, but the last stage—the computer animation—could take another two years. “Tintin is great,” producer Peter Jackson said. “It’s made. The movie is cut together and now [we] are turning it into a fully-rendered film.”

The same story also notes that Jackson is currently scouting locations in New Zealand for his adaptation of “The Hobbit.” I guess this time around we’ll be calling it a “Bilbo economy”?


Congolese Man Plans New Lawsuit Against Tintin

Two years ago Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo filed suit in Belgium, demanding Tintin in the Congo be removed from the market because of its “racism and xenophobia.” He got no response from the Belgian legal system, so he’s planning to “launch parallel proceedings in France and go ‘all the way to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary,’” according to the Telegraph.

“Tintin in the Congo” has been stirring up controversy in the U.S. recently, too. Last month the book was removed from the shelves of a Brooklyn, New York, library—news that made the mash-up map of book bannings in America that Eva wrote about yesterday.

Tintin, of course, has been celebrated by many people—including Julia Ross here on World Hum—for its “power to unite travelers and melt national divides.” (Via The Slatest)


Stars Sign on for ‘Tintin’ Movies

Despite earlier concerns about funding (and even earlier confusion over who, exactly, was in charge), the “Tintin” movie project seems to be rolling ahead. The CBC notes that a slew of big names have jumped on board: Jamie Bell (of “Billy Elliott” fame) will play the boy detective, while Daniel Craig will play arch-nemesis Red Rackham. Andy Serkis, the voice of Gollum in the “Lord of the Rings” flicks, will take on the role of drunken sidekick Captain Haddock, and “Shaun of the Dead” co-conspirators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are slated to play Thompson and Thomson, the bumbling look-alike detectives. Oh, and as for who’s in charge? The latest word is that Steven Spielberg will direct the first movie; Peter Jackson will co-produce, and then take over the director’s chair for the second installment.

I’ve been skeptical about this project from the beginning, but I have to admit I’m heartened by the talent I see signing on. Is it possible that Spielberg and Jackson could pull this one off?


Le Club Tintin

The rosy-cheeked adventurer never caught on in the U.S. But on the 100th anniversary of his creator's birth, Julia Ross explores the boy's power to unite travelers and melt national divides.

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