The Adventures of Tintin are among the few books that I still enjoy the same way as I did in my childhood. I still remember my first introduction to Tintin in 'The Black Island'! I wanted to be Tintin and always wished that I have a smart dog like Snowy!
My wife and I went on a tour to Quebec City. As we were driving past the Museum of Civilization, we found that posters of Tintin and his mates -- Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, Thomson and Thompson and Bianca Castafiore adorned the beautiful museum building.
Luckily during our stay there, the museum was hosting an exhibition dedicated to the life and work of the creator of Tintin- Herge. This was a travelling exhibition, meaning the superb collection of original drawings, numerous illustrations and the personal collection of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, travels and stops at museums around the world for a short time.
We set aside two hours in our itinerary to visit this rare exhibition. Not only did Georges Remi (Herge's real name) create Tintin, this multitalented artist also painted fashion drawings, illustrated for newspapers and advertisements, and plastic arts.
The first gallery of the exhibition portrayed a lesser known side of the artist -- abstract art. He actually took lessons for abstract paintings for two years and tried his hand at painting. It was evident that he did not enjoy abstract art as much as he enjoyed comics -- because all the rest of the galleries were prominently 'Tintin'!
I was off in a land of adventure for the next couple of hours! As we entered the next section of the exhibition hall, we suddenly found ourselves in front of the 'Tintin Wall'. Tintin was originally published in French and has been translated into over 50 languages, including Bengali. The wall was created with Tintin book covers in different languages, laid side by side. In this enormous collection we could spot a few Bengali covers, published by Ananda Publishers from Kolkata.
In this part of the exhibition, Herge's original pencil sketches were framed and hung on the wall. This, in Herge's own words, is the stage where he put all his energy and reworked as many times as required to satisfy him. The working style of Herge was also explained by breaking the whole process down into parts -- showing 'How a comic book is born'. It was interesting to know the thought process of this cartoonist, while appreciating the effort he put into every comic strip. An exceptional collection of all four stages of the very first page of 'Tintin in Tibet' was displayed there.
What made Herge's work unique and so popular was, I guess, the sincere research behind every comics. He did not merely write his stories from his imagination, but conducted a conscious research about the subject matter and then used his vivid imagination to create stories around it. This approach worked beautifully in his lunar episodes -- 'Destination Moon' and 'Explorers on the Moon', where he explained the science of expedition to the moon in the guise of a story.
His books were published in 1953-54, and thereby Tintin became the first man to walk on the moon, even before Neil Armstrong! Captain Haddock's residence, Merlinspike Hall, was not purely imaginary. It was modeled after a private chateau in France that was first open to the public (Loire Valley Chateau).
Herge kept a journal wherever he went and always kept his eyes peeled. Within a few feet's distance, my eyes spotted something familiar. Laid inside the glass showcase was the statue we see in 'The Broken Ear'! While visiting the Royal Museum of Arts and History, Herge discovered this statue attributed to the Peruvian Nazca Civilization. He liked it so much that he used the exact figurine for his tribe Arumbaya in his book.
Today, Herge's work is internationally acclaimed. Tintin is sold more than 200 million copies worldwide since 1929. Unfortunately, at Herge's time it was quite different. He wished that one day comic will be recognized as an art form, like books or cinema.
He was suggested by his well-wishers that he should concentrate on painting or perhaps writing. But, he thought that the way he could express in comic was different. He believed that writing was not for him, as he was a visual thinker. Fortunately, he did not give up on Tintin, otherwise the world might have never had 24 epic comic books.
The last room of the exhibition shed light on another lesser known aspect of Herge. The room was full of his posters and graphic design depicting his true advertising and promotional talents. With his partner Jose De Launoit, Herge designed illustrations for advertisements with his distinctive style of lettering, spacing and color.
But the hero of the exhibition was definitely Tintin. As a kid, Herge was ever alert and curious about everything, which earned him a nickname -- 'The curious fox', when he was in the Boy Scouts. Later he created a cartoon character just as curious as himself. Herge once said, "Tintin (and all the others) are me. They're my eyes, my senses, my lungs, my heart and soul!"
