BELGIUM: Belgium celebrates centenary of Herge -- author of cartoon classicTintin

Cartoon legend Tintin's creator Herge would have been 100 on Tuesday so Belgium celebrates one of its greatest heroes with a commemorative stamp collection and a new 20-euro coin displaying Herge's portrait. The creator of the intrepid young cartoon reporter Tintin, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, would have been 100 on Tuesday (May 22) and Belgium is marking the day with special events -- and stamps. Early in the morning the national radio station dedicated hours of air time to Remi, who created Tintin under the pseudonym Herge. He is also being commemorated with a stamp collection and a new 20-euro coin. The first stone of a new Tintin museum has been laid in Louvain and an exhibition of his drawings has been opened. Dozens of Tintin fans and collectors queued up at the main post office in the heart of Brussels to buy the exclusive 46 cent stamps. The post office printed 700,000 sheets using the original drawings from 23 of Tintin's book covers. Herge's black and white photograph also makes up part of the commemorative sheet, as well as the cover of a comic book Herge never finished, 'Tintin and the Alpha Art'. All in all there are 25 stamps. As a reminder of Tintin's incredible popularity throughout the world, the stamps showed the titles in different languages including Afrikaans, Mandarin and Swedish. Tintin envelopes were also printed for the occasion. Tintin first appeared in 1929 in a Belgian newspaper. Tintin and his faithful dog Snowy travel the world fighting crime in as many as 23 graphic novels -- known as "bandes dessinees" or, more fondly, "BD" in French. Tintin has sold more than 200 million copies worldwide. His very first trip took him to the Soviet Union, in "The adventures of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets"published in 1930. For 57 years, the young hero with a characteristic tuft of hair on top of his head, solved mysteries throughout the globe on missions that took him to Congo and Egypt, across North Africa and the Middle East, the Andes and America. Tintin is helped along the way by an eccentric family of characters such as Captain Haddock, Nestor, Professor Calculus and The Thomsons, twin brothers who are always getting into trouble. "Being a collector of both graphic novels and a philatelist, Herge was in at the start of graphic novels for adults and he is the one who gave it prestige. So I think the centenary of his birth is very important and should be celebrated," said fan Michel Noel. Another stamp collector, Jean-Claude Chauvaux, pointed out that Tintin reached the moon before the Americans, but said even they were charmed by him. Chauvaux could have been referring to a U.S. film studio's recent announcement that it was to make a series of Tintin films. Dreamworks founder Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, director and producer of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, are lined up to direct at least two of three features. Fan Xavier Albert commented: "It's important because Tintin is Belgian. It's a real event. I've known Tintin since I was very small, my parents had the whole collection. For me, it is something special to come here and get the stamps." A commemorative 20-euro coin has been minted, bearing Herge's portrait. It went on sale for the first time on Tuesday. The Mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielmans, said: "Whether you are Vietnamese or come from Provence or you are African, you recognise yourself in the story, the story always takes you away, it invites you to stay the end of the book and that's wonderful." Tintin celebrations are taking place throughout the year. FF/AD

ITN Source | May 23, 2007

Tags:. .museum. .moon. .drawings. .creator. .languages