Pierre Assouline - Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin

Pierre Assouline

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PIERRE ASSOULINE

THE MAN WHO CREATED TINTIN

Another die-hard fan was Steven Spielberg, with whom he negotiated unsuccessfully to bring Tintin, Captain Haddock, Snowy, and all the rest to Hollywood. Twenty years later, Herge's widow, Fanny, revived talks with Spielberg to re-create Tintins adventures on film, the first of which will release in the winter of 2011.

PIERRE ASSOULINE is a journalist and writer whose columns appear regularly in Le Monde and L'Histoire. He has written biographies of photographer Henri CartierBresson and detective novelist Georges Simenon, among others. He is also a film producer and winner of the prestigious Prix de la Langue Francaise. Assouline lives in Paris.

CHARLES RUAS (translator) has written reviews and articles that have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, ARTnews, and Art in America, among other publications.

He is the author of Conversations with American Writers and translator of Michel Foucaults Death and the Labyrinth. Ruas lives in New York.

JACKET DESIGN: CAROLINE MCDONNELL

COVER IMAGE: LE JOURNAL DE TINTIN FETE SES 20 ANS

UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Pierre Assouline s text copyright 1996 by Pierre Assouline and PLON Originally published in France under the tide Hergi

Translation copyright 2009 by Charles Ruas

Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Assouline, Pierre.

Herg6: the man who created Tintin / Pierre Assouline; translated by Charles Ruas. p. cm.

This first English-language edition retains the core but not the totality of the original French edition.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-19-539759-8

1. Herg^, 1907-1983. 2. CartoonistsBelgiumBiography. I. Title.

PN6790.B43H47264 2009

741.5092dc22 [B] 2009022411

This first English-language edition retains the core but not the totality of the original French edition.

987654321

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

To you three

What if I told you that I put my whole life into Tintin?

Herge, 1982

preface ix

1. A Life in Gray: 1907-1925 3

2. Scoutmaster in the Twentieth Century: 1925-1929 11

3. The Many Births of Tintin: 1929-1934 19

4. What Chang Taught Herge: 1934-1936 48

5. Eye of the Storm: 1936-1940 54

6. The Golden Age: 1940-1944 69

7. The Plight of the Inciviques: 1944-1946 105

8. The Dark Years: 1946-1950 120

Vll

Vlll

CONTENTS

9. Toward Fulfillment: 1950-1958 147

10. The Demon of Purity: 1958-1960 184

11. Finishing Touches: 1960-1973 193

12. The End of a Life, the Culmination of His Work: 1973-1983 207

abbreviations used in notes 235

notes 236 select bibliography 256 list of works by herge 259 acknowledgments 261

index 263

Herg became so completely identified with Tintin that whenever he arrived at a reception it was as if Lewis Carroll were making an appearance at a childrens tea party. His easy serenity and friendly manner, the gende magnetism of his presence, made everyone forget that the character he created inhabited only a paper universe. I have to confess right at the start that until I began my research I was also guilty of this illusion, because, like so many others, my childhood and adolescence were conditioned by my passion for Tintin. It s still difficult to underestimate the impact of his work on several generations of Europeans. Countless numbers of people claim to be complete strangers to the world of comic strips and never read comic books, then add, Except for Tintin!

I first considered doing a biography of Georges Remi, alias Herge, as a result of a conversation with my friend Andre Versailles, an editor in Brussels, who managed to plant a serious doubt about the true nature of this creative genius.

Sometime later, after appearing on the television program about books called Bouillon de Culture, I was backstage talking with panelists and members of the audience over a glass of wine when guests from Wallonia French-speaking Belgiumsaid, You understand that Simenon and Herge are our two sacred monsters ... but if both are admired, Herge is also loved. Belgians would not stand for your treating Herge the way you did Simenon. I wondered why. The journalist in me suddenly became curious.

The following month at a book signing in Brussels a distinguishedlooking elderly gentleman handed over a book to be inscribed and said, May I suggest that you devote your next work to Herge? The subject is prodigiously interesting, and in portraying his life you would be telling the

story of Belgium in the twentieth century. And as Belgium is on the verge of disappearing, it would be timely.