Tintin (Herge)

 

Tintin is a masterpiece created by Georges Remi, popularly known as Herge. Herge is nothing but French pronunciation of his reversed initials RG.

I have been reading Tintin comics since childhood. I enjoyed it with my kid brother, sharing the stories, discussing the plot, and laughing together. I did not stop reading after I completed all of them. I kept reading and re-reading.

After I started earning, I ensured I had all the copies of Tintin. My daughter joined the reading party. With her, I relived my childhood Tintin reading/discussion experiences.

In the meantime, I also read some fan-documentaries. Tintin The Complete Companion. Written by Michael Farr. There is an amazing amount of detail in each Tintin book. The amount of layers and details kept on increasing from early Tintin to late Tintins. You could also glean a lot of authentic details about culture, aviation technology, history, society, politics and many things if you look closely enough. Me, my brother, my daughter, all of us developed the habit of repeating each page, frame by frame, after the main storyline was over. We looked for minute details like:

• Is the aeroplane numbering and model consistent across pages?(fact: Always found them proper)
• Are they properly showing the Swayambhunath temple?(fact: Look at the temple 'eyes'. Too good)
• Is the red-white check pattern on the moon rocket a random choice (fact: It is not!)
• If the plane got carried north from Kathmandu then is Gosainthan a geographically accurate crash site (fact: it is!!)?
• Are there similarities between Professor Calculus' invention and Auguste Piccard's activities (fact: There are!!)
• Are there any patterns in the fictional Rumbaba and Arumbaya tribe languages in 'The Broken Ear'? (fact: There are!)
• Is there a single non-sensical cuss word used by Captain Haddock? (finding: maybe none! All the swear words are terms derived from mathematics/biology/psychology/etc)

None of these details are essential to the main storyline of the Tintin. But such is Herge's genius that these details are meticulously planned and maintained. That makes Tintin comics one of the highest achievements of human civilization. (Got a bit carried away I guess).

The project of digging into Tintin comics for more details continues. It is already a two-generation project. Me/my brother and my daughter. Maybe it will continue to 3rd generation as well, who knows? Here is a WIP excelsheet capturing our findings. Feel free to pitch in if you have more details. We will capture it in the excelsheet with due credit.

Happy Tintin-ing.