Tintin

Lore & Background

Tintin's origins are tied to Hergé's early life and influences. Hergé noted that during his early schooling in the midst of World War I, when Belgium was under German occupation, he had drawn pictures in the margins of his school workbooks of an unnamed young man battling the Boches (a slang term for Germans). None of these early drawings survive. Hergé was also influenced by the physical appearance and mannerisms of his younger brother Paul, who had a round face and a quiff hairstyle. Hergé later stated that in his youth, 'I watched him a lot; he entertained me and fascinated me... It makes sense that Tintin took on his character, gestures, poses.' A few years after young Hergé joined Scouting, he became the unofficial artist for his Scout troop and drew a Boy Scout character for the national magazine Le Boy Scout Belge. This young man, whom he named Totor, travelled the globe and righted wrongs. Years later, Totor would be very much in Hergé's mind; his new comics character would be, Hergé himself later said, 'the little brother of Totor ... keeping the spirit of a Boy Scout.' Hergé had seen the new style of American comics and was ready to try it. Tintin's new comic would be a strip cartoon with dialogue in speech bubbles and drawings that carried the story. Young reporter Tintin would have the investigative acumen of Albert Londres, the travelling abilities of Palle Huld, and the high moral standing of Totor; the Boy Scout travelling reporter that Hergé would have liked to have been.

In Their Own Story

Tintin appeared after Hergé got his first job as a photographic reporter and cartoonist working at the Catholic newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle, where his director challenged him to create a new serialised comic for its Thursday supplement for young readers, Le Petit Vingtième. In the edition 30 December 1928 of the satirical weekly newspaper Le Sifflet, Hergé included two cartoon gags with word balloons, in which he depicted a boy and a little white dog. Abbe Wallez thought that these characters could be developed further, and asked Hergé to use characters like these for an adventure that could be serialised in Le Petit Vingtième. Hergé agreed, and an image of Tintin and Snowy first appeared in the youth supplement on 4 January 1929, in an advert for the upcoming series. Hergé would later insist that Tintin would only be 'born' on 10 January 1929, in the first episode of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. Hergé admitted that he did not take Tintin seriously in the early Adventures, explaining simply that he 'put the character to the test'; that he created Tintin 'as a joke between friends, forgotten the next day.' Hergé biographer Benoît Peeters noted that Tintin was 'supremely Belgian' in his characteristics. Hergé himself commented: 'my early works are books by a young Belgian filled with the prejudices and ideas of a Catholic, they are books that could have been written by any Belgian in my situation.'

Reader's Guide

The image of Tintin—a round-faced young man running with a white Fox Terrier by his side—is easily one of the most recognisable visual icons of the twentieth century. Hergé created Tintin as a young, blonde Belgian who is a native of Brussels. In his first appearance, Tintin is dressed in a long travelling coat and hat, a few pages later adopting his plus fours, check suit, black socks, and Eton collar. At first, the famous quiff is plastered to Tintin's forehead, but during a particularly vigorous car chase in what became page 8 of the printed volume, his quiff is out and remains so. Hergé was once asked by interviewer Numa Sadoul how the character Tintin developed; he replied, 'He practically did not evolve. Graphically, he remained an outline. Look at his features: his face is a sketch, a formula.' Hergé never explained why he chose Tintin as the character's name, stating that it has no inherent meaning. Michael Farr believes that 'Tintin' is probably the character's surname because other characters, such as his landlady, occasionally refer to him as Mr. Tintin (as printed on his doorbell). Tintin's age is never specified. Hergé commented, 'For me, Tintin hasn't aged. What age do I give him? I don't know ... 17? In my judgement, he was 14 or 15 when I created him, Boy Scout, and he has practically not moved on. Suppose he put on 3 or 4 years in 40 years ... Good, work out an average, 15 and 4 equals 19.' From Tintin's first adventure, he lives the life of a campaigning reporter. He is sent to the Soviet Union, where he writes his editor a dispatch. He travels to the Belgian Congo, where he engages in photojournalism. When he travels to China in The Blue Lotus, the Shanghai News features the front-page headline, 'Tintin's Own Story'. In The Broken Ear, with notebook in hand, Tintin questions the director of the Museum of Ethnography over a recent theft.

Did You Know?

• Hergé noted that during his early schooling in the midst of World War I, he had drawn pictures in the margins of his school workbooks of an unnamed young man battling the Boches (a slang term for Germans). None of these early drawings survive.
• Hergé was influenced by the physical appearance and mannerisms of his younger brother Paul, who had a round face and a quiff hairstyle.
• A few years after young Hergé joined Scouting, he drew a Boy Scout character named Totor for the national magazine Le Boy Scout Belge. Hergé later said Tintin was 'the little brother of Totor ... keeping the spirit of a Boy Scout.'
• Hergé would later insist that Tintin would only be 'born' on 10 January 1929, in the first episode of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.
• As of 1 January 2025, Tintin and other characters appearing in the original 1929 French comic strips entered the public domain in the United States.