Another story passed on to me by Kenny today – the Independent has a fine feature on Hergé by Paul Gravett (although it looks like it was published earlier), exploring the Belgian creator of Tintin’s life and influences (including the heavy Catholic church influence and the allegations of possible collaboration during the Nazi occupation years) – the recent BBC documentary covered some of the same ground, which doesn’t make this any less interesting since Paul knows his stuff (and if you didn’t get to see the documentary then this is a good substitute).
As Kenny remarked though, there is another story here, post Hergé, when his widow married Nick Rodwell who has inherited control over the Tintin estate, not always with happy consequences as described in this older article in the Telegraph. Rodwell is currently battling with Casterman over the rights to Tintin, which, as this post in the Actua BD blog (in French) remarks takes in international rights (and wonders if Casterman could lose them) and some unconfirmed hints at a movie with Spielberg. We’re wondering once the legal dust settles if we are, as with the recent Corto Maltese announcement, likely to see a new series of ‘officially licensed’ Tintin adventures being announced?
The Independent article has some nice extras at the end of Paul’s piece in the shape of some ‘Tintin and Me’ paragraphs by a variety of people, including Peter Blegvad, Michel Faber and Chris Ware. Meanwhile, over on the Tintinologist fan site Richard Wainman has a review of the Hergé exhibition which is running at the Pomidou Centre until the 19th of February in Paris.
Thu, Feb 1, 2007
Comics and cartoons