In his blog on Tintin.com, quite aptly titled “Nick’s Blog”, Rodwell considerably upped the ante in a row with a select group of journalists that has been going on for years.  Hugues Dayez, the author of Tintin Et Les Heritiers (Tintin And The Inheritors), a very critical view on the way Moulinsart is curating Hergé’s legacy, is also the creator of a documentary film that proved, amongst others, that Moulinsart keeps a black list of journalists and Tintin specialists who are to be discredited at all times.  Rodwell succeeded in having the RTBF broadcast blocked by the court, but that didn’t seem enough.

Rodwell seems to have been digging around in the private lives of Dayez and his colleague Albert Algoud, and found out that both have an autistic child.  Which, to Rodwell, is the reason why both journalists feel such hatred for him : “If you have a passion for something, such as Tintin, you want to share that with your son.  If that turns out to be impossible, you become frustrated and you start looking for a scapegoat.”

In another piece, Rodwell attacked Journal Des Arts journalist Sophie Flouquet, who had written an article about the Hergé Museum, stating that it was not very child friendly.  For some reason, Rodwell felt it necessary to stress that Flouquet is a widow – maybe he was driven by his own personal frustration at having his wife constantly referred to as Hergé’s widow ?

(Tintin and his faithful furry companion, Snowy, by Hergé, (c) Moulinsart)

Reactions on tintin.com and other sites (such as French daily Le Monde, Belgian daily La Derniere Heure, or Le Soir) were livid – it would seem that everybody agrees that Rodwell has crossed the line, and would have to make amends if he wants the press to ever cover Tintin in a favourable way again.

One could use the celebrity’s adage that any publicity is good publicity.  However, with Tintin taking up centre stage in the Brussels Comics festivities, the opening of the Musée Hergé and the constant brouhaha about the upcoming Tintin movie, Moulinsart doesn’t really need to resort to below-the-belt tactics like this.  Moreover, Rodwell’s blog, now off-line, was presented and defended as his own personal forum, not an official Moulinsart podium. Still, as tintin.com webmaster Alain De Kuyssche told Belgian daily De Morgen on tuesday, the upheavel has resulted in a lot of new visitors for the Moulinsart website.  “It’s better advertising than I could have come up with”, De Kuyssche said.  In order to calm things down a bit, it is said that Rodwell will only state facts in his future blogs.  Which will be collected in a book, slated for 2012.  After the movie, that is.

Wim Lockefeer lives in Belgium and is wondering why he seems to be being followed by two similar looking private detectives with moustaches; you can read more of Wim’s thoughts on comics and art on his Ephemerist blog.

(a screen grab from the China Central Television piece on the Belgian comics murals)

Marlier’s art has always been loved by young girls and loathed by their parents for their combination of almost photo-realistic rendering and sugar-coated sweetness.  The stories themselves are typically non-threatening and quite sociologically conservative and conformist in nature, placing them, along with Barbie, right in the firing line of many a generational class in so-called progressive households in the 70’s.

(one of Marcel Marlier’s illustrations so beloved by Michael Jackson; in the interests of our reader’s health we must warn you this image contains 125% of your RDA of sugary goodness)

In the SudPresse interview, Marlier tells how he and his wife met Michael Jackson a couple of times.  The first time, he received a phone call late at night, and neither of them actually knew who Michael Jackson was.  But they listened to his music and watched some of his video’s, and the couple met the King of Pop in Paris, where they were greeted as old friends.

Marlier showed some of his original paintings to Jackson, who sat down caressing them and telling Marlier he was a true artist, “gifted by God”.  Jackson offered to buy all of Marlier’s art for an immense amount of money, but Marlier refused, having rigorously guarded all his artwork since the 1950’s.  Marlier’s wife remembers that, “when he was shown the Martine paintings, he was all over the room.  It was a bit of a childish reaction, – C’était une réaction un peu enfantine – but Michael was a very touching person, very close to the people he met.”

The Martine books are published in English by Ward Lock, with the title character rechristened “Mary” (two Nintendo DS games, based on the first and eighth book of the series, talk of Emma, however).

(via Belgian literary blog De Papieren Man)

Wim Lockefeer often confuses the ‘moonwalk’ with ‘cakewalk’, which has lead to a mess of flour and baking soda on the dance floors of Belgium;  you can read more from Wim on his Ephemerist blog.

But another hero is making his presence known on the silver screen, wearing blue jeans, a yellow shirt and a big, white, ten-gallon hat.  Yes, it’s Lucky Luke, the man who shoots faster than his own shadow.  Slated for release in October, it’s the story of the Poor Lonesome Cowboy returning to Daisy Town, the place where he grew up.  In this town, which is now ruled by outlaws like Pat Poker and Billy The Kid, Lucky Luke confronts the killer of his parents.  But don’t expect a dark and broody Batman-like tale: the movie is supposed to be a faithful adaptation of the comic books, which combined suspense and adventure with lavish splashes of slapstick and satire.

(one of the English-language editions of Lucky Luke’s albums published by Cinebook)

In an interview with Le Figaro, director James Huth tells how he has tried to track down Lucky Luke’s back story across the many, many stories.  It turned out that, except for the first album, Lucky Luke has never killed any opponent, but still, he seemed to carry along a heavy burden, never committing to anything or anybody, and always riding off into the sunset. Huth has tried to insert that back story into his film, without betraying the tradition of creators Goscinny and Morris.  Lucky Luke is not a glib macho man – he is a quintessentially European cowboy, always upright and strong, and talking French without anybody noticing it.

Lucky Luke was created by Belgian cartoonist Maurice De Bevere (or Morris) in 1946 for Le Journal The Spirou, but only after Morris started working with René Goscinny (who later would also father Astérix), Lucky Luke became one of the classic titles in the Franco-Belgian tradition.  The stories, which were set in a mythical far west, typically the phlegmatic cowboy entering some border town and righting the pestering wrongs there.  They played on the clichés of the genre, with humour that nowadays probably would be considered quite racist (lazy Mexicans, sneaky Chinese), but also with a special sort of benign satire, mirroring contemporary social platitudes. Especially the asides by Jolly Jumper, Lucky Luke’s faithful horse, give the books an extra level of meaning.

It’s not the first time that these books have been turned into films.  No less than three series of television cartoons (one of them co-produced by Hannah-Barbera, hot on the trail of the success that the Smurfs had proved to be) and four animated features films were made along the years.  Italian action star Terrence Hill starred in two live-action films, which weren’t that much of a success.  The 2004 film, Les Daltons, showed that moviegoers liked a comic adaptation that stayed close to the visual style of the books, and paved the way for the latest one.

Wim Lockefeer is disappointed to learn that with his native Belgium being metric he can only get a ten litre cowboy hat, which just isn’t the same; you can read more from Wim on his Ephemerist blog.