His adventures were based in reality, drawn from whatever photographs that Herge could conjure up, and the memories his friends  brought back from their travels. But the tales were never meant to be exercises in realism, but rather elaborate fantasies.

The hunt for a story always evolved into an adventure.
The ambitious reporter who goes looking for a story only to become embroiled in it.

Crystal Skull - where others were annoyed by leaps of logic [the innability to suspend their belief], I saw Tintin's wonderful blend of adventure, thrills, and slapstick. Herge was clearly inspired in equal parts by Chaplin and Keaton as he was Jules Verne.

I know that a lot of you are a bit baffled by this Tintin character. I've seen the puzzled expressions on people's faces, and heard people talking about the film's strange name. As Americans, we are often guilty of not realizing that worldwide phenomenons could exist without our inclusion, but Tintin is most certianly the greatest case of such a phenomenon. Tintin originated in 1929 by the Belgian cartoonist, Herg&eacute. Herg&eacute; would go on to both write and draw Tintin stories up until his death in 1983. Tintin books have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide with only a scant percentage of those sales originating in the US. All through Europe exist entire stores dedicated to nothing but officially sanctioned Tintin merch. There's even a Tintin museum in Herg&eacute;'s homeland of Belgium. And Tintin stories originally published in the mid-1900s are routinely broken apart in order to be published in daily newspapers. Although Tintin readers likely have their copies of the books on their shelves, Tintin is still so popular that it gets more real estate in the paper than the current comic strips combined. Tintin is as big as the Beatles, as big as <em>Star Wars</em>. Just not here.

Herge creditied for pioneering the ligne claire style ("clear line"). In cinematic terms, this style creates an atmosphere similar to deep focus photography.

"Secret of the Unicorn" dropped from American poster and trailer for fear that it might keep boys from buying tickets.

Herge Museum in Belgium - http://www.museeherge.com/

One of the great things going for it is that it would be hard to complain about the adapatation. You can't mimic the books because the dialog is so stilted (this is old comix after all). What they need to get right is the tone. More than  any other existing property I can think of, Tintin MUST be adapted for a film presentation. What they got right--so far--is replicating the look.

It'll probably be a loose adaptation that hopefully gets the tone right. But, here's the thing: Spielberg's already made a film that's pretty close to Tintin. Indiana Jones KOTCS with all of it's goofiness is pretty close. Yeah, that movie was another step away from Raiders because it was so slapstick and not serious (except in parts). If he gets that goofy tone all the way through, you'd have Tintin. I say move Indiana Jones back towards Raiders and keep that tone for Tintin instead.

Alph-Art pirated at leat three times: http://www.free-tintin.net/english/alph-art.htm

In America (1945)

10/4 - no splash pages, but large panels to show intense action/drama. Tintin is high in the frame to convey his literal height. The comic mostly utilizes panels much like newspaper comic strips: full-body panels and medium shots.

13/1-3,7-9 - see how camera angle and framing are used to indicate the action of dumping the body, then the diminished power of the men being held up.

18 - perspective shot shows distance between horses, cut to close-up for action, Tintin flies out of frame. The reactions of all four characters (even Tintin's horse) are conveyed through drawings rather than words. Also, take a look at Herge's panel boxess themselves--they're not consistent. For a page such as this, where each panel is roughly the same proportion, the effect is to keep the flow of the action feeling dynamic. Had Herge gone with a rigid grid--all panels being exactly equal in width, and perfectly aligned--it would have impacted the reader's perception of the events. It's a subtle effect, but it matters.

22/4 - in-panel close-up

23 - action repeated in inverse--Tintin being shot at by the mobster, Bobby Smiles. Both pages end on a cliff-hanger. Herge's understanding of storytelling through panel and page pacing is phenominal.

28/3 - skinny Snowy

28/7-8 - comedy in graphic match. Herge can't convey the movement of these characters as they fly into the air in a single "shot" so he utilizes  cut instead.

31/9,11 - comedy in graphic match

47/1-3 - imitation of a camera tracking in

47/11-15 - ascension up the stairs

New editions of Tintin in America feature a shot of Tintin riding a horse rather than the cover that was in print for decades. It's a great image, but it doesn't have the same impact as the one I grew up with; the one that sent me running to my mom, begging her to buy it. That cover promised adventure, danger, and a window into history. It's image was rendered in deep focus. But we, unfortunately, now live in an era where corporations are so scared of offending that they often overreact, and where an image--no matter how accurately drawn to history--featuring a white tied up and under threat by a Native American is automatically presumed to be racist.

Cite how Herge was attempting to represent the world rather than demean it. I recall reading/hearing (the Herge docu?) that Herge hadn't been to the locations that Tintin had and that he relied on accounts and photographs from friends. Also, he is a cartoonist and cartooning is a type of caricature. Caricature relies on stereotypes (also note how Tintin himself looks: round-headed, pale skinned European). Show large-panel images of cultures such as the elephant panel in Cigars of the Pharoah, the street scene in Blue Lotus. Blue Lotus also features the commentary of the white man wanting to beat on the Chinese, an overt reference to Herge's disgust in racists. We may not appreciate some of his language choices ("yellow") or his caricatures today, but we need to recognize that if Herge was creating these works tday instead of the early 1900s, his images and language would be different; he's not the racist some want to make him out to be.

These are not the Native Americans of Disney's Peter Pan (1953).

Cartooning, by its very nature, is a form of elegant, stylized simplification.

Herge's drawings delve into caricature, and the fact that Tintin is a world traveller means that races and cultures are often caricatured through the act of cartooning. The storys' slapstick often leads readers to assume racism where none is actually present. Herge may caricaturize, but he doesn't stereotype. His drawings caricturize, but his story's don't aim to stereotype.