The comic book adventures of Tintin, an intrepid young reporter who travels the world, contain racist stereotypes, lack fleshed-out female characters and can be read as products of a bygone era. But nearly a century after he was first created by Belgian cartoonist Hergé, Tintin remains one of France’s favourite characters. Why?
Renaud Nattiez is what is known as a "tintinophile", or Tintin lover.
A former diplomat and teacher, he has devoted himself to the character since 2016, writing seven books about him and managing an imprint of the Harmattan publisher dedicated to Tintin and Hergé.
And yet, Nattiez agrees the 24 albums featuring the young Belgian reporter with a distinctive lock of sticking-up hair and faithful dog Snowy have their problems.
“There is criticism from all sides,” he says, pointing to leftist critiques in the 1970s that called Tintin a reactionary, and more recent concerns about anti-Semitism and racist stereotypes .
Listen to Nattiez talk about Tintin in the Spotlight on France podcast:
Nattiez’s latest book, Faut-il brûler Tintin? (Should we burn Tintin?) addresses the critiques, and explores “why, despite all these problems, we in the 21st century still remain fascinated by Tintin”.
“I did not want to write an adulation of Tintin – something unconditional that refuses to see what can be criticised,” he says, pointing to Tintin in the Congo as an example.
In the 1931 story, the second in the series, Tintin travels to what was then a Belgian colony, and Hergé drew people with big lips and no hair, speaking broken French, who look to Tintin as a kind of white saviour.
“Tintin in the Congo is often presented as rather colonialist, even racist, and I think that even if the criticism is justified, the book needs to be put into context,” says Nattiez.
Georges Remi – who later took the pen name Hergé – had created Tintin as a serialised comic strip in the Petit Vingtième, the weekly youth supplement of a conservative daily paper, Le Vingtième Siècle, that was managed by a right-wing Catholic priest, Norbert Wallez.
After the success of the first story, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, published in 1929, Wallez asked Remi to send Tintin to Belgian Congo – a colony since 1908 – to introduce colonialism to the paper’s young readers.
Hergé later said he was not enthusiastic about writing the story; he would have preferred to send Tintin to the United States, as a counterweight to the USSR. In a 1979 interview with Belgian public radio, he said that if he were to redo it, Tintin in the Congo would be very different.
Hergé, who died in 1983, made 24 Tintin albums, and Nattiez says that his work evolved. He gives the example of The Castafiore Emerald, published in 1963, in which Tintin and his sidekick Captain Haddock take the defence of the Romani community, who were victims of racism and exclusion.
Beyond nostaglia
Tintin may be a product of his time, but he has made it to the 21st century, continuing to sell half a million copies in France each year, according to publisher Casterman.
Comic book shops have entire shelves devoted to Tintin albums, though they are not the main driver of their sales.
“These were seen as good books, with a positive character, without too much violence, with a bit of a Boy Scout spirit,” explains Ludo, who runs the Univers BD shop in northern Paris.
A Tintin fan himself, he has devoted three small shelves to the series – the commercial colour albums, reproductions of the black-and-white originals and books about Tintin and Hergé.
But buyers aren't the kids who come looking for mangas or other more contemporary comics.
“Often the clientele [for Tintin] are people who are looking to complete their collection, because one book has been damaged or lost,” he says. “They introduce them to their children.”
In other shops Tintin dominates, like at the Album BD shop in Paris' Latin Quarter, on a street lined with comic book stores, where a model of the red-and-white chequered rocket that Tintin takes to the moon features prominently out front.
Merchandise – key chains, figurines, mugs and card games – make up 60 percent of sales, subsidising the books.
“Many people come in looking for something for their grandchildren,” says salesperson Sophie. “There is the idea of transmission.”
But for Nattiez, the popularity of Tintin goes beyond nostalgia. He points to the over 600 books written about Tintin and Hergé, and the interest not just from older readers, but from academics and elsewhere.
No new Tintin?
For him, there is something inherently appealing about the series. Tintin is a normal person, who goes on extraordinary adventures. He is drawn very simply, with little expression, allowing anyone to identify with him.
And according to Nattiez, most of the books have a very consistent narrative structure.
“I think subconsciously – even if Hergé was probably not aware of it – the reader expects to find specific events at specific moments, and it’s reassuring,” he says.
After the initial intrigue, every book ends with a celebration of Tintin, a return home, and then a final joke.
“It is usually on page 62, which is traditionally the last page. You’ll have a final gag, often with Captain Haddock or the Thomson twins falling over,” he says.
“When you take Tintin apart, you find this every time. People will say, ‘oh, maybe this features in all comic books’, so I looked elsewhere to check. But I didn’t find the same thing in other comics, or even in Hergé’s other books.”
Unlike other comics such as Asterix, which have continued producing albums with new writers and illustrators, Tintin is static – Hergé never wanted anyone else to add to his series.
His heirs have respected his wish, until now, though there are questions of what will happen when Tintin enters the public domain at the end of 2053, 70 years after his creator's death.
“I would say that to some extent, the fact that there is no new Tintin is perhaps an advantage,” says Nattiez, who would not welcome a new installment.
“Maybe the fact that there are no new Tintin books incites people to write about him – maybe to exorcise his death.”
More on Tintin in the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 94.
