Artist Profile: Hergé

Georges Remi (Hergé)

The Brussels-born artist was most known for creating the comic "The Adventures of Tintin". For those of you who are not familiar with his work: Tintin is a comic book character from the late 1920's which has reached international fame with readers as well as art and literature critics. Hergé began his career working for a newspaper titled Le Petit Vingtième where he would illustrate detective stories for the children readers. One such detective story which resonated with readers was the story of Tintin and his dog Snowy.

The first story; "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" was published in 1929 by Le Petit Vingtième. The mix of humor, action, and the surprising amount of history and research Hergé had done for the story had made the artist an unexpected success. His next four books were published in the same fashion as his first and later reprinted in color separate from the newspaper. "Tintin in the Congo", "Tintin in America", "Cigars of the Pharaoh", and "The Blue Lotus" were equally successful works for Hergé. The future looked bright for the artist.

Hergé's success was put on halt when in 1939 there was a small complication involving international warfare. The artist joined the military as a reserve lieutenant which has temporarily stopped his work on his sixth Tintin book: "Land of Black Gold." During the war Le Petit Vingtième was shut down by the Nazi regime and Hergé was forced to find another way to publish his work. That venue was Le Soir, a french daily paper. Hergé published his next six Tintin stories in the paper during the war. After the war Hergé continued creating new Tintin stories, but because of his increasing depression and panic attacks the gap between comics had begun increasing. 

By the 1960's Tintin had begun moving into different forms of media including films and a magazine. In 1960 Hergé published one of his most emotional stories "Tintin in Tibet" which was influenced by his mental breakdowns. The story was awarded the Truth of Light award by the Dalai Lama for its beautiful depiction of Tibet. Hergé's last work "Tintin and Alph-Art" was left unfinished when he died in 1983.