Kate Beaton is a comics creator with a very odd sense of humor and style. Check out her web site for lots more comics but this one jumped out.
Thanks to the Repartee in the LJ Boy Reporter community for spotting this.
Tom McCarthy’s 2006 book, Tintin and the Secret of Literature is reviewed in the Los Angeles Times.
In France in particular, Tintin became a cottage industry, his exploits fodder for philosophers, psychoanalysts and literary critics, all of whom McCarthy leans on in asking, “Is ‘Tintin’ literature?” He notes the “huge irony . . . that the ‘Tintin’ books remain both unrivaled in their complexity and depth and so simple, even after more than half a century, that a child can read them with the same involvement as an adult.” But the question of whether they’re literature is not as interesting now, given the ascendance of pop culture. McCarthy seems to admit as much when he tweaks his query slightly: “As soon as we ask if ‘Tintin’ should be treated as literature, we raise another question: what is literature?”
Alexis Peskine, a Parisian artist of Afro-Brazilian and Lithuanian Jewish background has done some very interesting work exploring the contradictions in French society. Especially the racism and prejudice against immigrants from former colonies. Inevitably he has tackled Tintin.
The work is called “Tintin and your Kids” and depicts Tintin as skinhead. In the background a Congolese flag lies barely visible on a large stack of tires.
Peskine’s inspiration is drawn from what he regards as an overarching paradox in French society that symbolically awards French identity to all those who accept its norms while at the same time harboring prejudice toward immigrants from France’s former colonies. “It is illegal in France to perform a census that collects ethnic information,” Peskine said during an interview in his studio in Hoboken, N.J. “This idea came from long before immigrants ever arrived in France. There is a denial that there is ethnicity and race within Frenchness.”
From: French-Bred
I found these painted metal 28mm(?) miniatures on Monday Night Adventures, a blog on war games and miniatures.
They are produced by Copplestone Castings who lists them as 1920’s Characters - GN9 Sleuths and describes them as Boy Detective and dog.
AFP have a interesting story on how Herge’s original paintings for the Tintin strips are becoming highly collectable works of art.
A 1932 oil painted for by the Belgian author Herge for the cover of “Tintin in America” is the star item at a one-off sale of 650 comic originals Saturday in Paris, with a starting price of 280,000 euros (440,000 dollars).“A museum piece. Sublime,” writes the Artcurial gallery and auction house, which is organising the sale, in its catalogue.
Tintin publisher Raymond Leblanc died over the weekend. Comics Reporter have a good obituary.
A civil servant turned member of the French Resistance in World War II, the Longlier native partnered with two friends to create a small publishing company on Rue du Lombard in Brussels. Their big coup came in 1945 when they convinced Herge to bring his Tintin into the fold of a weekly publication devoted to kids to share the feature’s name. The cartoonist, already a success with a dozen albums to his credit but battered personally and professionally by the limited publishing opportunities during the war in a way that would drive criticism his way for the remainder of his days, accepted their offer. He recruited three friends — Paul Cuvelier, Edgard P. Jacobs, Jacques Laudy — to help him form the core of the magazine. They and their successors would take aim at the successful Spirou and forge a successful legacy for themselves at the same time.
Over on Now Read This there is a comprehensive review of Tintin and the Lake of Sharks
Although lacking the satirical edge of Hergé’s comedy, action and slapstick are still well represented in this tale which turns animation stills into sequential narrative, with admittedly mixed results. Purists who love the artist’s landmark and legendary Ligne Claire style will be deterred that is laid over and across fully-rendered, moulded and painted backgrounds, but although it is initially jarring, the story does swiftly carry the reader beyond such quibbles.
From Timothy McSweeney
- Tintin Interferes in the Georgian Election
- Tintin in Darfur
- Tintin Blames America First
- Prescription Drugs of the Canadians
- The Chinese Environmental Nightmare
- The Venezuelan Tin Ear
- The African-American Island
- President Milošević’s Sceptre
A quick round-up of Tintin related activity on the net.
Its as much us as a chocolate tintin! The WhyTravelToFrance blog found this edible boy-reporter in Boulogne-sur-mer. - Chocolate Tintin
Pop singer Mika appears to be a bit of a Tintin fan… “Then, the next day, I’ll be in Brussels, go to the Tintin shop and buy 15 cases of Tintin toys and make each member of my family carry one on the Eurostar.” - Brit Award Winner Mika: I’m Obsessed With Plastic Toys
Egmont, UK publisher of Tintin and numerous children books such as Thomas the Tank Engine, Shaun the Sheep and Mr Men, have a new group sales director in the form of Gillian Laskier. Isn’t it amazing what you can find out by reading trade journals. Egmont UK Appoints New Group Sales Director
What can you learn from writing comics? Possibly quite a lot according to an article in the Times Education Supplement. “In the old Tintin books, for example, the first part of the dialogue is always on the left of the picture and any action moves with the eye line from left to right, even going out of the frame sometimes.” - Class comics (The article reads like a press release for www.toondoo.com).
Madkinbeard’s blog has a write up of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin and Alpha-art in celebration of their US publication. “I should state right off that neither book is for the casual fan. Neither would stand up to scrutiny as an individual work, rather, each best serves to stand in the good company of the other volumes as contrast to the many masterworks of the series.” - Tintin: First and Last. Check out the rest of his blog for some good analysis and reviews of comics and Madkinbeard’s own web comic, Things Change.
LeTinTinMovie.com is reporting that Kirsten Myburgh has been cast as Tintin but Market Saw 3D is reporting inside information saying Myburgh has not been confirmed. He is just another casting call.
Never heard of Kirsten Myburgh? Its not surprising as, to be brutally honest, he is currently a nobody. His only role on IMDB is in a film called Garden Party where he plays ‘Friend with money’. If he does get the lead part in the Tintin Movie then he will go from nobody to somebody very quickly.
Digging around on Kirsten Myburgh official site I found a photo that might be connected to his potential role as Tintin. The plus-fours and jumper are very Tintin but the hat isn’t. Maybe he couldn’t get his hair into a quiff?
Explore the world of the Tintin Movie.
