Week Two, do you think comics are a children's or adult genre/media?

I never read Tintin when I was younger, however after reading the Blue Lotus recently I really enjoyed it and found the detail of the settings, characters and situations that Tintin found himself in much more appealing than I would have when I was younger. Perhaps this is because I can now understand some of the underlying messages that Herge has placed in the comics. For example when the Chinese man is yelled at by a Western man and is called a “dirty little China man”. I found that reading the comic now I could interpret Herge’s underlying message of class structure and culture. However, my brother read a lot of comic books when he was younger and enjoyed Tintin. Maybe this was because Tintin was aimed towards a young male audience. The adventure section of Tintin seems to appeal to younger audiences and the character of Tintin is easily relatable to teenagers. Tintin is a teenage boy and has characteristics such as loyalty, bravery, a passion for adventure and he is somewhat naive towards other characters. Children can relate well to Tintins character as they too, are around the same age and can relate to some of Tintin’s traits.

Tintin has become a global brand. There are owebsites where people are able to order Tintin merchandise online. The Tintin store in England also offers a full range of Tintin products for shoppers, they are able to purchase items such as books, posters, t-shirts, Snowy toys, shopping bags and much more. The brand that has come out of Tintin can appeal to both adults and children and the generation of Tintin readers who are now adults are able to escape back their childhood through Tintin comics and comic books in general.

With the release of the Tintin movie in 2011 both children and adults were able to enjoy a film version of Tintin’s adventures. Stephen Spielberg directed the film, which must have appealed to him, and being an adult shows that comics can appeal to both adults and children. Tintin may also appeal to adults as they can appreciate the amount of research the Herge put into his comics “before drawing the red sea sharks, Herge and his studio assistant Bob de Moor spent several weeks on a Swedish cargo ship, sketching and photographing everything they could” Horrocks (2003). Many adult readers can regognise the settings in the comics and this could appeal to them as they understand and appreciate the amount of effort and time that Herge put into his work. Both adults and children can enjoy comic books and I believe that the genre is suitable for any age group.

Reference:

Horrocks, D. The Perfect Planet. Comics, Games and World-Buidling. Retrieved from http://www.hicksville.co.nz/PerfectPlanet.htm

Herge and his research on China

How did Hergé research China for The Blue Lotus?

In previous Tintin comics Herge had fallen into the trap of stereotyping other cultures. For example in Land of the Soviets, the Chinese are portrayed as ‘evil’ torturers with slit eyes and long black ponytails.  To date the foreign lands that Tintin had travelled were clichés of the 1920s and 1930s. Bolsheviks were evil,

Americans were seen as gangsters or capitalists and Red Indians were gullible and naïve.

The Blue Lotus represents a turning point in his work. For the first time an adventure has a carefully devised structure. It is more firmly rooted in reality, and carefully planned. All this planning, research and structure came from Chang Chong-chen.

Herge was introduced to Chang Chong-chen in 1934. Chang Chong-chen was a Chinese art student from Brussels.  A priest (Father Gosset) who was a chaplain to the Chinese students wrote to Herge asking him to avoid clichés and have a closer look at the Chinese and do his research properly. Herge always keen to learn and a bit of a perfectionist took on his advice and met Chang Chong-chen.

Herge believed that up until his encounter with Chang, China was filled of slit-eyed people who were cruel, rude and had long ponytails. The pictures and stories of the time influenced Herge and his perception on China was incorrect.

Herge wanted to change the perception people had on China and felt that these prejudices needed to change. On page 43 Tintin pulls a boy out of the river, the boy is in shock and cannot believe that Tintin is helping him. They talk about how one another’s culture is judged “you see, different peoples don’t know enough about each other”.

After meeting and talking to Chang, Herge began his ‘documentalist’ period. Herge began to look for real pictures of China, he started sketching how the Chinese dress and the architecture. He wanted people to see what China was really like. It is evident in the Blue Lotus that Herge, has portrayed China accurately, not only in terms of its setting and attention to detail on people and buildings but also political events.  

Week Two: Our Beloved Tintin. A Comic Hero.

Our beloved Tin Tin.  Why is he so dearly loved from generation to generation?  First impressions of Tin Tin In The Blue Lotus by Herge: the smart happy-go-lucky courageous one.  Full of life and gumption, he is the thinker, the adventurer, he makes mistakes and is quite the likable lad.  Children all over the world adore him and his dog Snowy.

Can a comic, such as The Blue Lotus by Herge (Georges Remi) be considered serious literature? Sales of Tintin books, audio visual cartoons, memorabilia, and the latest box office hit The Secret of the Unicorn, could prove that the comic strip is certainly a profitable genre, and a popular canon of literature.  Using Tintin as an example, it could even be suggested that the global public are voting yes to comics as an accepted and viable form of literature.  As proof, Tintin has been translated from French into numerous languages and sells all over the world.

Farr (1991) cites Herge as saying “Tintin was aimed at all young people aged from seven to seventy-seven” and suggests that the appeal is “self-generating”.  There appears to be an almost transitional slide from childhood appreciation to adult appreciation as the child “will be gripped by the excitement of Tintin” but the adult will appreciate the greater depth of the storyline and “will additionally find political satire and parody, puns and prescience”.   Hence the appeal to such a range of ages.

From an adult reader’s point of view, The Blue Lotus storyline reveals some of Herge’s interests in politics particularly those of 1930’s China.  At a time of the impending World War II,  Herge’s astute portrayal of China at that time hints at the global doom and gloom to come.  The storyline follows the blowing up of the Nanking Railway and his characters portray his distaste of the threat of a Japanese invasion of China. (Herge, 2002).  “and once again Japan has fulfilled her mission as guardian of law and civilization in the Far East!  If we have been forced, to our utmost regret, to send troops into China, it is for the good of China herself!”

According to Farr (1991), "a lifelong fascination with China was awakened by Chang".  Herge's bias towards China was mainly owing to his great friend Chang Chong-chen from whom he gleaned much advice and inspiration.   Chang Chong-chen even appears as a character in The Blue Lotus and is rescued from drowning by Tintin.  Herge uses this as an opportunity to convey his point of view “but Chang, all white men aren’t wicked.  You see different peoples don’t know enough about each other” (Herge, 2002).

Varnum & Gibbons (2001) cite “comics is one of the most popular and pervasive media forms of our increasingly visual age” and that “pictures seem more transparent than words, but often their transparency is illusory.  They convey ideas and values, and reading them requires sophistication and skill”.  That is to say that the storyline may on the surface appear superficial but, upon reading, deeper meaning, subtext and point of view can be revealed.   The difference between a cartoon, comics and a graphic novel is that “none of the members of the family shares one feature in common with all the others, but any two share common features.”

Walne (2011) cites that Tintin’s “adventures were originally intended for children, but the incredible art and stories offer a timeless appeal for all ages”.

According to Makarechi (2012) of the online newspaper, The Huffington Post, “Tintin hysteria has never really died down since the series debuted in 1929”. 

References:

Farr, Michael. (1991). Tintin: the complete companion. London: John Murray.

Herge. (2002). The Blue Lotus. London, England: Egmont Books Limited.

Varnum, R. & Gibbons, C. (Ed.). (2001). The Language of Comics: word and image. Jackson: U Press of Mississippi.

Walne, T. (2011). How Tintin comics became a rich investment.  Retrieved on August 1, 2012, from http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-1717174/How-Tintin-comics-became-a-rich-investment.html

Makarechi, K. (2012).  Tintin covers sells for $1.6 million at auction.  Retrieved August 1, 2012, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/02/tintin-cover-sells-16-million_n_1565416.html