Hergé

Lore & Background

Hergé was born to a lower-middle-class family in Etterbeek, Brussels. He began his career contributing illustrations to Scouting magazines, developing his first comic series, The Adventures of Totor, for Le Boy-Scout Belge in 1926. Working for the conservative Catholic newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle, he created The Adventures of Tintin in 1929 on the advice of its editor Norbert Wallez. The early instalments—Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Tintin in the Congo, and Tintin in America—were designed as conservative propaganda for children. Influenced by his friend Zhang Chongren, from 1934 Hergé placed far greater emphasis on background research, resulting in increased realism from The Blue Lotus onward. Following the German occupation of Belgium in 1940, Le Vingtième Siècle was closed, but Hergé continued his series in Le Soir, a newspaper controlled by the Nazi administration.

Reader's Guide

After the Allied liberation of Belgium in 1944, Le Soir was shut down and its staff—including Hergé—accused of having been collaborators. An official investigation was launched, but no charges were brought against Hergé, though he repeatedly faced accusations of being a traitor and collaborator. With Raymond Leblanc he established Tintin magazine in 1946, serializing new Adventures of Tintin stories. In 1950 he established Studios Hergé, with staff members Jacques Martin and Bob de Moor contributing to subsequent volumes. Amid personal turmoil after the collapse of his first marriage, he produced Tintin in Tibet, his personal favorite. In later years he became less prolific and unsuccessfully attempted to establish himself as an abstract artist. Hergé's works have been widely acclaimed for their clarity of draughtsmanship and meticulous, well-researched plots, and have been adapted into theatre, radio, television, cinema, and computer gaming. He remains a strong influence on the comic book medium, particularly in Europe, and a Hergé Museum was established in Louvain-la-Neuve in 2009.

Did You Know?

• Hergé's pen name comes from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials, R.G.
• He created The Adventures of Tintin in 1929 on the advice of editor Norbert Wallez.
• After the war, Hergé faced accusations of collaboration for continuing his series in Le Soir, a newspaper controlled by the Nazi administration.
• He established Studios Hergé in 1950 to aid in his ongoing projects.