A new exhibition on the life of work of Belgian comic artist Hergé – father of globetrotting, cowlicked reporter Tintin – opened yesterday at the Pompidou Center. I personally had no idea that such a show was in the offing until, in the course of some early-evening X-mas shopping in the Marais, I walked past Beaubourg and discovered the awesome billboard pictured above. Only after the 3rd or 4th shot did I look at the exhibition date and realize it was the first day.

I would hazard that, unless their parents were GIs, international businessmen, or Francophiles, most Americans my age, and even half a generation ahead, have only a peripheral notion of Tintin and the cult of Hergé – about as expansive as some European comic, perhaps including white dog, rocket, or camera. I first came across Tintin as bathroom reading at a childhood friend’s house. His parents were a couple of intellectual New York emigrés, and as their home was already an exotic toybox of sorts it seemed natural to discover a brightly-colored, crisply-lined French comic on the back of the commode. It was L’Oreille Cassée, or The Broken Ear, and Tintin was trying to retrieve a stolen indian artifact from some revolutionary South American dictatorship.

I didn’t think much of it at the time, except that it was completely unlike the Marvel or DC superhero universe of American comics that I, though not initiated into, was certainly aware of. It was obviously for kids but it had so much more authority, even if not maturity, than I associated with Yankee saddle-stapled comics. Its was of foreign provenance; it was in big, hardbound magazine format; and the subject, was, well it was a blonde
kid running around the jungle like Indiana Jones Jr. – something I, a young nerd, could relate too. One thing that struck me was how much the graphic style – and indeed the printing format and, well, language - reminded me of the Asterix and Obelix books my father had schlepped back from his college years in France. I had poured over those when I was very young, treating them as picture books and drinking in the setpiece illustrations, wordless gags, and fun little characters who were neither Disney, nor Warner, nor Hannah-Barbera. Side by side, the restrained ligne claire of Hergé, and Udenzo’s more calligraphic hand, are of course very differenct, but at the time, and even today, I could taste their common, Gallic flavor. I put L’Oreille Cassée back on the porcelain tank, to be flipped through casually again and again. I was not to gain further entrée in the world of bandes-dessineés until after college, when I discovered Moebius, Schuiten, Bilal and the other Humanoids Associates of the Franco-Belgian new wave.

But back to the Beaubourg…

While I’ll leave the biographic details up to the God-Wiki, I figure some introduction is in order. Here is the basic, chronological bio, as furnished by the wall copy:

1907 – Georges Remi is born into a modest family in Brussels on 22 May.
1924 – He signs his drawings with the pseudonym [RG], his initials reversed.
1925 – Georges Remi is recruited into the subscriptions department of Le XXe Siècle, a daily paper run by priest Norbert Wallez.
1928 – Hergé is given the responsibility of creating a children’s supplement for Le XXe Siècle. The first issue of Le Petit XXe appears on 1 November.
1929 – 10 January, birth of Tintin and Snowy in Le Petit XXe.
1930 – Creation of Quick et Flupke, also for Le Petit Vingtième.
1932 – Georges Remi marries Germaine Kieckens, Wallez’s secretary.
1934 – Working on The Blue Lotus with Chang, a Chinese student, convinces Hergé of the need to construct his stories in a better way, to avoid the use of stereotypical characters and to conduct more thorough research. Comic strips are no longer a game. Casterman starts publishing the Tintin albums.
1935 – Creation of Jo, Zette et Jock for French magazine Coers Vaillants.
1940 – The German invasion of Belgium puts a stop to Le XXe Siècle. Hergé goes on to publish Tintin in Le Soir which falls under the strict control of the occupying forces.
1942 – At the request of Casterman, Hergé adapts the old Tintin stories in order to publish them as standardized 62 page books in full colour.
1946 – On 26 September, publisher Raymond Leblanc launches Tintin magazine.
1950 – Hergé establishes Studios Hergé to be able to bring his most prestigious project, Explorers on the Moon, to a happy conclusion.
1958 – Hergé experiences a personal crisis, an event which influences the album Tintin in Tibet. This story could be read as a study of loyalty.
1960 – Hergé slows down his working rhythm. He discovers modern art, develops a passion for painting, and travels around the world with his new companion, Fanny Vlamynck.
1977 – Georges Remi marries Fanny Vlamynck on 20 May in Uccle, a suburb of Brussles.
1983 – Georges Remi, aka Hergé, dies in Brussels on 3 March.
1986 – Creation of the Hergé foundation on 30 December.

So there’s the short version. Now, on to the show:

The Exposition Hergé – which is free to visit, unlike the rest of the Centre Pompidou – begins on the mezzanine of the lobby. Seven free-standing walls offer an introductory glance at Hergé’s life and work, whetting the appetite for the more substantial portion of the show, which is on floor -1. The facing side of the walls, from left to right, feature samples of his oeuvre in chronological order. Early pieces include work for the Belgian Boyscout magazine; precise, geometrically graphic one-off comics; a selection of some of his design work (I especially like his logo for the Scouts); pieces from Le XXe Siècle; and, throughout, the developing Tintin. On offer is everything from working pencil sketches to unlettered black-and-white plates and full-color prints.

On the rear of the free-standing walls is a textbook-styled biography, with various illustrations and photos accompanied by, unfortunately, rather scant captions and illustrative quotes. The center three walls have a cute, notated panorama of the many characters that appeared throughout the Tintin volumes, below:

The show runs until 19 February, and can easily be taken in at just-shy of an hour. Even if you’re not a BD fan, I highly recommend giving it a look. My good buddy Ian, himself a big comic geek, is coming into town shortly and I’m stoked to bring him. It’s fun, it’s free – don’t miss it.

(click any of the pics to jump to the Flickr set)