The Art of Herge, Inventor of Tintin, Volume 1: 1907-1937

The Art of Hergé #1

by Philippe Goddin

The first in a three-volume series, The Art of Herge presents a selection of Herge's outstanding, often unpublished drawings showing the diversity of his work and offering the reader a view of the range of his talent.

Georges Remi, better known as Herge, the creator of Tintin & Snowy, was born a century ago. He left us an exceptional legacy. From his child

Genres: Art, Comics, Biography, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 2008

About the author

Philippe Goddin is a leading Tintinologist, i.e., an expert on The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé, and author of several books on Tintin and his creator. He was general secretary of the Fondation Hergé from 1989 to 1999.

Reviews

[auden · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I really enjoyed the book, it could have used a copy editor. There were more than a few rather obvious grammatical and spelling errors, and the text was clunkier than it should have been. It's a real shame, because the art is amazing and the story told by the text is interesting. It just needed some polishing. Also note that this isn't a normal biography of Herge, as it's more focused on the art he did. Unless you're a big Tintin fan, this book probably won't be of much interest.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having just read through all of the published works of Tintin, I spotted this and a few other ancillary works. I knew nothing of Herge so I was curious to see more. It was interesting to see an artist, known for one work of relatively simple style, doing a whole bunch more. Clearly Herge could do many types of art. It would be kind of awesome to see something like this for other artists, illustrators. From casual drawings, to advertisements to other cartoon creations, it was cool to see more of Herge. And then intermixed with these was the Adventures of Tintin, including a summary of what Tintin was doing in that year - the summary I could have done without, except for where it added more understanding of where Herge got the source material. All in all, not bad but not great 3.5 of 5.

[Mathilde Fomsgaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great in-depth view of Hergè’s career. This first book tells the start of how Hergè as an artist and how he since created Tintin and other creations. If your interested in only the tintin aspect, you can skip this one, but if you want the whole story of the artist Hergè - this one is a must! Everything from comic panels, sketches, commercial posters and magazine covers, you will find i this book!

[PRJ Greenwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An expose on the early work of Georges Remi, aka Hergé. Includes snippets of his work for various newspapers, Boy Scouts and book covers as well as his more famous material. Early Tintin is covered (up to Tintin and the Broken Ear) as well Quick & Flupke and the first Jo & Zette comic. Not a biography by any means, as it doesn't go into Hergé's life much at all, apart from mentioning his stints in the army and his engagement and subsequent marriage.

[Michael Coppola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume 1 of the Art of Hergé shows the evolution of the artist’s style and the origins of his three biggest series (Tintin, Quick et Flupke, Jo, Zette et Jocko). My favorite images were all the little sketches that never ended up being used and all his advertising work.

[Jordi J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una mica decebedor ja que passa una mica per sobre dels temes reals que van inspirar els àlbums d'Hergé.

[Jay Daze · Rating 1 out of 5]

The art is let down by the text. What a waste.

[Martin Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book bedazzled me and infuriated me in equal measure. This large hardback is ultimately a collectors/coffee table item and comes in three volumes. This first volume tells the story of Georges Remi (Hergé) - for those that don't know those are his initials reversed and said in French: R - said as 'air' and G said as 'szay' - and his early life as an illustrator/author of Tintin and other works of equal endearment. This volume covers his birth in 1907 up to 1937.

The bedazzling element of this book is the visuals. It is jam packed with reproductions of sketches, drawing, plates, covers, advertisements and a multitude of images from the hand of Hergé. It's a treasure trove of imagery that you could pore over for ages and the humorous style is so clever and truly captivating.

The bit that lets it down is the accompanying text, which is pretty basic and in places, transcribed poorly by Michael Farr. That's not to say it's inaccurate - it's not - it's just clunky, doesn't flow well and probably wasn't helped that the original would have lacked any kind of depth. It attempts to run simultaneously the work that Hergé was doing at the time with a summary of the latest Tintin, Quick and Flupke or Jo, Zette and Jacko stories that were appearing at the same time often mirroring real-life events/situations . Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work and it probably would have been better just having a more detailed account of Hergé's life and work through the time, which is ultimately skimmed over in brief sentences and paragraphs.

The text itself is incredibly interesting and is tolerable when viewed as very basic, contemporaneous information, not a in in-depth account of the the life and times of Hergé ... but because of its disjointedness and stiffness, it loses a couple of stars.

Also, there are a couple of typos which are unforgiveable and offputting.

But .... it was worth the read for the images alone and I'll certainly be moving onto volumes two and three in time.

[Parka · Rating 4 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

This is the first of a three-volume series that looks at the art of Herge, creator of Tintin, whose real name is Georges Remi.

The first volume covers from 1907 (when Herge was born) to 1937. Herge only started drawing seriously when he was 15. Tintin was created in 1929 so there are a lot of art that's not Tintin-related in the book.

This book includes his sketches, illustrations, commissioned advertising work and of course his comic panels among many other creations. The comics are lifted by bits so there are no complete stories featured, and they are not in English. Reproduction is great, for some of the scanned pieces, you can even see correction done with whiteout.

It's interesting to see how his art has evolved throughout the years. It's also fun to see how he draws exotic destinations and people who live there, especially when it comes to researching for Tintin.

The text is on Herge's life interspersed with Tintin's adventures across the globe. If it's meant to be a biography, it doesn't seem comprehensive. Putting Tintin's adventures beside the biography at times makes it hard to follow where the previous story left off from. That's a strange way to write a biography as well.

Overall, I would recommend this book strictly to fans of Herge and Tintin.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping this would be a proper biography of Herge (real name Georges Remi), the Belgian who wrote Tintin. Unfortunately it contained only scant details of his life, instead preferring to focus on the complex plots of the early adventures of Tintin and other characters. Since I can read the full Tintin stories in other formats, this was a little disappointing. What was most interesting was watching the Tintin character develop from the initial idea, when he first appeared as a strip in a boy scout magazine, to the intrepid reporter we know today. It was also fascinating to see examples of other work produced by the artist, who was so talented that he had no one specific style; he could produce nearly anything asked of him, especially when producing advertisements for popular Belgian magazines of the early-to-mid 20th century.

Due to the title, I should not have expected more, but I really was hoping for a few more biographical details. A good read for anyone who is interested in the development of 20th century art in popular culture.

[Justwinter]

Felt I'd best pick up these more,gosh, is 'scholarly' the right word here? Tintin books before the movies hit the US & potentially cause a rush on all things Tintin. I grew up reading Tintin: his illustrated adventures got me back into reading during a particularly rough transition from European schools to US.

I love the stories & the deceptively simple & lovely artwork. Tintin let me tag along to wild & exotic locations--and vicariously explore new worlds, solve mysteries and put an end to nefarious deeds.

The 3 Art of Herge books trace the artist's development in style and content from his earliest day to his last. Vol. 1 contains the earliest, 'crudest' work: fascinating to see how his style tightened up and his Colonialist world-view broadened.

[Michel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping to read the original versions of Tintin's first adventures (like the Cigars and Black Gold), before Herge realized he was merely echoing dominant prejudices and propagating rightwing myths. There is no such thing as 'apolitical' when your hero is a contemporary journalist observing the European and Middle-Eastern turmoils of the 30s and early 40s.
This is just a collection of what we would nowadays call Herge's 'marketing spinoffs'. I most certainly won't read volumes 2 and 3.