Word: herge
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...parlor game: can you name 10 famous Belgians? Belgium may be a tiny nation, and often the butt of its neighbors' jokes, but it can claim two 20th century artistic giants who would make it onto that list: Hergé - or at least his globetrotting comic-strip character Tintin - and René Magritte, the subversive surrealist painter. Both created iconic images that are recognizable the world over. And since June 2, both of them, finally, have museums of their own in their native country, dedicated to their respective contributions to the evolution of 20th century art. The museums trace...
...fact, Hergé was contrite about Tintin in Congo, which was never published in English during his lifetime. And in the 1930s he was injecting anti-Nazi storylines into his work. In later books, Tintin is found fighting both communists and capitalists, and by the 1970s he had replaced his cloth cap and plus fours with blue jeans and yoga...
...Hergé's favorite story was the 1960 Tintin in Tibet, which tells of Tintin's search for a Chinese boy, Chang (based on one of Hergé's closest friends), whose plane crashes in the Himalayas. Last year, the Dalai Lama himself awarded a "Truth of Light" award to the Hergé Foundation, which runs the late author's estate, as a gesture of thanks to "significant contributions to the public understanding of Tibet" through the book, written a year after the Dalai Lama was driven into exile by the Chinese government...
...Hergé's overall influence was vast. He mastered a style of drawing called ligne claire or clear line: a clean, pared-down style of simple, precise lines. His work involved stylized detail throughout, with no shading and sheer blocks of color. Hergé's impact went beyond the world of comic strips, influencing the work of artists like Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. His storytelling was also pioneering. Tom McCarthy, author of last year's Tintin and the Secret of Literature, says the books create "a huge social tableau... managed with all the subtlety normally attributed to Jane Austen...
...hundred years after Hergé's birth, Tintin is finally getting his due recognition. And as he prepares for his Hollywood debut, Tintin can look forward to a new episode in his extraordinary adventures...