Blisterting barnacles! 110 candles!

On this date in 1907, Hergé arrived in the world, making it a far more enjoyable place

Known by the pen name Hergé, the Belgian cartoonist Georges Prosper Remi is the man behind the cult cartoon series The Adventures of Tintin. On his 110th birth anniversary today, let’s open our favourite Tintin comicbook and remember its creator. Hergé was born on May 22, 1907, in Brussels, Belgium. In his childhood, he loved to draw and was adept at it, without any training. His schooling happened during World War I. After the war, he got to publish his first cartoon: The Adventures of Totor for the magazine Le Boy-Scout Belge. It was in 1930 when Hergé published the first Tintin book, titled Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. Over the next five decades, Tintin became one of the most popular cartoon characters of the 20th century, accompanied by the always swearing Captain Haddock and the absent-minded, hard-ofhearing Professor Calculus, and, of course, the trusty dog Snowy.

Tintin travelled across the world, from China in the East to America in the West. The brilliant wit of the comics’ dialogues and characters’ amusing quirks made this series a universal favourite.

By the time Hergé died, on March 3, 1983, he had written 23 Tintin comics, leaving the world a far more enjoyable place.

Extreme left: Georges Prosper Remi, aka Hergé; and Tintin and Snowy