TINTIN IN TIBET: REFLECTION OF HERGÉ’S CRISIS

INTRODUCTION

Every artist goes through a period of crisis in their life that affects their work. Each of them has their own way of dealing with the dilemmas they face and different paths of overcoming them. George Prosper Remi, whom we know as Hergé, the creator of Tintin came out victorious from his crisis period holding the hand of his own creation. Completing the 20th Tintin album, Tintin in Tibet was therapy for him. “Tintin in Tibet is probably the most personal of all the Tintin books. Just as Hergé was in crisis, so is Tintin. Normally ruled by reason, the Tintin of Tintin in Tibet is ruled by emotion.” (Tweedle)

PROFESSIONAL CRISIS

The post-World War period was particularly stressful for Hergé. After the occupation of Brussels by the Nazi ended, the Allied authorities shut down Le Soir, where Tintin used to be published and Hergé’s work had to be suspended. During this time, Hergé was arrest four times on the false allegation of being a Nazi Rexist sympathizer. “Tintin's exile ended on 26 September 1946. The publisher and wartime resistance fighter Raymond Leblanc provided the financial support and anti-Nazi credentials to launch the comics magazine titled Tintin with Hergé.” (Goddin 365)

Post The Seven Crystal Balls publication, the Tintin magazine had a circulation of more than 100,000 a week. The increased demand of the Tintin magazine and the workload led to Hergé suffering multiple nervous breakdowns during end of 1940s and beginning of 1950s. To decrease the workload, he set up Hergé Studios on April 6, 1950.

After the publication of The Red Sea Sharks, Hergé was unable to come up with any definite new idea for a new Tintin album. By this time, he had been working on Tintin for almost thirty years and according to Mark Tweedle, “Tintin in Tibet is the beginning of what I like to call the deconstruction of Tintin… I think he was starting to tire of the self-imposed restrictions he had about what a Tintin story could and couldn’t be. Tintin in Tibet is the beginning of Hergé exploring those boundaries, and seeing how he could redefine them.” (Tweedle) This explains the major deviations that we see in Tintin in Tibet from the previous Tintins.

“The idea of setting the story in Tibet had been influenced by Hergé's friend Jacques Van Melkebeke (1904–1983), who had suggested it back in 1954, possibly being influenced by the fact that he had set the 1940s Tintin play M. Boullock A Disparu (The Disappearance of Mr Boullock) in that country.” (Lofficier 73) Hergé was working on several titles at this time, but he stuck with a simple title to portray the minimalist nature of his 20th album.


PERSONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CRISIS

At the time when Hergé began thinking about idea for Tintin’s 20th album and with the nervous breakdowns he was having, he felt drawn towards Fanny Vlaminck, a young artist who started working at Hergé Studios. As a consequence of this, his marriage with Germaine Remi to whom he had been married to since 1932, started to fall apart. He later in an interview with Numa Sadoul said, "It meant turning upside down all my values – what a shock! This was a serious moral crisis: I was married, and I loved someone else; life seemed impossible with my wife, but on the other hand I had this scout-like idea of giving my word for ever. It was a real catastrophe. I was completely torn up." (Thompson 171)

At the same time Hergé started having psychological problems. He started having disturbing dreams. In the same interview with Sadoul, describing his dreams, Hergé said, "I took note of them and remember one where I was in a kind of tower made up of a series of ramps. Dead leaves were falling and covering everything. At a particular moment, in an immaculately white alcove, a white skeleton appeared that tried to catch me. And then instantly everything around me became white." (Farr 161)

To find the way out of this crisis, Hergé went to Swiss psychoanalyst Franz Ricklin who advised him to abandon the work of Tintin in Tibet if he wanted to get rid of his demons. Hergé decided otherwise and remembered his motto as a Boy Scout – a scout smiles and sings through all his difficulties. Hergé had hit a turning point in his life, he decided to marry Fancy Vlaminck divorcing Germaine and continued working on Tintin in Tibet. Tintinologist Harry Thompson noted, "It was ironic, but not perhaps unpredictable, that faced with the moral dilemma posed by Ricklin, Hergé chose to keep his scout's word of honour to Tintin, but not to Germaine". (Thompson 172)


REFLECTION OF HERGÉ’S CRISIS

Tintin in Tibet reflects Hergé’s on going crisis at every step. Staring with the fact that this album is known as ‘The White Tintin’, stems from the white dreams Hergé saw, what he described as ‘beauty and cruelty of the white’. The dangerous beauty of the Himalayas became a setting for Tintin in Tibet because of Hergé’s need to overcome the fear of his dreams.

Tintin in Tibet deviates from other albums in the aspect that the heroes do not come across any villains as the adventure progresses. There is no one to blame for any of the mishaps they encounter. The reason behind this is that the only obstacle Tintin had to cross was other people’s opinion of Chang’s demise and follow his own heart. Through Tintin, Hergé was fighting his own inner battle. There are several provisional endings where it seems like Tintin is at a dead end. For example, where Sherpa Tharkey refuse to take them to the crash site, “No! Me not want to risk three lives – your life, life of the other Sahib and my life – to look for a dead man.” (Hergé 13) Again when, after reaching the crash site they do not find any way of looking for Chang and Tintin says, “Goodbye, Chang! ...Goodbye!” (Hergé 35) And later, Tintin and Haddock fall in mortal peril twice, which gives the readers the feeling that all its lost. Adding to this is the airport manager, Captain Haddock and Sherpa Tharkey warning Tintin not to go looking for Chang because logic dictates, he is dead. This is an allusion to Franz Ricklin’s advise to Hergé of abandoning Tintin. The way Hergé never abandons Tintin, Tintin too never abandons Chang.

Another aspect of Tintin in Tibet is that much of it is dictated by ‘extra-sensory perception’. Tintin relies more on his premonition and gut feeling rather than logic, which is not seen in the previous albums. This reflects the emotional and psychological state of Hergé who neither had any logical explanation for his feeling for Fanny, nor the haunting white dreams.

Tintin in Tibet portrays Hergé’s deep desire to reunite with his friend Chang Chong-jen, a young sculptor he met while researching for The Blue Lotus, who is the real-life inspiration for Chang’s character in the Tintin books.

Tintin in Tibet is also known for its minimalist nature with a handful of characters and a focused plot line. This is to emphasize the solo nature of Tintin’s undertaking as it also reflects the journey Hergé undertakes to recover from his period of crisis.

 


CONCLUSION

Hergé’s dilemma gave birth to what critics and tintinologists consider to be the best Tintin. Mark Tweedle reviewing Tintin in Tibet says, “When Tintin and his companions arrive at the crash site, there’s a panel which I feel beautifully externalizes Tintin’s emotions. I consider it one of the best Hergé ever drew.” (Tweedle) Even though the panels of Tintin in Tibet have a white colour scheme, they reflect vibrant emotions. The drawings reflect Hergé’s state of mind and are more personal than in any other Tintin.

WORKS CITED

Farr, Michael. Tintin: The Complete Companion. John Murray, 2001.

Goddin, Philippe. The Art of Hergé, Inventor of Tintin: Volume I, 1907–1937. Last Gasp, 2008.

Hergé. Tintin in Tibet. Mammoth, 1990.

Lofficier, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier. The Pocket Essential Tintin. Pocket Essentials, 2002.

Thompson, Harry. Tintin: Hergé and his Creation. Hodder and Stoughton, 1991.

Tweedle, Mark. “Review: Tintin in Tibet.” Multiversity Comics, 3 April,2018. www.multiversitycomics.com. Accessed 25 February 2021.