There has probably never been as successful European cartoonist as the Belgian, Georges Remi, aka Herge (1907-1983). The man behind the twenty-four hugely popular Tintin adventures is justly celebrated as a formidable creative talent. Yet the real Herge was a more complex and often less lovable character than his most famous creation. Prone to overwork and occasionally extramarital affairs, Herge's life and career have been clouded in controversy with the cartoonist accused of racial stereotyping and of collaborating with the occupying Nazi regime in Belgium during the Second World War.
The truth, as detailed in Sian Lye's well-researched and very readable book is fascinating.

Thank you to the author, Pen & Sword and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

From my years living in Belgium, I have a love for comics - and my favorite is Tintin. While these are books I read again and again, I had only the vaguest notion of the author/artist behind the books. This biography goes behind the scenes and delves into the family background of the man we know as Hergé, and what shaped him into the person he became. The book also sheds light on the impact of history, and specifically the events around WWII, on Hergé.

Parts of this book are interesting, parts are a bit long-winded, parts are terribly sad - it left me with a new appreciation for the creator of Tintin and Milou, and the myriad of other memorable characters that populate that universe.

Sian Lye’s The Real Herge shows us a man who was influenced by people around him. This could be good: his ready adoption of multiple views enriched his stories. However, it could also be really bad: some of those views may be anti-Semitic or racist. Lye says Herge “… remained a lost little boy scout who never really grew up” and her biography supports that description.

The book takes us through Herge’s life chronologically rather than thematically, which is really helpful. We understand how his inclination towards overwork resulted in Tintin stories being paused for weeks or months. Lye also shows us the context in which each story was developed – both Herge’s personal life and world events. Lye mentions many of Herge’s letters and presumably had easy access to them.

There are a few contradictory points: how could Herge be “… also outgoing but quieter and more introspective”? Similarly, to state that “Although not a keen bookworm in childhood, Georges did enjoy burrowing himself away in [books]” seems a contradiction. One paragraph has “sales of the Tintin books were decreasing” but a few sentences later, we’re told “The book sales […] were soaring.”

Also, there are some anachronisms. Wallez, Herge’s mentor, might have hated Israel but since the country didn’t exist until 1947, he couldn’t have stated that in his 1923 book “Belgium and the Rhineland”. Similarly, I wonder how Bianca Castafiore, who made her debut in 1938 could have been based upon Maria Callas, whose own professional debut wasn’t until 1941. Herge may well have adjusted the character for reissues but Lye’s statement doesn’t have that nuance. Finally, the International Court of Justice in the Hague didn’t exist until 1947, being the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice.

Despite my comments above, none of those points are anything other than minor criticisms and none of them affected my enjoyment of the book. It really shows the complexity of Herge’s character and how, most of all, he was like the rest of us: a fallible human making decisions that, with hindsight, might have undesirable consequences. Life isn’t a rehearsal, though, and Herge did what he thought was right at the time. Just like us.

#TheRealHergé #NetGalley

A good story of Herge, but oh how much better it would have been with pictures scattered throughout. Nice to see some photographs of his inspiration at the end though. I enjoyed it.

Thank you to the publisher for an advance copy via netgalley!

This book was a pleasant surprise! Childhood memories of Tintin initially brought me towards this book. I knew that over the years there were controversies with some of his books, but that was the extent of what I knew. This book is so well researched and gives you such a great glimpse into who Hergé (Rémi!) was! Even thought, it is well researched, it is written in a simple and enchanting way that brings you back to the times this book was written to explain contextually to the reader when the book was written. Great read for anyone who’s ever read Tintin!

Wow!

Just one word to describe how I felt reading about the author of one of my favourite comics. I have grown up reading Tintin and Asterix. I was blessed. to have visited Belgium as my first international country visit and saw first hand the Tintin store there. I have passed on the love of Tintin to my children too and the TV series as well as Spielberg's movie has made them love it even more. I recently bought an entire set of Tintin comics as well!

This book about Hergé is extremely well written and brings out all the pain and happiness that went on in the creator's life which readers of the comic will never know. It was sad to read about the painful childhood, the controversies and the troubled married life that he experienced. What pained me most was his statement about hating Tintin - that revealed to me how much the creation was constraining the creator and he could not escape that.

The flow of the book is very easy and the author gives good historical context before delving into what happened with Hergé's life at that point. The situations with WWI and WWII are described in just enough detail to appreciate the context and not bore the reader who wants to know more about Hergé. I could read through the book almost completely on one holiday. It was shocking to read of the racist stereotypes that plagued some of the stories- I guess I never saw those versions in print, and so never had an issue with the series. But after reading about it here I can understand the trouble that would have caused especially when things change.

I would highly recommend this book to all Tintin lovers to get yourself to know the man behind the series better.

The book does a fair job if you are looking to understand a bit more about the circumstances that inspired the Adventures of Tintin.

We learn about Herge, his childhood and how over the years and experience he develops from an amateur to an iconic figure. The European guru of graphic novels.

I would think that this book would be made richer if we could have dissected the world affairs and it's subsequent reflection in the cartoon strips more thoroughly. Yet, there is enough to get one interested into the backstage works that went into Tintin.

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As a life king Tintin fan, it was really interesting to learn more about the man behind the comics.
Whilst I was aware of some of the accusations of racism, it was especially informative to learn about his actions during the war, and the way in which he continued to live with his actions.
However, for a book about such a visual medium, the lack of pictures was very disappointing. There are many sections where the author describes particular artistic styles in certain comics, and yet there are no pictures there to see the descriptions represented

A very good biography this, from the point of view at least of someone who has read Tintin books now and again, but never looked up the author. We get his personal life, from his father's debatable origins on up, to his Scouting, which bizarrely led to his life in publishing. And this is where it gets doubly interesting – not only do we have the allegations of racism against those in the Congo, or Soviets, and Jews, we also have the fact he was being published to great success throughout the War by 'pirate newspapers' – those bearing the name of legit publications, but run practically on behalf of the Nazi occupiers. The fact the fallout of all that was nowhere near as bad for Herge as the others in the same boat, could conceivably be a problem for his mental well-being, but the constant quibbling about being unable to work, from guilt, tiredness and everything else, in the years to follow, must have made him a frustratingly flawed craftsman.

But to review the book more than the man, it is still most interesting to see his biography reflected on the pages of his output – Tintin in Tibet met in his private life with recurrently white dreams, presumably due to some kind of response to his philandering at the time with what he hoped to be a "secondary wife". This biographical detail is what we come here for – although at times the constant summarisation of private letters, in the style of our author here, was a bit much. I also didn't get much of an impression about this providing anything new – a lot I would have thought quite plausibly in the public domain already, and several Herge biographies have come before. But he doesn't deserve to have exclusively high-falutin', discursive, forensic life-ofs, and this more gentle, average-browser-friendly book certainly has a place out there. I wish it success.