In a March 22, 2009 LA Times article, Belgian cartoonist Benoit Peeters said:
“America has its own traditions, very rich, through comic strips or comic books with superheroes,” Peeters said. ” ‘Tintin’ is in a way a graphic novel, but the style of the books was very far from American standards. . . . The graphic style is different. There is no equivalent. You can find some people in the United States interested in that type of comics, but not a large audience.”
What do you think? Do you think Hergé’s style keeps Americans from reading it? I don’t. In fact, I think the reason more American kids don’t pick them up earlier is the quantity of words and availability (not enough stores carry the books and when they do they aren’t displayed well). The books are daunting for an early reader with that unusual font and crowded sentences. Yet, EVERY kid who comes in to one of our stores almost always finds themselves drawn into the Tintin section. While the mom or dad shops, the kids sit on a couch or chair and flip through piles of Tintin adventures. But what do you think about Peeters’ comment? On the mark? Off the mark? Why?
Perhaps Tintin’s comic is too clean, less violent, less blood, no death, which is taken as “less exciting” to the wider audience in the USA? If Peteers concluded that the superheroes style is the style that Americans prefers. So be it, the rest of the world doesn’t seem to think so, as testified by Tintin’s popularity. Herge paid a lot of attention to details in every single frame of his cartoons, his drawings are “rich”, so much so that he published only one graphic novel a year. or for a longer gap. Hail Herge! I’ll say.