Tintin for the Holidays, Part One
A little while ago I asked folks to submit pieces of Tintin fan art.
You may know of Tintin over the recent hype for the Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson flick coming down the pipeline.
It looks like this:
I personally prefer the comics written and illustrated by Herge, which look like this:
While there’s been a ton of press focused around the movie, I haven’t seen the comics talked about much. Luckily, Neon Monster was up for the idea of giving a little attention to the 23 volumes Herge produced from 1929-1986.
I envy you if you haven’t read the series before. Herge’s world-spanning tales of the titular boy reporter continue to fascinate me as much as an adult as they did as a kid. In a sense, he was doing what Pixar does now, but decades ahead of them. He even beat Disney by a few years.
I’d like to introduce you new readers to Tintin by showing you what some of my favorite artists created based off their love for the characters. My hope is you’ll find their enthusiasm infectious and want to check out more. We’ll be doing this in two parts. In part two I’ll talk more about where to go from here as well as give a special Tintin-related announcement.
Andre Szymanowicz
I started with Andre as I liked the take on the piece I posted above. It also shows one of the things I like about Tintin in terms of the strength of his design. Tintin is perhaps second only to Batman in terms of being recognizable regardless of who draws him. As you can see, once he’s drawn by someone like Andre – whose style is pretty far off from Herge – you still know who it is right off the bat. It’s subtle, but works well.
For more on Andre’s work, check out his art blog and this wonderful piece our friends at Comics Alliance wrote up on the dude.
As for Tintin being recognizable regardless of art style, here are two samples which take it even further.
Tony Morgan
See what I mean?
This one’s by Tony Morgan of Gun Baby Graphics.
As is this one.
The dude getting punched in the kisser is Colonel Sponsz, from The Calculus Affair. Tony’s wife pointed out, design wise, Sponsz is Tintin’s evil twin, speaking in terms of hairstyle.
Jared Lewis
I dig Jared’s piece for a number of reason as it not only shows the strength of Tintin design, but also translates another aspect of Herge’s work I like so much. Herge is the undisputed master of the Ligne Claire or “clean line” art style which packed in a lot of information with line work with much less detail than a lot of modern artists. Even though Jared is significantly more line intensive with Herge, he still subtly packs a lot of information in. For instance, can you spot everyone who’s after Tintin and Snowy?
Jon Siruno
Now, Tintin’s a great character, but the guy needs a supporting cast.
Thomson and Thompson, the twin brother detectives differentiated only by their mustaches, are two of my favorite characters, so I was pretty thrilled by Jon Siruno’s take on them. His website is currently under construction, but we’re both members of the same comics studio, Tranquility Base, and you can keep up with him on our site.
And finally (until later this week)…
Roman Muradov
When the idea for this came up, there was one artist in particular I was eager to see art from. I’ve been a fan of Roman Muradov’s work for awhile and knew he was a life long Tintin fan.
Here’s an early example of his love for Tintin, featuring the series’ longtime supporting characters Snowy, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, in addition to a Herge-styled self portrait.
Roman went above and beyond with his submissions. Not only did he supply the samples above, but he did this piece (featuring a very off-kilter, but hilarious Snowy)…
…and a one-page Tintin strip, which may be one of the best reinterpretations of the character I’ve ever read. It’s certainly the most heartbreaking. If you’re not stunned by this, you probably don’t have a soul. If you are and happen to have an iPad, I implore you to download his app, Sad Comics, which features a number of comics by Roman specially formatted for the device.
That said, without further ado, Tintin’s Decline & Fall.
Thanks for checking out this round. Tune in later this week for even more pieces by folks like The Spirit’s Moritat (with help from King City’s Brandon Graham) and the special announcement I mentioned!
18 Notes