| Tintin | |
|---|---|
 Tintin No. 1 (26 September 1946) | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Le Lombard |
| Schedule | Weekly |
| Publication date | 26 September 1946 – 29 June 1993 |
| Main character(s) | Tintin |
Tintin (French:Le Journal de Tintin;Dutch:Kuifje) was a weeklyBelgian comics magazine of the second half of the 20th century. Subtitled"The Magazine for the Youth from 7 to 77", it was one of the major publications of theFranco-Belgian comics scene and published such notable series asBlake and Mortimer,Alix, and the principal titleThe Adventures of Tintin. Originally published byLe Lombard, the first issue was released in 1946, and it ceased publication in 1993.
Tintin magazine was part of an elaborate publishing scheme. The magazine's primary content focused on a new page or two from several forthcoming comic albums that had yet to be published as a whole, thus drawing weekly readers who could not bear to wait for entire albums. There were several ongoing stories at any given time, giving wide exposure to lesser-known artists.Tintin was also available bound as a hardcover or softcover collection. The content always included filler material, some of which was of considerable interest to fans, for example alternate versions of pages of the Tintin stories, and interviews with authors and artists. Not every comic appearing inTintin was later put into book form, which was another incentive to subscribe to the magazine. If the quality ofTintin printing was high compared to American comic books through the 1970s, the quality of thealbums was superb, utilizing expensive paper and printing processes (and having correspondingly high prices).
Raymond Leblanc and his partners had started a small publishing house after World War II, and decided to create an illustrated youth magazine. They decided thatTintin would be the perfect hero, as he was already very well known. Business partner André Sinave went to seeTintin authorHergé, and proposed creating the magazine. Hergé, who had worked forLe Soir during the war, was being prosecuted for having allegedly collaborated with the Germans, and thus was without a publisher.[1] After consulting with his friendEdgar Pierre Jacobs, Hergé agreed.
The first issue, published on 26 September 1946, was in French. It featured Hergé, Jacobs,Paul Cuvelier andJacques Laudy asartists,[2] with their mutual friendJacques Van Melkebeke serving as editor. (Due to suspicions of incivism left over from the war, Van Melkebeke was forced to step down as editor soon after.)[3] A Dutch edition, entitledKuifje, was published simultaneously (Kuifje being the name of the eponymous character Tintin in Dutch). 40,000 copies were released in French, and 20,000 in Dutch.[1]
ForKuifje, a separate editor-in-chief was appointed, Karel Van Milleghem. He invented the famous slogan "The magazine for the youth from 7 to 77", later picked up by the other editions. (Van Milleghem gave Raymond Leblanc the idea for the animation studioBelvision, which became the largest European animation studio, producing ten feature-length movies, including a few featuring Tintin. It was Van Milleghem who also introducedBob De Moor to the magazine and to Hergé. De Moor became a regular in the magazine and the main artist in theStudio Hergé.)[1]
In 1948, the magazine grew from 12 to 20 pages and a separate version for France was launched. A group of new young artists joined the team: the FrenchÉtienne Le Rallic andJacques Martin,Dino Attanasio and the FlemishWilly Vandersteen.
For decades, Hergé had artistic control over the magazine, even though he was sometimes absent for long periods and new work of his became rarer. His influence is highly evident in Vandersteen'sSuske en Wiske for which Hergé imposed a stronger attention to the stories, editing, and a change of art style.
In order to keep its readership loyal,Tintin magazine created a sort of fidelity passport,[when?] called the "Chèque Tintin" in France (Tintin-voucher) and "Timbre Tintin" in Belgium (Tintin-stamp), which was offered with every issue of the magazine, in every comic album byLe Lombard, and on many food products as well. These stamps could be exchanged for various gifts not available in commercial establishments. Other brands, mostly from food companies, affiliated themselves with the Tintin voucher system: they could be found on flour, semolina boxes, etc. A Tintin soda existed, and even Tintin shoes. The French Railways Company went as far as to propose 100 km of railway transportation for 800 stamps. Among the gifts, there were super chromos extracted from the magazine issues, or original art.
At the time the vouchers were initiated, the magazine was selling 80,000 copies in Belgium and only 70,000 in France. Due to the success of the vouchers, the circulation in France quickly rose to 300,000 a week.[1] The vouchers disappeared by the end of the 1960s.
In the 1950s new artists and series showed up:
The magazine became more and more international and successful: at one time, there were separate versions for France, Switzerland, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands, with about 600,000 copies a week. The magazine had increased to 32 pages, and a cheaper version was created as well:Chez Nous (in French) /Ons Volkske (in Dutch), printed on cheaper paper and featuring mainly reprints fromTintin magazine, plus some new series by Tibet and Studio Vandersteen.[1]
In the 1960s the magazine kept on attracting new artists. The editorial line was clearly bent towards humor, withGreg (as editor-in-chief and author of series such as the remake ofZig et Puce),Jo-El Azara (withTaka Takata),Dany (withOlivier Rameau) andDupa (withCubitus). Other authors joined the magazine, likeWilliam Vance (withRingo andBruno Brazil) andHermann (withBernard Prince).[2]
In the 1970s the comics scene in France and Belgium went through important changes. The mood for magazines had declined in favor of albums in the late 1960s. In 1965, Greg was appointed chief editor. He transformed the editorial line, in order to keep the pace with the new way of thinking of the time. The characters gained psychological dimensions, real women characters appeared, and sex. New foreign artists series were added to the magazine. Moralizing articles and long biographies disappeared as well. These transformations were crowned with success, leading to theYellow Kid prize at theLucca comics festival, awarded to the magazine in 1972 for the best publication of the year. Greg quit his chief editor position in 1974.
The major new authors in the 1970s were:
And more in the humor vein:
The 1980s showed a steady decline of popularity ofTintin magazine, with different short-lived attempts to attract a new audience. Adolescents and adults preferred the magazineÀ Suivre, if they read comics at all, and younger children seemed less inclined to read comic magazines and preferredalbums. Still, some important new authors and series started, includingGrzegorz Rosiński, withThorgal, andAndreas, withRork. At the end of 1980, the Belgian edition was cancelled, leaving the French edition remaining.
In 1988, the circulation of the French version had dropped to 100,000, and when the contract between the Hergé family and Raymond Leblanc finished, the name was changed toTintin Reporter. Alain Baran, a friend of Hergé, tried to revive the magazine in December 1992. The magazine disappeared after six months, leaving behind a financial disaster.[1] The circulation of the magazine dropped dramatically, and publication of the Dutch versionKuifje ceased in 1992, and the French version, renamedHello Bédé, finally disappeared in 1993.[2]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(December 2009) |
From the beginning,Tintin magazine was in competition withSpirou magazine. As part of agentlemen's agreement between the two publishers,Raymond Leblanc ofLe Lombard and Charles Dupuis ofDupuis, if one artist was published by one of the magazines, he would not be published by the other one. One notable exception, however, wasAndré Franquin, who in 1955, after a dispute with his editor, moved from the more popularSpirou toTintin.[2] The dispute was quickly settled, but by then Franquin had signed an agreement withTintin for five years. He createdModeste et Pompon forTintin while pursuing work forSpirou. He quitTintin at the end of his contract. Some artists moved fromSpirou toTintin likeEddy Paape andLiliane & Fred Funcken, while some went fromTintin toSpirou likeRaymond Macherot andBerck.
