Herge’s nephew slams Tintin estate

11 March 2005

BRUSSELS – Herge’s nephew and godson has criticised the British executive who runs the Tintin estate for keeping the famous cartoonist out of the biggest ever exhibition on Belgium.

Georges Remi was named after his cartoonist uncle whose penname Herge were his initials in French, backwards: ‘RG’.

However, it is Herge’s second wife Fanny who now controls the cartoons and the legal rights to the cartoons.

On Friday, in the tabloid La Derniere Heure, Remi accused Fanny’s new husband, Englishman Nick Rodwell, of failing to respect the spirit of Tintin by asking the Made In Belgium exhibition to pay to display some of the country’s most famous comic strips.

“It’s disgusting, revolting, scandalous, unforgivable,” Remi, a graphic artist and painter, told the paper.

“It borders on insulting Herge and his numerous admirers.”

The Made In Belgium exhibition at Dexia Art Center had planned to include a section devoted to Herge, but had to rethink when it failed to reach a financial agreement with the estate.
The exhibition, spread over six floors of the centre, is the showpiece of the celebrations marking the 175th anniversary of Belgium.

“It’s legitimate to protect the work of Herge, but enclosing it in a high security prison goes completely against what my uncle no doubt would have wanted,” insisted Remi.

“It’s very far from the spirit of Tintin.”

Remi said he and his sister Denise had been completely cut out of the Herge estate, so they were powerless to intervene in what they believed was Rodwell’s decision.

“It would have been an honour and pure joy to have trusted the Tintin image to the organisers and visitors of this national event,” he said.

Remi has kept several pieces of Herge’s work which Herge’s first wife left him when she died in 1995.

One is a self-caricature where Herge, tired out from work, is at his drawing desk while Tintin watches him out of the corner of his eye, with a whip in his hand.

Herge also gave Remi Tintin books.

“I used to like Tintin like all young people,” said his godson.

“But I wasn’t Tintin mad. I saw my uncle like an uncle, not like a star.”

Remi accused Rodwell of being a megalomaniac.

“He wants to turn Tintin into a Disney style empire and anyone who gets in the way is crushed,” he said.

“I want to tell the Belgians that it’s not all the Herge family that refuses to give up the rights to allow Tintin to be shown. I don’t agree with it. My sister and I are outraged.”

He appealed to his step-aunt Fanny to rethink the situation.

[Copyright Expatica 2005]

Subject: Belgian news