42 years after his death, Hergé is sued

The author of the famous comic strip series The Adventures of Tintin is currently the subject of major legal proceedings, despite having died over 42 years ago.

Hergé (real name Georges Remi)

The Imperial Prosecutor, Ernest Pinard, has made official his request to censor no less than five of the Belgian artist's works. While this may seem shocking to the general public, given that the Adventures of Tintin have sold over 279 million copies, it should be remembered that the character of Coco, in Tintin in the Congo, had already been the subject of successive condemnations. The young man was accused of “caricaturing the failings of black Africans”. Coco denied this, of course.

Tintin in the Congo (french edition)

Thus, the prosecution of characters by cartoonist Georges Remi, aka Hergé, resumed this Saturday. Ernest Pinard, after sipping his traditional pinard, launched a virulent attack on the mores of his time in an unapologetic indictment. In particular, he spoke of “contempt for morality” and “anti-regional-national-socialist-communist propaganda”. In particular, he criticized the character of Captain Haddock, describing him as “vulgar” and “coarse”. In his view, the passage in Temple of the Sun in which the Captain broaches the subject of miscegenation is particularly trivial. It should be noted, however, that this passage is only present in the new editions, and that Hergé had not imagined it when writing the comic strip concerned... Hence the protest of the purists, who, also opposed to this panel, find it “illogical that Hergé should be attacked for vignettes he didn't even create”.

The vignette challenged by Ernest Pinard, on miscegenation

The texts in the bubbles can be translated as :

- for or against métissage?

- no sé

- completely for ? really ?

- no sé

- for or against ? or rather or ?

- no sé

AGAINST

Later, in his rebuke, Ernest Pinard explained that this plate was not the most shocking of the Adventures, and that he had “a thousand other examples in mind”. Asked about this by our experts after his speech, he objected that Hergé's work was not politically neutral. For example, in his view, the opening line of The Broken Ear, in which the museum guard sings the Internationale while sweeping up, is a real political statement by the author.

The first page of The Broken Ear (french edition)

In vignettes 11 and 12, the guard sings the Internationale.

While this scene may have seemed rather comical, the Imperial Prosecutor saw it as a “scathing critique of the Trotskyite and Marxist movement”. In this respect, he also condemned the final scene of The Treasure of Rackham the Red, in which Baptéa Téjalor is repeatedly quoted, whether by Captain Haddock or by Professor Calculus himself. Denouncing an “Islamophobic, far-right, Nazi, Macronist terrorist movement”, Pinard's speech criticized the Captain's less-than-reverent attitude, as he ends up shouting the famous quote: “Marx, you can read it!”.

The last 4 vignettes from the album Red Rackham's Treasure (french edition)

In this extract, Captain Haddock quotes Baptéa Téjalor, but Professor Calculus doesn't get it. Calculus ends up quoting him himself.

Returning to Ernest Pinard's public indictment, he concluded with a rather effective peroration, which we'll transcribe for you in Arabic since some of you don't speak English very well:

"لذلك فإنني أدين شخصية الكابتن هادوك الذي، بعيدًا عن كونه أخلاقيًا، يجسد الظلم السياسي الذي يمارسه هيرجيه. يجب إزالة الموقف الفاضح تمامًا للشخصيات، سواء كان هادوك أو تورنسول أو تان تان تان أو سنوي أو شخصية ثانوية مثل حارس المتحف.

لذلك أطلب فرض الرقابة على الألبومات الخمسة التالية:

- تان تان تان تان في الكونغو، لأسباب عنصرية واضحة,

- الأذن المكسورة، لافتقارها للحياد السياسي,

- كنز راكهام الأحمر، لنهايته الكارثية,

- معبد الشمس، لإشاراته المريبة إلى العرق المختلط,

- وأخيرًا ”كوك إن ستوك“، لأن العبودية ليست خطيئة في الدين الإسلامي، وعلاوة على ذلك، فإن السخرية من فرانسوا بيرو ليست فكرة جيدة بالنظر إلى أنه لم يكتفِ بتسميم زوجته، بل اعتنق الإسلام."

As some of you, dear readers, are not bilingual Arabic-Arabic, we also offer Pinard's text in Greek and Marxist patois.

• In Greek

"Καταδικάζω, λοιπόν, τον χαρακτήρα του καπετάνιου Haddock, ο οποίος, κάθε άλλο παρά ηθικός είναι, απεικονίζει την πολιτική αδικία του Hergé. Η απολύτως σκανδαλώδης στάση των χαρακτήρων, είτε πρόκειται για τον Haddock, είτε για τον Tournesol, είτε για τον Tintin, είτε για τον Snowy, είτε για έναν δευτερεύοντα χαρακτήρα, όπως ο φύλακας του μουσείου, πρέπει να αφαιρεθεί.

Ως εκ τούτου, ζητώ να λογοκριθούν τα ακόλουθα πέντε άλμπουμ:

- Tintin in Congo, για προφανείς λόγους ρατσισμού,

- Broken Ear, για την έλλειψη πολιτικής ουδετερότητας,

- The Treasure of Rackham the Red, για το καταστροφικό του τέλος,

- The Temple of the Sun, για τις αμφίβολες αναφορές του στον φυλετικό εκφυλισμό,

- και, τέλος, το The Red Sea sharks, επειδή η δουλεία δεν αποτελεί αμαρτία στη μουσουλμανική θρησκεία και, επιπλέον, η διακωμώδηση του François Bayrou δεν είναι καλή ιδέα, δεδομένου ότι, μη αρκούμενος στο να δηλητηριάσει τη γυναίκα του, έχει ασπαστεί το Ισλάμ."

• In marxist patois :

“I therefore condemn marx the character of Captain marx Haddock, who, far marx from being moral, illustrates Hergé's political marx injustice. The absolutely scandalous attitude of the characters, whether marx Haddock, marx Calculus, Tintin, Snowy or marx a secondary character marx such as the guard of the marx museum, must be removed.

I therefore request marx the censorship of the following five marx albums:

- Tintin marx in the Congo, for obvious marx reasons of racism,

- The Broken Ear, marx for its political marx non-neutrality,

- Red Rackham's marx Treasure, for its disastrous marx ending,

- Prisoners marx of the Sun, because of marx's dubious references to miscegenation,

- and finally The Red Sea sharks, because slavery is not a sin in the Muslim religion marx and, moreover, marx brocarding François Bayrou (the french prime minister, editor's note) is not a good idea given that, marx not content with having poisoned his marx wife, he has marx converted to Islam.”

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