Character building ... a mural tribute to the comic books at a railway station.Credit: AFP
David Whitley sets off on a Tintin walking tour.
IN THE land of beer and chocolate, there is also a comic book shop on almost every corner and the undisputed star in each is Tintin.
In the country of his creation, Tintin is deeply respected. The first sighting of the comic book - and now movie - character comes as you emerge from Gare du Midi train station. The giant mural of the red-headed reporter and a locomotive pays homage to one of Tintin in America's key scenes and is the start of a trail of murals, all based on original art work, that criss-crosses the city centre.
A map of the six-kilometre route is available from the tourist office. Maps tracing parks and markets that appear in the Tintin books as well as places linked to the character and creator Herge are available online.
The logical first step would seem to be the Centre Belge de Bande Dessinee (comicscenter.net). This comic-strip museum occupies a beautiful three-storey art nouveau building but it's too reverent. The experience becomes a trudge past glass display cases containing pages from back issues.
Tintin, however, wouldn't give up in the face of such setbacks and neither should his fans. A little more pluck and dedication are required for a detour. Louvain-la-Neuve is a university town, a 50-minute train ride from Brussels. It is home to the Musee Herge and this is quite the treasure.
The building is architecturally bold, with block colours, clearly separated sections and strong lines that reflect Herge's drawing style. At the entrance, each visitor is given a specially adapted iPod. Interactive quizzes, video footage and images that match up to the items on display are used to tell the stories.
The first sections explore the life of a boy born as Georges Remi. Where possible, things are told in his own words. "I had an unremarkable childhood. It was not a happy nor a sad childhood, just rather dreary," the voice from the grave says.
His parents would keep him quiet by letting him draw to his heart's content and he later got work designing advertisements.
At the age of 24, Herge (his initials - GR - reversed and pronounced in French) was put in charge of a children's supplement in the Vingtieme Siecle newspaper.
Tintin made his debut in 1929, Herge indulging his not-so-secret admiration of the reporters at the paper. The global adventures of the bequiffed investigator were broad exercises in rampant stereotyping for the first few books - Americans were all cowboys, Africans were all simple savages. And in one of the most fascinating parts of the museum, you learn why this changed in the later books. Herge met a Chinese student called Tchang. "It is he who made me conscious of the need to get the true facts on a country and to lay out a coherent story," the iPod Herge says. From then on, the research was meticulous.
In the later sections of the museum, you learn just how meticulous. Scientists were regularly consulted to make sure everything was as realistic as possible and models were built of vehicles and machines to get the details right. Tintin went to the moon long before Neil Armstrong and the logistics weren't nearly as absurd as they could have been.
The Musee Herge (www.museeherge.com) is the best place to get to know Tintin. And the subsequent shopping spree should explain why Brussels manages to support so many comic shops.
The writer was a guest of the Belgian Tourist Office.
Pick up the comic mural walking map at Brussels Info Place (2 Rue Royale). A map of Tintin and Herge-related sites can be found at
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