The Hergé Museum in Brussels – The World of TinTin and Georges Remis

On a recent trip to Brussels we stopped in at The Herge museum. It was awesome.

If you haven’t heard of Georges Remi aka RG aka Hergé – well he happens to be the author of the fantastic TinTin. You’ve heard of TinTin, right? Trudy and I both grew up reading him (along with Asterix & Obelix of course), and because we were visiting Brussels we couldn’t resist stopping in at this wonderful museum dedicated to the life and works of the man himself. We also snapped a few shots on our iPhones too of course 😉

The man himself by Andy Warhol.

The building itself is an architectural gem and it was both modern and clean yet this did not detract from the presentation of Hergé’s works in the slightest.

Catching the TinTin Elevator in the Herge Museum.

The museum opened with a non permanent exhibition called Into Tibet With TinTin which used TinTin and Hergé’s love of Tibet to showcase and bring to life Tibetan culture and the troubles and problems Tibet has experienced with China encroaching their land and way of life. It was an interesting way to begin the Museum, but it was something Hergé was passionate about and this shone through in his book TinTin in Tibet.

Original cover art sketch for TinTin in Tibet by Herge.

The Dalai Lama reading the completed TinTin in Tibet.

We learnt a lot about the wonderful man that Hergé was, and this has made me appreciate the TinTin books I read growing up. The amount of research he put into every book was phenomenal. He truly explores the cultures that he wrote about through TinTin and his attention to detail was incredible. For example, he made scale models of the rocket ship drawn and described in the TinTin books Destination Moon and Explorers On The Moon using the latest available science and data. The innards of the rocket that flew TinTin to the moon is remarkably similar to the real rocket that took man to the moon 15 years later.

Some of the cool and mysterious looking TinTin props!

It’s easy for travellers like us to love the character of TinTin and what he portrays, and I’m sure many of us grew up reading about his amazing adventures. Comic books don’t have to all be traditional ‘superheroes’ like Superman and Spiderman.

All of the TinTin characters in one massive lamp!

Hergé seemed like a top class fellow, he was political and followed the latest technological and science advances closely and this showed massively in his life’s work of TinTin as I mentioned above. He ended up with a massive team that worked on TinTin and he helped and encouraged those around him to foray into their own art projects.

There were HEAPS of original page and cover sketches, doodles and more all from the various adventure books of TinTin.

Someone has done something TinTin doesn’t like…

If you like TinTin even a little bit I highly recommend checking out this museum.

A tube like capsule you stand-in and are surrounded by the works of TinTin.

When I eventually own a house I want to live in and raise kids, without a doubt I’ll be getting the complete collection of TinTin books to read, dog-ear and rest upon my bookshelf.

Thanks Herge!

4 Responses to “The Hergé Museum in Brussels – The World of TinTin and Georges Remis”

  1. Andreas Madsen says:

    Where can I buy the tintin lamp with all the characters?

    • Tom says:

      Hey Andreas. Not sure, you can’t buy that one as it’s a part of the museum (and is huge, actually). The museum is definitely worth checking out if you love TinTin though!

  2. I love the adventures of Tin-Tin. I was always watching it when i was little. Like that lamp too.!

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