Member-only story
Tintin: His Unforeseen Friendship & The Challenge To Stereotypes
Tintin, a Teachable Moment, and the Lifelong Power of Friendship
As a kid, Tintin was practically my best friend. We’d travel the world on the page, solving mysteries and facing adventure head-on. There was always that thrilling sense of “What’s next?” But as I got older, something changed.
Reading about Hergé, Tintin’s creator, a new question lingered: “If this world is so vast, why weren’t Tintin’s friends as diverse as the places he visited?” Unfortunately, Hergé’s lack of exposure to diverse cultures early on shows up in some insensitive depictions within those early Tintin adventures. It felt like a betrayal of that limitless spirit I fell in love with.
Yet, as with many things in life, the full story has more layers than you first see. Turns out, Hergé didn’t stay trapped in this narrow viewpoint. An unlikely friendship revolutionized his world and, ultimately, the world within his comics.
