Tintin was 80 years old in 2009, but he doesn’t look a day over 20

—  what’s his secret?

How did this guy with a gawky haircut and geeky trousers sell over 120 million books, start a comic-book revolution, attracting both child and adults? Now there’s a Spielberg movie coming, with special effects from our own Weta Studios.

Like all the best children’s books, the answer lies in the high quality of the storytelling, the illustrations, and the characters.

Tintin’s creator, Hergé, was an artist and a painstaking researcher. Every ship, car, building, uniform and statue in the Tintin books was drawn from observation or photographs.The plots were topical too, drawing on news events of the time involving politics, science and culture.

Then there is ‘Hergé’s remarkable ability to anticipate world events.’ (Michael Farr in Tintin, The Complete Companion, 2001). Tintin reached the moon long before the Americans, in Explorers on the Moon (1953). There’s the prophetic artwork, such as the design of spacesuits and rocket, and the moonscapes and weightlessness. Characters were also based on real people: Tintin was modelled on Hergé’s brother, the Thompsons on his (twin) father and uncle.

Tintin and Snowy first appeared as a comic strip in 1929 in a Belgian Catholic newspaper. The early stories had basic drawings and a few stereotypes. The first, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (1929), is anti-communist propaganda  presented as slapstick action. Tintin in the Congo (1930) looks politically incorrect today: Tintin teaches the rubbery-lipped natives of the Belgian colony and happily kills the wildlife (this was censored in recent editions).

Hergé’s friendship with a Chinese arts student led to more sophisticated stories. Chang suggested he use real events as inspiration and The Blue Lotus (1938) was the result. Based on the horrific Japanese invasion of China, the book caused diplomatic upheavals in Belgium.

The next story, King Ottokar’s Sceptre (1938), also had a bold political message at a time of rising Nazi tension. Tintin saved fictional Syldavia from a dictator – just as Hitler was moving into Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland.

After the war Hergé was accused of being a Nazi sympathiser  because he chose to work in German-controlled Belgium. But Nazi censors banned The Black Island and Tintin in America because of their Allied settings. So Hergé published fabulous non-political adventures during the war.

In The Crab With the Golden Claws (1940), he introduced one of children’s literature’s most inspired characters: Captain Haddock. Initially a hopeless drunk, he becomes a faithful friend and a foil to Tintin’s ‘nice’ personality. He is most loved for his colourful cursing: billions of blistering barnacles, thundering typhoons, and bashi-bazouks!

The Shooting Star (1941) reflected the fearful wartime mood and took Tintin on a sci-fi adventure. Red Rackham’s Treasure (1943) was pure escapism and showed Hergé’s passion for accurate drawing again. It extended the Tintin family with the hilariously irritating Professor Calculus.

The Seven Crystal Balls (1943) and Prisoners of the Sun (1946)  are considered the best of Hergé’s two-part adventures.  There’s a touch of the supernatural and a spectacular climax in a lost civilization. The Calculus Affair (1954) is realistic and rich in comic  characters. Written during the Cold war, the story concerns a country which wants a new ultrasonic weapon — but Calculus wisely destroys the plans.

My favourite is Tintin in Tibet (1958), written at a time of personal crisis for Hergé. It’s all about ‘the incorruptible bonds of friendship’ (Farr) as Tintin searches for his dear friend Chang in Tibet (Hergé had lost track of the real Chang).

Hergé wanted to write a story where nothing much happened. The result was The Castafiore Emerald (1961) which is unlike any other Tintin book. The heroes run around a mansion chasing false leads in a frantic farce. The last complete book was Tintin and the Picaros (1975) which updates Tintin’s image by giving him jeans, a peace sign and yoga. It has a satirical message: revolution does not always help the masses.

Tintin and Alph-Art was unfinished when Hergé died in 1983, but the sketches have been published. The final scene has Tintin about to be made into a living statue. Fortunately Snowy has escaped – I’m sure he would’ve saved Tintin.

As a child reader I loved the excitement and humour of Tintin, and as an adult I enjoy the politics and illustration. With such a broad audience, it’s little wonder the books sell four million copies a year in over fifty languages. Tintin has been made into 2 live movies (The Golden Fleece is still great fun to watch).

Not bad for a lad with a dated hairstyle.