Hergￃﾩ: the Man Who Created Tintin, And: God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka
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Archived version from NCDOCKS Institutional Repository http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/asu/ Book Reviews: Hergé: The Man Who Created Tintin. By Pierre Assouline. Translated by Charles Ruas. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post–World War II Manga. By Natsu Onoda Power. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009. Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip. By Nevin Martell. New York: Continuum, 2009. By: Craig Fischer Abstract Three recent books—Pierre Assouline's Hergé, Natsu Onoda Power's God of Comics and Nevin Martell's Looking for Calvin and Hobbes—aspire to be comprehensive, accessible biographies/critical studies of their subjects, though these books vary widely in quality. Fischer, C. (2010). Reviews of Herge: The Man who Created Tintin by Pierre Assouline, God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga by Natsu Onoda Power, and Looking for Calvin and Hobbes by Nevin Martell, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 35.3 (Fall 2010), 320-324. DOI: 10.1353/chq.2010.0004. ESSN 1553-1201. Version of record available at: http://muse.jhu.edu/article/396491. +HUJp7KH0DQ:KR&UHDWHG7LQWLQDQG*RGRI&RPLFV2VDPX7H]XNDDQGWKH&UHDWLRQRI3RVW²:RUOG:DU,,0DQJD DQG/RRNLQJIRU&DOYLQDQG+REEHV7KH8QFRQYHQWLRQDO6WRU\RI%LOO:DWWHUVRQDQG+LV5HYROXWLRQDU\&RPLF6WULS UHYLHZ &UDLJ)LVFKHU &KLOGUHQ V/LWHUDWXUH$VVRFLDWLRQ4XDUWHUO\9ROXPH1XPEHU)DOO SS 5HYLHZ 3XEOLVKHGE\-RKQV+RSNLQV8QLYHUVLW\3UHVV '2, KWWSVGRLRUJFKT )RUDGGLWLRQDOLQIRUPDWLRQDERXWWKLVDUWLFOH KWWSVPXVHMKXHGXDUWLFOH Access provided by Appalachian State University Libraries (17 Nov 2016 14:39 GMT) Hergé: The Man Who Created Tintin. By Pierre including such acclaimed books as Assouline. Translated by Charles Ruas. New Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack and Naoki York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Urasawa’s Pluto. And then I wondered: what other God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation books out there, besides Thompson’s, of Post–World War II Manga. By Natsu Onoda guide parents in their purchases, and Power. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, guide librarians when they order man- 2009. ga and other types of comics for their collections? What books give teachers Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Uncon- the information they need to incor- ventional Story of Bill Watterson and His porate comics into their classrooms? Revolutionary Comic Strip. By Nevin Martell. It seems to me that there’s a dearth of New York: Continuum, 2009. solid, introductory-level critical texts about the comics medium as a whole Reviewed by Craig Fischer and about important cartoonists in particular, though perhaps this situa- Two or three weeks before Christmas, tion has begun to improve. Three re- my friend Beth asked me to go to the cent books—Pierre Assouline’s Hergé, local comics shop with her. Beth’s Natsu Onoda Power’s God of Comics eight-year-old son Beckham had put and Nevin Martell’s Looking for Calvin manga on his Christmas list—manga and Hobbes—aspire to be comprehen- are the Japanese comics published sive, accessible biographies/critical in paperback and available at every studies of their subjects, though these chain bookstore and comic store in books vary widely in quality. the United States—but Beth knew Pierre Assouline is a Parisian that some manga is extremely violent journalist and author whose previous and sexually explicit, and she wanted books include biographies of writer my help in finding a book appropriate Georges Simenon and photographer for Beckham. We ended up buying two Henri Cartier-Bresson. Undoubtedly, books for him: the first volume of Hi- Hergé is a more widely read writer romu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist than Simenon and a more popular (a moderately violent but well-told visual artist than Cartier-Bresson. fantasy tale) and a volume of Kiyohiko The twenty-three book-length comic Azuma’s Yotsuba&! (an all-ages com- adventures that Hergé wrote and edy). I also recommended that Beth drew (with a cadre of uncredited as- pick up Jason Thompson’s Manga: sistants) about the boy reporter Tintin The Complete Guide, a comprehensive between 1930 and 1976 still command survey of manga titles rated for qual- a worldwide audience in the tens of ity and age-appropriateness. I real- millions. An example of Tintin’s clout: ized, though, that Thompson’s book, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson which came out in 2007, is already are collaborating on a Tintin movie, out of date. There’s been hundreds and it takes these two cinematic pow- (if not thousands) of manga volumes erhouses to equal Hergé’s singular translated into English since then, impact and popularity. 320 Children’s Literature Association Quarterly In his introduction, Assouline these receiving capital punishment or writes that he took on the project be- life imprisonment.) Assouline argues cause Hergé’s heirs gave him total ac- that Hergé made poor moral choices cess to the artist’s papers and files. This during the Occupation and, more caught my attention; I’ve read several surprisingly, remained close to the books on Hergé, and I was hoping that incivique crowd after he was exoner- Assouline’s unprecedented access to ated by the courts: the Hergé Foundation archives would result in new revelations, but not so. Whatever the facts, he always In large measure, Assouline’s Hergé is managed to find extenuating circumstances for those defeated a well-written recapitulation of facts by the liberation. [Journalist and already presented in various sources convicted collaborator] Robert (most notably for U.S. audiences, Poulet would say that Hergé was in the documentary Tintin and Me generous toward the inciviques, [2003], which aired as a program in those who were banned and disgraced but whose integrity he the PBS series POV in 2006). All the believed in. Hergé’s generosity chronicles of Hergé’s life, including toward them was greater than Assouline’s, focus on the same for- people would believe. He helped mative influences, including his love not only his friends, and friends for the Boy Scouts, his early work for of friends, but also individuals whom he did not even know. His the Catholic newspaper Le Vingtième reputation as the Samaritan of Siècle (Twentieth Century, edited by collaborators in distress spread conservative priest and Hergé mentor beyond the borders. (115–16) Norbet Wallez), his friendship with Chinese artist Chang Chong-Chen, Assouline’s biography gives us a and his two marriages. Rabid Tinti- portrait of a very complicated, very nophiles may not learn anything new flawed Hergé, which seems to be the from Assouline’s Hergé, but his book truth about the man. I’d recommend functions as a fine introduction for Hergé to anyone interested in Tintin neophytes interested in the artist’s and Belgian comics in general, as well life. as historians of the incivique period. The most striking aspect of As- Natsu Onoda Power’s God of Com- souline’s book is his willingness to la- ics is about Osamu Tezuka, who is bel Hergé a Nazi collaborator. During called the “God of Manga” by fans and the German occupation of Belgium, whose incredible post–World War II Hergé drew Tintin for the French- popularity established manga as both language collaborationist newspaper an artistic means of expression and Le Soir (Evening), and after the war he as a business. Like Assouline’s Hergé, was briefly in danger of being ruled God of Comics covers all the requisite an incivique (a “noncitizen”) by a peaks and valleys of its subject’s life. postwar military court because of his Power discusses the influence of Walt participation in Axis media. (After Disney on Tezuka’s cartooning, the the war, 55,000 Belgians were found unexpected success Tezuka had with guilty of collaboration, with a tenth of early comics like New Treasure Island Book Reviews 321 (1947) and The Lost World (1948), Black Jack!”) Chapters are devoted to and the first appearance of Tetsuwan Tezuka’s contributions to shojo manga Atomu (or Astro Boy, as he’s known (comics for girls) and seinen manga in the United States) in 1952. (Early in (experimental, violent, and sexual their careers, both Hergé and Tezuka comics aimed at young adult males). created massively popular characters, My favorite is chapter 3, “Movie in and both later found reader demand a Book,” where Power claims that for new Tintin and Astro Boy stories Tezuka was heavily influenced by the a straitjacket—though Tezuka ignored visual aesthetics of Hollywood films these demands and went on to create of the 1930s and 1940s and, begin- works more adult and ambitious than ning with Metropolis (1949), began to anything Hergé ever attempted.) Like incorporate “a more solid vocabulary Assouline, Power avoids hagiography of ‘cinematic techniques’” into his and is direct in her evaluations of manga (54), specifically the deep focus different facets of Tezuka’s career. A cinematography of movies like Citizen chapter on Tezuka’s contributions to Kane (1941) and The Best Years of Our animation ends with the following Lives (1946), which inspired Tezuka to judgment: “Despite his deep love for stage action in his comics panels on all animation, Tezuka was not always planes, from the extreme foreground successful at it, commercially or artis- to the remote background. In making tically. Some regard Tezuka’s influence this point, Power brings in historical on Japanese animation as negative evidence (post–World War II Japanese rather than positive: he is responsible film magazines) and the ideas of film for much of the money-saving (and theorist André Bazin, and brieflyGod quality-compromising) techniques in of Comics becomes more scholarly TV animations, which mark them as than introductory. Most of Power’s a ‘low’ form of entertainment as op- book, however, stays on the gaijin posed to ‘art’” (138).