Tim Mountford

From the black and white pages of a Belgian Catholic newspaper in the late 1920s to the virtual world of a 3D CGI Hollywood movie in 2011, the young adventurous reporter Tintin has come a long way.

When Georges Remi, under his nom de plume Hergé, sent the crudely drawn hero on his maiden voyage to Communist Russia, little did he know that they were both embarking on a lifelong journey - or in the case of the perpetually youthful Tintin, an eternal mythic quest.

Though regarded as mere children's comic books by some, the stories reflect the momentous changes of the twentieth century through the globe-trotting adventures of the young reporter and his companions. They also tell a larger tale - about the author's and our inner world.

This book gives an overview of the canon of Tintin adventures for new readers, giving insights into the graphic language of the stories, as well introducing the wider field of Tintinology to non-academic readers. It concludes by assessing the recent adaptation from the page to the screen by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson.