What is a Tintinologist and why does it deserve its own term?

Somebody who discovers and loves Tintin is obviously a Tintinophile. My own love of Tintin began as a four-year-old reader. The idea of a Tintinologist developed for people who do more than that – who spend time studying Tintin and Hergé. It’s not something I’ve invented or promoted, but I prefer to be called a Tintinologist than one or two other things so I’m quite happy with it. And I find there is some credibility in the title. It’s even got to the stage where universities send me students’ graduate dissertations to be marked. I’ve had dissertations from Oxford and Cambridge. Tintinology has almost become a science.

Why has Tintin endured so?

Tintin is a mirror not only of the 20th century – his adventures always mirror contemporary events – but also of life. If you know and love your Tintin, there are Tintinesque moments in your everyday life. He’s also a very moral figure, an example of good behaviour and a good approach to life which stems from Hergé’s boy scouts background. That’s why Tintin is a shining example to young readers. That you can read a Tintin adventure any number of times is a test of its extraordinary qualities and a key reason why it has endured since Hergé’s death in 1983.

What are your impressions of the new Tintin film?

The film is a good thing because it will bring more new readers to Tintin, particularly in America where they have a different strip cartoon tradition. It is likely to be considered imperfect by anybody who is totally buried in the books and there are purists who have not liked it. But I think they’re rather missing the point. Both Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson, who made the film, are committed Tintin fans so they haven’t mucked about with it. What they’ve done is considered and careful, and often brilliant. What I like best about it is that you’re sitting on the edge of your seat, just as the books themselves are page-turners. It emulates that sense of non-stop adventure and excitement. It is also funny, and the humour is terribly important in the books. Hergé was one of the most humorous people I’ve come across.

Tell us the circumstances of your meeting Hergé, and what was he like in the flesh?

It was one of those Brussels summers where the politics shuts down, and there isn’t much to do if you’re working as a journalist in Brussels as I was. I was looking for something to do and since I was a huge Tintin enthusiast I thought, why not try and meet Hergé? All my French colleagues said he is publicity shy and will say no, but I telephoned the studio anyway. I was talking to the assistant when I heard someone mumble something in the background and take the phone. It was Hergé. I said who I was and asked would it be possible to take him out to lunch? He said immediately “Pas de question”, so I thought: Oh well, forget it. But then there was a pause and he asked if I would be free the following Thursday.

He invited me to this wonderful restaurant, still the best in Brussels, called Comme Chez Soi. I had a very memorable lunch with him. He was a celebrity and did indeed hate publicity. We sat in a corner which was screened off so other people didn’t see that he was there, which was rather typical of him. It was a marvellous lunch with good wine – Hergé was a great connoisseur of wine – but one of the worst interviews I ever had. He didn’t want to talk about himself. Whenever I asked him a question, he turned it around and asked me one. But it lead to further encounters, a bit of a friendship and real insight into his work.

For instance?

We mentioned humour. If you didn’t meet Hergé, you wouldn’t realise how funny he was – he saw the humorous side of almost everything. He was visually terribly aware, he didn’t miss anything which he saw. He was in his seventies then and I was in my mid-twenties, and I think that’s the reason why he agreed to see me. Younger, a French-speaking British journalist, I was slightly exotic and that intrigued him. Hergé was terribly young for his age. To use an expression that was used more then than now, he was very “with it”. When we got talking about music, he asked me what my favourite Pink Floyd songs were.

You see all this in the books. In many respects, Hergé is Tintin himself.