Week 2: Comics as Graphic Novels II

Compare the relationship between images and words differ in Hergé (1933) and Spiegelman’s (2004) works.

Although both being comic authors, there are both similarities and differences between Herge and Tintin’s works. The immediate aspect of both the authors works is that they both bring in a certain racial and political theme into their pieces. For example how Spiegelman was began writing again around the time of 9/11 and began writing comics again only when, “I heard paranoid Arab Americans blaming it all on the Jews did I reel myself back in (to comic writing)”. The two writer’s were obviously very conscious of the fact that not all cultures see eye to eye. Herge shows this with they relationship between Tintin and Chang when they first meet and Chang is not entirely sure of Tintin’s intentions because he is white, “I thought all white devils were wicked.” Spiegelman shows this with a picture of an American saying, “WHY DO THEY HATE US? WHY???” after the 9/11 attack. The language used by Spiegelman is also alot more modern than that of Herge’s work as shown by these quotes.

Another similarity between the two writers is how they are both claimed to have skills in being able to see things ahead of time. Spiegelman said, “It’s hard to be an artist who’s consistently seconds ahead of time.” This is a skill Herge was also said to have, “Like some finely tuned commentator, he was able to see where events were leading.”

The immediate difference between Herge and Spiegelman’s work however, is the physical differences between their comic works. Herge’s Tintin 1993 work tends to be alot more traditional and straight forward. Spiegelman’s 2004 work seems to be more contemporary and moves around alot. Rather than going from left to right, he puts comic strips going down as well as left to right.

Spiegelman, A. (2004). The Sky is Falling.

Spiegelman, A. (2004) The Shadow of no Towers.

Herge. (1936). Tintin - The Blue Lotus.