Creation of a Tintin album
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The creation process of a comic book is relatively complex and varies from one author to another, as well as from one comic book publisher to another. In the case of Hergé, creator of The Adventures of Tintin, it was really a methodical progression. Towards the later years of Hergé's career, he benefited from the help of his collaborators within his self-assembled Studios Hergé, notably Bob de Moor. This article serves to detail the creation process of a Tintin album as an illustration of one style of comics creation.
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[edit] Basic plot and breakdowns
Hergé's first step was to find a plot or scenario, initially kept as simple as possible, to set the outline of the story. Next he would enhance and develop the story during the plot breakdown. At this stage, Hergé would sketch the pacing and flow of the panels across the page to ensure that the tension built as each page progressed and that each page ended on a suspenseful note. During this stage the dialogue and characters started as rough sketches. As work progressed on the breakdown into an outline, the story layout took shape.
[edit] The penciled page
Once the breakdowns were established (sometimes with tens of drafts having been drawn), Hergé moved on to creating the penciled pages, which form the basis for the finished work. Hergé used sheets of paper of 30cm by 40cm to work upon, with the pages later reduced to their final published size. The characters would be sketched out, with Hergé not hesitating to erase and cross out his work in search of the right images, sometimes working the paper until it became worn through. Hergé's respect for maintaining a truthful or realistic style of art often led him to request from his collaborators that they sketch him whilst he posed in the position he wanted to capture for a particular character.
After he had finished pencilling all the pages, the next step was to take a tracing of all the panels, choosing only to trace the best lines. This could often become the occasion to reframe the elements within a panel, or even within a whole page. Once this tracing was complete, the work would be transferred onto a clean sheet of paper in preparation for inking.
[edit] Inking
On the penciled pages, only the characters and their actions would be detailed. The decoration, the backgrounds would exist only as loosely sketched definitions. At this point Hergé’s collaborators would start to draw the vehicles, landscapes, and uniforms, all the while respecting the general style as much as possible. Hergé and his collaborators did not hesitate to visit sites, drawing sketches and taking photos so as to further the focus on a realistic representation and creation of the world the characters inhabited. Once the pages were completed in pencil form, they would be ready to be inked, using Indian ink and a dip pen with a variety of nibs. The dialogue would be given a final review, with any mistakes or errors in placement corrected, the number of letters and signs would be counted, and then the speech balloons would be sketched in. After a last verification, the pages would be sent to the photoengraver.
[edit] Colors and dialogs
Shortly thereafter, the studio would receive a couple of photographic proofs in a publishing format. Proofs intended for coloring would have been printed in a blue-grey tone (called “whiteprints”), along with black and white proofs which were printed on celluloid. The coloring was provided by colorists chosen by Hergé. For their work they tended to use watercolors, Ecoline and gouache to create one of the particular aspects of Hergé’s style, in which the colors are applied flatly, without gradation in order to give what Hergé considered to be a greater readability and freshness.
The dialogue would be added by the letterer on a special proof, one each for every foreign language translation. Finally, the onomatopoeias would generally be drawn by one of the assistants.
[edit] The final result
Once the work was complete, all the proofs would be sent to the photoengraver, who would combine the black and white celluloid, the colored sheet and the dialogue. The final act in the work's creation was to start the rotary press and send the brand new books all around the world.
[edit] Bibliography
- À la découverte de Tintin (Discovering Tintin) The text is placed in the public domain by its author. See this page
- Comment naît une aventure de Tintin (How a Tintin adventure is born) in Le Musée imaginaire de Tintin or in Tintin et les Bigotudos from Philippe Goddin, both published by Casterman.
| The Adventures of Tintin | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creation of Tintin · Books, films, and media · Ideology of Tintin | ||||
| Characters: | Supporting · Minor · Complete list | |||
| Miscellany: | Hergé · Marlinspike · Captain Haddock's exclamations | |||
