Le Petit Vingtième
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Le Petit Vingtième ("The Little Twentieth") is the weekly youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle ("The Twentieth Century") from 1928 to 1940. The cartoon character Tintin first appears in its pages.
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[edit] History
Le Vingtième Siècle is a catholic and conservative newspaper from Brussels, lead by abbot Norbert Wallez. From 1925 on, Hergé (then 18 years old) starts working there, first as a clerk, and after he has fulfilled his military services the next year as an illustrator for the main pages and for some of the supplements, like the weekly arts pages and the female section.
In 1928, the abbot decides to start a weekly 8 page youth supplement, appearing every thursday. He calls it Le Petit Vingtième (The Little Twentieth). Hergé is named editor in chief. In the first issue, appearing on November 1st, 1928, he illustrates a short comic made by Desmedt, the sports editor of the newspaper: Les Aventures de Flup, Nénesse, Poussette et Cochonnet. Sensing that this comic lacks spirit and is rather old-fashioned compared to the current American comics and to the works of Alain Saint-Ogan, Hergé starts working on his own comic. Still in 1928, he becomes engaged to Germaine Kieckens, the secretary of the abbot at the newspaper. They marry in 1932.
On January 10, 1929, in issue 11, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets begins. Every issue features two pages of the story, and Hergé often makes covers for the supplement depicting Tintin as well. A year later, on January 23, 1930, the first page of Quick & Flupke, a gag strip, appears in the magazine as well. 310 Gags will appear before the paper folds.
The supplement, and especially the comics, are an overwhelming success, with circulation publication quintupling on Thursdays. At the end of each of the first three stories of The Adventures of Tintin, an actual reception of the comic hero (played by an actor) at the station in Brussels is organized, with thousands of people attending. In the meantime the first assistants to Hergé are hired to help him fill the supplement and to do minor work on Tintin and Quick & Flupke: Eugène Van Nijverseel, better known as Evany, and Paul Jamin (also signing as Jam).
To capitalize on the success, a new publishing house is started, Les éditions du Petit Vingtième, publishing the first three books of Tintin and the first two of Quick and Flupke before folding and passing the rights in 1934 to Casterman, which is better suited to cope with the international success of Tintin (which by then also appears in France and Switzerland). Both the newspaper comics and the album publications are in black and white.
Between February 8 and August 16 1934, Hergé also publishes the more juvenile story Les aventures de Popol et Virginie chez les Lapinos (translated as Popol out west. This story is only first published as an album in French in 1952 though.[1]
In February 1940, an attempt is made to launch De Bengel, a Dutch translation of Le Petit Vingtième. This magazine is the first appearance of Tintin in Dutch. The magazine seems to have never been distributed though, and only one copy is known to exist.[2]
The publication of Tintin and Quick & Flupke continues in the newspaper supplement until May 1940, when the Germans invade Belgium.
[edit] Tintin publications
- Tintin in the Land of the Soviets: January 10th, 1929 - May 8th, 1930: album 1930 (10 editions of 1,000 copies each)
- Tintin in the Congo: June 5th, 1930 - June 11th, 1931: arrival at Brussels North train station July 9th, 1931: album 1931 (110 pages)
- Tintin in America: September 3th, 1931 - October 20th, 1932: album 1932 (120 pages)
- Cigars of the Pharaoh (published as "Tintin in the Orient"): December 8th, 1932 - August 2nd, 1934 (124 pages)
- The Blue Lotus: August 9th, 1934 - October 17th, 1935 (124 pages)
- The Broken Ear: December 5th, 1935 - February 25th, 1937
- The Black Island: April 15th, 1937 - June 16th, 1938 (124 pages)
- King Ottokar's Sceptre (published as "Tintin in Syldavia"): August 4th, 1938 - August 10th, 1939 (106 pages)
- Land of Black Gold: September 28th, 1939 - May 8th, 1940 (unfinished)
[edit] Quick & Flupke publications
Between 1930 and 1940, some 310 gags of Quick & Flupke appear in 'Le Petit Vingtième, all in black and white. They regularly appear on the cover of the supplement as well. Two albums are published by the Editions du Petit Vingtième. The other gags appear later at Casterman.
- Quick et Flupke gamins de Bruxelles (1931)
- Les nouveaux exploits de Quick et Flupke gamins de Bruxelles: 2ème série (1932)
[edit] Notes
- ^ Other works by Hergé (French)
- ^ GvA Kuifje-dossier (in Dutch). Last accessed July 18th, 2006
