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Blake & Mortimer: Hergé named?

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yamilah
Member
#1 · Posted: 1 Feb 2007 14:37
In which B&M album is Hergé's name mentioned?

Please quote album, page and panel.
Richard
UK Correspondent
#2 · Posted: 2 Feb 2007 00:57
The answer is already to be found in our very own Spot Tintin - Tintin's Cameos guide.
yamilah
Member
#3 · Posted: 2 Feb 2007 01:29
Richard
The answer is already to be found in our very own Spot Tintin - Tintin's Cameos guide.
Well spotted Richard, thank you!
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#4 · Posted: 2 Feb 2007 06:10
It is a bit unusual to ask a question that you already know the answer to, rather than stating a fact, but - hey ho - life's full of surprises.

Anyhow, we've now established that Hergé's name appears on a shop sign in Le Mystère de la Grande Pyramide.

In order to turn this thread into something more constructive, I'll attempt to fill in a few additional facts.

I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that Jacobs was still working with Hergé around this time (1954-55), embellishing some of the Egyptian tomb paintings in the re-worked Cigars of the Pharaoh. And we all know (well, we should!) that Hergé pays tribute to Jacobs on the cover (and on page 8 of the book) by including an "E.P. Jacobini" as one of the mummies (who looks like Jacobs, and has his signature bow-tie).

Also, one of the other mummies on the Cigars cover - Grosgrab - is based on Professor Grossgrabenstein, a character from Le Mystère de la Grande Pyramide.

So, both men were working on different Ancient Egyptian themed books and thought to pay each other a small compliment in each of them.

And, for anyone that hasn't read them, I think the two-part Le Mystère de la Grande Pyramide are two of the best Blake and Mortimer books. Highly recommended - and an English edition of the story will be coming out soon, (I hope)!

Moderator Note: For more on the real-life model for Grosgrab/ Grossgrabenstein, the Egyptologist Jean Capart, see this thread!
labrador road 26
Member
#5 · Posted: 2 Feb 2007 09:55
When did Jacobs stopped collaborating with Hergé?
Heard some information about different views about Tintin that led to a falling out, is this true? Something about Jabocs wanting to draw/write his own Tintin adventures and Hergé of course refusing.
yamilah
Member
#6 · Posted: 3 Feb 2007 15:32
labrador road 26:
When did Jacobs stopped collaborating with Hergé?

It seems E.P. Jacobs started to work with Hergé on January 1st, 1944, and left him in 1947, after less than 4 years of collaboration for Tintin (about 3 years before the Studios were founded).

Olav*, the dual pseudonym used by Hergé & Jacobs as a team, is mainly connected with Le Canyon Mysterieux, a story drawn by Paul Cuvelier (1923-1978) (see here and here).

EDIT:
About "Le Mystere de la Grande Pyramide " (Blake et Mortimer, p.42), the shop front actually reads Hergé - & Ca.

According to Assouline's biography, Herge was left by E.P. Jacobs essentially because of his arrogance, that consisted mainly in refusing Jacobs' request to have his name feature on the Tintin albums, beside Hergé's.

This attitude towards him - not to mention the conversations they might have had about Tintin - likely made E.P.Jacobs realize there was something very personal between Hergé and Tintin.

Like Hergé, he was a very meticulous draughtsman; he might thus also have noticed the many inconsistencies inserted and tolerated in Hergé's albums (such as duplications, impossible speeds for vehicles or growth, etc), not to mention the hundreds of spelling mistakes found in the original versions.

In that context, the speech bubble just above Hergé's name "Il a l'air bien bizarre!... Mais que fait-il donc?... ", namely "How strange he looks!... What the h... is he doing?..." might have been more than just a small compliment...!
chevet
Belgium Correspondent
#7 · Posted: 4 Feb 2007 06:22
Harrock n roll:
I think (correct me if I'm wrong)

Sorry to correct you Harrock, but you're wrong... ;-)
You may already have checked with the years given by Yamilah.
In 1949, when L'or noir (original title) was published in Tintin magazine, on page 49 frame 14 (page 48 same frame in the album) we have an allusion to Jacob's story Le secret de l'Espadon: "Ma parole! On se croirait dans la base secrete de l'Espadon!"
This was replaced by "Ma parole! On se croirait dans la ligne Maginot!..."
Balthazar
Moderator
#8 · Posted: 4 Feb 2007 10:32
According to Harry Thompson's biography of Hergé, the bust up with Jacobs came when Hergé was working on Prisoners of the Sun for the newly founded Tintin magazine, shortly after the war.
Thompson doesn't specify the precise date of the bust-up, but I think he's meaning around late 1946 or early 1947.
Basically, it seems that Jacobs felt he was doing so much work on Tintin - helping with plot development and writing, as well as colouring and background details - that he was basically an equal creative partner and should have joint authorial credit for the Tintin adventures they were producing together. Hergé refused, and the pair - who (according to Thompson) had been working closely as partners since the end of 1943 - fell out.

However, Harry Thompson goes on to say that they patched it up later and became friends again, and that Jacobs worked for Hergé on Tintin again - but only on a cash basis, ie: not as equal partners.

So presumeably, this is the basis on which Jacobs was working for Hergé when he was helping to redraw and colour Cigars in the mid-fifties.

In this light, I can't help wondering whether Jacobs' apppearance on the Cigars cover was a little more than just a friendly tribute to Jacobs. Maybe it was also a slightly cheeky ironic joke by Hergé: ie: "Here you go, Edgar; you always wanted your name on the Tintin book covers, so finally I've put it on one - beneath a picture of you as a mummified corpse!"

That's just my own guess though (not backed up by anything Thompson or any other researcher has said), so I could be reading too much into it!

In any case, there's no reason to think Jacobs didn't find his jokey portrayal as a dead Egyptologist both amusing and pleasing. He was, in real life, a keen amateur Egyptiologist and (as has been said above) he was working on his own Egypt-based adventure at the time, so the "cameo part" he's playing on the Cigars cover is particularly apt.
yamilah
Member
#9 · Posted: 4 Feb 2007 18:06
Balthazar
So presumeably, this is the basis on which Jacobs was working for Hergé when he was helping to redraw and colour Cigars in the mid-fifties.

I have a doubt about Jacobs assisting Herge for Cigars of the Pharaoh book, a doubt that seems confirmed on Wikipedia.

Excerpt: Jacobs "became a stage painter for a theatre adaptation for Hergé's Cigars of the Pharaoh. Although the play was only a modest success, it brought him into contact with Hergé and the two quickly become friends. As a direct result, he assisted Hergé in the recasting of his earlier albums Tintin in the Congo, Tintin in America, King Ottokar's Sceptre and The Blue Lotus for book publication. After the project, he continued to contribute directly in the drawing as well as the storyline for the new Tintin double-albums The Secret of the Unicorn / Red Rackham's Treasure and The Seven Crystal Balls / Prisoners of the Sun".
This makes eight books.

According to Assouline, Jacobs met Hergé for the first time in 1941, and assisted him for 'seven' books.

Hergé's somehow constraining* attitude towards Jacobs went on at the time of 'Tintin magazine', as he asked him to modify and even barred some covers drawn for the pre-publication of La Marque Jaune.

To come back to Jacobs' HERGE - & Ca, this has no meaning in French (we write '& Cie' to mean '& Co'); does & Ca mean anything in English?

Thanks in advance.
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#10 · Posted: 5 Feb 2007 02:23
yamilah
Jacobs became a stage painter for a theatre adaptation for Hergé's Cigars of the Pharaoh. Although the play was only a modest success, it brought him into contact with Hergé and the two quickly become friends

I've read that Hergé and Jacobs first became acquainted during the theatre play Tintin aux Indes, also known as Le mystère du diamant bleu. It's the first time I've heard of them meeting at an adaptation for Cigars of the Pharaoh. As far as I'm concerned, that particular piece of Wiki info is wrong, so I wouldn't be inclined to believe anything else in the article!

We've established that Jacobs stopped working closely with Hergé in 1947. I've also heard that he worked on his first Blake and Mortimer story, Le Secret de l'Espadon, in his spare time from helping Hergé with Prisoners of the Sun, so he was a busy man.

Balthazar has reminded us (from the H. Thompson book, albeit another unreliable source!), that after their "bust-up", Jacobs continued to work for Hergé as a paid jobber.
Unfortunately I can't find the reference that led me to believe Jacobs contributed to the re-worked Cigars (perhaps he didn't) but it seems entirely possible given the "collective" nature of the Studios. Personally, until it's been confirmed either way by a reliable source I prefer to keep an open mind.

Incidentally, I've realised since my first post that Le Mystère de la Grande Pyramide was originally serialised in Tintin magazine from 1950 and wasn't published in book form until 1954-55.

HERGE - & Ca, this has no meaning in French (we write '& Cie' to mean '& Co'); does & Ca mean anything in English?

I agree, it does look a bit like an "a" rather than an "o".
"CA" can be used as an abbreviation for "California" in English. Perhaps it means chartered accountants? Or maybe it's "Ça", meaning "Hergé & That"?

The mystery continues!

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