Tintin Forums

Dear (s) friend (s),
After a trial outrageous and grotesque, Moulinsart Rodwell and managed to condemn the writer and Tintin Bob Garcia to pay the crazy sum of 50,000 euros. His mistake: having written 5 small studies Herge from a few hundred copies of a Tintin association without profit. Nobody made any money in this enterprise, nor made any moral or financial support to "claimant" by Herge.

All attempts at negotiation and discussion have failed, including the claim by sprawl.

Today Moulinsart and Rodwell put two mortgages on the house of Bob Garcia. Tomorrow, they may order the forced sale and put it in the streets to exercise their racketeering.
Bob Garcia is now back to the wall and unable to pay such a sum. It is physically and morally exhausted by the unequal struggle and unjust. Many of you have offered to help.

The association Promocom (who published his books at a loss and no longer has a penny of cash) and the support committee of Bob Garcia can see no other solution to try to learn from this tragic situation to call donations from friends Tintin. Everyone (E) is called (e) to give what he wants or can ... (just 1000 people helping for 50 euros to bail out).

Possibilities:
Pal: promocom@aliceadsl.fr
or
Check payable to Promocom sent to:
Promocom
26ter Rue Nicolai
75012 Paris

We still count on your friendship, your solidarity and support and thank you for being with Bob, even if ...

Cons greed and the censorship of "claimant" would be a good example of what really TINTIN IN MIND ...

But through the case of Bob Garcia, it is freedom of expression, the right to parody and the right to exegesis that are seriously questioned. It is also against the dangers of censorship and intolerance that we must fight. History has demonstrated that it can lead mankind ...

Tintin friendships,
The Committee Support Bob Garcia

Contact:

E-Mail: comitedesoutien.bobgarcia @ gmail.com

Without wanting to sound paranoid, I would not advise sending money over the internet.

I've been getting a number of inbox messages of FaceBook from Bob Garcia's group. They're in French of course. I translated the first one in BabelFish but I haven't bothered with the rest. It's a worthy cause but I think we can support in other ways than money.

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I'm not certain that the security of the mechanism is the thing that people are necessarily questioning: the bigger issue is how is the money itself to be administered?
There isn't a guarantee that the problem is actually as described, that the money is actually going to go to him, that he actually needs the money, etc. etc. And in the event of more money than is required being raised, what happens to surplus?

With the best will in the world, it does sound like he is in an unfortunate position, but there are also issues about this fund-raising which I think need to be addressed before people start sending money, should they wish to do so.


Have you got any suggestion?

Well, we could have a more English-friendly appeal for a start. The one at the start of this post is an excellent example of an online translation at its best - or worse as the case may be. I had to make a search for "Bob Garcia Tintin" on Google before I could really understand what it was all about.

Anyway here's another translation of the appeal for support. Bonne chance, Bob.

Urgent: we have to help Bob Garcia, who has been ruined, stripped of his property and censored by the "beneficiaries" of Tintin.

To stand up for freedom of expression, the right to parody and to analyse a subject; to counter the censorship imposed of the "beneficiaries" of Tintin, help Bob Garcia!

Bob Garcia is a writer (published by "Le Rocher", "Payot-Rivages", etc) and journalist (TSF, Canal 77, etc). Along with his professional activities, he has also had a life-long passion for the works of Hergé. He has published 5 small studies of Tintin (of which only two contain images of Tintin), of which a few hundred copies were published within the framework of a non-profit-making partnership. Neither he nor the partnership gained a single penny from these confidential publications.

However, at the end of a grotesque lawsuit, the beneficiaries of Tintin managed to have him sentenced to pay the exorbitant amount of 50.000 Euros for... counterfeit!

Unable to afford such an amount, Bob Garcia tried to ask the "beneficiaries" to have the payments spread out over a period of time. In response, the "beneficiaries" mortgaged his house and are now threatening to throw him out on to the street, along with his family. In the same spirit of dialogue and consideration, their solicitors ordered the seizure and sale of Bob Garcia's personal property.

Facing this violent enforcing of a lawsuit which in itself has become an apologist for censorship, Bob Garcia has no other option than to pay the sum of 50.000 Euros as soon as possible.

Everyone can help:

- by signing on to the "Bob Garcia Support Committee" on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=91196878131

- by spreading the word as widely as possible (on blogs, Facebook pages, etc) in order to denounce the outrageous censorship imposed by the "beneficiaries"...

- and especially by making a donation within your means via PayPal (promocom@aliceadsl.fr) or by cheque to: Promocom, 26ter rue Nicolaï - 75012 Paris

The freedom of expression and the right to analysis must override the cupidity and the censorship imposed by beneficiaries whose only desire is to make money off the real creators.

The support committee of writer Bob Garcia

Bob Garcia will be available at the Salon du Livre de Paris (Paris Book Show) from the 26th to the 31st of March 2010 at Stand n°V38.

Here are some youtube interviews with Bob Garcia for French-speakers. Sorry, but right now I not up to doing my usual in-depth translations, maybe later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DkoWKpNkME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftyRBekvCuQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0ZnAKV2Lrw

Basically Garcia's analysis appears to suggest that a lot of Tintin was inspired by other sources, including literary ones like Sherlock Holmes or Jules verne or the cinema. For example, they compare a scene from the movie "Scarface" with that of Bobby Smiles and the hitman in "Tintin in America" and illustrations for "20,000 leagues Under the Sea" with "Red Rackham's Treasure". There are even what appear to be strips from the 1920s or 30s which may have inspired the appearance of Snowy or the incident of the dinosaur bone in "King Ottokar's Sceptre".

One thing that is quite interesting: Garcia effectively claims that a lot of Tintin products are actually the work of East Asians, even child labourers, who are paid next to nothing for goods that earn thousands.

Please sum up in a few sentence's who this Bob Garcia is ?.

Garcia is a writer and journalist who has written some books analysing Tintin and how Herge did his work, his inspiration etc, similar in a way to Michael Farr. However, this was done without the apparent permission of Moulinsart and he even used copyright material. As a result he was sued through the courts and presented with a huge bill. His supporters claim that this is pure censorship and that Moulinsart has acted too quickly and badly in handling the situation.

Some things need to be addressed here....


Moulinsart probably were not as concerned with the fact that Mr Garcia gained no financial gain from this venture, they were possibly more upset with the following:


You can't do that plan and simple. If you do, accept the fact that this company may, and can, take you to court.
This is an argument which has been going on forever but Tintin is Moulinsart's property and can't be used without their permission.


Is there proof of this, is this true?? I've not read Mr Garcia's work but if he says this without facts and it's false then I would expect Moulinsart to be very angry to say the least.
All I'm trying to do is look at this from Moulinsart's view point.

Of course I feel for this person, if he's low on money that the fine will be devastating but at the same time he was walking a fine line with publishing this material.
Either way it's a sad state of affairs presently :(



The media should get involved as much as possible, petitions should be started and most of all keep appealing the courts to reconsider their original verdict. If Mr Garcia is in financial difficulties can't he get free access to legal advice? This is the case in Australia.


I may have stirred up a hornet's nest with my post but just thought my points should be stated.