Hergé (Georges Remi, 1907–1983): life and timeline

Compiled by Irene Mar Last updated:

Hergé Mini Profile

HERGÉ, (Georges Prosper Remi) 1907-83
Belgian strip cartoonist, born in Etterbeek, near Brussels, the creator of Tintin the boy detective. He had an influence on the modern art world, with Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein citing him as a strong influence on their work.

Hergé Timeline

1907
Georges Prosper Remi born in Etterbeek (Rue Cranz, 25) on 22 May, at 7:30 in the morning.
1912
His brother, Paul Remi, born on 26 March, five years younger than Hergé. Hergé based Tintin on Paul as a boy. In Le Soir in December 1940, Hergé noted that Tintin “borrowed his character, his gestures and attitudes” from his brother. Paul became a cavalry officer; his fellow officers called him “Major Tintin”. Hergé based Colonel Sponsz on him. Paul died on 6 May 1986.
1914–1918
Attends primary school at the District School No. 3 in Ixelles.
1918–1919
Attends School No. 11, preparatory for the Athénée (secondary school).
1920–1925
Attends Saint Boniface school. Excels in all subjects, except art.
1925
Joins the subscriptions department of the newspaper, Le XXe Siècle. Creates his first strip, Totor, for The Belgian Boy Scout.
1926
Studies art at Saint-Luc school.
1926–1927
Completes military service in the first infantry regiment. Continues the Totor series and supplies Abbot Desmedt illustrations for the publications of the Action Catholique.
1927
Rejoins Le XXe Siècle as assistant photo-engraver and cartoonist.
1928
Publication of the first issue of the weekly Le Petit Vingtième, on 1 November. Produces The Adventures of Flup, Nenesse, Pousette and Cochonnet.
1929
First Tintin strip, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, appears in the 11th issue of the Petit Vingtième (10 January).
1930
First Quick and Flupke strip appears on Thursday, 23 January.
1931
Thursday, September 3rd: Filled with African enthusiasms Tintin has already left again, and these are The Adventures of Tintin, Reporter in America. A concern for serious research begins to develop in Hergé, who reads The History of the Red Indians, by Paul Coze.
1932
Marries Germaine Kieckens. Meets Chang Chong-Jen who inspires Hergé to take his work seriously.
1935–1940
The release of The Broken Ear, The Black Island, King Ottokar's Sceptre. The Second World War interrupts work on Land of Black Gold.
1940
Meets his first collaborator, Edgar Pierre Jacobs. Alice Devos, a female collaborator, joins the team later.
1940
Becomes chief editor of the Soir Jeunesse, a supplement to the daily Le Soir. Jacques Van Melkebeke, Hergé's principal assistant, a painter, cartoonist, and writer, will later become the first chief editor of the weekly Tintin.
1942
Casterman must reduce Hergé's albums to sixty-two pages, which entails the reduction of the size of the drawings. As just compensation, the albums go from black and white to colour. The first 62-page, colour album appears in 1942: The Shooting Star.
1942–1945
Writing of The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Shooting Star, The Secret of the Unicorn, Red Rackham's Treasure, and The Seven Crystal Balls. In the middle of this last episode the Liberation arrives.
1945
A consequence of the paper shortage, this time from the creative side: being forced to draw daily "strips", sequences of three or four drawings in Le Soir, proved to be, says Hergé, an excellent lesson in narration. Another important experience, following the Liberation: being put on the index. Accused of having collaborated, Georges Remi is held back from any publishing.
September 26th, 1946
Birth of the Belgian weekly Tintin and reappearance of Hergé. The first publishing success for Raymond Leblanc. Beginning of a triumphal march for another publisher, the publisher of the albums: the editions (in colour) of Casterman begin to climb regularly toward a million per year, which they will reach in 1956.
1947–1966
Ten new stories, going from The Seven Crystal Balls (continued in Tintin) to Flight 714, as well as the recasting of Cigars of the Pharaoh and The Black Island.
1948
October 28th: appearance of the French edition of Tintin, published by Georges Dargaud.
1950
Creation of the Studio Hergé.
1956
Begins an affair with Fanny Vlamynck, colourist at the Hergé Studios since 1952.
1959
Release of the first book on Hergé, Le Monde d'Hergé, by Pol Vandromme (Gallimard).
1960
Discovers abstract art. Travels to Italy, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, England, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Greece. Separates from wife, Germaine.
1971
Visits the USA.
1972
April: First Congress of the B.D. in New York. American cartoonists pay homage to Hergé.
November: Hergé the guest of honour at the eighth Lucques Exhibition of Comics (Italy).
1973
Receives the St-Michel Grand Prize for lifetime achievement.
May: Visits the Republic of China on Taiwan.
1975
Receives the Ardenne Prize in April. Divorces from Germaine.
1976
Tintin and the Picaros is published.
1977
Hergé receives the ruby red medal of the city of Angoulême, on the occasion of the 4th Exhibition of the B.D. Marries Fanny on 20 May.
1978
Promoted to officer grade of the Order of the Crown, in Brussels. Hergé begins a new project 'Tintin and the Counterfeiters'.
1979
The 50th anniversary of the creation of Tintin. On 17 January, Hergé receives a Mickey statuette from Walt Disney Co.
1980
Diagnosed with leukemia.
1981
Reunites with Chang, who is now the Director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Shanghai, on 18 March in Brussels, for the first time since 1937.
1982
Belgian Society of Astronomy names a small planetoid, situated between Mars and Jupiter, after Hergé.
1983
Dies on 3 March, in the Saint-Luc clinic in Brussels, after a week in coma.

Comic Books by Hergé

Credits

Timeline created by Irene Mar. Contributors and sources: Etienne Chevalier, Ben and Tintin and the world of Hergé by Benoît Peeters. London: Methuen, 1989.

Paul Remi: Michael Farr, The Adventures of Hergé, Creator of Tintin, p. 27; Bédéthèque (dates, cavalry officer).

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