Tintin Forums

The other day I saw a list of the most translated authors in the world in National Geographic, and I noticed that René Goscinny (Who wrote Asterix), was on the list, but Hergé was not.
I guess that this means that Asterix is slightly more popular in the world than Tintin. What does everyone else think of this?

How was that list compiled? Did it count the languages, or the total number of translated editions? If latter, it certainly helps productive authors.

Measuring popularity is difficult. If we use sales number as yardstick, again the productive writers will benefit. Somebody with nearly 100 published titles doesn't need that much completist-fans to sell impressive amounts, while the same sales numbers are much harder to reach with 10 titles.

The point is, the National Geographic only surveyed to answer the question: "Into how many languages have these authors been translated?", not, "How many books were published, and how many people read them?".

Okay, so Mr. Goscinny is in the list, but I think that pays not only from his efforts in Asterix alone. As a French author, editor, and humorist, he wrote a lot of books and magazines (with collaboration, of course) which were translated to several languages while Hergé was only on his Tintin and his magazine.

As a positive thinker, I can only say that, "At least, Tintin has Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson to admire him. And us too!"

Yeah, the way it worked definitely favored authors who have written a lot. For one thing, Jules Verne, who wrote over one hundred novels, is second on the list.