In 1929 an intrepid reporter from Petit Vingtieme, a children’s supplement to the Belgian newspaper Vingtieme Siecle, made a dangerous journey to the Soviet Union. Pursued by Soviet agents intent on killing him, the reporter, named Tintin, successfully avoided disaster and went on to become famous.

It was 90 years ago today that the much-loved cartoon character Tintin made his first appearance in Le Petit Vingtieme. The ageless young journalist, photographer, explorer and sleuth with a distinctive quiff and faithful dog Snowy (Milou in the original French) would go on to dozens more adventures. He has travelled to all parts of the globe, including Australia and even to the moon.

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Although the man who created Tintin, Herge, died in the 1980s, the character continues to have life. His adventures are still in print, an animated television series from the 90s is still often repeated, and there are plans to make a sequel to the 2011 film directed by Steven Spielberg.

Camera Icon Tintin and Snowy were created in 1929 by Belgian cartoonist Herge. Credit: Supplied

While world knew Tintin’s creator by the name Herge, he was born Georges Remi on May 22, 1907, in Etterbeek near Brussels, in Belgium. His father, Alexis, was a former draper working in a sweets factory. Herge later said the town where he grew up was boring and he looked for other ways to amuse himself, particularly reading, writing and drawing.

At 12 he also joined the local branch of the Scouts du Belgique, who often spent time in forests emulating their idealised version of the lifestyle of the Native Americans or “Red Indians” as they called them.

Already a handy artist, as a scout he had work published in his troop’s magazine Jamais Assez (Never Enough) and later in the national scouting magazine Le Boy Scout.

He harboured ideas of becoming an artist, but found his school art class dull, discouraging him from pursuing his dream. But a scoutmaster encouraged his creativity and Herge kept contributing to the boy scout publications even after finishing school in 1925.

Signing his work GR in his early days, by 1924 he had started inverting the letters to RG, saving his real name for his serious art. In French the letters RG are pronounced “air zhay” or Herge.

Working as a clerk at the conservative national newspaper Le Vingtieme Siecle, he continued producing art for the scout magazine. In 1926 he created a globetrotting scout character named Totor. Based partly on his younger brother Paul, Totor had elements of what would become Tintin.

Camera Icon Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, known as Herge, at his desk in 1939. . Credit: AFP

Herge continued to draw Totor adventures while doing national service. On his release in 1927 he was offered a full-time job with Le Vingtieme Siecle. In 1928 when Herge’s fascist-sympathising editor Norbert Wallez started Le Petit Vingtieme, a children’s version of the paper with comics, he made Herge its editor.

Given the chance to make his own comics he started with a strip called Flup, Nenesse, Poussette, and Cochonnet, which wasn’t well received. When Wallez asked him to do a story showing the evils of communism he did a modified version of Totor, renaming him Tintin. On January 10, 1929, Tintin made his debut in Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets. In the opening scenes Tintin had no quiff, but later it springs up during a car chase.

It was a huge success, boosting circulation. A book version was published in 1930. Some early strips were fiercely anti-communist and used racial stereotypes, but Herge reduced the racism in later strips.

When Germany invaded Belgium in 1940, Herge fled to France. Le Petit Vingtieme was shut down, leaving an adventure, Land Of Black Gold, set in Palestine, unfinished (he would finish it after the war). When Belgian’s king Leopold asked all Belgians to return, Herge went home and started a new adventure, The Crab With The Golden Claws, in Le Soir, which was then taken over by the Nazis.

After the war, Herge was arrested as a collaborator and black-listed. Supported by the publisher of his books during this ordeal, in 1946 he started the magazine Tintin. Beset by personal problems and occasional breakdowns, Herge kept producing Tintin, which continued to grow in popularity, the first English edition appeared in 1958.

The last complete Tintin adventure, Tintin And The Picaros, was published in 1976. In 1977 he divorced his wife Germaine and married Fanny Vlamynck. He was working on a final adventure, Tintin And Alph-Art, when he died in 1983 from an HIV infection contracted from blood transfusions he was given to fight bone marrow cancer.