not just a dusty citroen
It turns out that Herge had a veritable passion for cars, which meant he drew the vehicles in Tintin in a very particular way. They were not just meticulously crafted, they also captured real cars with fanatic fidelity, no matter how obscure the model.
There are jungle trucks, airport buses, racing cars and limousines, all exact in detail and proportion. We know this because the jolly Francois Dardel has assembled all 154 car images in the collected works of Tintin, worked out what they are, and matched most of them to corresponding images of real cars. Then he put the lot on the internet, for which he should be celebrated.
A lot of these matchups are very, very cute.
The image at the top shows “3 cars from l’Affaire Tournesol: Volkswagen, Citroën 15/Six and Simca Aronde (there was only one VW model at the time)”.
A few vehicles were fantasy cars, but still inspired by actual vehicles, such as the Soviet Zil 111.
February 12th, 2007 at 12:07 am
Barista:
Excellent!
Shall pass on the good news to a car enthusiast friend.
Is there a Nobel Prize for Collectors and Artists?
February 12th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
What an astute eye for “reality” Herge had, in a time when impractical auto chic trumped techno conformity. Maybe it was because of him (or too many New Wave films) but for years I was seduced by the cracking plastic dashboards of old French cars: At various times I had a splendid Citroen Light 15, four Peugeot 403s, two Simca Arondes (one a wagon), a Renault Domaine (the wagon version of the Fregate), many Renault 16s and two 20 TSs. They were all infuriatingly idiosyncratic and unreliable, but I loved them. Or maybe it was genetic. My brother had about eight ancient sporting Renault “restoration projects” at one time and one prisitine ruby red Dauphine Gordini. No Panhards or Zils unfortunately.
February 12th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
[...] Finally, David Tiley at Barista does a service for Herge fans by drawing our attention to the beauty of the great artist’s depictions of cars – something I’d never stopped to notice before. [...]
February 12th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
I always wanted a Zil. Too late now – they probably got about fifty gallons to the one execution in the back seat.
February 13th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Wow. What you learn on the net. My mother drove an Alpine Talbot – a Chrysler model – for many years when I was a kid, which I’ve now learned was also sold as a ‘Simca’ (though not the same as the one pictured). She disliked the car – she complained it was like driving a tank, probably due to the front wheel drive.
Funny thing about Herge’s drawings – I tended to notice the funny noses, eyes and mustaches on his people more than the cars… and the rather caricatured – dare I say it, colonialist – depictions of Africans, Chinese, Arabs, Indians and Latin Americans.
February 13th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Ah. the history of Herge is fascinating. He started as a kind of mental and emotional prisoner of the Catholic right – they started him off – and moved steadily to a much more complex and centrist position.
The last one, about Tintin in Tibet I think, was almost psychedelic. There is a fabulous documentary about him which is very enlightening.
February 13th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
On the Simca from Wikipedia: “Some sources argue that the Russian Moskvitch Aleko (1989-2002) bears striking resemblance to the 1307 and therefore it might be possible that the Russian engineers copied more or less of the Simca’s construction.”
Why on earth did they bother? Because the lawyers took one look at the designs they had to defend and were overcome with crushing ennui?