Tintin's adventures celebrated at Brussels fest
The city of Brussels has launched its first Tintin Festival, celebrating one of the world's most enduring comic book characters.
The four-day festival in the Belgian capital â home to Tintin â invites "Tintinophiles aged seven to 77" to participate in various events.
"The idea is to organize a Tintin festival every two years, in Brussels, or Belgium, or abroad," Nick Rodwell said at a press conference. Rodwell is the administrator of Moulinsart, the company that holds the rights to Tintin.
The event opened with the unveiling of a large mural of Tintin, his dog Snowy and their partner Captain Haddock from a scene in the 1956 book, The Calculus Affair, at the city's medieval Grand Place.
Georges Remi, working under the name Herge, created Tintin 76 years ago, writing a string of 23 Tintin adventures of the boy reporter. Since then, the comics have been translated into 60 languages and sold more than 200 million copies. He died in 1981.
Organizers say Tintin has "become the best ambassador for his home town," despite most of his adventures taking place outside of Belgium.
Some of the activities include a soap-box race, displays of vintage cars, motorcycles and other machines appearing in Herge's imagined world and a costume party hosted by four characters from the Tintin series, including opera singer Bianca Castafiore.
A rare film version of The Crab with the Golden Claws (1941), shown only once before, will be the big attraction at a retrospective organized at the Palais des Beaux Arts.
A convention will be held on Saturday with talks and debates about Herge's characters and the difficulties of translating his works. Throughout the four days, visitors will also be able to go on guided walks through the city, following in the footsteps of Herge.
In 2004, a commemorative 10-euro coin was minted to mark Tintin's 75th anniversary