International influences
International influences |
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Page 4 of 17  Page from Tintin: Explorers on the Moon (Methuen. 1959). Tintin's commercial success grew exponentially with time. As licensing deals flourished all over the world, so too did cross-media exploitation, with the production of films, animated TV shows and all manner of merchandising. Today, albums still sell in the order of three million per year, and appear in thirty-six different languages. Herge, who died in 1990, is now recognized as having had an impact on European comics analagous to that of Jack Kirby on the American industry, and as being one of the most important creators in the history of the medium. After him, European creators would either be categorized as followers of, or deviators from, the 'clear line' school. The economics of comics production in Europe were thus established in this early period. The enormous impact of Tintin established a template that other titles would follow: specifically, to 'pre-publish' in a regular, newsstand magazine, and then to republish individual stories in album form later. This way, creators received two royalties. Thus, from the start, the assembly-line 'work for hire' method favoured by most British and American publishers was eschewed in favour of a system that, in theory at least, guaranteed a better quality product. This process was bolstered in some countries by the fact that comics were a 'protected' industry. In France, for example, a law was passed in 1949 that effectively banned American comics from entering the country. American newspaper strips like 'Flash Gordon' and 'The Phantom' had been syndicated in the 1930s, and superhero comics had arrived with the GIs in the 1940s, but French Communist Party protests about 'cultural imperialism' and the need for more patriotic French heroes forced the legal safeguard, and led to a situation where French comics were allowed to develop in their own idiosyncratic way.  Page from Tintin: Explorers on the Moon (Methuen. 1959). |