Tintin gets the attention he deserves

an illustration from The Blue Lotus

I first met Tintin in the 1980s and was blown away by Hergé’s artistry. And I loved Snowy – I think that is what first made me long for a wire-haired fox terrier, which was reinforced by Lacey, the best in show winner at the 1992 Westminster Dog Show.

Back then, the Tintin comic books were not called graphic novels; they were called comic books so many libraries refused to purchase them. But these stories are exciting and well-researched by the author-illustrator. The action is based on the history and politics of the 20^th century.

Hergé was born Georges Prosper Remi in 1907 in Etterbeek, Brussels, and was a Boy Scout during his youth. He got his start as an illustrator by providing drawings to the Belgian Scouting magazine and later went on to work for the newspaper Le XXE Siécle.  He began producing the Tintin stories in 1929, continuing until his death in 1983, completing 23 books in all.

I can see the Boy Scout influence in his stories – Tintin, the intrepid boy reporter – and the historical references as well. For example: The Blue Lotus was inspired by the incident that led to the 1934 Chinese-Japanese war, and the Cold War is depicted in The Calculus War.

As you read these books, you can “feel” the action so it seems natural that Steven Spielberg was drawn to these characters/stories: they have the look and feel of Indiana Jones, and he has done a wonderful job bringing them to life on the big screen.  The film ends with the promise of sequels and I, for one, can hardly wait.

Though awards are given each year at the Comic-Con convention, the Comic Book Hall of Fame has no physical presence. Though Hergé was inducted in 2003, I will just have to wait for someone to create a place to house examples of all of the award winners. Until then - on my bucket list? The Hergé Museum located in Louvain-La-Neuve. 

I love books!

For as long as I can remember, books have been important to me.

It's 1955 and I am very busy composing a story - complete with illustrations!

Christmas 1959.

 

I should be cleaning the house...

If you Google library, up comes information about the Pima County Library System – all of the branches and their addresses, a map, etc. – followed by the homepages for public libraries in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Columbus; Wikipedia’s entry for library and the Internet Public Library.

Type librarians into Google and the listings are a little more diverse. Wikipedia’s entry is first, then

·      Librarians, Employment followed by

·      How to Become a Librarian,

·      Librarians (the musical group – four guys whose work is described as “bouncy psychedelica”),

·      Images for Librarians, and

·      Fighting the Stereotype: Unusual Librarians. 

Click on this last entry and you go the Warrior Librarian Weekly: rejecting the stereotypical librarian image.  This is a combination humor, advice, advocacy, portal site authored by Amanda Credaro, a high school teacher/librarian in Australia.

My New Year’s Resolutions are nothing like the Seven Habits of Highly Successful Librarians but, in light of this new information, I should probably revisit them.

Ms. Credaro posted test answers by middle school students who had obviously taken a course about the library. I have completed three classes at the University of Arizona as part of the Information Resources and Library Science program and guess I am well on my way to becoming a librarian because I found their responses very funny.  A sampling:

·      Boolean operators are telephone sellers in other countries.

·      The purpose of OPACs is to say how much to sell crude oil for.

·      The Dewey System measures how cold it got overnight by measuring how much wetness is on the grass in the morning.

·      You can find words with similar meaning in Rogers Brontosaurus.

·      Reference books cannot be checked out because they are too big and heavy.

·      Copyright is using the photocopier the right way.

·      An abstract is a painting that doesn’t make any sense.

·      Standing on the shoulders of giants is important in research for getting the books off the top shelf.

My idea of a good time? Great jokes like these and browsing the Internet to see what grabs my attention next.

The blogosphere

Librarians have created some great blogs. 

Check this one out!

It's time for some fun!

Now that I have finished the Fall Semester, I can enjoy some of the extracurricular Wildcat activities.

Philip and I went to see the Women’s Basketball Team take on Long Beach State.  We are big fans of Coach Niya Butts, who was born and raised in Americus, GA, the home of Habitat for Humanity International. In fact, she helped build Habitat homes growing up and, when she first came to town, connected with our affiliate.

The players did not disappoint. Our gals won and, if they keep it up, they will play in the Pac-10 Tournament.  They currently stand at 8-1.

We also went to a musical performance by the University of Arizona Archive Ensemble at Crowder Hall. Under the direction of Keith Pawlak, the title of the show was The Roaring '20s: Music of the Jazz Age. 

The orchestra was excellent (I especially liked the trumpets) and it was a treat to hear the bass sax. The Vernacular Revolution Dance Troupe was very good, especially when they performed the Varsity Drag! 

And no '20s band would be complete without a "boy" and "girl" singer (as they used to be called). Kyle Connor and Jenny Beauregard did a great job. I noticed they were holding hands between numbers...very sweet.

The hall was almost full - nice to know that there is an audience for this happy music.