Fanspot
House of Robert Sexé
“You’re wrong, Tintin!… You know it never works for you, minding other people’s business.”
Snowy in King Ottokar’s Sceptre
How can the most famous Belgian reporter have a link with an inhabitant of Saint-Benoît in the Vienne? To answer this question, we must go back to 1925. Robert Sexé is a reporter famous for his love of motorcycles. While reporting in Moscow, he took a photo of Red Square to illustrate his article. Widely distributed in the Belgian press, the photo is making the rounds of the editorial offices. Legend has it that the photograph passed through the hands of Georges Remi, alias Hergé, who was then working at the newspaper Vingtième Siècle. Coincidence or not, Robert Sexé was regularly accompanied by a certain René Milhoux, a mechanic by training and a Grand-Prix racer.
But a simple photo is not the origin of the myth. The physique of the reporter is also to be taken into account with his blonde hair. Another fact in favor of the theory about Robert Sexé and Tintin is the motorcycle of the former. Famous for having completed the first round-the-world motorcycle trip in 1926, the adventurer had equipped himself with a machine from Gillet-Herstal, a Belgian company. Today, the bike rests in the reserve of the Auto Moto museum of Châtellerault. And this same motorcycle was drawn, line for line, by Hergé in the album King Ottokar’s Sceptre.
Of course, Robert Sexé is not the only possible influence of Hergé for the model of Tintin, especially since no document attests a meeting between the two men. Among other potential candidates for the model of the reporter with the houpette is Pierre Nothomb, the brother of the president of the Belgian motorcycle federation and Hergé’s lawyer or Jacques Ickx, motorcycle racer, journalist and friend of Robert, brother of Pierre Ickx, cartoonist with Hergé. Still, Robert Sexé is one of the most serious candidates. Today, a plaque stands on his house, recalling the illustrious inhabitant, whose past and morals are often questioned, but who cannot be ignored in the history of comics.
Theoretically, Tintin will fall into the public domain in 2053, 70 years after Hergé’s death.
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Tintin Volume 13 - The Seven Crystal Balls
Resume: The world’s most famous travelling reporter is faced with an ancient Inca curse, which is causing its victims to fall into a life-threatening coma. The tomb of Rascar Capac has been unearthed! Would the mummy of Rascar Capac be at the origin of a curse?
Go with Tintin and Captain Haddock in search of Professor Calculus in this volume 13 of the adventures of the famous reporter.
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Discover all the places Tintin on our map
By Damien Duarte
Passionné par la culture pop depuis son enfance, ses références vont de Donald Duck à Batman en passant par Marty McFly. Fantripper dans l'âme, voyager sur les traces de Ghostbusters, James Bond ou des héros de romans comme Cotton Malone fait partie d'un séjour idéal et réussi !