Herge

The weekend is here! Take a look back at what’s happened in the past seven days. New comics, new stories, new podcasts, new art being made — it’s all part of the ComicsAlliance Weekender!

A hero is defined by their villains, and the world of superhero comic books is filled with some of the scariest and silliest bad guys around. Rogues’ Gallery aims to settle the score and determine who is the true arch-nemesis for some of your favorite superheroes, and we need your help to do it! You voted to see who Tintin‘s ultimate arch-enemy was, and we’ve tabulated the results and assembled a video counting down the definitive top 10. Did your favorite make this list? There’s only one way to find out!

This week we’re looking at the villains of everyone's favorite Belgian adventurer, Tintin! While travelling the world with Captain Haddock and his faithful dog Snowy, Tintin has built up an impressive and formidable rogues' gallery all of his own, but which one is his ultimate nemesis?

Although the first published drawing of intrepid teen reporter Tintin and his little white dog, Milou (known to English-speaking audiences as Snowy) appeared in Belgium's Le Petite Vingtième, the youth supplement to conservative Catholic newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle, on January 4, 1929, Tintin's creator, Georges Remi (better known by his pen name Hergé), insists that Tintin's birthday is January 10, on which day in 1929 the first installment of the first Tintin serial, Tintin au pays des Soviets (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets), was published --- so we choose this week to commemorate the anniversary of this significant moment in comics history. Tintin is, without a doubt, one of the most towering efforts in the history of comics. Over the course of twenty-three albums, Hergé created a series of globe-trotting adventures full of colorful, memorable characters such as Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, and the Thompson twins that ranged from the ocean floor to the surface of the moon. The books combined genres from espionage to mystery to political thriller to fantasy to science fiction to Western, all mixed with slapstick humor, to create some of the most charming, suspenseful, and exhilarating comics in history.

We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art Ever (This Week), a weekly depository for just some of the pieces of especially compelling artwork that we come across in our regular travels across the Web. Some of it’s new, some of it’s old, some of it’s created by working professionals, some of it’s created by future stars, some of it’s created by talented fans, awnd some of it’s endearingly silly. All of it is awesome.

We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art Ever (This Week), a weekly depository for just some of the pieces of especially compelling artwork that we come across in our regular travels across the Web. Some of it’s new, some of it’s old, some of it’s created by working professionals, some of it’s created by future stars, some of it’s created by talented fans, awnd some of it’s endearingly silly. All of it is awesome.

Hit the jump for all the links Friday has to offer.

Though he's hardly a household name here in the United States, even among the majority of comics fans, Hergé is a serious contender for the title of "all-time most influential comic artist". He created the globe-trotting boy reporter Tintin in 1929, and until his death in 1983, spun an ever-expanding saga that found the the intrepid lad and his supporting cast exploring the deep sea, lan

Possessed with an unusually strong command of layout and a mastery of multiple illustration styles, former Daredevil artist Paolo Rivera’s work is a favorite of not just other artists but also to fans of design and drawing. The artist caters to both on his blog, which is frequently updated with fascinating process pieces that include his own reference photographs and helpful discussions of techniq

This just in from the Department of "What Were They Thinking?": The Brussels Appeal Court has upheld the decision to keep Herge's Tintin Au Congo (Tintin In The Congo) on the shelves, ruling -- somewhat amazingly -- that the 1931 comic strip isn't actually racist after all...