The Adventures of Tintin newspaper (The Twentieth Century). The success of the series saw the serialised strips published in Belgium's leading newspaper (The Evening) and spun into a successful "Tintin" magazine. In 1950, Hergé created Studios Hergé, which produced the canonical versions of ten "Tintin" albums. The series is set during a largely realistic 20th century. Its hero is Tintin, a courageous young Belgian reporter and adventurer. He is aided by his faithful dog Snowy ( in the original French edition). Other protagonists include the brash and cynical Captain Haddock and the intelligent but hearing-impaired Professor Calculus (), as well as the incompetent detectives
Tintin (character) and has prompted a few to devote their careers to his study. General Charles de Gaulle "considered Tintin his only international rival". Hergé biographer Pierre Assouline noted that "Tintin had a prehistory", being influenced by a variety of sources that Hergé had encountered throughout his life. Hergé noted that during his early schooling in the midst of World War I, when German armies occupied Belgium, he had drawn pictures in the margins of his school workbooks of an unnamed young man battling (a slang term for the Germans). He later commented that these drawings depicted a brave and adventurous character