The Simplicity of The Clear Line Style in Hergé’s Spirituality: A Case Study of Tintin in Tibet

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-607-9_18How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Clear Line; Spiritualias; Visual Minimalis; Semiotika; Truisme

Abstract

Tintin is a fictional character created by Hergé, a Belgian comic artist who was inspired by a Belgian scout. Tintin’s career as a journalist leads him into adventures across the world. This study uses a descriptive qualitative method focusing on the comic Tintin in Tibet. The analyzed data consist of primary data, which is the comic itself, and secondary data, including semiotic literature and a literature review on the history of Buddhism in Tibet. Hergé created this comic based on his real-life friendship with a friend named Zhang (Chang), who is featured in this series. As a result, this story has a very strong emotional and spiritual side. These two aspects are represented by the ‘clear line’ character, which is Hergé’s signature style in illustration. Hergé’s spiritual side can be seen from his history as a member of the Catholic scouts in Belgium and later his work as the editor-in-chief and illustrator of the weekly magazine Le Petit Vingtième, which targeted young Catholic readers. In several scenes, Tintin often says in French, ‘Dieu ait son âme,’ which means ‘God rest his soul.’ However, Hergé’s spirituality is not limited to Christianity; he also includes universal spiritual values in his comics. Tintin in Tibet serves as a medium for Hergé to show spiritual values in a broader scope, not only within Buddhism but also implicitly spreading the values of kindness and friendship. His friendship with Zhang leads him and his friends on an adventure to Nepal and Tibet, which is a center for monks to study Buddhism. This comic is also one of his works created during his recovery from depression through a visual contemplation approach.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Aries Setiawan Satrio Nugroho
AU  - Taufan Hidayatullah
AU  - Zara Aziza Abidin
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/06
TI  - The Simplicity of The Clear Line Style in Hergé’s Spirituality: A Case Study of Tintin in Tibet
BT  - Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Business, Economics, Social Sciences & Humanities – Humanities and Social Sciences Track (ICOBEST-HSS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 213
EP  - 221
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-607-9_18
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-607-9_18
ID  - Nugroho2026
ER  -