Happy Birthday! Tintin turns 80

Tintin, the young Belgian reporter whose adventures have delighted children and adults worldwide, has turned 80.
 
Tintin, the hero of 'The Adventures of Tintin' -- a series of comic strips created by Belgian artist Georges Remi -- first appeared in a children's supplement to Belgian daily 'Le Vingtime Sicle' on January 10, 1929.
 
Tintin is aided in his adventures from the beginning by his faithful fox terrier dog Snowy.
 
Later, additions to the cast included the cynical and grumpy Captain Haddock, the bright but hearing-impaired Prof Calculus and other colourful supporting characters such as the incompetent detectives -- Thomson and Thompson.
 
The success of the series saw the serialised strips collected into a series of albums, and more than 200 million copies of the books, with translations published in over 50 languages, have been sold to date.
 
In fact, a total of 23 Tintin books were published during Herge's (Remi's pen name) lifetime, and another one was published after he passed away in 1983. Four million Tintin books are sold every year worldwide, which experts say, due to the slapstick humour the comic series feature.
 
The reporter is so popular in France that former French leader Charles de Gaulle once said: "Deep down, my only international rival is Tintin."
 
And, now Tintin's popularity is likely to reach even greater heights as Hollywood film director Steven Spielberg is planning to make a motion-capture 3D film about Tintin, to be released next year.