Hergé(1907-1983)

His inspiration for his famous cartoon character "Tintin" came from the adventures in 1928 of a young 15 year old Danish boy, later actor, Palle Huld who won a contest in the newspaper "Politiken". The prize was an around the world trip in the occasion of the centennial of author Jules Verne. Palle Huld wrote a book about his marvelous trip; "Around the World in 44 Days with Palle" which became world famous and thus inspired Hergé.

The idea for the character of Tintin and the sort of adventures that would befall him came to me, I believe, in five minutes, the moment I first made a sketch of the figure of this hero: that is to say, he had not haunted my youth nor even my dreams. Although it's possible that as a child I imagined myself in the role of a sort of Tintin.