looks for trouble but always finds it." Michael Farr deems Tintin to be an intrepid young man of high moral standing, with whom his audience can identify. His rather neutral personality permits a balanced reflection of the evil, folly, and foolhardiness that surrounds him, allowing the reader to assume Tintin's position within the story rather than merely following the adventures of a strong protagonist. Tintin's representation enhances this aspect, with comics expert Scott McCloud noting that the combination of Tintin's iconic, neutral personality and Hergé's "unusually realistic", signature ("clear line") style "allows the reader to mask themselves in a character and safely enter a sensually stimulating world." To the other characters, Tintin is honest, decent, compassionate, and kind. He is also modest and self-effacing, which Hergé also was, and is the most loyal of friends, which Hergé strove to be. The reporter does have vices, becoming too tipsy before facing the firing squad (in The Broken Ear) or too angry when informing Captain Haddock that he nearly cost them their lives (in Explorers on the Moon). However, as Michael Farr observes, Tintin has "tremendous spirit" and, in Tintin in Tibet, is appropriately given the name Great Heart. By turns, Tintin is innocent, politically crusading, escapist, and finally cynical. If he has perhaps too much of the goody-goody about him, at least he is not priggish; Hergé admitting as much, saying, "If Tintin is a moralist, he's a moralist who doesn't take things too seriously, so humour is never far away from his stories." It is this sense of humour that makes the appeal of Tintin truly international. Reception The Adventures of Tintin was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. Tintin remains popular today; by the time of the centenary of Hergé's birth in 2007, Tintin had been published in more than 70 languages with sales of more than 200 million copies. Literary criticism The study of Tintin has become the life work of many literary critics, observers sometimes referring to this study as "Tintinology". A prominent literary critic of Tintin is Philippe Goddin, "Belgium's leading authority on Hergé", author of numerous books on the subject, including Hergé and Tintin, Reporters and the biography . In 1983, Benoît Peeters published , subsequently published in English as Tintin and the World of Hergé in 1988. The reporter Michael Farr brought Tintin literary criticism to the English language