 Georges Remi — best known under the pen name Hergé — was employed as editor and illustrator of Le Petit Vingtième ( " The Little Twentieth " ) , a children 's supplement to Le Vingtième Siècle ( " The Twentieth Century " ) , a staunchly Roman Catholic , conservative Belgian newspaper based in Hergé 's native Brussels which was run by the Abbé Norbert Wallez . In 1929 , Hergé began The Adventures of Tintin comic for Le Petit Vingtième , revolving around the exploits of fictional Belgian reporter Tintin . Wallez ordered Hergé to set his first adventure in the Soviet Union to act as anti @-@ socialist propaganda for children ( Tintin in the Land of the Soviets ) , to set his second adventure in the Belgian Congo to encourage colonial sentiment ( Tintin in the Congo ) , and to set his third adventure in the United States to use the story as a denunciation of American capitalism ( Tintin in America ) . 
