 Contrastingly , biographer Pierre Assouline stated that in 1930s Belgium , Hergé would have had access to literature by the likes of André <unk> and Albert <unk> that was critical of the colonial regime . Assouline claimed that Hergé instead chose not to read such reports because they conflicted with the views of his conservative milieu . Laurence Grove — President of the International <unk> <unk> Society and an academic at the University of Glasgow — concurred , remarking that Hergé adhered to prevailing societal trends in his work , and that " [ w ] hen it was fashionable to be a colonial racist , that 's what he was . " Comic book historian Mark <unk> noted that other Franco @-@ Belgian comic artists of the same period had chosen to depict the native Africans in a more favourable light , citing the examples of <unk> 's 1939 work <unk> et <unk> ( <unk> and Shoe @-@ Black ) , in which the protagonists are adopted brothers , one white , the other black , and <unk> et <unk> , which was serialised in <unk> from 1939 to 1940 and in which the Congolese aid the Belgians against their American antagonists . 
