The
world-famous Belgian has arrived in Britain with his equally famous dog
for a five-month stay -- nearly 70 years after his first visit.

Tintin, the eternally youthful reporter who only was ever known to
file one story in all his adventures, is celebrating his 75th birthday
this year with a new exhibition at London's National Maritime Museum.

Tintin at Sea is a collection of original drawings by Belgian
cartoonist Georges Remi -- more commonly known as Herge which was the francophone
pronunciation of his reversed initial RG -- and some of the
artefacts and models that inspired him.

"Herge had a lifelong fascination with the sea and was above all
a stickler for detail," the museum's
director Roy Clare told reporters at a preview of
the exhibition which opens to the public on Wednesday and runs to
September 5.

Tintin, with his trademark quiff and plus-four trousers, travelled
all over the world on adventures that took him and his white terrier
known as Snowy in English and Milou in French from Tibet to America and
Iceland to Africa.

Books of his adventures have been translated into 60 languages and
have sold 200 million copies since the comic strip
character first saw the light of day in
1929.

Although the stories took Tintin and his irascible
companion Captain Haddock as far as the moon, the sea is a recurring
theme, in stories such as The Crab with the Golden Claws, Red Rackham's
Treasure and the Secrets of the Unicorn.

Herge, who only travelled widely after the success of his creation,
was a self-taught artist.

He stayed in Belgium through World War Two and was accused and
cleared of collaboration immediately afterwards, although he suffered a
period of being ostracised as a result.

He was also accused of racism in some of Tintin's earlier adventures.

The reporter only once travelled to Britain, in the story The Black
Isle, published in 1938.

"Here you have four famous Belgians," Joren Vandeweyer, the
country's cultural attache to Britain, told reporters. "Tintin,
Snowy, Captain Haddock and of course Herge himself, back after 66
years."