Cover illustration of Spetters issue #7, January 1982.
D'Arcosta is an allegedly Swedish comic artist who illustrated the subversive 'Tintin' parody 'Kuifje in Holland' (1982), scripted by the Suriname scriptwriter Pieter-Jans. The comic was published as part of the Hergé-themed seventh issue of the underground magazine Spetters, edited by Jan Bucquoy.
Kuifje in Holland
In the early 1980s, Spetters was an adult comic magazine, the brainchild of provocative activist Jan Bucquoy, then best-known as a comic writer. During the same period, pornographic parodies of famous comics were a notable phenomenon, with Hergé's 'Tintin' being a natural target. One title in particular, 'Tintin en Suisse' ('Tintin in Switzerland', 1976) by Filip Denis, had been recently sued by Hergé's estate for copyright infringement, with Denis sentenced to pay 50,000 Belgian francs (about 1239.47 euro). It motivated Bucquoy to criticize and attack Hergé in the seventh issue of Spetters (January 1982). In his editorial, Bucquoy defended Denis' right of freedom of speech, while describing Hergé as a "grand inquisitor, old friend of Léon Degrelle and contributor to the fascist magazine Le Petit Vingtième and the Nazi paper Le Soir during the war." As usual for the notorious provocateur, Bucquoy's accusation was rather blunt. Hergé indeed came from Catholic and extreme-right circles, such as the children's supplement Le Petit Vingtième, which was run by the ultraconservative priest Norbert Wallez. Wallez was a raving antisemite who admired both Hitler and Mussolini, and had a signed picture of "Il Duce" on his desk. Léon Degrelle - later the leader of the Belgian Nazi party REX - was a journalist for the parent magazine Le Vingtième Siècle in the 1920s and early 1930s. During World War II, when Le Petit Vingtième was forced to close down, Hergé joined Le Soir, a newspaper under Nazi control. However, whether the comic artist was morally wrong in those years is still up for debate today. Hergé was never a party member of REX, never misused his comics for propaganda purposes and Degrelle was just a colleague.
Bucquoy threw even more oil on the fire by introducing a deliberately offensive 'Tintin' parody in the same issue. Titled 'Kuifje in Holland', the cover alone shows readers directly what they're in for. It shows Tintin about to enter a sex shop, while crossing paths with his creator, Hergé, who leaves with a bunch of nudie pictures and a huge erection barely hidden in his pants. According to Bucquoy's editorial, the story inside was written by the Surinamese Pieter-Jans and drawn by "the world famous Swedish comic artist" D'Arcosta. It followed the sexual vulgarities one would expect from an average porn parody, but with a more political-satirical dimension. Tintin meets chief editor V.J. (which stands for "Vuile Jood" ("Filthy Jew"), according to a caption, and gets recruited as a Nazi. Together with Captain Haddock he blows up a bunch of Jews and travels to the Auschwitz concentration camp to exterminate even more victims. Bucquoy explained that he deliberately wanted to piss off Hergé.
Oddly enough, 'Kuifje in Holland' had no legal consequences. Only in 1992, when Bucquoy made another pornographic parody, 'La Vie Sexuelle de Tintin' ('Het Seksuele Leven van Kuifje', 1992), Hergé's estate sued him after all. Bucquoy won the case by proving that his claims about Hergé's war past were based on facts, if somewhat exaggerated for satirical purposes. Jean Weil, who defended Hergé's estate, had parents who survived the concentration camps and pulled back from the case after being informed of this. In the end, Hergé's estate had to pay the legal expenses to Bucquoy.