Hergé is the pen name for Georges Remi. He was born in the Etterbeek district of Brussels, Belgium on May 22, 1907. As a child, Remi was rambunctious and loud. His parents found two ways to keep him quiet: spankings and allowing him to draw. The latter proved to assure many hours of peace and quiet, because Remi loved to draw. By the age of seven, he was already drawing picture stories at the bottom of his exercise books in school. When he was 21 years old, his parents enrolled him in art school. It took only one day for him to despise art school. His artistic training has been entirely self-taught. Year after year, Hergé would buy books to improve himself on different techniques of drawing. Today, the Tintin series has been translated into more than 30 languages and is sold all over the world. The series follows the adventures of Tintin and his dog, Snowy, from Europe to faraway places like South America and China. The Black Island takes place in Scotland.