The Hero in Childrens Books - Tin Tin and Biggles

Here we have two children's heros of (primarily) the early - mid (and further) 20th century. They are directed at a young male audience and vary differently to female lead roles of the time they were created. Both characters were off having heroic adventures, being active and daring, qualities that were encouraged in young boys, were as girls lead roles were much more subdue, and normally involved being victimised and saved from a male character.

Tintin was created by Herge who wrote and illustrated the comic book series from 1929 -1983. Tintin a Cub scout reporter got involved in a series of wild adventure entrancing the young reader with his escapades around the world. The adult audience too took a large amount of interest in the satirical and historical references that were woven into the story. Some of his asian-set comics, for example, The Blue Lotus, has inspiration from asian artists such as Hiroshige and Hokusai.  

 Tintin travels to the moon: here we see the choice of colour affecting the mood of the scene, the red rocket was mixed with a green to make it less threathening and the moon is a mustardy-yellow so tha craters stand out*

Biggles, a pilot-adventuror was created in 1932 and features adventures in both WW1 and 2 throughout its long run. It was inspired by the author who was a pilot himself . Although it was aimed at a young audience there were often references to death, alcohol and cigarettes. There are few female characters, in a radio version of the comics were a female role was quite dominant, listeners wrote in disapproving of the character and that Biggles had "gone soft"  

*http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/05/josette-baujot-obituary