The Adventures of Tintin, by Herge

The Adventures of Tintin follow the life and times of Belgian boy-reporter Tintin, whose profession throws him in the path of of one fantastical adventure after another. He hangs out with his wonderfully-drawn dog Snowy, his friend Captain Haddock, who struggles with his sobriety, and Professor Calculus, who is partially deaf. Lots of slapstick involves tripping, falling, hitting each other, misunderstood speech, and so on, on a Three Stooges sort of level.

Here's a typical page from the graphic novels.

The Tintin stories are comic books—bound in groups of three. Truly, they are graphic novels, each story running about 60 pages, combining words and color images. Often, the frames were so crammed with words that I wondered about the appropriateness of the graphic novel format--each square was more words than image. I also found it jarring to move from narrative reading to the graphic novel. I was so used to reading words only and had a hard time making myself take time for the pictures. (See sample page, left.)

Tintin's adventures are grand—saving sovereign nations, going to the moon, stopping pirates. The books have a geopolitical slant totally lacking in American children’s literature. The friends go all over the world—the third world, not Europe. The books were written in France—Europe is too much like staying home. Truly, the stories reflect a disdain for anything non-European and are scathing in their stereotypes of almost every ethnic group other than whites. You must leave many sensitivities at the door when you enter these books.

[Go to the website for Tintinologists at http://www.tintinologist.org/ to delve deeper into the Tintin world.]

The Opera Singer--she and her maid were the
only female characters in all the books I read.

The earlier books, in particular, are entirely politically incorrect. The stereotypes are quite ugly. Hergé seems to have a learning curve, though, as later books are more generous in assigning human characteristics to those other than whites. There is one female character in the whole series (well, she has a maid, so that makes two)—an opera singer who recurs. Otherwise, this is a totally male world. Totally. A comment on racism appears in this Wikipedia entry.

Following on from the success of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (1929–30), Tintin in the Congo also proved popular with the Belgian public, allowing Hergé to continue the series with a third installment, Tintin in America (1931–32). The book was also hugely popular in the Congo, and retained its popularity there throughout the 20th century. Since the late 20th century, however, the book has came under criticism from some for its portrayal of the Congolese people, which several critics have called racist. The book has also been criticised for its portrayal of big game hunting and the mass slaughter of African wildlife. Hergé himself was embarrassed by the work because of these elements, for which he expressed regret in later life, referring to the book as an error of his youth. It is because of its controversial nature that its publication in English was delayed until 1991.

All analysis aside, the Tintin adventures have an amazing following among tween-age boys. My nephew Jake Shapiro said that he loved these books when he was younger—read them all over and over again. Others who have commented (via a Facebook query) share Jake’s international background—my sister, kid's lit aficionado Robin Dickerson, said that the books were extremely popular at the British School library where she worked for awhile when living in South America. Interesting.

I ended up liking these. Marvelous flights of fancy in exotic locations—and lots of fighting, guns, and mystery.The action rocks, the humor is moronic, one character is a dog. What more can you want? I wish I could find these books in full-size format. The squinched type and tiny drawings were a barrier to my enjoyment.

Movie Note

[For a great discussion of racism in the books and lack thereof in the movie, go to the article in the Atlantic on this very topic: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/12/how-spielberg-handles-the-racial-problems-of-the-tintin-books/250382/]

The Tintin books were on my children's reading list. When I read them I had no idea that a Tintin movie was in the works--much less that Peter Jackson would be involved with the production. As of this writing, I have not seen the movie, but the trailer looks gorgeous, fulfilling the visual potential in the graphic novels. I assume that the politically incorrect material will be eliminated or soft-soaped; I am more interested in the role of humor in the film. It was only by viewing the stories through a slapstick lens that I could enjoy these books. Without the humor, the books would not hold up. I wonder how the filmmakers balanced the adventure with the humor. Please feel free to comment on this blog or on my Facebook page. I'd especially like to hear from you if you have read the books and seen the movie.

[View one of the trailers at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op3w_ICK4us]

Titles Read

I haven't yet been able to locate volumes 1 and 2 of The Adventures of Tintin (maybe because they have been withdrawn for inappropriate content??). Whoever has them checked out from Vinton County's Herbie Wescoat Library in Ohio, please return them! I read volume 3 (The Crab with the Golden Claws; The Shooting Star; and The Secret of The Unicorn); volume 4 (The Broken Ear, The Black Island, and King Ottokar's Sceptre); volume 5 (Land of Black Gold; Destination Moon; and Explorers on the Moon); volume 6 (The Calculus Affair; The Red Sea Sharks; and Tintin in Tibet); and volume 7 (The Castafiore Emerald; Flight 714; and Tintin and the Picaros).