I have been a huge Tintin fan since my early childhood. When I was just kid (back in the 70′s) I went to Holland to stay with relatives. Unfortunately my cousins were in school and I was left to my own devices each day on the rural farm of my Uncle. Fortunately he had a collection of Tintin books. You are dead right about the detail in the drawings, as even though I could not read a word, I was able to follow each story easily just by studying the pictures.
One of the books I read back then was “Tintin in Africa” which I later searched and searched for and even began to doubt existed, until my wonderful wife found me a newly published copy several years ago. It was one of the early Tintin stories and the reason it wasn’t published for many years was because of the implied racism towards black Africans in the story and in the drawings. The reason I bring this up was that when I read the book 30 years after I had pieced the story together just by looking at the pictures. It was exactly as I remembered.
I was glad that when the story was finally republished, they didn’t try to mend political fences. It is necessary sometimes to look backwards just to see how far we have come. (This habit we have in our culture of hiding our mistakes in dark closets is, I think more damaging than allowing our mistakes to be visible and learning from them.)
PS: For the record, my favourite Tintin story was “Flight 714″, and since you have reviewed “Tinitin in Tibet” I would suggest that a review of “Asterix at the Olympic Games” is in order.
I’m delighted you found the piece. I have other favourites as well (Flight 714 is one of them, and the reason I didn’t use that was because I had already reviewed Von Daniken’s “Chariots” so I picked this in order to keep some breadth) — one of the delights of the movie was how pieces from the canon were sneakily worked into the visuals.
Is “Tintin in Africa” the same as “Tintin in the Congo”? I think so, but am intrigued to see if you actually have a cover that says Africa or not.
As for Asterix, you have pre-empted me, since that article is half written…but I used “Britain” which I thought was funnier (Lord knows they all are.) Given this is an Olympic year, perhaps I should rethink my strategy….
Yes You are right, it is “Tintin in the Congo”. When I was young, I always referred to that book as Tintin in Africa because I had only seen the Dutch version which of course I could not read. The pictures looked like Africa, so that is how I always imagined it.
And Yes, it is an Olympic year, and maybe it was because I was an immature 10 years old when I first read it, but Gluteus Maximius has always been my favourite Roman.
New
How did I miss this Lance.
I have been a huge Tintin fan since my early childhood. When I was just kid (back in the 70′s) I went to Holland to stay with relatives. Unfortunately my cousins were in school and I was left to my own devices each day on the rural farm of my Uncle. Fortunately he had a collection of Tintin books. You are dead right about the detail in the drawings, as even though I could not read a word, I was able to follow each story easily just by studying the pictures.
One of the books I read back then was “Tintin in Africa” which I later searched and searched for and even began to doubt existed, until my wonderful wife found me a newly published copy several years ago. It was one of the early Tintin stories and the reason it wasn’t published for many years was because of the implied racism towards black Africans in the story and in the drawings. The reason I bring this up was that when I read the book 30 years after I had pieced the story together just by looking at the pictures. It was exactly as I remembered.
I was glad that when the story was finally republished, they didn’t try to mend political fences. It is necessary sometimes to look backwards just to see how far we have come. (This habit we have in our culture of hiding our mistakes in dark closets is, I think more damaging than allowing our mistakes to be visible and learning from them.)
PS: For the record, my favourite Tintin story was “Flight 714″, and since you have reviewed “Tinitin in Tibet” I would suggest that a review of “Asterix at the Olympic Games” is in order.
I’m delighted you found the piece. I have other favourites as well (Flight 714 is one of them, and the reason I didn’t use that was because I had already reviewed Von Daniken’s “Chariots” so I picked this in order to keep some breadth) — one of the delights of the movie was how pieces from the canon were sneakily worked into the visuals.
Is “Tintin in Africa” the same as “Tintin in the Congo”? I think so, but am intrigued to see if you actually have a cover that says Africa or not.
As for Asterix, you have pre-empted me, since that article is half written…but I used “Britain” which I thought was funnier (Lord knows they all are.) Given this is an Olympic year, perhaps I should rethink my strategy….
Yes You are right, it is “Tintin in the Congo”. When I was young, I always referred to that book as Tintin in Africa because I had only seen the Dutch version which of course I could not read. The pictures looked like Africa, so that is how I always imagined it.
And Yes, it is an Olympic year, and maybe it was because I was an immature 10 years old when I first read it, but Gluteus Maximius has always been my favourite Roman.