No.100 - The Adventures of Tintin

              

I'll admit to never having read a Tintin book, seen the animated series or watched the fairly recent film adaptation, so I was intrigued to read a Tintin story. Having tried to track down the earliest Tintin book Tintin in the land of the Soviets in the Cornwall library system and drawing a blank, I settled for the earliest one I could find, Tintin in America, published in 1932 and it was brilliant!

Not knowing anything about Herge's creation, apart from what he looked like, and of course that he had a faithful pooch sidekick called Snowy, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the story was written in a comic book style! The cute and simply drawn characters of Tintin and Snowy raced across the frames and kept the pace of the story quick and exciting. I was an avid reader of the Beano as a child so it was rather nostalgic to return to the visual world of the comic. 

Written in the 1930s, this story was not awash with political correctness as you can imagine, and stereotyping was the order of the day! During their adventure through America Tintin and Snowy encounter Italian American Mobsters, who all speak with cheesy Italian accents, wield guns, wear sharp suits and an assortment of different hats. He also meets a whole tribe of Red Indians or Native Americans as we'd say, who again speak in stereotypical stilted English, refer to Tintin as 'paleface' and have silly names like Big Chief Keen-Eyed-Mole, and Browsing Bison! To round off the stereotypes there is a Mexican bank robber towards the end of the book, again wih dialogue written in a cheesy Mexican accent and a huge sombrero. It's so bad, it's good! 

I would also like to comment on just how much Herge fits into this 62 page adventure! By the end of the first page Tintin and his little pal have been kidnapped by a very shifty looking milkman, and by page 10 he has escaped kidnap twice, been in 1 high speed police chase, 1 car crash, been to hospital, recovered, been knocked out twice, fallen through 1 trap door, caught a whole gang of gangsters, knocked out 2 others, brandished a pistol more than once, been chased by the police, lost Snowy and found him, received one trick phone call and climbed out of a top story hotel window! And the pace doesn't slow down!! In total there are 5 trapdoor falls in this story, and I'm not accusing Herge of recycling plots but there are 2 drowning attempts, 2 fights caused by Tintin in a bid to hos escape, snowy gets kidnapped twice, and there are 2 gangs of mobsters that Tintin must outwit, including Al Capone himself! 

However, despite these repetitions there are some truly brilliant moments in this book, like all the amazingly fortuitous means of escape for our hero! My favourite was when he gets mysteriously called to a tinned meat factory (it makes no sense in the progression of the story, and I'd have thought Tintin was more sensible than to accept a random and slightly suspicious invitation, but there you go!) and falls in a vat of minced beef, only to find that just as he falls the factory workers go on strike and the machines just happen to stop allowing him to get away without being minced to death! Another moment I enjoyed was the hanging debarcle, where Tintin and Snowy are both about to be strung up when the ropes break, how lucky I hear you cry, but how lucky for it to happen a second time as they try to hang them again! Our hero Tintin really does have luck on his side! 

Other points in the story reminded me of a silent movie, and one of thse suspense filled piano accompaniments would have suited to story down to the ground! The action was so fast paced and the situations so unbelievable that it was all a bit farcical really! At one point, and this was real silent movie stuff, Tintin is tied to some railway tracks and is saved from being squished by a train with inches to spare! 

There are so many fantastic situations in this story and I'd love to sit here and tell you every one but a) we'd be here for hours, and b) I'd hate to spoil it for you! It's a really fun book that keeps you gripped from start to finish, mainly because you never know what's going to happen to Tintin and Snowy next! It's fast paced and the characters are amusing, and with other titles such as Tintin - Destination Moon, and Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn you can understand why they have been enjoyed by children of all ages for decades! 

Thanks for reading, L x

Next up Arthur Ransom's adventure classic Swallows and Amazons.