Tintin, his last adventure.

[vaxer]

As we all know, Tintin was part of those who inspired the hero Indiana Jones. he was created 75 years ago by the belgian Hergé and was a great sucess worldwide (second all time best selling comic). Tintin has always been one of my favorite heros, way before I even knew the existance of Indiana Jones.

When Hergé died in 1983, he left an unfinished Tintin adventure: 'Tintin et l'Alph-art'. A new well commented edition of the drafts of this adventure came out about a week ago in France. I of course bought it and it reminded me how excellent and original the adventures of Tintin were.

I thought it would be interesting to dicuss the old or the 'new' Tintin adventures and what he has got in common with Indy; even though he is not very famous in America (which means I probably won't get many replies...).


Here is the hard cover of 'Tintin et l'Alph-art':

http://data.magicsquare.be/ouvrages/2203/001/2203001321_0g.jpg


Here is the draft of the first page:

http://data.magicsquare.be/ouvrages/2203/001/2203001321_1g.jpg

[Tom Jones]

I do remember watching a Tintin cartoon a little while back on HBO, maybe three or four years ago now. I do recall the sprit of adventure it was able to capture, sometimes thinking, "be cool to see Indy do that". But I guess it didn't go over to well, here in America. Haven't seen it ever since.

[MP3]

Originally posted by vaxer
(which means I probably won't get many replies...)

No replies??!! In your dreams, buddy - I haven't seen a bigger Tintin fan since I looked in the mirror this morning. ;)

I practically memorized the series while growing up. My cousins have the whole set, and it was a real treat for me to go over to their house to read them - they would never let anyone borrow the books since they're so hard to get here in America. In fact, I remember it was a constant battle - my cousin wanted me to play with him, but I just wanted to read. We spent many hours bickering, compromising, and sometimes actually reading them together (after we played with his toys first, of course - he wouldn't have it any other way).

My favorites include the double books, particularly "The Secret of the Unicorn/Red Rackham's Treasure" and "Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon". (I absolutely LOVE the part where Calculus goes nuts when Haddock accuses him of "acting the goat", and the subsequent part where Haddock tries to help him recover from his amnesia. ROTFLMAO!!!! ;)) Other favorites are somewhat hard to choose - the first ones that come to mind are The Crab With the Golden Claws, The Land of Black Gold, The Red Sea Sharks, Tintin and the Picaros - you get the picture.

As for this unfinished adventure, hmmmmm... what does "L'alph Art" mean? And for the first page of the comic, let's see: I can make out Marlinspike Hall, Captain Haddock in bed, Bianca Castofiore (or is that a messed-up version of Nestor? ;)), and on the bottom, of course - Tintin!!!!

If the Fedora and leather jacket are symbolic of Indy, then that hairstyle of Tintin's and his trusty dog, Snowy, are his trademarks. :)

TTFN, and glad to meet a fellow Tintin fan around here!

[Adventurer]

L'alph Art means something like "the Alpha Art". If i remember correctly, (it is a bit ago since i read that) the book is about the art smuggling/trading business. Tintin gets somehow involved in inquiries into the people behind that, and ... i'll leave that open to you.

It gets quite thrilling. Very unfortunately, the book ends right on the edge. :( I'm really curious as to how it would have ended.

Vaxer, is the newly released edition a reprint of the old one or did they added something new?

What do you all think is your most favourite or intersting Tintin comic book by Hergé?

[vaxer]

My favorite Tintin books are 'Tintin and the Picaros', 'Tintin and the temple of the sun', 'Tintin and Ottokar's Sceptre' and 'Tintin and the Pharaoh's cigars' (I'm guessing those three last titles because I only know them in french), there are many more (24 in total) I like a lot and that i haven't read for a long time.

The Alph-art is a certain type of art (that only exists in Hergé's imagination of course) that consists in making art with letters (alph-art -> alphabet art). Haddock discovers it while trying to escape from the Castafiore who said she was goig to come and visit him . All this is going to lead Tintin to an adventure that deals with the world of counterfeited art and wierd gurus who magnetise people. The good (or bad) thing is that you can imagine whatever ending you want considering there is no ending (wait, maybe they should do that with Indy4 ;) ).

It's funny how they transalated the names:
Tryphon Tournesol -> Calculus
Moulinsart -> Marlinspike Hall

On the first page Haddock is having a bad dream: the Castafiore comes to visit him and suddenly turns into giant bird. In the second page, Bianca Castafiore calls to tell them she is comming to visit them.

[vaxer]

Originally posted by Adventurer
Vaxer, is the newly released edition a reprint of the old one or did they added something new?

It's not just a reprint of the old edition because they added new interesting documents at the end that were recently found. If you already have the old edition I'm not really sure it's worth buying (i've never seen the old edition though). What I like about this edition is that it is the same format as all the other Tintins.

[Mangogrim]

Ah, Tintin..

In Sewden, he is quite famous, everybody knows who Tintin is...
My favorite is The temple of the sun, and the Faraos cigars..

BTW, in Swde, Snowy, is called Milou, and MarlinSpike Hall is called Moulinsart, just like the french original..

[Finn]

There's nothing more annoying than a non-completed comic adventure. To me the Tintin series end to "Picaros".

My favorite album is the "Prisoners of the Sun", that holds the most Indyesque feeling in my opinion. (Besides, for some reason the single gag that's stayed best in my mind is Haddock's first encounter with a tapir... :D)

(Yeah, and it's "Moulinsart" here too. Only character whose name have been translated is Tournesol/Calculus. In here, he's called "Tuhatkauno". We odd Finns, I know.)

[Edited by Finn on 01-30-2004 at 08:50 am]

[Stringy]

Tintin is one of the major reasons why I became an archaeologist, have all his books in English and a whole bunch of others (used to be the thing to buy if on a trip abroad, got my first two Serbian copies recently).

As a kid I wrote to Herge and he wrote back (with signed drawing!) and told me he was about to publish Tintin and the Picaros.

Didn't even know about this new publication - that's ace, must get it. Nice posting, thanks.

Tristan

[vaxer]

Originally posted by Stringy
As a kid I wrote to Herge and he wrote back (with signed drawing!) and told me he was about to publish Tintin and the Picaros.

That's really cool! Don't tell me it was an original drawing he sent you because that would be priceless.

[Stringy]

Hi

I think as a kid I used to think it was an original, but I think it was a print that was generally sent out, but signed for real nonetheless. I have it in the original envelope which has this raised embossed Tintin logo in red.

It's carefully kept in the pages of a large French Tintin book.

Just been checking how to get the book you mentioned, quite a variation in price - where / how did you get yours?

I also noticed that they had actually printed Tintin in Africa in English now, I thought that they were never going to publish it given its dubious representation of Africans. Shades of Temple of Doom...

Tristan / Stringy

[vaxer]

Originally posted by Stringy
Just been checking how to get the book you mentioned, quite a variation in price - where / how did you get yours?


Well I got mine very easily for about 8.5 Euros because I live in France so it's in about every bookstore. I guess you can get it on the internet, but be careful because there is also the old edition that should be more expensive. You'll find it if you go to http://www.tintin.com (I saw it for a little more than 9 euros) but I'm not sure they ship outside europe.

[bob]

I like Tintin

My favourite would probably be the Secret of the Unicorn or Explorers on the Moon but i cannot claim to have read them all.

[MP3]

Originally posted by vaxer
My favorite Tintin books are 'Tintin and the Picaros', 'Tintin and the temple of the sun', 'Tintin and Ottokar's Sceptre' and 'Tintin and the Pharaoh's cigars' (I'm guessing those three last titles because I only know them in french), there are many more (24 in total) I like a lot and that i haven't read for a long time.

The last three are called "Prisoners of the Sun", "King Ottakr's Scepter" (BTW, I love that camera-shoots-the-scepter gag! ;)), and "Cigars of the Pharaoh".

[MP3]

Originally posted by Finn
There's nothing more annoying than a non-completed comic adventure. To me the Tintin series end to "Picaros".

Funny... for me it ended with "Tintin and the Lake of Sharks", which is one last Tintin and Co. vs. Rastapopulous adventure. You never heard of that one?

[MP3]

Originally posted by Stringy
I also noticed that they had actually printed Tintin in Africa in English now, I thought that they were never going to publish it given its dubious representation of Africans. Shades of Temple of Doom...

Really now... I never heard of that one. Could you please give me a link to a page that discusses the book and/or has a picture of the cover?

[Stringy]

I think that Tintin au Congo was published soon after Tintin au Pays des Soviets (think that's the name) and neither of these books, of which only the former looks like the others in terms of full colour images, were translated for the English-speaking market because of their political content and representations of Africans in the colonial era.

Tintin in Africa is really pretty dodgy in that respect. However in Belgium and France there has long been major debate about Herge and hs political leanings (I think he was debated in the French or Belgian parliament in the past five years). Some see him as a right-wing reactionary, in part because of his early representations (the Soviet book was very anti-Bolshevik) but mainly because he continued his work as an illustrator on the paper Le Petit Vingtieme during the period of the Nazi occupation, when the paper was essentially a collaborationist media outlet.

In his defence, others have pointed out that Herge claimed he just kept his head down and carried on as he always had done and his weekly strip of Tintin wasn't political (a little naive of him but...).

Others however have claimed him for the left, saying that in Tintin in America he is anti-American imperialism and pro-native Americans.

There are a few dodgy representations of Jewish businessmen as well, check out The Shooting Star and the financier backing the other boat to get the comet.

To be honest you can argue it either way, and while this is not to exonerate Herge's representations of Africans, he was a product of his era and by no means the only one doing that.

Which brings me back to Indy... in our first class of my course we discussed Raiders and the theme of 'the native' came up. Again the film is spot on as far as I am concerned with regard to the representation of archaeology as practiced in the late 1930's but at the same time one does risk reconfirming images of natives (i.e. in the film they are either dupes, exotic backdrops or the holders of esoteric knowledge, with Indy's foreman as the Uncle Tom English speaking intermediary).

I think that there's a wee bit of guilty pleasure in appreciating Raiders, but again I think it's an excellent representation - so many aspects of it tie in to reality / exploit stereotypes of archaeological practice / evoke certain tropes.

Must get back to writing this week's lecture - Nazis and archaeology...

[VP]

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/2203001011.08.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

[nOOb]

ive got the whole tintin series too...

don't know if anyones seen this...i ILL'd a kind of study book about the series, which showed a strip from the "congo" adventure. tintins up in a tree cause a rhino chasing him, and its camping out down below. so he hangs down, takes a hand-cranked drill, makes a hole in its back and puts a stick of dynamite in (really!) :eek: i think it got replaced with a different scene due to complaints.

anyone know where i can buy the congo/soviet books? (not sure if theyre printed in english, or at all)


[Edited by nOOb on 02-04-2004 at 12:10 pm]

[QueZTone]

i own a tintin in the soviets in english language..so it should be available..

i bought it years ago in a local dutch comic book store

[Adventurer]

Thanks for the information, Vaxer. I have the old print. It's a hardcover edition accompanying an additional softcover book which contains the translation from french (or for cases where it is hardly readable at all because of handwritten dialogue).

I don't know the original edition from 'Tintin and the temple of the sun' but in the current one, it seems that the book drags a bit in the beginning, or is it just me? The ride to the Temple of the sun seems a bit streched, one accident happens after another. I alway thought this is because of the exact 64 pages every album does need to have...?

My favorites are also 'Tintin and the Picaros' and "The red sea sharks".

MP3, i'm not Finn, but may i possibly answer your question? 'Tintin and the Lake of Sharks' is the last one seen techically, but i've heard that many people do not consider that one as an original, because it is (IIRC!) made of still pictures taken from the animated film of the same name, and not by Hergé itself.(im not saying that is why Finn said Picaros is the last one, just a general idea. Hope that helps.)

[matthiassatlure]

What can I say..Captain Haddock is one of my heroes. I don't know why, though.

Did you guys read the one where Tintin and Haddock go to the place where the Grail temple in Last Crusade was filmed? I thought that was kinda cool. (I think it's red sea sharks)

[Finn]

Originally posted by Adventurer
MP3, i'm not Finn, but may i possibly answer your question? 'Tintin and the Lake of Sharks' is the last one seen techically, but i've heard that many people do not consider that one as an original, because it is (IIRC!) made of still pictures taken from the animated film of the same name, and not by Hergé itself.(im not saying that is why Finn said Picaros is the last one, just a general idea. Hope that helps.) Correct. I know the Lake of Sharks, but as I consider it as a part of the Tintin lore nevertheless, I respect Picaros as Herge's last piece of work.

[QueZTone]

Lake of Sharks had an odd feel to it. It wasn't "really" Tintin. It's like a dream. Does it really exist? You better check your bookcase if it does. I say you only dreamed it. Picaros is the last! :)

[vaxer]

I saw Lake of sharks but didn't find it very good. Originaly It's a film not a comic book, so Picaros IS the last one. Plus one detail has always bothered me: in Lake of sharks Tintin doesn't dress like he did in the others.

Lake of sharks was an animated film, there was also a real Tintin film: Tintin and the blue oranges (Tintin et les oranges bleues).

[Finn]

Originally posted by vaxer
I saw Lake of sharks but didn't find it very good. Originaly It's a film not a comic book, so Picaros IS the last one. Plus one detail has always bothered me: in Lake of sharks Tintin doesn't dress like he did in the others. I don't actually know what you're meaning about... but he already dressed different in Picaros. Just have a good look at his pants.

[vaxer]

You're right, Tintin lost his golf pants in Picaros. I hadn't noticed :o

<small>There goes my Tintin credibility...</small>

[Finn]

<small>...hey, you still know whole lot of more about the series than most people in here.</small>