Rating: 
Summary: The First Tintin is Good!
Review: This is the first Tintin comic. And, its good! Real good! It's a lot better than "Tintin in Congo". However, communist sympathisers may not relish the depiction of soviets as blood-thirsty criminals... but then again... it's just a reflection of the times back then. If Herge was a Russian and so were Tintin, then the book would've probably been full of Capitalist bashing.
This book is rather funny and has some excellent humorous situations. This is a good book and there shouldn't be any trouble with kids reading it. Pretty funny! There is a nice little joke about British communists(*from Oxford, I expect!*)
In short: A must buy for all Tintin fans.
Rating: 
Summary: Tintin's first book tell it like it was about USSR
Review: This is Tintin's first book. Herge must have been about 20 when he wrote it, and the drawings as well as the plot are very rough. But, let's grant Herge this: this book was ridiculed for years for its anticommunism, yet after the fall of the Soviet Union, we have learn without doubts about the brutality of the Soviet regime. Tintin tell it like it was.
Rating:
Summary: The first Tintin book
Review: This was the first Tintin book. The drawings are in black and white, and the plot is sort of confusing, but it is interesting historically. If you are a big Tintin fan you may be a bit let down, but you have to remember it was Tintin's first book. I liked it.
Rating:
Summary: Tom on Tintin
Review: Tintin in the land of the Soviets is now finaly back in print and so it should be. It is interesting to see Herge's perception of communist Russia blended with Tintin and Snowy's comic capers. Set in 1922, just after the Russian Revolution, this book shows Tintin reporting for 'Le Petit Vingtieme' far into the depths of Russia avoiding the Cheka along the way. Some of Tintin's death defying stunts include being knocked into the air from a boat crash then landing in the drivers seat of a car being mended by a Russian. Herge clearly believes that the Russian authorities are trying to show the Western world how rich and productive Russia is under the Communist regime. Tintin however finds out this is not true. Any Tintin fan should buy this comic masterpiece now!
Rating:
Summary: The first Tintin, rough but ready.
Review: Tintin is sent by his Brussels newspaper to expose the true conditions of life in Bolshevik Russia, and counter the propaganda spread by Soviets and their Western fellow-travellers. Together with his faithful fox terrier Snowy, Tintin finds famine, child hunger, bureaucratic incompetence, industrial failure, bogus propaganda, state terror, gunpoint elections and massive embezzlement of the people's wealth by the government. Naturally, the Soviets aren't terribly keen for such information to leak out, and attempt to dispatch our hero at every turn - trying to bomb, shoot at, torture and freeze him in the endless snowy Steppes.'Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets' is the first Tintin adventure, written in 1929 for a Catholic newspaper edited by a priest who would become a Nazi collaborator. The book's propaganda is crude - as the translators point out, Herge never visited Russia, and based his 'facts' on a contemporary, reactionary book by a Belgian consul - and leaves a sour taste in the mouth. It's not that what he shows wasn't accurate - his Soviet Russia is a totalitarian nightmare, swarming with vicious secret police; a place where citizens had their property stolen and labour abused; where starvation, torture and murder was rife; where more state effort went into destruction than construction. The book is filled with booze-sozzled goons are frightening precisely because they have a power they don't deserve. A lingering superstitiousness undermines this brave new world, and the images are full of delapidation and things crashing and falling apart - nothing can possibly work in such an environment. The 'Wizard of Oz'-like scene where a guide shows gullible English communists industrial marvels that are really two men billowing smoke and rattling sheet metal, is horribly accurate. This comic look at misery and tyranny looks forward to the Czech films of the 60s. Nonetheless, the book never becomes satire, never moves beyond popular prejudices - the critique in 'Tintin In America' is far more effective because Herge displays a more thorough knowledge of and engagement with US history and culture. The 'Tintin's we are familiar with now - painstakingly illustrated, beautifully coloured and meticulously detailed albums - only came into being in the mid-40s: earlier editions were redrafted and edited to fit the new format. This book was the only one Herge didn't remodel, perhaps embarrassed in retrospect by its crass ideology. Reading 'Soviets' after one of the later 'Tintin's is like watching an Ub Iwerks cartoon after 'Toy Story'. The drawing is sometimes cruder and much less detailed than we're used to, like a loose-limbed 'Peanuts' strip. Instead of the four strips of four columns of the later books, there are three strips of two columns - each frame is much larger and seems to lunge at the reader. The positioning of speech bubbles is often clumsy; frequently, characters redundantly say what we can clearly see; the angle of compositions sometimes works against the action - all this can prevent a fluid reading. Tintin himself is a different beast - beefier, more aggressive, even high-handed with a splendidly cynical Snowy - he roughs up a Cheka agent, easily dispatches a vodka-guzzling bear, and trips up passers-by whenever the need arises. Despite these flaws, 'Soviets' is a pacy and funny adventure. Two things Herge arrived with fully formed were: his ability to express speed within and across frames; and his fascination with gorgeous moving vehicles (motorcars, trains, planes, boats) stretching across the plate.
Rating:
Summary: The first Tintin, rough but ready.
Review: Tintin is sent by his Brussels newspaper to expose the true conditions of life in Bolshevik Russia, and counter the propaganda spread by Soviets and their Western fellow-travellers. Together with his faithful fox terrier Snowy, Tintin finds famine, child hunger, bureaucratic incompetence, industrial failure, bogus propaganda, state terror, gunpoint elections and massive embezzlement of the people's wealth by the government. Naturally, the Soviets aren't terribly keen for such information to leak out, and attempt to dispatch our hero at every turn - trying to bomb, shoot at, torture and freeze him in the endless snowy Steppes. 'Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets' is the first Tintin adventure, written in 1929 for a Catholic newspaper edited by a priest who would become a Nazi collaborator. The book's propaganda is crude - as the translators point out, Herge never visited Russia, and based his 'facts' on a contemporary, reactionary book by a Belgian consul - and leaves a sour taste in the mouth. It's not that what he shows wasn't accurate - his Soviet Russia is a totalitarian nightmare, swarming with vicious secret police; a place where citizens had their property stolen and labour abused; where starvation, torture and murder was rife; where more state effort went into destruction than construction. The book is filled with booze-sozzled goons are frightening precisely because they have a power they don't deserve. A lingering superstitiousness undermines this brave new world, and the images are full of delapidation and things crashing and falling apart - nothing can possibly work in such an environment. The 'Wizard of Oz'-like scene where a guide shows gullible English communists industrial marvels that are really two men billowing smoke and rattling sheet metal, is horribly accurate. This comic look at misery and tyranny looks forward to the Czech films of the 60s. Nonetheless, the book never becomes satire, never moves beyond popular prejudices - the critique in 'Tintin In America' is far more effective because Herge displays a more thorough knowledge of and engagement with US history and culture. The 'Tintin's we are familiar with now - painstakingly illustrated, beautifully coloured and meticulously detailed albums - only came into being in the mid-40s: earlier editions were redrafted and edited to fit the new format. This book was the only one Herge didn't remodel, perhaps embarrassed in retrospect by its crass ideology. Reading 'Soviets' after one of the later 'Tintin's is like watching an Ub Iwerks cartoon after 'Toy Story'. The drawing is sometimes cruder and much less detailed than we're used to, like a loose-limbed 'Peanuts' strip. Instead of the four strips of four columns of the later books, there are three strips of two columns - each frame is much larger and seems to lunge at the reader. The positioning of speech bubbles is often clumsy; frequently, characters redundantly say what we can clearly see; the angle of compositions sometimes works against the action - all this can prevent a fluid reading. Tintin himself is a different beast - beefier, more aggressive, even high-handed with a splendidly cynical Snowy - he roughs up a Cheka agent, easily dispatches a vodka-guzzling bear, and trips up passers-by whenever the need arises. Despite these flaws, 'Soviets' is a pacy and funny adventure. Two things Herge arrived with fully formed were: his ability to express speed within and across frames; and his fascination with gorgeous moving vehicles (motorcars, trains, planes, boats) stretching across the plate.
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