The Adventures of Tintin in the Congo

Rating:
Summary: Politically incorrect, but never intentionally offensive
Review: World-famous young reporter Tintin travels to the Congo to hunt for trophies and a travelogue for his newspapers. The voyage is eventful: Milou, Tintin's devoted fox-terrier becomes acquainted with a biting parrot, mosquitos, an electric ray, a shark and a stowaway. The inhabitants of Congo give Tintin and Milou an enthusiastic reception, but conservationists will be less enthusiastic to read what nasty tricks Tintin plays the crocodile, the gazelles, the chimpanzee, the lion, the elephant, the rhino, the buffalo and the snake who thinks that dogs taste good. He does not even spare a tame leopard! (calm down, they're just cartoon animals!). The stowaway - a gangster on Al Capone's payroll - is the interference factor on this safari. Tintin becomes chief of a tribe, but the medicine man resents the competition and teams up with the gangster...

With "The adventures of Tintin" the Belgian reporter Herge has given his readers the best cartoon series of all time. The dialogue is witty and profound, sympathetic and exposing. And the drawings are art. I admired their carefulness and accuracy as a kid, now I understand what genius it takes to draw a character with a few strokes. Herge's protagonists are so expressive that you can read their minds. I have never seen such a play of the features in a cartoon dog. Not even in a real dog.

The Tintin series is a mixture between world tour and thriller. Herge's intention was to give his readers an understanding of the manners and customs of people from all corners of the globe. However: This volume bears the stamp of the colonial age and competitive publishers whose valuable pedagogic literature has been left on the shelf stress the fact that it has become politically incorrect. It is true that racial issues are touched upon in a thoughtless way: Tintin hires a young boy as guide - would he have done this in Europe? Tintin's car crashes with a train - and he starts to give orders to people who are his seniors! But Herge was never intentionally offensive and took a firm anti-racist stand in his following volumes. And it should be noted that he does not try to palliate distressing facts: the medicine man is member of a secret organization who fights white settlers.

Tintin has been the favorite cartoon of millions of children since 75 years and so many generations of children cannot be wrong. Treat it like other controversial classics ( Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island): read it - and then discuss it!

Rating:
Summary: You have to put yourself in Herge's time ... It is OK
Review: You need to put yourself in Herge's shoes, time and place before you can give an objective opinion on this book.
I had actually read all the Tintin's on the back cover of the original books before discovering this.
I quite enjoyed this book, and I do NOT think one must accuse herge of racism. He was reporting the popular idiom and practice of that time. I think the Tintin's make a remarkable comment on the thinking in Europe at the time.
But that's getting too serious. I liked this book.