Tintin en Amerique

Rating:
Summary: Tintin comes to American and finds Gangsters and Indians
Review: I read "Tintin en Amerique" ("Tintin in America") relatively late in my journey through Les Adventures de Tintin, which might not be fair since this early work by Herge certainly pales in comparison to some of our beloved hero's later and greatest adventures (e.g., "Tintin au Pays de L'Or Noir" or "On a Marche sur La Lune"). From that perspective you notice that the art is a bit more cartoonish than what comes later but the most important difference is that this is basically Tintin and Milou on their own. The wonderful cast of colorful supporting characters that end up populating the Tintin universe are not to be seen at this point, which might explain why Milou "talks" a lot more in this early Tintin adventure than is the white terrier's habit in later volumes.

While this is not a great Tintin adventure, "Tintin in America" is certainly an interesting one because of the way Herge presents America to his readers. In a manner that reminds me of Babe's fanciful vision of the big city in "Babe: Pig in the City," Herge presents the U.S. as half Chicago gangsters and half Wild Wild West cowboys and Indians. Tintin arrives in Chicago to clean up the city ruled by gangster bosses and Al Capone is not happy to see the world famous reporter. Tintin survives so many attempted gangland hits that you lose count of them, and it is a toss up whether there are more last second escapes or scenes where Tintin pulls a gun on a gangster. The perils of Tintin continue even when our hero and his faithful terrier companion make their way out West and become involved with some of the quaint customs of the local natives.

The final word would be that if you have heard people raving about Herge and Tintin, and then you start at the "beginning" (in terms of what is readily available of the Adventures of Tintin) you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. Do not fear. "Tintin en Amerique" represents the early days when Herge was still finding his way and learning his craft. The best is yet to come after this one and the best is pretty good. Get with the program and stick to it. Historical notes: The first French version of "Tintin en Amerique" was published in black & white in 1934, with the French color version coming out in 1945.

Rating:
Summary: Tintin comes to American and finds Gangsters and Indians
Review: I read "Tintin en Amerique" ("Tintin in America") relatively late in my journey through Les Adventures de Tintin, which might not be fair since this early work by Herge certainly pales in comparison to some of our beloved hero's later and greatest adventures (e.g., "Tintin au Pays de L'Or Noir" or "On a Marche sur La Lune"). From that perspective you notice that the art is a bit more cartoonish than what comes later but the most important difference is that this is basically Tintin and Milou on their own. The wonderful cast of colorful supporting characters that end up populating the Tintin universe are not to be seen at this point, which might explain why Milou "talks" a lot more in this early Tintin adventure than is the white terrier's habit in later volumes.

While this is not a great Tintin adventure, "Tintin in America" is certainly an interesting one because of the way Herge presents America to his readers. In a manner that reminds me of Babe's fanciful vision of the big city in "Babe: Pig in the City," Herge presents the U.S. as half Chicago gangsters and half Wild Wild West cowboys and Indians. Tintin arrives in Chicago to clean up the city ruled by gangster bosses and Al Capone is not happy to see the world famous reporter. Tintin survives so many attempted gangland hits that you lose count of them, and it is a toss up whether there are more last second escapes or scenes where Tintin pulls a gun on a gangster. The perils of Tintin continue even when our hero and his faithful terrier companion make their way out West and become involved with some of the quaint customs of the local natives.

The final word would be that if you have heard people raving about Herge and Tintin, and then you start at the "beginning" (in terms of what is readily available of the Adventures of Tintin) you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. Do not fear. "Tintin en Amerique" represents the early days when Herge was still finding his way and learning his craft. The best is yet to come after this one and the best is pretty good. Get with the program and stick to it. Historical notes: The first French version of "Tintin en Amerique" was published in black & white in 1934, with the French color version coming out in 1945.

Rating:
Summary: Tintin catches gangsters in the big city and the wild west
Review: Tintin and Snowy are kidnapped by Al Capone immediately after arriving in the United States. Of course they escape - and spend the rest of the book rounding up gangsters. They chase Mr Smiles from the big city to an Indian reservation and through the wild west, so you get a good variety of American adventure landscapes. Finally they return triumphant to the city and Snowy gets kidnapped. There is a sequel so you know things end happily.

This is probably my favorite Tintin book. It has a lot of ironic moments: in the first pages of the book Tintin succeeds in catching Al Capone but no one believes him, the discovery of oil turns wilderness into big city in a matter of hours, and an animal rights activist is upset that a puma is eating a deer in the wild.

If you are reading this to help learn French, Tintin comics are good for reading at a French 2 level. There are a lot of words that aren't basic vocabulary (like "indian reservation") but it is still easy to follow the story because the writing and pictures tend to reinforce each other (not to mention the French is often similar enough to English to guess the meaning).