100 Things to Read! (2/100)

[kseenaa]

Alright!

Great things to read! (Books/Comics/Fanfic)

This time... I'll be talking about a comic. That's always been with me from when I was a little girl. You think I'll be talking Donald Duck now, right? X-D Nah, I'll save the ducks for later. :-) Nope. This time I'll talk about...

The adventures of Tintin!

And no. I don't mean the movie. (Even though it was actually much better then I thought! A pleasant surprise!)

I mean the original comics. :-)

If you haven't read them? You are missing out. Good as the movie is, the comics surpass them by far! Hergé (aka Georges Remi) was a BRILLIANT artist. If you look at the artwork in Tintin, the backgrounds and areas and houses and cars... and everything.... is amazingly detailed. While the characters... are not. More or less caricatures. Still, he makes it work. And makes it work wonderfully. :-) So art-wise, the comics are amazing. The stories? Yes. They are amazing to. Hergé did a TON of research for his stories. He didn't necessarily travel to all these places, but he did extensive research still. And it shows in the stories. When they take place in a real area, most of the places described do exist. Or has existed. Or is based on places already in existance, and Hergé figured out his own versions of various places. He even invented new countries for Tintin to visit! That are so well-described and researched, they feel very very real. :-)

So that is awesome. And then.... then there is all the characters. My gosh... Such a myriad of characters he created for this series. SURE Tintin is the lead, but seriously? There are a TON of characters in these comics, all just as colourful and just as important for the stories. My favorite is Captain Haddock! :-D Who, in himself, is interesting... since he is an alcoholic... and Hergé plays his alcoholism for various jokes. As a kid, I didn't reflect on it as such. But as an adult, you see so much more in the comics then you do as a kid. Not just with Haddock, but with Professor Calculus as well... Well, to be honest, as an adult you see all these quirks with ALL Hergés characters, that you didn't think about as a kid. Quirks that are quite serious if you examine them closer as an adult. :-) Makes re-reading them very very interesting.

Not to mention all the... not so cool views of race in these comics, that you didn't react to as a kid either, but really really react to today. But one has to remember when these were published. The first one, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, was published 1930... as was the second one Tintin in the Congo... The harsh view of race was widly spread them, and everyone, well... most... didn't see any strange with it. Hergé did later admit he could have done those better, but alas... To late then. :-) He did do some re-drawings of some of the comics, and they did get re-releases. So those out on the market today are not quite as harsh when it comes to race and such. :-)

I am actually planning to re-read them in the right order, since I have never done that. They have them all at the main library. I've read them all at various times during my childhood and teens and as an adult too. But really... I haven't read them in order. :-) And I kinda wanna do that. So I think I will! :-D So yes. Read The Adventures of Tintin - the comics! They are very very worth a read-through and holds up VERY well, despite being quite old by now!

Ageless classics!

The order they were released:

1. Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
2. Tintin in the Congo
3. Tintin in America
4. Cigars of the Pharaoh
5. The Blue Lotus
6. The Broken Ear
7. The Black Island
8. King Ottokar's Sceptre
9. The Crab with the Golden Claws
10. The Shooting Star
11. The secret of the Unicorn
12. Red Rackham's Treasure
13. The Seven Crystal Balls
14. Prisoners of the Sun
15. Land of Black Gold
16. Destination Moon
17. Explorers on the Moon
18. The Calculus Affair
19. The Red Sea Sharks
20. Tintin in Tibet
21. The Castafiore Emerald
22. Flight 714
23. Tintin and the Picaros
24. Tintin and Alph-Art (Unfinsihed work, published posthumously)

And lastly, the dogs name is Milou, gawd dammit! NOT Snowy, wth? Now that was one thing that bothered the FUCK out of me when I watched the movie! Milou... MILOU!!! NOT SNOWY!!! *grumbles*




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Comments

[volare.livejournal.com]

I read as many of these as I could get my hands on as a kid, and the dog's name was always Snowy in the English translations...

Even then I knew the racial overtones were pretty bad, but so were an awful lot of other books aimed at younger people - hell, the early Nancy Drew mysteries are AWFUL, and the "Raggedy Ann" books my mom had were even worse.

I will, on occasion, still use a Captain Haddock-ism every now and then, and then be sad when noone gets it...

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know that the official english translation of Milou is Snowy. I know that. :-) But to me it just sounds ALL SORTS OF WRONG! You know? He has always been Milou to me and will always be. Same thing with Thomson and Thompson! That sounds so, so wrong to me. Just... not right. Their name is Dupond and Dupont. End of story in my book. :-) Not all names in the swedish translation was kept from the french original, but most actually were. :-D That I reacted so strongly to Snowy was that... I had NEVER heard it before, so when Tintin first started talking about Snowy in the movie, I was all... Who the HELL is he talking to?!?! Before I got that it was Milou that was Snowy. *lol*

Many books from that era had all those racial overtones. Sad thing, really. But one just gotta remember in what age they were written. And, to be honest, to me it makes them more interesting to re-read today. Odd, ain't it? :-) *is a history-geek*

And I am just saying... Who HASN'T used Captain Haddock-ism in their daily speech? X-D Both me and hubby do it on occasion, and he is less of a comic fan then I am! *lol*

[steinsgrrl.livejournal.com]

I read SO many TinTin comics when I lived in England! I was either too young or naive to notice the racial overtones (and besides, I'd heard all the racism before from my grandfather and didn't really know different), but I loved the stories so much. I haven't even seen the movie because I don't want it to change my ideas of the comics.

OH, and as J said, the dog's name was Snowy in the English translations. ;)

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Tintin is fucking awesome, I am just saying! :-D The good thing with the movie is that it might just throw some light on these old brilliant comics so more generations might discover them! :-D

And about Milou/Snowy and Dupond and Dupont vs Thomson and Thompson... I'll just point to my answer to volare... Oh, and do you know WHERE Hergé got the name Milou, btw? :-D He named the dog Milou because the first girl he really feel in love with... had a nickname... Milou... so he put the name in the comics to honour her. And then the translator who translated the books to english just destroyed that. *lol* Ah well, just some geeky history there. :-)

[iamkaa.livejournal.com]

Do they call Milou SNOWY?!?! *deeply shocked* Okay... think it's best to dropp that subject... *shakes head*
I love Tintin! I was very awere of the non "pk" things in them as a child but was told, just like you point out, that they were written in a whol other time. I can find that interesting today, giving them another dimention too.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. The english translation says Milou is called Snowy. Really fucked with my head there when I watched the movie... I do recommend the movie though! They've really caught the essence of Tintin! :-D If I just could get past the Snowy-issue! X-D Apart from that, it was quite brilliant!

I really like re-reading them today to... The make me think in another way then what they used to, while at the same time still be just as entertaining as when I was a kid. :-)

[ruchirahni.livejournal.com]

i agree, racial things that weren't a big deal then make my blood boil now. this sounds similar to, well, anything written by rudyard kipling, and a lot written by jules verne, and british authors in general. it's why i appreciate sir arthur conan doyleso much.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Being not only geeky and nerdy over books/comics/fanfic, but also over history, I find re-reading these books and comics today to be quite interesting. I see things today that I didn't back then, you know? Notice details that makes me go Uhu... interesting... :-)

And them Sherlock Holmes books,yes... I bet you want me to write a post about them to? ;-) I haven't read them since I was a in my early teens though, so I don't remember that much from them, I am afraid to say! :-D *lol*

[ruchirahni.livejournal.com]

no not at all! write about whatever you'd like to write about. i just used sherlock as a point of reference; ac doyle is the only person i know who has never been racial in his writings. in fact he was the most pro-equality person i know of from that time (possibly the only!)

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

*grin* Sure will. :-) I do have plans, so I am sure I'll be able to have things to write about for all them 100 posts.

I think you'll like the latest one to... ;-)