The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America / Cigars of the Pharaoh / The Blue Lotus by HergéMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Interesting to see the work of Herge as an American. His stories are long and involved and entertaining. However, the images and some text are quite overtly racists. Granted, these stories were first published in the 1940s and 50s, so I suppose it is just a product of its time. Despite that uncomfortable part, the stories are fun and well-drawn, and quite interesting! Herge was a talented man!
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2 comments:
I thought Tintin was supposed to be classic stuff; I read Anthony Bourdain's book and he mentioned loving Tintin as a kid, and it made me want to read them all.
Well, despite what my poorly-worded review might portray, I actually did enjoy the books quite a bit. I thought it was interesting to see how Herge, as a Frenchman, saw America. On the other hand, however, some of the artistic choices are pretty racist. It might be because I had recently attended a lecture on derogatory images throughout history, so I suppose I was predisposed to jumping on that. Herge does use some pretty derogatory ways to portray blacks, Native Americans and even Chinese characters in the collection I read. I found it a little uncomfortable, but like I said, that was how things were in the 1940s. I probably should have said something like, "one needs to read this series with historical context in mind."
Or, you know, actually edit my reviews.
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