Tintin

[robby b]

Are there any fellow Tintin comic book fans on VT? And have any of you been to the Tintin museum in Belgium?

I'm a massive Tintin fan, I first discovered them when I was about 12 and I have the whole collection. I've never been to Belgium but really want to finally make it out there for at least a few days in the next few years. At the top of my places to visit list are the main square in Brussels, the main square in Bruges and... the Tintin museum. (Sampling some delicious Belgian beers will also be a highlight of the trip!)

It would also be great to visit the chateau in the Loire Valley which Herge based Marlinspike Hall on. I saw a photo of it recently and it's so similar.

It's funny, I used to have a lot of the Asterix books, and Snoopy and Garfield, but apart from them and Tintin I wasn't into comics otherwise. But there were some things about Tintin that hooked me: above all his travelling all around the world, but also a history and politics education within his adventures, Herge's great art work and the brilliant sense of humour which has made me laugh so many times over the years.

Edited April 7, 2021 by robby b

[mjmooney]

Yeah, I love Tintin. I remember the TV series when I was a kid - especially Destination Moon and The Crab With the Golden Claws. Then I got a few of the books. I recently saw a box set of all the books (admittedly photoreduced in size), that I baulked at buying, but now wish I'd got it. 

And unlike most of the critics, I thought the recent(ish) Tintin movie was actually pretty good. 

 

[robby b]

4 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Yeah, I love Tintin. I remember the TV series when I was a kid - especially Destination Moon and The Crab With the Golden Claws. Then I got a few of the books. I recently saw a box set of all the books (admittedly photoreduced in size), that I baulked at buying, but now wish I'd got it. 

And unlike most of the critics, I thought the recent(ish) Tintin movie was actually pretty good. 

 

Ah, The Crab With the Golden Claws, a real sea adventure in which we meet the naughty Captain Haddock for the first time. : > (He gets just slightly too drunk in that one, as poor young Tintin soon finds out!) :s

I saw that Tintin film in the cinema, it took a while to win me over, partly because it made lots of big changes to the original story,  but I did like it, I found it impressive, it's actually amazing cinematography.

[Tegis]

Checked the basement, yep still got em. Only missing Tintin in the Congo. I've been meaning to get one of the early ones but they are expansive and very racist.  

 

And speaking of, just this Christmas I got a dictionary of all the Haddock profound expressions. Excellent read.

 

[robby b]

Great! 

Yeah, sadly that first book, Tintin in the Congo, clearly is racist. But at the time when it was written, in the colonial era still, 1930-1931, it apparently didn't raise that many eyebrows... when he wrote it I guess Herge maybe didn't appreciate that he was being racist, he was a product of his racist era and an average reflection of that Belgian/European society. But he should have thought things through better.

Just as bad for me is how cruel towards animals it is with its glorifying of hunting and above all a few cruel, sick scenes, which I have to try to forget and regard as not the real Tintin! A controversial, difficult read, it was the last one I bought and merely to complete the collection. Thankfully Herge became more PC, sensitive and thoughtful quite soon after that. I think I read that he later genuinely regretted Tintin in the Congo.

Hey man, what language is that (Kapten Haddocks Ordbok)? Looks interesting, I'm guessing Scandinavian, maybe Norwegian?

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by robby b

[robby b]

7 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Yeah, I love Tintin. I remember the TV series when I was a kid - especially Destination Moon and The Crab With the Golden Claws. Then I got a few of the books. I recently saw a box set of all the books (admittedly photoreduced in size), that I baulked at buying, but now wish I'd got it. 

And unlike most of the critics, I thought the recent(ish) Tintin movie was actually pretty good. 

 

Hey MJ, is that you playing the guitar in your photo? That's one of my other interests. It looks like a folk guitar (steel string), that's what I've got. I just wish I lived in a detached or simply semi-detached house, sigh. Then I'd be a lot less inhibited and would be able to play a lot more often.   :<

Edited April 7, 2021 by robby b

[Tegis]

19 minutes ago, robby b said:

Hey man, what language is that (Kapten Haddocks Ordbok)? Looks interesting, I'm guessing Scandinavian, maybe Norwegian?

Close, Swedish. It's a thorough breakdown of every curse. But he missed one from Tintin in Tibet called "Medisterkorv" which he yells at the Yeti when he stole the last Whiskey. It means roughly "You thin sausage"

I love that dude

[mjmooney]

12 minutes ago, robby b said:

Hey MJ, is that you playing the guitar in your photo? That's one of my other interests. It looks like a folk guitar (steel string), that's what I've got. I just wish I lived in a detached or simply semi-detached house, sigh. Then I'd free a lot less inhibited and would be able to play a lot more often.   :<

Yep. That's me with one of my acoustics - Seagull S(M)6. Get thee to the VT Musicians Thread! 

Edited April 7, 2021 by mjmooney

[robby b]

5 minutes ago, Tegis said:

Close, Swedish. It's a thorough breakdown of every curse. But he missed one from Tintin in Tibet called "Medisterkorv" which he yells at the Yeti when he stole the last Whiskey. It means roughly "You thin sausage"

I love that dude

Hahaha!  Classic! Yes, I remember the yeti stealing the captain's whisky. Someone should have warned the yeti: never ever steal Captain Haddock's whisky! 

Swedish, nice!  Are you Swedish then? I like those little circles above letters, and the umlauts too. 

Edited April 7, 2021 by robby b

[maqroll]

I was an Asterix kid.

[fruitvilla]

3 hours ago, maqroll said:

I was an Asterix kid.

Get your own thread.

 

 

Must of been about 2002 in Belgium, I wanted to get a set of Tintin videos for my son. Found a small video store and asked for a set of Tintin videos. The store owner had less English than I had French. He did  not have a clue what I was talking about. Eventually he cottoned on I meant Tantan. He did not have any.

As a kid, I would go to the library in King's Heath and loan out Tintin books, as an adult I always thought the books had an amazingly subtle humour. I have a fairly complete set now. Though in today's world Herge might not be politically correct, but I can live with that. Eventually got a video set in Vancouver.

The film I thought was OK, but not the same as the books.  Destination Moon and Explorers were the pinnacle for me.

[Follyfoot]

8 hours ago, robby b said:

Great! 

Yeah, sadly that first book, Tintin in the Congo, clearly is racist, but at the time when it was written, in the colonial era of the 1920s, it didn't raise many eyebrows... when he wrote it I guess Herge maybe didn't appreciate that he was being racist, he was a product of his racist era and an average reflection of that Belgian/European society. But he should have thought things through better.

Just as bad for me is how cruel towards animals it is with its glorifying of hunting and above all a few cruel, sick scenes, which I have to try to forget and regard as not the real Tintin! A controversial, difficult read, it was the last one I bought and merely to complete the collection. Thankfully Herge quickly became much more PC, sensitive and thoughtful quite soon after that. I think I read that he later genuinely regretted Tintin in the Congo.

Hey man, what language is that (Kapten Haddocks Ordbok)? Looks interesting, I'm guessing Scandinavian, maybe Norwegian?

 

More PC and sensitive by becoming a Nazi collaborator? You could argue he had little choice in occupied territory I suppose and he only wrote one anti Semitic book, or was forced to write?
 

Regardless, Tintin played a very important role in mine and my sisters childhood and brings back many fond memories of his stories we loved and shared

[robby b]

6 hours ago, Follyfoot said:

More PC and sensitive by becoming a Nazi collaborator? You could argue he had little choice in occupied territory I suppose and he only wrote one anti Semitic book, or was forced to write?
 

Regardless, Tintin played a very important role in mine and my sisters childhood and brings back many fond memories of his stories we loved and shared

Ah. 

I didn't know about Hergé becoming a Nazi collaborator, yikes! :s That is really disappointing to find out. :< Thank you Follyfoot for letting me know, I'll have to read up about that, e.g. what kind of collaboration. I just hope that he deeply regretted that too in the follwing years. 

In Hergé's fourth book, The Blue Lotus (just three years after Tintin in the Congo), Tintin actually stands up against racism. A white Western man says something very racist to a Chinese guy and hits him with a walking cane... Tintin goes over and shouts 'brute!' at the other white guy and breaks his cane in two, defending the Chinese man. I guess this seems to show Hergé considering/reconsidering his own moral beliefs.

Edited April 8, 2021 by robby b

[Follyfoot]

8 minutes ago, robby b said:

Ah. 

I didn't know about him becoming a Nazi collaborator, yikes! :s Thank you Follyfoot for letting me know, I'll have to read up about that, e.g. what kind of collaboration. I just hope that he deeply regretted that too in the follwing years. 

In Hergé's fourth book, The Blue Lotus (not that many years after Tintin in the Congo), Tintin stands up against racism. A white Western man says something racist to a Chinese guy and hits him with a cane... Tintin goes over and says something like 'racist brute!' to the other white guy and hits him in response, defending the Chinese man. I guess this seems to show Hergé considering/reconsidering his own moral beliefs.

I was quite shocked when I read up on it years ago when checking out all his publications for my youngest at the time. His Tintin book 'The Shooting Star' is widely accepted as anti Semitic in its original form and when asked about his portrayal of the Jew in the book he just stated 'that was the style then' . Like I said he may well have been forced to do so  whilst writing at Nazi controlled paper Le Soir but alternatively he could have refused flat out like many others did

[maqroll]

10 hours ago, fruitvilla said:

Get your own thread.

Lighten up.

[mjmooney]

Subject on Pointless tonight. 

[TB]

1 hour ago, mjmooney said:

Subject on Pointless tonight. 

Edit: deleted.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by TB
Naîve attempt at humour in a second language. Please disregard.

[fruitvilla]

1 hour ago, maqroll said:

Lighten up.

I was  ... sensitive are we?

 

Regarding the collaboration, according to Wiki "In May 1946, Hergé was issued a certificate of good citizenship, which became largely necessary to obtain employment in post-war Belgium." Hergé himself was a conservative and Catholic in his views. 

[robby b]

Follyfoot mentioned some anti-semitism in the original version of The Shooting Star, which I think I may have read about vaguely some years ago, this is regrettable and especially as it's one of my favourite Tintin adventures, it's so good, it makes my top five. My number one favourite is the atmospheric The Seven Crystal Balls, the one with a professor's big house in the woods during a storm. And my other faves are its sequel, The Temple of the Sun (in Peru) plus The Broken Ear (somewhere in the Amazon rainforest) and The Black Island, the only one in which Tintin's in England. He actually spends about the first half of the book in England so that's a really interesting part.

My funniest 'scene' is without doubt in Explorers on the Moon when Captain Haddock subtly infers that the Thomson twins are a pair of clowns. One of them doesn't even notice and the other takes a minute to work it out... and then he suddenly goes mental with the captain! ('We demand an apology!' etc... )  Brilliant comedy, both the dialogue and the twins' facial expressions. 

Edited April 9, 2021 by robby b

[VILLAMARV]

They're the two I still have tucked away somewhere. We never owned a lot but me and my brother used to get them out of the library the covers are brilliant and I think, because of the way they showed the collection on the back, like the backing cards of star wars figures etc, It made you want to rad them all more. Rackhams treasure, 7 crystal balls and secret of the unicorn spring to mind as favourites. Definitely helped nipper me learn to read, making it enjoyable, something you'd choose to do and something accessible.