I grew up on Tin Tin, as my Dad’s family are big fans of the books.
Loved the humor and adventure, and also the different cultures depicted in each story.
I remember, though thinking something was rather off about the depiction of African slaves in The Crab With the Golden Claws. And when I encountered Tin Tin in Congo in my university years, I thought “damn, this is messed up!”
The embarrassing thing is, my Dad recently sent my son a T-shirt featuring the cover of Tin Tin in the Congo. I was mortified.
Objectively, it’s a fantastic T-shirt Design, but it is just so wrong. I suggested to my son that, although it was a nice thought of granddad to send it to us, with no ill intention, we should probably toss it in the trash and I would get him a new T-shirt.
He readily agreed.
I think it’s OK to let kids read *most *of these stories today, as they generally are harmless, and even encourage interest in different cultures.
However, it’s probably best to read them with your kid and fill in the cultural blind spots with a little dialog.
Presactly!
Do yourself a favor, and never look for any of the really old black and white stories.
I’ve only read the two Tintin comics that have been translated into Latin – The Black Island and The Pharaoh’s Cigars. I recall only fairly subtle racism in these titles. There is a stereotypical depiction of an Indian fakir, and I’m sure there was an image of a negro. At some point, some Indians are going to ritually execute Milūlus for having tried to bite a cow. And when Tintin finds himself lost in the jungle, he figures out a means of communicating with elephants and he asks them to take him to where the white people are. Otherwise, most everybody was depicted as simply people with different looks, manners of dress and social and political concerns.
Compare that to nearly every issue of Asterix featuring a Numidian pirate with thick red lips and a speech impediment. Mind you, Asterix is more-or-less mostly about making gentle fun of other people’s cultures, including subcultures of modern and historical France. But those ethnicities are not simply disrespected. Often there are good people among them, and its not as though Asterix’s own village isn’t stuffed with quirky goofballs. But that one pirate is always just embarrassing.
But these are small matters that I can specifically talk to the child about, and I don’t see any problem with the child understanding that we don’t like to depict other peoples so shabbily anymore. I have not yet talked to him about the depiction of Native Americans on the Underdog show. As a child I would have said that it wasn’t insulting because they are in fact the heroes of the story. As an adult, it’s clear to me how face-palmingly patent the stereotyping is. But it’s complicated for a 4 year old to say what’s wrong here. And getting into what’s wrong with the colonialism in the Brag of McBragg is just going to have to wait. I watched this stuff as a kid. I don’t remember who talked to me about it, but I compartmentalized it somehow. It’s not the way people really are, and it’s a serious asshole who thinks so. But it doesn’t make it racist to watch.
you know oddly enough ive never red the books i just remember tin tin ive only seen the now ancient hbo series that nickelodeon reran that they stopped after a few months because people complained it was too violent for the nick jr hours …(back then it was 6 am to 3 pm)
You have a valid point regarding his physical depiction, but everyone in the Asterix world stammers, “The Gau…the Gau…the Gau…” when they first see Asterix and Obelix on the charge. The Romans say the same thing.
This particular hat is seen as very British, at least in American pop culture. So much so that even though it was apparently very popular in the “wild west,” it still retains the UK association. I agree that T&T/D&D were not intended to be anything but Belgian or at least Francophone, by Hergé.
I never heard of Tintin. When were these things popular, and where? I grew up in rural Illinois and was born in 1946. Should I have heard of Tintin? I read voraciously as a kid, nearly all the books in the library, so I don’t think our library had these books. And are they books or comic books? Would they have been in libraries? Defeat some ignorance, please.
Not to mention - everyone in the Asterix world is also drawn completely stereotypey. Just look at all the female characters!
I don’t go much for Tintin, purely because I find it not funny enough to be funny, but too silly to be taken seriously. The only one we have is ‘Land of Black Gold’ which as far as I can see has nothing particularly offensive in it. But it sounds like some of the specific stories mentioned in the thread have enough problematic elements that are intrinsic to the story, that it might be worth quietly not reprinting those particular ones. Which is not the same as canning an entire series.
They were much more popular in Europe than in the U.S. They were post-WWII adventures (although the earliest stories were written and drawn before the war.) The height of the series, and perhaps the most popular books, involved a remarkably realistic trip to the Moon.
eTA: comic books, in what we now call the “graphic novel” format. Books in cartoon form.
They were a little hard to find in the U.S., but were very well regarded by those who did see them. (“To know him is to love him.”)
Asterix and Obelix are in roughly the same category, although, today, easier to find because of the greater international availability of goods. (Yay, Amazon.)
(Anybody else here a fan of Giles Cartoons, a British daily newspaper cartoon by Carl Giles, from WWII to the early 2000s? Sort of similar: the collections have made a little headway in the U.S.)
I loved Tintin as a kid, and later bought and read them all in the original French. IMO the jokes are better in French.
It’s true the early books are rather crude, but Herge changed as he got older. Several biographies have indicated that WWII had a profound influence on him.
In the Commonwealth it’s commonly associated with British finance/office workers and civil servants in the 1960s/1970s; think John Cleese’s character in the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch or John Steed in The Avengers*.
*Not the superhero one. Ask your parents or grandparents.
“The Tramp”, however, is very much an American icon - his adventures happen in the US, filmed in the US and exported as a US product not a UK one. Whether The Tramp is supposed to be a down-and-out Englishman abroad, I couldn’t say, but that was never my impression.
But did it retain that “very British” association in 1930/40s Belgian culture? I dunno, but I doubt it.
Except for those things that have changed. Precisely because people whined, spoke out, protested & voted. My childhood was Tintin free, but it appears that the works could be enjoyed by modern kids with a bit of parental guidance.
Concerning the Bowler Has anyone heard of Belgian artist Ernst Magritte? I was going to link one of his main paintings featuring the Bowler. But found a 2009 article about two museums opening in Belgium–one honoring Tintin & the other honoring Magritte…
