Hergé | the m0vie blog

Tintin: King Ottokar’s Sceptre (Review)

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Darren

In the lead-up to the release of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, I’m going to be taking a look at Hergé’s celebrated comic book character, from his humble beginnings through to the incomplete post-modern finale. I hope you enjoy the ride.

It’s amazing what you can miss in enjoying your favourite stories as a child. For me, at the tender age of seven or eight, King Ottokar’s Sceptre was a thrilling tale of palace intrigue with a rather wonderful locked-room mystery at it heart. Returning to it now, it feels like quite a bit more. This is the first time, reading a Tintin book, that it feels part of a particular place or time. Even the possibly-Nazi agent from The Black Island was cast ambiguously enough that the story could have been set at any time in the relatively recent past, but King Ottokar’s Sceptre is something quite a bit different, capturing the sense of fear in Europe on the eve of warfare.

A locked room mystery...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Crab With the Golden Claws, Hergé, King Ottokar's Sceptre, List of The Adventures of Tintin characters, peter jackson, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: King Ottokar's Sceptre, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, Tintin and King Ottokar's Sceptre, Tintin: King Ottokar's Sceptre, Valley of Fear | Leave a comment »

Tintin: The Black Island (Review)

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Darren

The Black Island is a fun piece of pulp fiction, which wonderfully feels like Hergé was drawing on whatever pop culture reference was closest to hand at the time. In a way, this strange blend of influences mixes to produce a cocktail that fits surprisingly well against this instalment’s British background. It also features some of Hergé’s strongest artwork, in my own very humble opinion. It might lack the sort historical and political context that defined The Broken Ear and The Blue Lotus, but it’s still a more-than-worthy entry in the series.

Well, don't they have egg on their faces...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, adventures of tintin: the black island, blue lotus, British Isles, Captain Haddock, england, Hergé, indiana jones, Loch Ness Monster, peter jackson, snowy, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the black island, the black island, tintin and the black island, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, tintin: the black island | Leave a comment »

Tintin: The Broken Ear (Review)

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Darren

The Broken Ear is a strange little Tintin story. On one hand, it begins as a sort of a mystery adventure, with an artifact stolen from a museum and then replaced the following night, a little note apologising for a childish prank. As seems to be the case in these kinds of stories, the authorities decide “no harm, no foul” and go on about their daily business, but our boy Tintin is not convinced. However, over the course of his investigation, the story develops into something a bit more substantial, allowing Hergé the opportunity to indulge some of his wonderfully broad political satire. It wouldn’t be among my favourite entries in the franchise, if only because I was too young to appreciate a lot of the commentary when I first read it.

Hergé doesn't go overboard...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, andy serkis, blue lotus, Captain Haddock, cigars of the pharaoh, comic con, Hergé, Jamie Bell, List of The Adventures of Tintin characters, peter jackson, politics, South America, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the broken ear, the broken ear, tintin and the broken ear, tintin: the broken ear | Leave a comment »

Tintin: The Blue Lotus (Review)

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Darren

The Blue Lotus is regarded as something of a turning point for Hergé’s boy reporter. The cartoonist, apparently urged by those close to him, decided that – rather than basing his depiction of China on a collection of pop culture stereotypes (as he had done in Tintin in America) – he would undertake a considerable amount of research in order to ensure that the story was as respectful and faithful to Chinese culture as might have been possible. Indeed, the Chinese boy who Tintin befriends, Chang Chong-Chen, is named in honour of one of the students who helped him in coming to understand the Far East.

East of Eden...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, blue locust, blue lotus, Chang Chong-Chen, China, Far East, Hergé, japan, opium, peter jackson, political correctness, racism, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the blue locust, the adventures of tintin: the blue lotus, the blue locust, the blue lotus, tintin and the blue locust, tintin and the blue lotus, Tintin in the Congo, tintin in the far east, tintin: the blue locust, tintin: the blue lotus | 2 Comments »

Tintin: Cigars of the Pharaoh (Review)

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Darren

This is more like it. I think Cigars of the Pharaoh is the first quintessential Tintin story. It really feels like Hergé has figured out the kind of stories he wants to tell, with a weird blend of various pulp genres from crime to mystery to horror, all mixed with a healthy dose of comedy. It’s also the first adventure in the series (and I’m including Tintin in the Congo) that feels truly exotic as our hero travels the world to unearth the central mystery.

Tintin's first glimpse of a Red Sea Shark...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Captain Haddock, cigars of the pharaoh, Hergé, indiana jones, jack kirby, peter jackson, snowy, stan lee, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin: cigars of the pharaoh, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin and the cigars of the pharaoh, Tintin in the Congo, tintin: cigars of the pharaoh | 4 Comments »

Tintin: Tintin in America (Review)

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Darren

Tintin in America was the earliest Adventures of Tintin book I read as a child, and I owned the entire collection from this point on (for obvious reasons, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo were not recommended childhood reading). That said, I’ve always regarded Tintin in America as one of the weaker entries in the series, perhaps because my childhood imagination yearned for something relatively more exotic than a trip to North America, or perhaps because the saturation of American pop culture made all the elements Hergé was spoofing seem like old hat. I’m not entirely sure, but I have to admit that the story hasn’t improved too much on re-reading.

America, %&#! Yeah!

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Al Capone, comic books, gangsters, Hergé, history, native americans, peter jackson, racism, review, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin, tintin in america, Tintin in the Congo, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, United States | Leave a comment »

Tintin: Tintin in the Congo (Review)

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Darren

“Unfortunate,” is probably a word that gets tossed around quite frequently about Tintin in the Congo. The second adventure in the series, it was omitted from the list of books on the back of my old Tintin collection, for reasons that aren’t too hard to fathom. Apparently, like Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, the book was driven by editorial edict – to encourage Belgians to move to the colonies in the Congo, rather than to drum up fear and mistrust of communist Russia – though, to be frank, I really can’t see much here stirring a desire to emigrate. Tintin in the Congo is very mush a product of its time, filled with casual racism and awkward portrayals. That doesn’t make it any better, and it’s genuinely quite difficult to look past that fact.

Fur and loathing in the Belgian Congo...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, arts, Captain Haddock, controversy, Hergé, peter jackson, political correctness, racism, Secret of the Unicorn, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, Tintin in the Congo, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Warner Bros | 4 Comments »

Tintin: Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (Review)

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Darren

The two earliest Tintin adventures, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo, are looked back upon as the black sheep of the Tintin novels produced by Hergé. While Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is shameless anti-Communist propaganda (and does contain a hint of the foul racism we’d see a lot more of in Tintin in the Congo), one can detect a lot of the charm that Hergé brought to his iconic creations, scattered throughout the work, from the surreal sense of humour to the writing style to the love of ridiculous suspense, seemingly for the sake of suspense. The best was definitely yet to come, but it all started here.