TINTIN IN THE LAND OF THE SOVIETS
Tintin makes his way from Brussels to Moscow to check things out in Bolshevik controlled Russia.

One has to look past the simple newspaper cartoon graphics of this episode and see the interesting aspects that mean more to this story than meets the eye. The date is sometime before World War Two - in the 20's or 30's. This makes for a facinating insight into pan European norms and the general atmosphere of the world at that time. Herge firmly places Brusseles as Tintin's home, and as the centre of gravity, but when Tintin motors into Russia  he finds a nation opressed by bolsheviks. This viewed from modern times is sometimes apt while sometimes a massive faux pas. Nonetheless it illuminates several hot themes of the time such as propoganda, predjudice, dictatorship and briefly mentions Lenin and Stalin. The book consists of all the serialised episodes of this adventure that were originally made for a newspaper's comic section, so the rythm of the story has a certain beat, in line with the requirements and constraints of fitting each micro episode into the daily newspaper. It is a pleasant surprise then that the book as a complete story reads fairly smoothly and does not seem disjointed as one might expect of a compiled newspaper serial.

There are several noteworthy aspects to this book. Firstly while much of the things that occur are improbable and indeed impossible when compared to real life; Herge even in this early work reveals his love of realism and correct physics models. Such as the time Tintin, escaping from Russia in a stolen BiPlane crashes in the steppe and decided to replace the broken propeller by wittling a new one with his boy scout knife, after many hours tedious work he finishes the crude propeller and bolts it the the spinner, only to find upon engine start, that his aircraft is reversing. He then realises the propeller is pitched in the wrong direction of rotation thus hes being propelled backwards not forwards. This is quite sophisticated copy for a newspaper cartoon.

Secondly, and interestingly Tintin is reminicent of a marauding teenager - physically big and well framed, often getting into intense brawls - beating up agents intent on killing him as he moves across country and into the vast steppe of Russia. He confidently swaggers around often rebuking and taunting his opponents after his Rocky Balboa style victory. This is an arguabley fuller charactered Tintin than the standard later episodes and I argue that at this early stage in things I can see the personalities of later characters such as Allen and Captain Haddock present in Tintin's own personality. Enroute to Russia from Belgium, Tintin transits through Germany until he reaches what feels like the final frontere of civilisation perched on the Eastern extremity of Western Europe: He arrives in Berlin. The people in the streets of Berlin are neat clean well mannered polite and ordered. The signs say Eingang and Ausgang, the police wearing pointed helmets and great coats are big and slightly menacing but non-the-less servents of the public: keepers of the peace. Tintin promptly breaks the peace and a car chase ensues as Tintin flees not only the Berlin police, but the Bolshevik agent trying to assasinate him. Tintin first escapes on a motorbike then steals a Mercedes Benz cabriolet, before crashing that and continuing the journey to Moscow by other means. Tintin in the land of the Soviets is one long series of violent car crashes fights and brawls followed by more car crashes. In this respect I am reminded of the latest James bond movies; the same theme we all know and love, but with a darker seriously violent interpretation.

Tintin knows hes escaped when flying along, he spots an airfield which he identifies as Tempelhof in Berlin's outer suburbs. I have a feeling Herge has given a basic yet acurate portrail of Tempelhof as it appeared in its early days before any major structures were erected there. The Police summon Tintin again, this time awarding him thousands of Marks as a prize for saving Europe from bolshevism. He promptly takes his cash and purchases a brand new sports car, the salesman explaining the top speed of 150km/h on the flat. After an attempted mutinee from Snowy who is fed up with Russia, Tintin turns his car into the road and motors off back to Russia! But the road is slippery wet and its raining, at 120km/h Tintin crashes his new roadster into a train....Fortunately the train is heading for Brusels and as they say a change of heart changes everything and Tintin decides to train back home.

Overall a very interesting book, and for history buff and lovers of brawls and car chases/crashes, this episode will offer much to its reader.






Art work symbols and archetypes in Tintin Although the geographic home of Tintin seems to be an English or French Mansion called Marlinspike, the author called Herge actually hails from Belgium. One striking feature of the Tintin series is the artistic illustration of the thoughts feelings and inner goings on of the characters' personal experience. This is done very effectively with certain motifs and archetypes. In some operas when a certain character comes on stage, the musical orchestra plays a specific tune unique to that character thus further identifying the character beyond visual appearance alone. There is no sound track to a comic, however when an event occurs in the Tintin series, it is often described with the symbolism and archetypes that appear regularly throughout the series. For example, the reader can gain an idea of what each character is feeling or thinking when surprised, because an exclamation mark or a question mark is depicted for that character. Usually Tintin is not so shocked as surprised when confronted with an unexpected event, as depicted by a question mark instead of an exclamation mark. 

When under duress stress fatigue or fearful, characters emminate sweat droplets
 
These kind of things communicate a great deal of information without a word being written. Thus the art symbols become a third layer of communication with the reader, with a simple easily comprehended and intuitive "language" of symbols which add more depth to the words and pictures.  In the excerpt below, Captain Haddock is depicted in an orange anti radiation suit, tripping over a rail track. Take a look and scrutinise Haddock's left foot. To nuance the communication of the event Herge has added Stars shooting out from the impact of the boot with the rail. This denotes kinetic shock and impact velocity and even pain. Also because he's surprised, an exclamation mark is shown and sweat beads emanate in halo circular configuration from Haddock's helmeted head, which denotes with accentuated nuance the very stress that Haddock is experiencing as he becomes cognizant that he is - in long drawn out seconds - falling to the hard concrete floor. And the next frame shows Haddock sustaining the impact - it appears as though the rump takes the brunt of the fall and this is reinforced with more coloured stars shooting in electric kinetic pain from the impact. All this is effortlessly expressed by Herge without any written communication ie - without any words. 

So this begs the question, "Why?" Not why use symbols to describe the actions, but why did such a civilized and advanced form of cartoon symbolism arise at all in the first place? This is after all a very sophisticated use of the usually trivial cartoon medium. In fact the very sophistication of Herge's story telling elevates the cartoon genre to a serious level.

The answer lies in the location in which Herge developed as a person and an artist. Most countries speak one language...So it may come as a surprise that Belgium - Herge's origin, is a small country wedged between and landlocked by other larger countries, and that Belgium has two official languages. In Belgium there are two halves to the country occupied by two types of Belgium. The Walloons and the Flemish. One half speak a sort of Dutch German language and the other half speak French. So from the beginning Herge formed his ideas about his craft (story telling) from the perspective of someone immersed in a dual language society. People find it hard to break down communication barriers brought about by a high degree of diversity in dialect and outright language. To make matters worse, other languages are spoken by people in close proximity to Belgium. And finally English being a somewhat international language it is often spoken in Belgium along with all the local dialects.
"This is the Atomic pile...."

World Wide appeal.......They say necessity is the mother of all invention. Ie if it is needed it will evolve. Nowhere was a universal communication language more necessary than Herge's Belgium. This then is the origin of the highly developed pictorial story telling practiced by Herge making use of clear line stylized art work, words (in different languages) and a set of expressive symbolic archetypes to denote expression nuance, character and personality depth to the characters

In a land where many languages are spoken Herge took the picture and effectively spoke a thousand words.

This is also significant in offering a plausible explanation of just how and why the Tintin series is and has been read and followed around the globe - and we are talking back in the 1950's long before the advent of globalisation. At a time when one was hard pressed to find a Coca-Cola sign in Bogotá Columbia or Tokyo Japan, one could have easily purchased a Tintin comic book. 
This phenomenal saturation level of international markets can only be explained by the universality of the images and archetypes presented in Tintin books and the kind of heroic boy-scout values that Tintin lives and breathes. Just as every little boy aspires to be Luke Sky walker; he aspires also to live the adventurous lifestyle of Tintin. Thus the imagery is immediately pleasing to young pre-reading age children who although they cannot read still comprehend the jokes surrounding accident prone Haddock and the dumb and dumber Thompson Twins because the pictures are above alphabets and immediately interpretable. They also admire and aspire to the kind of valor that Tintin shows when he selflessly risks his life to save his pet dog Snowy, or such as when Tintin knocks out two large gringos who he sees bullying a small Inca boy who is selling oranges on the street, in the Prisoners of the Sun. The Inca boy respects Tintin for saving him and returns the favor by tipping off Tintin to the whereabouts of Calculas, who had himself been kidnapped by Inca's. In this way Tintin promotes cross cultural relations. It is disappointing and ironic to note that Herge himself seldom went on any adventures or traveled anywhere remote. Herge was brilliant at studying national geographic and incorporating the striking images into his own stories, but he was in truth a Walter Mitty - a dreamer. However even in later life when Herge had the money and fame to do as he pleased - when he could have proved himself an adventurer by climbing a mountain or something - he didn't.
 
But to his credit Herge's model of story telling has proved so successful that it has become an accepted phenomenon in nearly all far flung reaches of the world. I dare say where theres a Coca-Cola sign theres probably a Tintin book too, because Tintin has the universal appeal and recognition of a big iconic brand.



                                                                   





    The excellent under-sea epic
Red Rackham's Treasure: second book in a tale spanning two books. A submarine shaped as a shark, buried treasure, sunken pirate ships and many laughs along the way. Professor Calculas makes a classic entrance in this tale and the Thompson's make a memorable appearance too. In the spirit of Cousteau and Robinson Crusoe all mixed into one, Red Rackham's Treasure is a must have for the parent concerned about their children's literacy, the serious adult fan, and the adventurer alike.
































Captain Haddock - The best most articulate swearer in the history of the universe.


Calculas is hard of hearing and he doesn't wear a hearing aid. Haddock has a short temper and an anger management issue. This generates a situation where Calculas is constantly miss hearing and miss understanding that which Haddock says intends and does. 

        
                                           HADDOCK'S FAVOURITE INSULTS