From: ce547@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Kurt M. Wilcken)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: annotated Tintin chronology
Date: 18 Nov 1992 06:23:30 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: ce547@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Kurt M. Wilcken)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu



   Most of this comes from TINTIN AND THE WORLD OF HERGE by Benoit Peeters
(Little, Brown & Company 1992).  A lovely (if expensive) book that covers
Herge's entire career and gives lots of interesting insights into his
work.
  
TINTIN IN THE LAND OF THE SOVIETS
  Published in 1929, this is the first appearence of Tintin and Snowy.
  Herge's newpaper wanted him to do an expose on the evils of Communism.
  He based much of the material on a book entitled _Moscou sans voiles_
  (Moscow Unvieled) by a former Belgian cousul in Russia.
 
TINTIN IN THE CONGO
  This became a major embarrassment;  Herge's editor had him write this
  as a justification of Belgium's colonial empire in Africa.  When it
  was reprinted it had to be massively revised.

TINTIN IN AMERICA
  Tintin battles none other than Al Capone as he travels from gangland
  Chicago to the Wild West

CIGARS OF THE PHAROH
  This is the first appearence of the two detectives Thomson and Thompsom
  who mistakenly arrest Tintin for drug smuggling.  I've seen the two
  refered to as "the Thomson Twins" but I've always cherished the conciet
  that they aren't related at all; they're just two guys who happen to
  look alike.  This story also introduces a recurring villain, the sinister
  Rastapopoulos.

THE BLUE LOTUS
  This is a sequel to Cigars of the Pharoah and resolves the Drug-smuggling
  plot.  This is also the first story in which Herge did extensive research
  into the places he was depicting.  The character of Chang in the story
  is based on Chang Chong-Chen, a Chinsese student who helped him with the
  background details and became close friends with Herge.  This story also
  has more politics in it than many others.  The Japanese Empire was
  in the process of conqueringo China at the time and the Japanese are the
  story's main villains.  A major event in the story is based on an actual
  event in which the Japanese used a terrorist attack on the Moukden
  railway as an excuse to invade.

THE BROKEN EAR
  This story took Tintin to South America and was inspired in part by
  a war between Bolivia and Paraguay in 1933 that was intensified by
  outside oil interests and profiteers.

THE BLACK ISLAND
  This story takes place in England and Scotland.  One scene has Tintin
  watching the Thomsons on television, something that was still a
  wonder in 1937

KING OTTOKAR'S SCEPTER
  Brought TIntin to the mythical country of Syldavia and it's totalitarian
  neighbor Borduria.  The Bordurians attempt to annex Sydlavia the same
  way Germanay had just done to Austria.

THE CRAB WITH THE GOLDEN CLAWS
  This story was our first meeting with the immortal Captain Haddock.
  In this story, though, he's more of a pathetic drunken wretch than
  the boisterous bellowing companion we get to know later on.

THE SHOOTING STAR
  By this time the Germans had invaded Belgium.  Herge was forced 
  the political environment to move towards fantasy.  In the first
  version of the story the villain was pretty obviously a Jewish
  financier, something Herge tried to undo in later editions

    ----more later...


  
-- 
"All the World's A Stage and Everyone's a Critic"
                   --Captain Flux
ce547@cleveland.freenet.edu