Breaking Free

The 1992 reprint

***The Adventures of Tintin: Breaking Free*** is a British pastiche by an artist only known as J. Daniels. It takes place in an alternate continuity wherein Tintin is a disaffected British youth, Captain Haddock is his uncle, and a large worker's strike begins in London. The comic features heavy socialist themes and advocacy for worker's unions.

## Story

Tintin is a cockney youth who goes to visit his uncle, who is nicknamed "The Captain", and his Aunt Mary. Tintin has just had his monthly benefit payments cut after getting into a fight with his boss. Tintin's uncle introduces him to a union representative named Jim. Tintin gets a job for a construction company, building luxury apartments in downtown London.

That night, Mary and the captain catch two homeless friends, Nicola and Des, breaking into an unoccupied apartment next door. They are welcomed with open arms and Mary encourages them to come by for coffee at another date. Nicola, nicknamed "Nicky", has been forced to run away from home after her parents objected to her being a lesbian. Some weeks later, the captain and Mary notice how run-down the apartment building has become. They muse about how much rent they pay in contrast to how well the landlord takes care of the building. They run into a friend, Mrs. Davis, at the supermarket, who complains about how many posh urbanites have been moving into their neighborhood and gentrifying the area. The captain and Tintin go to a football game but run into a man hocking a right-wing racist newsletter near the arena entrance. The captain objects to the man's anti-Black remarks, and when the man insists on engaging Tintin's group in a debate, they knock the man out and leave for the game.

One day, one of Tintin's coworkers, Joe Hill, falls to his death because of the construction site's poor safety standards. The foreman accuses Joe of having been drunk when he fell, and a union trade official dismisses the outraged construction workers, so they stage an impromptu wildcat strike. Tintin and the other workers demand better safety standards, improved wages, different site management, and proper financial compensation for Joe's family. When the site's management refuses to honour these demands, the strike escalates. The managers also secretly arrange for crooked union officials to bring in strikebreaker workers (also known as "scabs") to work on the site in the meantime.

Other unions and worksites hold protests in solidarity with Joe's death, and also in hopes of getting their own improved working conditions. Some workers become especially militant after their managers refuse to comply. Eventually, the construction site where Joe died is firebombed by irate workers. As the strikes spread across the United Kingdom, local governments respond by increasing their violence and repression against workers. Tintin's uncle, the Captain, is arrested on fabricated charges of conspiracy.

Demonstrations turn to riots. Around half a million people hold a protest in downtown London. Some of them have bought firearms, and others briefly mention the strike committees being formed elsewhere in England, while the military is sent to "restore order" in Liverpool. Other demonstrations are also happening in other nations. The comic ends with a large panel featuring the demonstration that Tintin, Aunt Mary, and the captain are taking part in, with Tintin carrying an assault rifle. The comic ends with the line, "This is not the end! Only the beginning..."

## Production

The art of *Breaking Free* was drawn by hand, and many poses and panels were copied freehand from Hergé's *Tintin* books. A prequel of sorts was released in 1986 in *The Scum*, an informational booklet created in solidarity with striking workers during the Wapping Dispute.

When *Breaking Free* was first released, critics in Britain derided it for its heavy socialist and anarchist themes. Worker's unions, strikes, and left-wing ideology were hot topics in the United Kingdom at the time, often to great resistance; the highly-conservative Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of England during this time. Tabloids were quick to mock *Breaking Free*, with The Daily Star running the headline, "Commie nutters turn Tintin into picket yob!" in 1989. Reviewers in recent decades have given *Breaking Free* a second chance, with some complimenting the pastiche for its sentiments of intersectional activism.

Daniels's true identity has never been released. Their full pseudonym is "Jack Daniels", an alcohol pun comparable to Bud E. Weyser (creator of *Tintin in Thailand* many years later).

## Availability

*Breaking Free* has been given numerous reprints and releases in the decades since it was originally published. It was initially published by a group called Attack International, and its most recent distributor is Freedom Press, an imprint of PM Books.

An official .PDF version of the complete comic is easily accessible online. A French translation was released online in the 2000s. It is renamed *Vive la Révolution!* and is also easily found online. An official website exists for *Breaking Free*, that is still maintained to this day.

## References

1. ↑ Tintin's new adventures | Children and teenagers | The Guardian
2. ↑ Tintin: Breaking Free of Class-Only Politics | Adastra Comix
3. ↑ Freedom Press - PM Press
4. ↑ Breaking Free - Free.fr