The Adventures of Tintin in the Congo: Reporter for Le Petit Vingtieme (Tintin Series) Book

Ah, the infamous Tintin Au Congo. This is the edition that is widely available these days, i.e. the redrawn, coloured and "sanitized" version. Comparisons between the original art and the art on display here shows that originally it didn't look much different than Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, if perhaps slightly better. In fact, Tintin looks like something from a Black & White Quick & Flupke story in the original version (unsurprisingly, since it is by the same author / artist). Why bring this up? Because, frankly, I believe that the earlier art suits the story better. This isn't that much different from In the Land of the Soviets as far as plot development and ham handed comedy is concerned, but it looks like one of the later books, which can create one heck of a false expectation.

This book has received a lot of bad press, and has not been published for many years as a result. The following excerpt is from the introduction of this edition:

In his portrayal of the Belgian Congo, the young Hergé reflects the colonial attitudes of the time. [the book was first published in book form in 1931, and presented as a strip even before then] He himself admitted that he depicted the African people according to the bourgeois, paternalistic stereotypes of the period - an interpretation that some of today's readers may find offensive. The same could be said of his treatment of big-game hunting.

The same could also be said of many other (and in some cases iconic) novels, such as King Solomon's Mines and Jock of the Bushveld. Again: I suggest reading Tintin in the Congo with a companion book like Tintin: Hergé and His Creation. The author himself wasn't fond of this book, and especially of the treatment of wildlife.

So there it is. The first two Tintin books are important for their historical significance in the sense that Hergé was pioneering the European comic style that we take for granted today, but they are far from his best work. Thankfully, after this things start improving greatly. Hergé was about to "grow up".

As with Tintin in the Land of the Soviets giving this more than three would not make sense given the greatness of what was to come.