Tintin in Tibet was written and illustrated by Hergé in 1960. It tells the tale of Tintin’s quest to find and rescue his Chinese friend Chang, who is missing and presumed dead following a plane crash in Tibet. Tintin is joined on this journey by his dog Snowy and Captain Haddock, and Professor Calculus and Bianca Castafiore have small cameo roles.
Tintin in Tibet is a kids book, a little too old for my 4 year old, but not by much. Still, I enjoyed reading it. The story is a great adventure tale, full of travel to exotic places, new and wonderful people and cultures, action and danger. The prose is interesting too; certainly, it seems a little naive in places, and dated (TV shows from the 80s seem a little dated, so I’ll forgive it here). But it is also refreshingly crisp and dry and free from the sugary-sweetness that fills a lot of kids stuff (witness the Captain’s repeated Bowderizations, and his wanton drunkenness).
The art is, in a word, exceptional. It could also be described as crisp and dry. Hergé draws with very fine lines, and his art is detailed and meticulous. I’m not sure if he did his own colouring, but the palette is beautiful, and reminds me of something from the 20s. The use of panel sizes is excellent; there are lots of tall, thin, vertical panels capturing the party mountain climbing, and a very funny sequence of thin, horizontal ones showing them hiking the foothills.
I highly recommend this book, and I am looking forward to reading Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, an apparently highly political story.
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