I always find it interesting to read Tintin stories.  Hergé did a pretty good job of tying contemporary events and concerns into the story arc, and while this can make them seem dated, it is also revealing to the modern reader.  Flight 714 has a couple of great examples of this.

Tintin and friends land in Jakarta on their way to a conference in Sydney.  While hanging out in the airport terminal, waiting for their connecting flight, they meet an old friend, Skut, who is flying the private jet of millionaire Laszlo Carreidas to the same conference.  They raise the interest of Carreidas and he invites them to travel the rest of the way with him.  Unluckily, they end up in the middle of a plot to capture the millionaire and steal his millions from a secret Swiss bank account.  Pretty standard stuff.

What is interesting here in post-9/11 land is the complete naivite of the hijacking plot.  One of the co-conspirators, the co-pilot, was picked up when they landed in Tehran (Tehran, for Chrissake!) and the regular co-pilot became sick.  Everyone on board has a gun, no one has a political cause, etc.  What is interesting is that, to me at least, this doesn’t seem like Hergé being simplistic, but rather the world in which this plot existed.  Rightly or wrongly, (probably wrongly), it seems that hijacking an airplane in 1968 really was as easy as walking on board with a gun and saying, “We’re taking this plane to Pulau-Pulau Bompa!”

The other thing I found interesting, from a sociological point of view, was the inclusion of a major plot point right out of the pages of Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods.  In 1968, Chariots of the Gods proposed that Earth was visited multiple times in the past by aliens, and depictions of these events can be found in the archaeological record.  It is interesting that Hergé was able to grab a hold of this meme and get it into Flight 714 so quickly, given that it was also published in 1968.  Clearly, the Chariots phenomenon was a big enough deal at the time to warrant such an inclusion.

Flight 714 is a fun read, worth picking up, even if you don’t enjoy analysing it as much as I do.

Hypothetically related posts:

1. The Adventures of Tintin, Reporter For “Le Petit Vintième,” In The Land of the Soviets
2. Tintin in Tibet
3. The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is Moore’s re-telling of the adventure/horror/pulp genre, a sort of “Justice League of Victorian England” in Moore’s own words.  Assembled by Campion Bond (presumably an ancestor of James ) and working for the mysterious M (hinted to be Mycroft Holmes), the League comprises several of the pulp world’s famous characters:  Mina Murray (formerly Harker), Captain Nemo, Allan Quatermain, Dr. Jekyll (and/or Mr. Hyde) and Hawley Griffin, the Invisible Man.  The League has been pressed into service to recover the stolen cavorite, a compound which can be used to power an aeronautical warship and which will be used against London if not recovered.

If you have read my review of Planetary, you know that I love this kind of playing around with the pulps.  Having demolished the superhero genre in Watchmen, Moore goes back to the beginning to bring the superhero sensibility to its origin.  League remains true to its pulpy genre, but brings in the superhero action and traces of steampunk, gives backstory to the original characters (Nemo under Moore is far more interesting then Verne) and otherwise kicks ass.  The visuals by O’Neill are perfectly done.  They have a thin line which evokes the turn-of-the-last-century style, and also give the feeling of simplicity, which also gives the feeling of age.

All in all, I am a fool to have missed this.  Volume 2 is on my “to be read” list, and hopefully I get to it before we hit the next decade.

Hypothetically related posts:

1. Planetary, Vol. 2: The Fourth Man
2. Planetary, Vol. 1: All Over the World and Other Stories
3. Planetary, Vol. 3: Leaving the 20th Century

Originally published in 1929, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets was Hergé’s first Tintin story.  At the time, Hergé (real name: Georges Remi) was only 22, and had no formal art training.  If it sounds like I am setting you up for a rationalization, well, you’d probably be right.

For the most part, reading Land of the Soviets is a bit like watching “Steamboat Willie;” you see a lot of things that you recognise, but the whole thing seems a little weird.  The story is all over the place, full of hit-you-over-the-head sermonizing and bizarre deus ex machinae moments (my favourite is when Tintin and Snowy, trapped in prison cell located below the level of the adjacent canal, look into the corner of their prison and see… a diving suit!  Luckily, once he has it on, it is a simple matter of minutes for Tintin to pull several blocks from the wall and create a passage to freedom).

In my opinion, the real value of the book lies in the evolution of the artwork from start to finish.  Here are two panels from the book:  the first is from the first page, and shows a barely recognisable Tintin boarding a train to Mother Russia.  The second is literally the last panel in the book, and shows a scene much more like the “ligne clair” that Georges Remi became famous for.

Tintin: Early

Tintin: Late

Pick it up at the library, give it a read, maybe the kids will like it.

Hypothetically related posts:

1. Tintin in Tibet
2. Flight 714
3. The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll’s House

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.

Hypothetically related posts:

1. The Adventures of Tintin, Reporter For “Le Petit Vintième,” In The Land of the Soviets
2. Flight 714
3. In The Shadow Of No Towers: A First Impression