Little, Brown
Hergé (Georges Remi), writer and artist
This third collection of Tintin adventures picks up where the second book left off. While in the Congo, Tintin was attacked repeatedly by a bearded assassin employed by someone known only as A.C. At the opening of this third volume, readers learn that A.C. stands for Chicago's own Al Capone and that Tintin is on his way to America to track the man down. Capone dispatches men to prevent Tintin and Snowy from ever setting foot in Chicago. Several attempts are made by various gangsters to stop Tintin, but each one fails, and in just a few pages, Tintin manages to capture not only the gangsters, but Capone himself. Unfortunately, getting the authorities to believe his story and come round up the hoodlums proves more difficult than capturing them in the first place.
While Tintin tries to convince the authorities that he really has single-handedly captured Capone and several of his men, the hoods escape, never to be seen in the pages of this book again. Perhaps Hergé thought better of using the real-life racketeer in his story, because from this point on, all of the "big bosses" Tintin comes up against are fictional gangsters. First he follows one from Chicago out into the wilderness of Redskin City where the American Indians are portrayed in much the same way as the natives of the Congo were in that book, and everyone else dresses in the finest cowboy regalia. Once this man is finally caught and turned over to the authorities, another Chicago "big boss" steps in and kidnaps Snowy to lure Tintin into a trap.
Again, this third Tintin volume, originally serialized between 1931 and 1932, doesn't read quite as well as the later volumes I am more familiar with. The story is entertaining, but a little more uneven in pacing than I would have expected. Many of Tintin's last-minute escapes this time out are due more to happenstance than actual ingenuity on the young reporter's part. Also, several people refer to Tintin as a young boy in this volume; his age is never quite nailed down, and while it is clear he is young for his position, I wouldn't expect anyone to call him a boy as he travels alone around the world.
I also think it is interesting to note that after Capone disappears from the book, all of the subsequent gangsters to confront Tintin are from a group of Chicago mobsters organized much like a union or corporation, but the name of that group changes each time it is presented. This may have been deliberate on Hergé's part, maybe even some in-joke that doesn't translate well into English, but it very much comes across in this volume as just an error.
I don't want to make it sound as if I didn't enjoy this Tintin adventure; I did. Just not quite as much as I remember enjoying the three from my youth. Maybe the writing in the series will get better and begin to resemble what I am more used to as the series continues, or perhaps my younger self was just less critical than I have become today.
************
I don't just collect comics. Like many of my peers, the comic book habit has spread into other areas, including action figures and toys based on my favorite characters. Sometime I might post some pictures of my figure and statue collections if there is interest. But today, I wanted to mention two specific figures I recently acquired. These are custom-made figures of two characters I created several years ago, made using DC Direct 13-inch figures as a starting point, and they were made by a talented customizer named Nick. He has a Facebook page and also sells on eBay, which is how I discovered him. If you are interested in action figures and are looking for someone to do some custom figure work, especially in the 13-inch scale, Nick gets my highest recommendation!
No comments:
Post a Comment