From Timothy McSweeney

• Tintin Interferes in the Georgian Election
• Tintin in Darfur
• Tintin Blames America First
• Prescription Drugs of the Canadians
• The Chinese Environmental Nightmare
• The Venezuelan Tin Ear
• The African-American Island
• President Milošević’s Sceptre

More at The 21st-Century Adventures of Tintin

A quick round-up of Tintin related activity on the net.

Its as much us as a chocolate tintin! The WhyTravelToFrance blog found this edible boy-reporter in Boulogne-sur-mer. - Chocolate Tintin

Pop singer Mika appears to be a bit of a Tintin fan… “Then, the next day, I’ll be in Brussels, go to the Tintin shop and buy 15 cases of Tintin toys and make each member of my family carry one on the Eurostar.” - Brit Award Winner Mika: I’m Obsessed With Plastic Toys

Egmont, UK publisher of Tintin and numerous children books such as Thomas the Tank Engine, Shaun the Sheep and Mr Men, have a new group sales director in the form of Gillian Laskier. Isn’t it amazing what you can find out by reading trade journals. Egmont UK Appoints New Group Sales Director

What can you learn from writing comics? Possibly quite a lot according to an article in the Times Education Supplement. “In the old Tintin books, for example, the first part of the dialogue is always on the left of the picture and any action moves with the eye line from left to right, even going out of the frame sometimes.” - Class comics (The article reads like a press release for www.toondoo.com).

Madkinbeard’s blog has a write up of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin and Alpha-art in celebration of their US publication. “I should state right off that neither book is for the casual fan. Neither would stand up to scrutiny as an individual work, rather, each best serves to stand in the good company of the other volumes as contrast to the many masterworks of the series.” - Tintin: First and Last. Check out the rest of his blog for some good analysis and reviews of comics and Madkinbeard’s own web comic, Things Change.

LeTinTinMovie.com is reporting that Kirsten Myburgh has been cast as Tintin but Market Saw 3D is reporting inside information saying Myburgh has not been confirmed. He is just another casting call.

Never heard of Kirsten Myburgh? Its not surprising as, to be brutally honest, he is currently a nobody. His only role on IMDB is in a film called Garden Party where he plays ‘Friend with money’. If he does get the lead part in the Tintin Movie then he will go from nobody to somebody very quickly.

Digging around on Kirsten Myburgh official site I found a photo that might be connected to his potential role as Tintin. The plus-fours and jumper are very Tintin but the hat isn’t. Maybe he couldn’t get his hair into a quiff?

Nice piece on the French/European approach to comic from the BBC.

If you look further you will see that the BD section - pronounced Bay-Day - is in fact sub-divided into several categories. There will be classics - Asterix, Tintin, Lucky Luke, the cowboy who shoots faster than his shadow - plus many that never made it out of Franco-Belgium, like Rahan - l’enfant des ages farouches or child of the age of savagery - about a Tarzan-like figure from prehistoric times. There will be the latest best-sellers. Top of the book lists this month - beating Harry Potter and the latest on President Nicolas Sarkozy’s love life - has been the last in a long-running adventure series called Thirteen about a man trying to rediscover his identity after losing his memory.

France takes its comics very seriously

When Tintin and Snowy are cast a drift in sarcophagi during Cigars of the Pharaoh they are rescued by a passing arms dealer. That man was based on Henry de Monfreid, a french drug smuggler who became famous after the publication of the autobiographic Hashish: A Smuggler’s Tale and Secrets of the Red Sea.

Monfreid first went to the Red Sea in 1911 with the intent of trading in coffee but spent the next thirty years smuggling guns, hashish and diving for pearls. He also spent a fair amount in prison because of this. Following the outbreak of World War II he worked for the Italians until captured by the British. When the war was over he retired to France and continued to write. Over the next 30 years he wrote about 70 books. When money got tight he mortgaged the family collection of Gauguin. After his death these paintings were found to be fake.

Hashish: A Smuggler’s Tale was published in the early thirties just when Herge was writing Cigars of the Pharaoh. It seems odd that the conservative, strait-laced Herge should put a character like Monfreid in his book but one can imagine the exotic, devil-may-care, existence of the smuggler would appeal to the shy Belgium who had never left his country. Though possible it was Monfreid attitude to Germans that appeal. On seeing the Pyramids he couldn’t wait to leave. Saying “The only thing that one might possibly admire is the stupendous effort it took to build them, and this admiration demands the mentality of a German tourist.”

Tintin featured in the Simpsons’ episode Husbands and Knives. Like with most Simpsons guest appearances it was nicely done their own unique style. Here is the first half of the episode from You Tube. The Tintin part appears at 3:48.

Tintin Inspiration - The Ephemerist has been collecting popular reference to Tintin in the media. Tintin Inspires, part two, part three. I like the Elvis / Blue Lotus remix.

The is an information-light write up of the 3D technology due in cinemas next year. It is said that the Tintin Movies will in 3D but there is no confirmation of that yet.

Remember how in the Calculus Affair, Tintin and Captain Haddock are going through Calculas’ things to find clues to his disappearance and they find a book on German WII technology with a photograph of two large parabolic dishes? Not surprisingly for Herge, the book and photograph are absolutely real. The Stalker blog has a post on Tintin and Infrasound with more information on the book and photograph. Anauel, a non-english blog picks up on this and also highlights appearance of acoustic radar in King Ottakar’s Scepture. To wrap it up, the Stalker also has information on infrasound weapons of the type Calculus was trying to develop.

Finally a short but interesting look at the role of race in Tintin following the Herge / Tintin / Racism from a south asian perspective.

Who is that mystery man? Tintinologists discuss a rather shaggy haired man with glasses, a black bow-tie and a brown suit who appears in several books.

Following the Herge / Tintin / Congo / Racism row, the planned publication of Tintin in the Congo for the US market has been scrapped by publisher Little Brown Books. According to Publisher Weekly:

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, which had been planning to publish Tintin in the Congo, a book criticized for its racist, Colonial-era depictions of Africans, has quietly pulled the title from its fall list, PW has learned. The publisher also said it will not include the book in a forthcoming box set of all 24 books in the Tintin series.



Publicist Melanie Chang did not give a reason for the standalone book’s cancellation, but of its omission from the box set she said, “Given the controversy surrounding the Congo title, we felt including it in the box set would eclipse the true intention of the collection, which is to showcase Hergé’s extraordinary art and his remarkable contribution to the graphic arts.”

Tintin made his first appearance on January 10th, 1929. So happy birtheday to Tintin and Snowy though not to Captain Haddock, the Thompson Twins or Professor Calculus as they didn’t appear for several more years.

From the BBC’s review of the year in cartoons, looking at the whole Herge / Tintin / Racism fuss.