The Adventures of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets [Hardcover]

Herge (Author), Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper (Translator), Michael Turner (Translator)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Adventures of Tintin

A fascimile of the tale as it originally appeared.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This new facsimile reprint of the very first adventure of one of the world's most beloved cartoon characters shows Tintin's creator, the famed Belgian cartoonist Herge, just beginning to learn his craft. The story was originally created in 1929 for a children's supplement in the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtieme Siecle. Readers meet Tintin, intrepid red-headed boy reporter, along with his dog, for the first time as they set off to Russia to investigate the evil doings of the Soviets. Herg‚ later apologized for the heavy-handed anti-Soviet satire on almost every page. The Soviets are generally portrayed as corn-stealing murderous scum; among other things, Tintin is tortured by thoroughly caricatured Chinese employees of the Soviet secret police. These stereotypes and others like them are a part of that time period, although they've been cited as evidence of Herge's racism. Setting aside the political context, the book is a valuable documentation of the rough and underdeveloped work of Herge's early years as a cartoonist. Years later, he developed the clear line-drawing style that's influenced generations of European cartoonists. However, while his simple b&w penwork from this period is often clumsy, Herge's ability to tell a good story is well developed. Tintin rockets from one death-defying scrape to another in a whirlwind of chase scenes. He is dragged behind cars, blown up by explosives, frozen, tortured, shot, chased by a tiger and more, all in the course of a few pages. This is an enthralling look at the early work of one of the greatest cartoonists of all time.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Hergé, one of the most famous Belgians in the world, was a comics writer and artist. The internationally successful Adventures of Tintin are his most well-known and beloved works. They have been translated into 38 different languages and have inspired such legends as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. He wrote and illustrated for The Adventures of Tintin until his death in 1983. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: Last Gasp of San Francisco (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0867199032
• ISBN-13: 978-0867199031
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #480,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hergé, one of the most famous Belgians in the world, was a comics writer and artist. The internationally successful Adventures of Tintin are his most well-known and beloved works. They have been translated into 38 different languages and have inspired such legends as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. He wrote and illustrated for "The Adventures of Tintin" until his death in 1983.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The first Tintin, rough but ready., March 15, 2002

By 

darragh o'donoghue - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (The Adventures of Tintin) (Hardcover)

Tintin is sent by his Brussels newspaper to expose the true conditions of life in Bolshevik Russia, and counter the propaganda spread by Soviets and their Western fellow-travellers. Together with his faithful fox terrier Snowy, Tintin finds famine, child hunger, bureaucratic incompetence, industrial failure, bogus propaganda, state terror, gunpoint elections and massive embezzlement of the people's wealth by the government. Naturally, the Soviets aren't terribly keen for such information to leak out, and attempt to dispatch our hero at every turn - trying to bomb, shoot at, torture and freeze him in the endless snowy Steppes.

'Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets' is the first Tintin adventure, written in 1929 for a Catholic newspaper edited by a priest who would become a Nazi collaborator. The book's propaganda is crude - as the translators point out, Herge never visited Russia, and based his 'facts' on a contemporary, reactionary book by a Belgian consul - and leaves a sour taste in the mouth. It's not that what he shows wasn't accurate - his Soviet Russia is a totalitarian nightmare, swarming with vicious secret police; a place where citizens had their property stolen and labour abused; where starvation, torture and murder was rife; where more state effort went into destruction than construction. The book is filled with booze-sozzled goons are frightening precisely because they have a power they don't deserve. A lingering superstitiousness undermines this brave new world, and the images are full of delapidation and things crashing and falling apart - nothing can possibly work in such an environment. The 'Wizard of Oz'-like scene where a guide shows gullible English communists industrial marvels that are really two men billowing smoke and rattling sheet metal, is horribly accurate. This comic look at misery and tyranny looks forward to the Czech films of the 60s. Nonetheless, the book never becomes satire, never moves beyond popular prejudices - the critique in 'Tintin In America' is far more effective because Herge displays a more thorough knowledge of and engagement with US history and culture.

The 'Tintin's we are familiar with now - painstakingly illustrated, beautifully coloured and meticulously detailed albums - only came into being in the mid-40s: earlier editions were redrafted and edited to fit the new format. This book was the only one Herge didn't remodel, perhaps embarrassed in retrospect by its crass ideology. Reading 'Soviets' after one of the later 'Tintin's is like watching an Ub Iwerks cartoon after 'Toy Story'. The drawing is sometimes cruder and much less detailed than we're used to, like a loose-limbed 'Peanuts' strip. Instead of the four strips of four columns of the later books, there are three strips of two columns - each frame is much larger and seems to lunge at the reader. The positioning of speech bubbles is often clumsy; frequently, characters redundantly say what we can clearly see; the angle of compositions sometimes works against the action - all this can prevent a fluid reading. Tintin himself is a different beast - beefier, more aggressive, even high-handed with a splendidly cynical Snowy - he roughs up a Cheka agent, easily dispatches a vodka-guzzling bear, and trips up passers-by whenever the need arises.

Despite these flaws, 'Soviets' is a pacy and funny adventure. Two things Herge arrived with fully formed were: his ability to express speed within and across frames; and his fascination with gorgeous moving vehicles (motorcars, trains, planes, boats) stretching across the plate.

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First Tintin - a must-have for Tintin lovers, September 27, 2003

By 

Giant Panda (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Adventures of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (Hardcover)

For a long time I owned all the Tintins depicted on the back cover of "The Adventures of Tintin" and thought I had it all, until I learned about the existence of 3 other titles: "Tintin in the Congo," "Tintin Et L'Alph-Art" (his very last unfinished work), and this one, which happens to be his very first Tintin Adventure. Naturally, I quickly obtained all three.

This being the very first Tintin ever, it is a remarkable work and is a must have for any Tintin lover. However it is not the Tintin you would expect. First of all, this hardbound edition contains a photocopy of the original black and white strips. There is no color edition. It contains almost twice the number of pages as regular Tintins, so it is a good deal for the money. The Tintin and Snowy look somewhat different from the ones we know. In fact, Tintin starts out this adventure without his famous tuft of hair, so you need to read it to find out why his hair sticks up like it does now. The artwork is less detailed and less elaborate than we're used to. Nevertheless it retains a air of elegant simplicity that makes it a masterful work of art.

Another major difference is the rapidity of the action. At that time, Herge was writing this adventure strip by strip for a weekly Belgian newspaper, unlike later adventures when he created it page by page. The adventure therefore moves much more quickly in order to keep readers interested in getting the next edition. Because of this some of the action appears unreal and much is left to impossible coincidences. Nevertheless, nearly all the action "tricks" that Herge uses to rescue Tintin in later adventures can be found here. Police chases, encounters with trains, mobsters, etc. are also prevalent. In fact many of these action incidents are reworked almost exactly in Tintin in America.

As far as the content, one must keep in mind that this Tintin was written in the 1920s - a time when Europe felt threatened by Communism, and also written for an anti-Communist church-run newspaper. The Russians are therefore depicted in the most unfair way, a bias that Herge had to apologize for later in life. Unlike his thorough research for later adventures, Herge bases Tintin's Soviet experiences on just a single book he had read, written mostly for propaganda purposes. Despite this major weakness, I would highly recommend this Tintin adventure. The political views therein are merely a sign of the times.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tom on Tintin, January 16, 2000

By 

J P Girvin (Norwich, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (The Adventures of Tintin) (Hardcover)

Tintin in the land of the Soviets is now finaly back in print and so it should be. It is interesting to see Herge's perception of communist Russia blended with Tintin and Snowy's comic capers. Set in 1922, just after the Russian Revolution, this book shows Tintin reporting for 'Le Petit Vingtieme' far into the depths of Russia avoiding the Cheka along the way. Some of Tintin's death defying stunts include being knocked into the air from a boat crash then landing in the drivers seat of a car being mended by a Russian. Herge clearly believes that the Russian authorities are trying to show the Western world how rich and productive Russia is under the Communist regime. Tintin however finds out this is not true. Any Tintin fan should buy this comic masterpiece now!