Customer Reviews

Land of Black Gold (The Adventures of Tintin)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am only 11, and I have only read some of the Tintin books, and the reason I'm at Amazon.com is to buy all the others. Out of the one's I've read so far, I think "Red Rackham's Treasure" was my favorite. I loved the way Herge made Calculus, and thought he was extremely funny, even when he did get annoying! I love the Tintin books, and look forward to reading every single one again! If I could go over 5 stars, I would, definatly!

As a kid, the one single book that would bring me greatest joy and take me to a whole different world was "Adventures of Tintin". I am 25, and I love them more than ever before. It is REALLY a pity that Herge isn't alive today to write about a 1000 more. I sure hope some bright new talent can capture his magic and continue to amaze the millions of Tintin fans who are dying for more of his unique adventures.

His books are guaranteed to keep you captivated, as the adventures are VERY well thought out, and the characters are among the most intriguing ones you have ever imagined. The adventures, the characters, and the ambience of the book in combination give you the best time you have ever had reading any book. Not only will the plot keep you on the edge of your seat, but the characters are guaranteed to make you laugh and keep you coming back for more. Don't take my word for it. TRY IT NOW!

I loved Tintin books when I was a kid, and I love them now at age 37. I know I'm not alone, because a Tintin store in San Francisco sells Tintin coffee cups and ties and key chains (grown-up's items!) I myself have a Tintin tie and key chain! THE LAND OF BLACK GOLD is my favorite Tintin book. It has all the best characters, humor, and an intriguing plot. (That's why adults can like them, because many of the books have reasonably sophisticated James-Bond type plots.) Tintin forever!

A good Tintin book (though not among the best), this book has a very peculiar history. Herge started writing it in 1939, right before World War II, and the first pages effectively dealt with the tensions created in society by the possibility of an impending war. Following the invasion of Belgium by Germany, Herge decided it was prudent to stop working in this book, and went on to write instead less politically charged (but nevertheless very enjoyable) works, such as The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Shooting Star, and the Unicorm/Rackham the Red books. After the war, Herge decided to resume work in Black Gold, focusing it on the then hot issue of the tensions between jews and arabs in Palestine (before the declaration of independence of Israel in 1948). The plot then moves on to a fictional arab country, dealing with the fight between its eccentric ruling Emir and a crooked western oil company who wants to take over the oil wells of the place (Tintin takes the side of the Emir, showing his anti imperialist side). The first edition of this book came out in 1948 (in 1950 in book form) and, despite its convoluted history, is an enjoyable addition to the Tintin collection. The odd thing is that in later editions, Herge decided to remove the jew/arab subplot completely, either because he thought it has become dated or because it was politically too risque. The new version had the latter part of the book happening entirely in an arab country (another curiosity: because Haddock wasn't invented yet when Herge started the book, his role in this book is very minor, appearing only in the end). I have the two versions of the book, and I considered the original one to be the best.

With the completion of The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun, Herge finally saw an opportunity to resurrect The Land of Black Gold, a story he had originally concocted nine years before but was forced to abandon due to the wartime shutdown of Le Vingtieme Siecle. As Michael Farr points out in his formidable book "Tintin: The Complete Companion," in 1948 German villains were no longer taboo; thus Herge could introduce this tale complete with the nefarious Dr. Muller, last seen in The Black Island.

Of course, there was much revision to be done before The Land of Black Gold could appear. At the time of its creation there had been no Captain Haddock, no Professor Calculus, no Marlinspike, etc. Herge cunningly surmounted this hurdle by having Haddock appear briefly at the beginning of the book and explain to Tintin that he has been called on to assume command of a ship. He then reappears - as do Calculus and the house - just in time for the story's end; thus Tintin can go it on his own for fifty-some pages, just as was originally intended.

This story marks a couple of important benchmarks: first of all there is the debut of the little menace Abdullah, son of the Emir Ben Kalish Ezab. (The scene where Haddock looks after him in the desert is a special highlight.) Also in this story is the return of good old Oliveira da Figueira, Tintin's salesman friend from Cigars of the Pharaoh, who is always ready to be there for Tintin when he needs a hand.

Fortunately, the end of The Land of Black Gold does not mark the end of Abdullah and father: both were to make further appearances in The Red Sea Sharks eight (?) years later. Indeed one of the most wonderful aspects of Herge's stories was the unexpected popping-up of former bit players: there was no old friend, old foe, or (as in Abdullah's case) old pest whom we could not expect to see again one day.

Herge, Tintin in the Land of Black Gold (Methuen, 1950)

This is where I originally came in with the series, back when they were being run in Children's Digest when I was seven or eight years old. (Oddly, after they finished Black Gold, they went back and did The Secret of the Unicorn. I have never quite understood why the disjunction occurred.) My parents had gotten me a subscription to the magazine, and when my first issue came, I must have read it-- but the only thing I really remember is the scene of Tintin sneaking up on Muller, who sees him in the mirror of his compact. (It didn't occur to me to wonder what an evil mastermind was doing checking his makeup in the middle of the desert until much later in life.) I had come in in the middle of the story, but within a few panels, the whole thing was clear to me-- the good guys, the bad guys, the lovable dog, the bumbling detectives, etc. I held onto the Children's Digest subscription for dear life well into my teens to get my monthly dose of Tintin, and until this last jaunt through the series in 2007, Tintin in the Land of the Black Gold has always been my favorite of the books specifically for that nostalgia value. Not that that's the only reason it's good, of course; this is one of the books in the series where the actual story arc is strongest. (This may have to do with the book having been redrawin in its entirety years after Herge began work on it; The Land of the Black Gold was eight years form the first published strip to the last, but for book publication, Methuen had Herge redo the early part to revise out some of the pre-war concerns and remove references to Palestine-- given the publication date, the reasons are obvious.) This was also one of the first uses of a recurring villain in the story, an idea to which Herge would be increasingly attracted as time went on. In many ways, objectively, it is the strongest of the books. ****

The appearance of Thompson and Thomson in a Tintin adventure is more often than not an annoyance, their bungling of investigations and malapropisms having a very limited scope for comedy - a little of them goes a long way. Strangely however, when they have a larger role to play in a Tintin adventure, as here in The Land of Black Gold and later in the Mission to the Moon books, they can be surprisingly entertaining.

It's the Thompsons who - quite literally - drive Land of Black Gold forward, discovering in a rather explosive manner that there is something untoward going on with the nation's oil supplies. It's evidently not instigated by the auto-repair company that they initially set their suspicions on, but rather stems from a dispute between two Arab sheiks in Khemikhal. They set off to investigate, boarding the ship where Tintin, suspecting those on board the ship to be involved in the affair, has also managed to find himself a job as a radio operator.

The Land of Black Gold has probably the most troubled history of any Tintin adventure, but little of that shows in the final version. Started in 1939, abandoned in 1940 at the start of the war and not restarted until 1948, Hergé had in the meantime created several other Tintin adventures and adopted the new full-colour 62-page format that is now the familiar layout. Captain Haddock had also first appeared in those interim stories and only appears at the rewritten start and end of this adventure to explain his absence. Even then, the 1949 collection was significantly revised in 1969 to update the changed political climate in the Arab states, removing offensive and controversial references to Palestine and the Jews.

The changes certainly make it a better work - certainly from an artistic viewpoint, the clear-line drawings much more refined, with Hergé's studio artists filling out backgrounds and using better reference materials - but the story itself is also classic Tintin, superbly balanced between the political machinations that Tintin tries to unravel and the entertainment provided by the Thompsons. At this stage, even with the absence of Haddock and Calculus, a cast of regulars is starting to form with Dr Müller (The Black Island) and Oliveira da Figueira (Cigars of the Pharaoh) reappearing - not to mention an amusing one-frame cameo by Bianca Castafiore - while others who will feature again are introduced, notably Prince Abdullah, the son of Emir of Khemikhal. The characterisation of the child as a naughty and sometimes quite vicious prankster is extremely well done, as strong a personality as any of the regulars, but it's definitely Thompson and Thomson who provide the main pleasures of Land of Black Gold, the consequences of their errors carrying through wonderfully into Destination Moon.

The classic Tintin tale that has a bit of a James Bond-like international conspiracy at its heart. Car fuel has become dangerously combustive and is blowing up cars all over the world; in Belgium, Thompson and Thomson are hit first, of course. Tintin goes on the case to help out the oil company, and is soon with the detectives on a tanker sailing to the Middle East; it is full of corrupt individuals, and they are quickly framed at their first port of call and thrown into a local jail (sounds a lot like Cigars of the Pharaoh here). Tintin is kidnapped and taken into the desert; he's soon discovered who's behind the plot and reunited with the detectives, he meets Müller from The Black Island, then befriends the local emir. When the emir's son is kidnapped, Tintin goes on the case; naturally, it's Müller and the final pages of the book depict the exciting rescue, as well as a great deal of hijinx at the hand of the emir's mischievous son, who may not be so happy to be rescued after all. Finally, we get to the story behind the cover of the book, which shows an unhappy Müller, his face dirtied with ink, and the detectives looking green and fuzzy - the closing pages of the tale are pure inspired lunacy. Definitely one of the better Tintin adventures.

One of the unusual features of the book is the absence of Captain Haddock, who makes an entrance at page 54; in fact, the detectives are in the book much more than he is. This is probably explained by the fact that Hergé started the book in 1939, after the detectives had been introduced (in 1937, in The Black Island), but before we met Haddock (who we saw in 1940's The Crab With The Golden Claws). Hergé probably re-drew his 1939 pages, which he had abandoned mid-publication in 1940 because of the political nature of the tales which would find disapproval from Belgium's new Nazi master, and then finished off the story, finally figuring out a way to bring Haddock into the picture late in the tale.

"Land of Black Gold" is Belgian artist Herge at his considerable best as storyteller. This adventure features his cartoon hero, the young journalist Tintin, unraveling a complicated and dangerouse plot in the Arabia of the late 1940's. Tintin is accompanied by his faithful dog Snowy and assisted, more or less, by the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson. Captain Haddock makes a timely appearance near the end of the adventure. A villain from an earlier adventure makes a dramatic reappearance.

As the story opens, all of Europe is in an uproar over contaminated fuel supplies that may trigger a war. Tintin is invited into the case by Thomson and Thompson; their parallel investigations lead them to a sheikdom in the Middle East. There, Tintin will find friends in the local Emir and in a merchant from "The Red Sea Sharks". The storyline features one exciting crisis after another, culminating in a desperate cross-desert car chase and gun battle to rescue the son of the local Emir.

Herge's Arabs tend to stereotype but the story captures the various intrigues and plots surrounding the opening of the oil fields. The misadventures of Thomson and Thompson provide comic relief for what is otherwise a fairly intense story. "Land of Black Gold" is very highly recommended as good entertainment for Tintin fans of all ages.

I was shocked to find that the dialogue in the story, handwritten in the original English versions, has all been replaced with a digital font. This completely changes the character of the story. Basically, 62 pages of calligraphy have been replaced with a computer font (it looks a little like Kristen ITC font). The font size is irregular, which is distracting, and there is a lot of empty white space in the dialogue bubbles. (I uploaded several "customer images" to the Amazon share "Look Inside" feature.)

The copyright says "First U.S. Edition: September 1975," but the names of the translators, which are included on editions of other Tintin books I have from the 70s, have been omitted in this edition. I'm not sure if the content has been edited.
The publisher is still Little, Brown and Co., but now this is a "division of Hachette Book Group" and the book is "manufactured in China". The old ones were "Printed by Casterman, S.A., Tornai, Belgium".

I would recommend purchasing the small format 3-story hardbacks (about 6.5" x 9.5"), which seem to still have the original writing, or if you like the original large format (about 8.5" x 11.5"), look for an old edition from a used book store.
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Update.
The Amazon "Look Inside" images are not from the current edition!
Amazon added images to the "Look Inside" feature the day that I made the above comment, but the images are from an old edition. You can tell by looking at the back cover. The old ones are "Printed in Belgium" and use the original title for "FLIGHT 714", which has been changed to "FLIGHT 714 TO SYDNEY" in the current editions.