Tintin in America

 Tintin in America (1932) by Hergé (Georges Prosper Remi) 

Tintin, the intrepid boy reporter, sets off for America with Snowy by his side. His mission? To bring down Al Capone, clean up Chicago, and see to it that all the big crime bosses are rounded up and sent to jail. And it doesn't matter if he has to travel to the wild west, be tied to railroad tracks, be thrown into Lake Michigan with dumbbells chained to him, be shot at and thrown off cliffs, be kidnapped or have Snowy kidnapped, be gassed and hit over the head and dropped through trap doors--Tintin will get his men.

Of course, the depiction of Native Americans in this story is stereotypical and typical of the portrayal of this people at the time period. Looking back 90 years, it's easy to see what's wrong with the portrayal and to hope that we've come a long way in our viewpoint--unfortunately we haven't come as far as we need to...but that's a social soapbox and this is a review.

I remember reading these books with my son. He loved the Tintin books and I fell in love with them too. I was amazed that I had never heard of them when I was growing up. The adventures of the boy reporter would have been right up my alley when I was young. I loved the fact that the Tintin stories could make my reluctant reader want books and want to read (at least some) books once he was a more confident reader. Reading this again now, I'm a little disappointed to see how disjointed the story is--it's as if Hergé  was trying to shove as much of America into the story as possible--gangsters, cowboys and Indians, the rich mean with their transplanted European castles, the oil tycoons, big cities and the Wild West...all thrown together. Tintin sets out to clean up Chicago, but has to visit what looks like the Grand Canyon to do it. 

But the adventure was still fun and I enjoyed watching Tintin and Snowy work together. In these early stories, Snowy talks to Tintin and has a lot of the commentary that will later fall to Captain Haddock. Much as I like the spluttering Captain, I do enjoy the running comments from Snowy. A nice trip down memory lane. ★★★ and 1/2

First line: Chicago, 1931, when gangster bosses ruled the city...

Last line: Pity!...I was almost beginning to get used to it.