Taking a fresh look at Tintin

A child's innocent eye may gloss over racist stereotypes in some of the Tintin comics but an informed adult's gaze will not

- Somak Ghoshal

 

In 1986, I had my first major tryst with the life-changing power of reading, ironically during a period when I was laid low by a rough bout of chickenpox. Anticipating the boredom and restlessness of the weeks-long quarantine and recovery, my parents got the six-year-old me a bunch of Tintin comics to keep me occupied. Although I was an early reader, I couldn't quite keep up with everything that transpired in Hergé's breathless panels, especially with Captain Haddock's age-inappropriate vocabulary and drunken outbursts and Snowy's wry sarcasm. But there was always enough and more in the visuals, in Hergé's iconic ligne claire style, to keep a pesky little boy away from scratching himself silly.

I have been a loyal fan of the Tintin comics for over 35 years now but the novelty of my first encounter with the young Belgian reporter has steadily become blighted as the years have gone by. Times change, so do tastes, and standards of propriety. From Enid Blyton to Roald Dahl, some of the most iconic writers who lit up childhoods have been displaced from their once hallowed pedestals. In recent years, the outrage over Tintin In The Congo (first published in 1930-31), one of Hergé's earliest and most controversial comics in the series, has left more than a bad taste behind.

Revisiting the imagery and text in the light of political and social upheavals, scholars and activists have highlighted the damaging potential of such a work on young, impressionable minds. Rightly so.