I’m not a fan of Tintin, and I do not understand the appeal, especially when one understands how problematic Hergé was (racist, a Catholic conservative, a Nazi collaborator, …). Despite my values, I have set myself the task of reading all 23 completed Tintin comics. I acquired the integrated volumes consisting of 8 books. The first book contained Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo. I read the Dutch translations. I do appreciate that, in Dutch, Tintin in the Congo was translated into Tintin in Africa. I also appreciate that I had access to the revised version of Tintin in the Congo, where some (and I mean some) colonial traces were removed. But gosh, were those comics dreadful, racist, paternalistic, and cruel. I also learned that the second used to be more cruel, where a rhino was blown up with explosives… Tintin killing elephants and rhinos for their tusks and horns. Wow. And Hergé then publicly claimed he loves animals and regretted drawing those panels. Come on… Oh, and I haven’t mentioned the afwul and nonsensical plots yet.

My rating: ⭐