Bond vs Tintin/Fleming vs Herge (Page 1 of 2)

Billions of blue blistering barnacles, hell yeah there are. As a military brat, I cajoled my parents to get every single one I could find, and I still have them somewhere. Tintin, and Asterix.

Prisoners Of The Sun, bought in Bern, never looked back. Great to see there's a fellow Tintin fan on the boards.

Last edited by Alex (3rd Oct 2006 03:35)

in English the two moon volumes were Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon
I forget what the original French titles were

one other similarity Fleming and Herge had:
they both grew tired of the success of their series and somewhat resented the obligation to continue
and each  would grow increasingly personal and experimental with later volumes (eg tSWLM, OHMSS, YOLT, vs Tintin In Tibet, the Casafiore Emerald,or Tintin and the Picaros)
Herge made this longrunning childrens comic into a highly personal project, to the extent that when he died all agreed none of his assistants would complete his last book, let alone continue the series
Fleming of course was eager to sell his concept as soon as he could, and move onto something more serious, but it took him years to make that sale to Brocolli and in the meantime put a lot of his more personal literary ambitions into the Bond novels rather than repeating a successful formula

Last edited by caractacus potts (3rd Oct 2006 17:31)

Always found it interesting how the stories modernized, Tintin In America had 1930s style vehicles with a Chicago crime syndicate ala Al Capone, with Native American Indian reservations!

Then in Flight 714, Captain Haddock and Tintin are in a jet airplane hijacked with  submachine guns. (shades of foreshadowing)

First there was space travel in the Moon stories. Then In Tintin And The Picaros it's like the 20s or 30s all over again canoeing down river in a third world country.

Besides Prisoners, The Black Island was one of my favorites, as it started off like a fantasy/horror/mystery story. Nobody ever returns from that island off the Northern coast of Scotland.  (Little Crab Key similarity)

But The Blue Lotus with it's Opium Dens and Shanghai skullduggery probably remains one of my strongest faves, this one clearly was around 1930 or so.

We must have posted at the same time, Alex.
Yes, there are some interesting anomalies in the timeline of the stories, just as there are in the Bond films if you want to draw another parallel. As with the Bond films, Tintin never ages; the America book seems to take place during the '30s, whereas something like Picaros has definite late '60s, early '70s references.

Most of this is due to Herge's disatisfaction with his earlier work, which was sometimes redrawn with better reference after later books in the series had been produced. Sometimes the settings and vehicles were updated (as in The Black Island) but sometimes the period settings had to be retained for the sake of the story (America).

This introduced inconsistencies for those who like to read the books in order, with some stories apparently taking place before others in the published order.

Does anyone else here have a copy of L'Alph Art, the last and incomplete Herge book?

a few folks mentioned the early Tintin films:
Tintin et le lac aux requins,
Tintin et le mystere de la Toison d'Or, and
Tintin et le oranges bleues
the first was an animated cartoon with an original plot, there was a book in the format of the original series using the cel-art for comic strip panels, that was translated into english as Tintin and the Lake of The Sharks,  Herge was not involved
the other two were liveaction films in the early 60s, there were hardcover filmbooks in the shape of the regular series but using text and photos
theyre long out of print, and were never translated into english
I found battered copies of both the last time I was in Montreal, I started trying to read them but my french is trop merde pour lire un livre pour enfants!
Ive never seen any of these films, I doubt they are on DVD

there were a couple of live action Asterix movies in recent years, I have the 1st on DVD but theres no subtitles: Gerard Depardieu plays Obelix, Roberto Benigni plays the Roman villain, and Laetitia Casta plays Fabula (Panacea), mmm mm mm! the actor who plays Asterix is Christian Clavier, never heard of him
lots of extreme cartoon violence done with special effects

I have 2 copies of Tintin et l'Alph-Art: one that came out 15 years ago in French with Herges halffinished layouts in one book, and a typed script in an attached book, the two halves bound together like a binder: very upscale artsy format
the other is an English translation in a more normal forma that came out more recently, that includes additional sketches
a Quebec artist has attempted to complete Herges last story, and its available for download here

theres a fantastic used book store in London Ontario called Attic Books
in the 2nd floor window theres a lifesize statue of Tintin as seen on the cover of The Blue Lotus, I keep telling them when they get bored of it I'll gladly take it off their hands
I pointed the statue out to my mum once when she was visiting, then told her the plot of the story it came from including why tintin is hiding in that vase (he's undercover in an opium den) and she was a little bit stunned to realise that was what was going on in the comicky books
I read as a child!

Last edited by caractacus potts (4th Oct 2006 23:15)

Sorry -- Double up on the post here

Last edited by highhopes (5th Oct 2006 16:10)