In the Land of the Soviets - Tintin - pdf

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets


Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is the first volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé.

First edition album (Belgium) published in 1930.

Tintin travels to the Soviet Union to gather news about the effects of Communism on the population and the economy. From the very moment he sets off, however, an agent of the Soviet secret service, the OGPU, tries to get rid of him. Despite this nuisance, the young reporter manages to penetrate the heart of the Bolshevik state.

Tintin witnesses a government official handing out bread to any homeless child who pledges allegiance to the Marxist ideology, but denying it to those who refuse. He goes on to witness a local election, where the Bolsheviks aim their guns at the voters to ensure their votes. Tintin even discovers “how the Soviets fool the poor idiots who still believe in a Red Paradise” — by burning bundles of straw and banging metal in order to trick visitors into believing that Soviet factories are productive, when in fact they are not even operational. Throughout this adventure, Tintin is hunted by Soviet agents. Will he manage to make it back to Belgium in one piece?

Backstory

The USSR is the first nation-state that Tintin visits outside of Belgium. This choice can be explained by the anti-Communist sentiment that was then prevalent in Western Europe, particularly at the newspaper where Hergé worked. The paper’s managers wanted to warn readers about the evils of Bolshevism.

Product Details
Age Range: 10 and up
Grade Level: 5 and up
Series: The Adventures of Tintin: Original Classic
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (December 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316003743
ISBN-13: 978-0316003742

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This new facsimile reprint of the very first adventure of one of the world's most beloved cartoon characters shows Tintin's creator, the famed Belgian cartoonist Herge, just beginning to learn his craft. The story was originally created in 1929 for a children's supplement in the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtieme Siecle. Readers meet Tintin, intrepid red-headed boy reporter, along with his dog, for the first time as they set off to Russia to investigate the evil doings of the Soviets. Herg‚ later apologized for the heavy-handed anti-Soviet satire on almost every page. The Soviets are generally portrayed as corn-stealing murderous scum; among other things, Tintin is tortured by thoroughly caricatured Chinese employees of the Soviet secret police. These stereotypes and others like them are a part of that time period, although they've been cited as evidence of Herge's racism. Setting aside the political context, the book is a valuable documentation of the rough and underdeveloped work of Herge's early years as a cartoonist. Years later, he developed the clear line-drawing style that's influenced generations of European cartoonists. However, while his simple b&w penwork from this period is often clumsy, Herge's ability to tell a good story is well developed. Tintin rockets from one death-defying scrape to another in a whirlwind of chase scenes. He is dragged behind cars, blown up by explosives, frozen, tortured, shot, chased by a tiger and more, all in the course of a few pages. This is an enthralling look at the early work of one of the greatest cartoonists of all time.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Hergé, one of the most famous Belgians in the world, was a comics writer and artist. The internationally successful Adventures of Tintin are his most well-known and beloved works. They have been translated into 38 different languages and have inspired such legends as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. He wrote and illustrated for The Adventures of Tintin until his death in 1983.