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Black Island: Why all the anachronisms?

alcazar
Member
#1 · Posted: 27 Jan 2005 22:24
Hi, this is my first post so forgive me if it's a question everyone else knows the answer to.

I've just been re-reading my Tintin collection, which is in French.

I noticed that in "The black Island", Tintin, on arrival in the UK, takes a taxi, a Ford Zephyr, a car built in the 60's, and that the baddies are in a Jaguar XJ10, also of the 60's.

And when Tintin takes the train, the trains are in 60's livery of green locos, and maroon BR carriages.

The book is dated from the 30's though.

Have the drawings been updated, or am I missing something here?

Thanks for any replies,
Alcazar
admin
Administrator
#2 · Posted: 27 Jan 2005 23:23
alcazar asked: Have the drawings been updated,

First of all, welcome to our community, alcazar! *saluting to the General*

Yes, the drawings have been updated. For more information, you might like to refer to Garen Ewing's (also known as tybtaltstone in these forums) excellent essay, available from the Articles section of our site: History of the Black Island.
alcazar
Member
#3 · Posted: 28 Jan 2005 07:48
Thanks a lot for that, very interesting.

I don't suppose the original is still available anywhere? Except perhaps rare bookshops in London, etc?

Thanks,
Alcazar
jock123
Moderator
#4 · Posted: 28 Jan 2005 08:14
Excellent facsimile editions of this and other books which had more than one version/ revision are available in French, should you want them; try tintin.com, fnac.com or amazon.fr, or through the Tintin Shop.

The facsimiles are being rendered into English over the next few years, starting with the black and white stories; hopefully the colour facsimiles will follow!
alcazar
Member
#5 · Posted: 28 Jan 2005 11:04
Again, thanks for that.

I'm off over during Feb, and have a mate who lives in Lille, so I'll do a bit of scouting around.

All my books are in French, as my wife bought me 4, in deluxe softback, which were sold at only FF10 each by Total stations in France as a promotion for buying their fuel, in summer 1999. Since then, I've completed my collection via French super/hypermarkets, and a few as double editions on the Rive Gauche in Paris.

Alcazar
snafu
Member
#6 · Posted: 22 Feb 2005 04:44
I heard that the end of "The Black Island" was dramatically changed. In the old version, Tintin's flight in a three-propeller Sabena airplane ends the story. In the version that most of us know, it's a Hawker-Siddeley Trident of British European Airways that performs the same function.

Even though I was barely eight when I first saw "The Black Island" and its place in the chronological sequence of the Tintin books, I thought that something was funny when everything in this episode is quite modern. It greatly contrasts with "King Ottokar's Sceptre", which I also got around that time, since the episode immediately after "The Black Island" contains drawings of airplanes and cars from the 1930s.

Odd that Herge only wanted to edit "The Black Island"...
jock123
Moderator
#7 · Posted: 22 Feb 2005 11:44
snafu
Odd that Herge only wanted to edit "The Black Island"...

See Ranko’s answer here; you would also do to read tybaltstone’s highly detailed article covering the history of the album.
snafu
Member
#8 · Posted: 22 Feb 2005 14:45
Thanks! But why did Methuen feel that there were so many errors? Where are they (I've never seen the pre-revised Tintins)?
jock123
Moderator
#9 · Posted: 22 Feb 2005 19:18
As there are supposedly 131 of them, I wouldn’t be able to give you a list, but I think that “errors” also may have included things which could be thought “out-dated” too.

I seem to recall that there were questions about the accuracy of the fire-brigade and their equipment, and that a policeman has an inaccurate tunic. Bob de Moor was charged with getting references for these.

Hergé had also shown colour television; whilst there had been test transmissions from Alexandra Palace, he had jumped the gun, and the TV was back to B&W by the final version.

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