Tintin in the Congo
- Tintin © Hergé/Moulinsart.
Original French title
Tintin au Congo
Publication history
First published in Le Petit Vingtième between 5 June 1930 and 11 June 1931.
Published in book form in 1931 (black and white, 110 pages).
Redrawn and published in colour in 1946.
Further changes made in 1975.
UK editions:
1991
Title Details: The adventures of Tintin, reporter for "Le petit vingtième" in the Congo / by Hergé
Publisher: [London] : [Sundancer], 1991
ISBN/ISSN: 0951279947
2004 - Casterman edition
2005 - Egmont edition in colour
Related link: First publication dates of The Adventures of Tintin
Review
As with Tintin au Pays des Soviets, Tintin's return from the Congo was celebrated throughout Belgium. On Thursday 9 July 1931, he was welcomed by an enormous crowd at the Gare du Nord in Brussels. Tintin was accompanied by ten Congolese men, and by many animals rented from a circus. There were several rows, as everyone tried to get his share of the 'presents' Tintin had brought with him from Africa. When the 'happy arrival' was repeated in Liège, there was an even larger crowd, and the police had a hard time trying to maintain order.
Tintin au Congo should still be regarded as one of the more silly and youthful albums of Hergé. At the time he was much influenced by his employer, Wallez. Wallez had decided that the Belgian youth needed to know more about the values of Colonialism. Hergé was instructed to show Belgium how the Congolese natives were introduced to civilisation. Throughout the album we will witness further displays of such Colonialism. Tintin shows a condescending - even despising attitude towards the natives. In 1954, as Hergé re-edits the story this attitude would soften, but not disappear.
Tintin doesn't show much respect for the flora and fauna either; in an ultimate effort to put down a comic scene, Hergé lets him kill 13 antilopes. At an earlier point in the story Tintin even kills a rhinoceros with dynamite (after first drilling a hole in the beast's back, where he could place the explosives!). Later Hergé would very much regret these scenes, and he took a firm stand against hunting and poaching. [Bruno Bollaert(?)]
Trivia
- Cameos:
- Original edition - page 1, frame 1: Quick and Flupke from Hergé's Quick and Flupke series. [TT]
- Colour edition - page 1, frame 1: Quick and Flupke, Hergé (in brown jacket), E. P Jacobs (dark hair, in grey suit), Jacques Van Melkebeke (fair hair, with glasses), Thomson and Thompson.
- The page where Tintin fights the rhinoceros was changed in the 1975 editions. In the 1946 edition Tintin kills the rhinoceros by drilling a hole in it's back, filling it with gunpowder and lighting it. The rhinoceros explodes. [BP] Note: This page was changed for a few Scandinavian editions, and it remains the same in the French edition and some other foreign editions. [ET]
- In the 1931 edition Tintin teaches the pupils about their country Belgium. In the later editions this has been changed to the classical question: what's the sum of two plus two? In the 1930s, Tintin was also published in Switzerland in a magazine called "L'Echo illustré". In this Swiss magazine edition, Tintin teaches the pupils about their motherland, Switzerland! [ET]
- On the ship, Snowy is bitten in the tail by a parrot. Snowy's tail is subsequently bandaged. Later, when chased by the bad guy, Snowy jumps off the ship. The bandage dissapears and is not seen for the next two pages, while Snowy is in the water. When rescued, the bandage has mysteriously reappeared.
- In the French edition of Asterix, one of the four fortified Roman camps surrounding Asterix's village is called 'Babaorum.' In 'Tintin in the Congo', Tintin becomes a sourcerer for the Babaoru'm Kingdom. Coincidence? Apparently, the name comes from 'Baba au rhum,' which is a type of French pastry. Any opinions on the subject? Do you think it is a coincidence, or did Goscinny and Uderzo get the name from the pastry, or from a certain quiffed reporter's second adventure? Let's hear what you think.
- In the original version of this story, Tintin never smiles—even at the moment when he wallops the gangster in panel 6 of page 271 (in the Archive Hergé).
- In the original version of the album, the face of Tintin's monkey costume changes expression to mirror Tintin's mood; this was eliminated in the revised edition.
- In the frame where the native alerts the shaman to the idol's disappearance, his voice balloon was clearly meant for the shaman himself, as another needle projects from it that points toward him. This was corrected in the 1946 edition.
- The New York Evening Press offers Tintin $5,000, and the Daily Paper offers £1,000. Given that £1,000 is less than $5,000, Tintin cannot accept the Daily Paper's offer.
- Boas (see page 34) are found in South America, not Africa.
- This story was pieced together by Hergé from accounts of African explorers. [AD]
- In the original edition, there is a large panel divided into quarters, depicting the natives' reactions to Tintin having left Africa. This was deleted in the colour edition. [AD]
- In the original version, Tintin hunts the rogue elephant at night; but in the coloured version, it appears that it is daylight all the time, making Tintin's joke about the sun giving him a bright idea - after the rogue elephant has chased him and Snowy up a tree - somewhat superfluous. [AD]
Title in other languages
- Basque - Tintin Kongon
- Catalan - Tintin al Congo
- Chinese - China: 丁丁在刚果 (Dingding zai gangguo) /Hong Kong and Taiwan: 丁丁在剛果(Dingding zai gangguo)
- Danish - Tintin i Congo
- Dutch - Kuife in Afrika
- Farsi/Persian - Sfar bi afriqa / Tantan dar Congo (?)
- Finish - Tintti Afrikassa
- French - Tintin au Congo
- Galician - Tintin no Congo
- German - Tim im Kongo
- Greek - O Tentén sto Konko
- Hebrew - Tintin Be' Congo
- Icelandic - Tinni i Kongo
- Italian - Tintin in Congo
- Japanese - タンタンのコンゴ探険 Tintin no Kongo boken (Coming out on 31 Jan 2007)
- Norwegian - Tintin i Kongo
- Portuguese - Tintim na Congo
- Slovenian - Tintin v Kongu
- Spanish - Tintin en el Congo
- Swedish - Tintin i Kongo
- Turkish - Tenten Kongo'da