Tintin Forums

When Picaros was first published it received hard critics. I believe one critic even called it "senile."

I just re-read it and think it's a great album with a strong political angle.

Am I the only one thinking it's good?

We might be in a minority, but I quite like it. There's something about Tintin's weariness in it that appeals to me, and the acknowledgement that sometimes all you can do is change one bad leader for another. I don't know, I find that there's something very mature about it.

George

I agree. It fleshes out Tintin's character a little more, making him a bit more believable. Sure it's more cynical than any of the other books, but that makes it refreshing, in an odd way.

And I for one, LOVE the trousers!

I hate his flared trousers and his passive stance towards adventure but the story isn't his worst and it has some redeeming qualities.

The trousers were OK, but I admit to being a nostalgic so it would have been nicer if he had stuck to the plus-fours. A weak point I found was Tintin's early announcement that he is not going to San Theodoros and what is an obvious trap and yet later goes straight into the lion's den. Bit of a poor move there: he could have tried to discreetly cross the border or something.

Above all, I did not like that dreadful woman who is married to Alcazar. I felt that she alone ruined much of the story.

On the one hand you have Alcazar as a no-nonsense leader who handles his men with a firm hand, but on the other he is turned into a pathetic hen-pecked husband trampled underfoot by his horrible wife. Didn't see the point of that: Tintin, Haddock, Calculus and Wagg were more than enough for comic-relief.

Speaking of Wagg, it is nice to see his self-important and overbearing attitude being brought down a peg or two by Alcazar. The way the General bellows at him, leaving him at a loss for words! Haddock should have taken that as an example.

Picaros is definitely different in tonality from the ealier adventures. And that's been a main issues in the bad reviews I guess. But I think it just reflects an older and more mature author.

Tintin changes a lot from Soviet to Picaros and I'm pretty sure that's part of the explanation why the series continues to fascinate. It would be boring if one album was just a copy of the previous.

I never understood all the fuss about the pants by the way. Sure the plousfours are in some way an insignia to Tintin, but a little change never hurt anything. And come on, it's just a pair of pants.

His trousers are not flared. They look like a straight-cut (maybe a boot-cut in a few panels) but not flared. The cover image indicates more more flaring than the inside pages but that could be an effect from movement and perspective. Look at the middle-bottom panel on page 35.

Tintin looks so grown up in the Picaros. Maybe Herge wanted him to look older so he made Tintin wear long trousers instead of the plus-fours. For me, it's an exciting read, I don't see anything wrong with it. Possibly Herge wanted him to mature a bit.

I guess Hergé had matured and that's what the story reflects.

It's also got quite a sad ending which is unusual for a Tintin. I wasn't very old when reading it for the first time and I remember that ending was very strong to me.

I just re-read it, and while it may not be a bad book exactly, it is, to me, rather lack-lustre.
The drawing is a bit stilted, with uninteresting back-grounds and characters who look stiff, the colours are insipid (there seems to be a lot of very pale green in it, of the shade used in schools and hospitals), and generally it all lacks the vibrancy and animation of earlier albums.
I particularly dislike the design and execution of the Follies - they have never looked right to me, and I suggest that the problem is the eyes on their masks (likewise the large king on the float): for some reason they have been given "normal" cartoon eyes, with lids, lashes, whites and irises, etc., unlike the simple eyes which the "real" characters have.
On a positive note, the story was less boring than I remembered, and there are some genuinely stand-out moments - the offer of a greetings telegram from the operator after the Captain has dictated his strongly worded message to Tapioca is a classic piece of Haddock comedy.