Tintin Forums

Have you ever noticed that, in the last few Tintin books, Hergé used far more thought bubbles than before?

I recently re-read all the books in order, which was great for seeing how the characters, storytelling and style changed over the years. One thing that really surprised me was how the final books – Flight 714 to Sydney and Tintin and the Picaros in particular – are absolutely full of thought bubbles. This obviously has a major impact on the way the stories are told, so I thought I'd compare the number of thought bubbles included in the last 5 completed Tintin books:

The Red Sea Sharks: 3 thought bubbles
Tintin in Tibet: 9
The Castafiore Emerald: 9
Flight 714 to Sydney: 60 (!)
Tintin and the Picaros: 30

(It's worth mentioning at this point that, although Flight 714 to Sydney features lots of telepathic communication by the character Mik Kanrokitoff, this is always presented in speech bubbles rather than thought bubbles.)

So there's clearly a pattern. The question is – why?

Had Hergé pushed the limits of storytelling within a 62-page comic book so far that he had to use thought bubbles to save time and keep the story moving?

Was his growing use of thought bubbles influenced by his well-documented interest in spiritualism and the paranormal?

Or – and I hate to say it – is this a sign of how his declining enthusiasm for Tintin may have negatively affected his storytelling? Hergé at his best is a master of "show, don't tell", while this reliance on thought bubbles is more a case of "tell, don't show".

Thanks for reading, would be glad to hear other people's take on this!