Land of Black Gold: Joke lost in the revised version?

Okay, this question left me wondering for quite a long time, so here goes:
For those of you who have the original Indonesian version and the new Gramedia version (English version is also okay actually!).
Anyone ever realized that in the original Indonesian version at the part in the Autocart garage, the part where the Thom(p)son twins got scolded because they wreck a breakdown car by one of the employees, the calendar showed "Friday 13 August", but in the new revised Gramedia version (and English version) the calendar shows "Friday 18 August"...

Has a joke been "lost" in revised version?

Your opinions?

In some countries and cultures "Friday the 13th" is considered a day of bad luck, a day when everything that can go wrong will go wrong.

The French version has the calendar showing Thursday 18 August.

Some of the publishers may have changed the date because they thought that a Friday 13th was a good way of showing why everything was going wrong for the Thom(p)sons, yet another example of translators taking liberties, though in this case it is minor and amusing.

Mind you, with that pair, everything seems to go wrong no matter what day it is.

On a similar note, in the previous panel, you have Tintin pacing the street deep in thought following his visit to the head of the oil company. In the French version, a poster on the wall had the words "Rappel de classes", a reminder that school is due to resume. It could be that Herge worked on that particular page around the 18th August when a new school term was about to begin.

In the English translation the poster displays "General Mobilisation", adding to the atmosphere of impending war which is a sub-plot in the book.

Sheesh! You just won't let that lie, will you? ;-)

We don't know *who* was responsible for the changes in this case, or why they were made (as was also thrashed out at length in the case of Cigars to which you link) - so until we do, your "liberties" can't be placed at anyone's door...

But the essence of the joke isn't lost at all; the Thom(p)son's excuse for crashing the breakdown truck was that there was ice on the road, but this would have been very unlikely since the calendar shows it was the middle of August.

I think the Friday the 13th joke was a nice touch. I didn't know it had been changed in the new English edition. I'm sure it'll keep the purists happy, but I preferred the 13th, personally...

Maybe they changed it because they didn't want to scare anybody away from reading Tintin ;)

Same!! I also didn't realized that fact until I read it when I was, I don't know, junior high school?
But yeah, I also prefer the "Friday the 13th" joke (which sadly only now exist so far only in original Indonesian edition)!
Wanna high five? XD


Well, I never thought of it that way! Maybe, yeah! Who knew? XD