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Soviets: Happy Reporting Day! ;-)

jock123
Moderator
#1 · Posted: 16 May 2017 10:00
Today is a landmark day for people who care about such things - it was on the 16th of May 1929 that Tintin was actually seen to be doing journalism!!
Yes, the Boy Reporter returned to his lodgings, and for a whole three frames, starting on page 34, he wrote a looonnnng article for Le Petit Vingtième!
Personally, I have always been of the opinion that the critics who say that Tintin is a reporter who doesn't report miss the point: that the books are his reports.
However, that aside, let's celebrate this day as the one on which his work was notjust done, but seen to be done! :-)

(We can overlook the fact that although he is seen to be putting it into an envelope, there doesn't seem to be a point at which he actually posts it back to the office... Oh well...)
snowybella
Member
#2 · Posted: 16 May 2017 10:48
Yay! Happy Tintin-Seen-Doing-Journalism Day everybody! By the way, does anybody know when frame 2 of page 3 in The Broken Ear appeared in Le Petit Vingtieme? He is also seen writing on a notebook on that frame, along with the Thom(p)sons and another journalist.
jock123
Moderator
#3 · Posted: 16 May 2017 11:00
snowybella:
does anybody know when frame 2 of page 3 in The Broken Ear appeared in Le Petit Vingtième?

It was in the issue of the 12th December, 1935...
Good spot, by the way! He's definitely doing some subtle investigative reporting there...! :-)
snowybella
Member
#4 · Posted: 16 May 2017 11:25
jock123:
Good spot, by the way!

Thanks jock123! I suppose that's it with the journalism...
mct16
Member
#5 · Posted: 17 May 2017 20:01
There are some other examples: in "Congo" when he is filming giraffes dressed as a giraffe! In the 1930s, the film would have been shown in cinemas as part of a newsreel or a short documentary.

The scene on page 7 of "Black Gold" when he talks to the director of the oil company has the feel of an actual journalistic interview rather than a detective making inquiries.
jock123
Moderator
#6 · Posted: 19 May 2017 09:50
All good points!

I've just been watching a very interesting presentation by Jean Rime of Fribourg University in Switzerland, being webcast from the Collège Érasme of UCL (Université catholique de Louvain), as part of a conference being held in conjunction with the Hergé Museum.

M. Rime makes some interesting observations about the changes between the Le Petit Vingtième era and the Tintin magazine.
I hope I am not misrepresenting him, as the talk was being given in French, but I believe the gist of it was that in the former, Tintin is portrayed actively as a reporter from the get-go - he is an active figure in the world, and communicates his reporting directly. When the figure of Tintin is added to the banner title, he is striding forward, a pouch for a camera at his belt, and Snowy bounding along at his feet.
In the latter publication however, Tintin becomes a much less active being - he moves into an editorial capacity (which appears to have been inspired by Mickey Mouse holding a similar position in his comic), promotes his merchandise through things like the Tintin stamps, and is used as an analog to his own magazine (so when the magazine "grows" to more pages, a cover shows him literally growing bigger than those around him). The Tintin magazine banner shows him more or less standing statically (rather than striding), carrying a coat and suitcase rather than a camera, and Snowy is encumbered by a bone. The suitcase bears stickers for places Tintin has been, rather than giving the impression he is off on new adventures.
Food for thought.

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