Tintin Forums

Recently, I've been reading an extremely engaging and hilariously funny book series by P. G. Wodehouse about a young man named Psmith. That's his last name, which he goes by. He added the silent P to distinguish himself from all the other Smiths, is a socialist sort of, and is an excellent gaslighter. He addresses everybody as comrade, is very good at evading questions, and never acts defensive. I just read Psmith, Journalist, which is set in New York and in which Psmith becomes a journalist and battles gangsters.

I was very surprised at how much the book was like Tintin in America.

True, it was set in New York, and not Chicago, as in America, but Tintin's Chicago and Psmith's New York were exactly the same! They were both episodic, and both seemed as if the author was having a bit too much fun with the gangsters to really get on with the plot.

In both, the main character gets kidnapped in a taxi and escapes due to a flat tire. They both are shot at multiple times. They both are journalists. And even though both are slightly silly, they are a lot of fun.

I know neither of them can have been influenced by each other, as P. G. Wodehouse spoke English and Hergé French, but it's obvious that the same thing that stirred Hergé's imagination stirred Wodehouse's— American gangsters.

I read Psmith, Journalist a few years ago but didn't notice the parallels with Tintin in America. Psmith, if I recall correctly, calmly battles the criminals while outsmarting them. I don't remember conflicts that Psmith or Tintin in America really was in danger of losing, though I don't remember many details of either book. Unlike Herge's or Wodehouse's later work, the stories were fairly simple and relied more on situations than characters to create excitement, I think. But, after all, Tintin was a comic, although, as we know, it became sophisticated enough to hold our interest these many decades later.