Monday, January 16, 2012

03. Tintin in America


Tintin in America (French: Tintin en Amérique) is the third in The Adventures of Tintin, featuring young reporter Tintin as the hero. 
Tintin in America first appeared as a black and white comic strip in "Le Petit Vingtième" on September 3, 1931. It was then published in a black and white album in 1932. In 1945, the album was reworked and shortened to a standard 62-page format, and published in colour.

Its first English translation was the 1962 UK edition. The first American edition was issued in 1973, for which some panels were redrawn in order to remove some stereotyped portrayals of African Americans. These include the doorman at the bank being built on Indian land and the woman holding the screaming baby.
Tintin in America is the earliest Tintin album that is readily available in English translation; the two previous ones have been published in English, but in limited editions.
Having encountered Al Capone's gangsters in his last adventure, Tintin in the Congo, Tintin is sent to Chicago, Illinois to clean up the city's criminals. He is captured by gangsters several times, and also meets Capone himself. Although Tintin temporarily captures Capone and some of his henchmen, the policeman he calls to help arrest the gangsters does not believe his story and arrests Tintin instead (Tintin's failure to capture Capone reflects the fact that Capone was still active in early 1931, when the comic strip was written).
After several attempts on his life, Tintin meets Capone's rival, the devious Bobby Smiles. Tintin spends much of the book trying to capture Smiles, and also travels to Redskin City, is captured by an Indian tribe (fooled by Smiles into thinking Tintin is their enemy), and discovers oil (unintentionally causing the Indians to be driven off the reservation). Finally, Tintin captures Smiles, and ships him back to Chicago in a  crate.

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