Tintin: Explorers on the Moon [Paperback]

"Explorers on the Moon" ("On a Marche Sur La Lune," 1954) picks up right where "Destination Moon" left off, with Tintin and his friends unconscious in a spaceship hurtling towards the general direction of the moon. Will our hero wake up in time to save everyone from death? Well, I do not think it is giving away too much to point out that the title of this Tintin Adventure is not something along the lines of "Frozen Corpses in Deep Space." However, there is clearly a spy on board the rocket designed by Professor Calculus that took off from the Sprodj Atomic Research Center in Syldavaia, the troubles of Tintin and his friends are far from over.

But more than the standard intrigue and constant brushes with danger that abound in this Tintin adventure, what makes "Explorers on the Moon" so fascinating is the documentary detail that Hergé infuses into the story. I cannot think of a 1950s science fiction film that predicts as accurately what happened when Apollo 11 went to the moon a decade and a half later as this classic comic book tale. One of the chief charms of Hergé's artwork has always been the way his caricature drawings of Tintin and friends are contrasted by the realistic backgrounds, and this artistic style achieves its apex when we see the spaceship approaching the moon. "Explorers on the Moon" would work as a straight-forward first man on the moon type story, but, of course, in Hergé's hands it becomes so much more.

Taken together with "Destination Moon," this has got to constitute Tintin's greatest adventure. After all, what can top being the first man on the moon for our intrepid hero? Especially when the Thom(p)sons are along for the trip. The entire series is pretty good, and I only regret that I waited this long in life to finally get around to checking it out.

This book follows directly on from Destination Moon, and is best read after that one. Tintin, Captain Hadock, Professor Calculus and Snowy face a series of unexpected twists as they explore the Moon, and even the return journey is fraught with danger. Excellent fun from the world's favourite journalist.

I am a fan of Tintin but not a fanatic, yet now Hergés' cult status is gaining ever more momentum following the movie The Secret Of The Unicorn. The high priest of the cult is Michael Farr. His book - "Tintin: The Complete Companion" - is well illustrated and written, full of facts and conveys lots of enthusiasm. But he has such an adolescent crush on Hergé that goes beyond common sense when he scribbles " Tintin's voyage to the moon was prophetically accurate." (Page 165). Hergé is now being short listed as one of the great science fiction innovators, Arthur C Clarke with crayons.

Fun as they are, the two moon books are preposterously wrong. I'd like to know what exactly Hergé got right.

1) Hergé was anti American and anti capitalist yet it was the United States who put a man on the moon in full view of the world. Hergé located his stories in an East European state with an abundance of nasty secret police determined to hide the whole project.

2) Hergé failed to appreciate a moon landing would involve hundreds of thousands of people. Putting it all together was one of mans' most inspiring achievements. In Hergés's world professor Calculus invents a "secret" nuclear rocket motor BUT he is the only one that knows how it works!

3) Staggeringly inaccurate in the Hergé stories there were no cameras on the moon - to record and transmit to the earth. It was a secret - while the reality was the world stood sill in awe when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.

4) The Hergé rocket is devoid of any basic science. Both nuclear and conventionally powered the weight of motors, the radioactive shielding required, makes the whole concept ludicrous even in 1953. Rather than seeing the future he looked backwards to a Nazi V2. Perhaps nostalgia, Hergé was a punished for his wartime collaboration with the Germans.

5) Hergé clearly had not the faintest idea of the huge power required to lift a small amount of weight into orbit. This is basic schoolboy and slide rule science which he failed to grasp.

6) The Hergé rocket is spacious, control cabin; bedroom, dining room and kitchen. His vehicle is more an overcrowded bus than a space vehicle.

7) Hergé completely failed to predict that to get into orbit with an adequate payload a rocket would be in several stages as was the three stage moon landing vehicle. This was well appreciated when Hergé was colouring his cartoon books.

8) To get a moon rocket to work, to train the crew, a huge build up of testing and training was required. The Hergé crew are indeed motley bunch but is a cartoon. He did get right that dogs went into space, one of his few achievements.

9) The space suits - which Hergé gets particular plaudits for - are woefully inadequate. The gold fish bowl helmets would have offered no protection and the solar heat would have roasted their skulls.

10) My personal best failure of Hergés' ""prophetic"" mind was where did his lunar vehicle come from? A facsimile of a military tank (British Centurion at + 50 tons) even on the books' cover it is clearly far too large for the rocket! It was battery powered and had a self contained life support system. Yes - compare this to the actual lunar rover.

The myth remains that Hergé was ahead of his time and in the two moon books went to enormous lengths to get the details correct. The books actually show his limitations as a story teller (sinister rather than inspiring) and technically he was just lazy in failing to do some elementary science research. He does not deserve the adulation he has acquired. There is a lot of depression (Hergé had mental health issues) and repression in his stories (how many of his plots involve heroin and cocaine). If you want to go to the moon, enjoy great writing by intelligent men then try Jules Verne (1865) or H G Wells (1901).