Tintin and the Picaros (The Adventures of Tintin) [Hardcover]

In this story Tintin, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus return to San Theodoros, the land of the Arumbayas first visited in "The Broken Ear". General Tapioca has imprisoned Bianca Castafoire and her retinue in an attempt to lure Tintin and friends to Tapiocapolis (the capital of San Theodoros). Unleashing a wave of propoganda he claims Bianca Castafiore is a spy and that a plot to overthrow his government was conceived and planned at Marlinspike (presumably in "The Castafiore Emerald"). Haddock and Calculus travel to San Theodoros to the aid of the Milanese Nightingale (Bianca Castafiore) but Tintin is reluctant at first fearing a trap. His fears are well founded as an old enemy, Colonel Sponsz (from "The Calculus Affair") is waiting to enact his revenge. An adventure ensues during which Tintin helps General Alcazar regain control of San Theodoros again through the use of the costumes of "The Jolly Follies" (a band of performers among whom travels the ubiquitous insurance salesman Jolyon Wagg). The Arumbayas are revisted again also during this adventure.

This was the last complete adventure that Herge created for Tintin ("Tintin and the Alpha-Art" was an incomplete story). "Tintin and the Picaros" was finished in the spring of 1976. Eight years had passed since the previous story "Flight 714" and Herge was in no rush with this story. Tintin was a successful product now and the financial pressures had gone.

Something I found interesting about the story was that many have criticised Herge's political correctness with very early adventures such as "Tintin in the Congo" (which has never been released in it's colour form in England presumably because of fears about this). "Tintin in the Congo" portrays black people in Africa in a somewhat dubious way. To Herge's defense he has claimed that he was merely echoing how society thought then. His peers and people around him did think that Africa was full of savages in the 1930's when the book was created and so he was merely reflecting this. Some have found this claim a weak defense.

But I think that "Tintin and the Picaros" illustrates well how Herge's politics in the stories do reflect thinking around him. In this adventure Tintin sports a motorbike helmet with a CND sticker on it. The way the characters speak in the story is noticeably updated and they sound far more modern. The view of politics in San Theodoros is also a more modern one though no less cynical! In my opinion Herge does reflect attitudes around him - he doesn't create them - at least not conciously (he is only human so some influence from what's around him is always going to creep in).

I was a little disappointed with the return to familiar territory in the form of San Theodoros... I felt perhaps a lot of story was covering already well trodden ground. "The Broken Ear" was written in 1935 and really "Tintin and the Picaros" just revisits many of the same themes but in a more modern way. It's a little like Herge is saying that this was "a unstable country almost in constant revolution in 1935" - and then "here it is again now in the 1970's". The thing is not much has changed. Just the maturity of the writing and the change in thinking (back in 1935 nobody cared if the revolution was bloodless or not!).

Nevertheless, despite these reservations, this is a good Tintin story (if a little predictable) and so again it's as essential as any other to a Tintin fanatic such as myself...! Oh and do be sure to pay special attention to the language of the Arumbayas. It's "knot'llits eems" ;-)

The last Tintin adventure that Hergé saw through to completion, Tintin And The Picaros has divided opinion among fans and critics.

As Harry Thompson, author of Tintin: Herge and His Creation notes, somewhat disdainfully, Hergé makes some concessions to the times. Our plucky hero loses his iconic plus-fours, does yoga, and has the CND logo on his scooter crash-helmet! Prior to this Tintin and co. seemed to inhabit a permanent time warp located somewhere between the 1930s and the 1950s.

Well, I for one still enjoy this Tintin adventure, despite agreeing that these concessions to modernity weren't needed. It's certainly not the best or most engaging Tintin story, although it is undoubtedly, both visually and narratively, a 'mature' work. But, most importantly, it has all the major qualities one expects in a Tintin story: exotic globetrotting adventure with colourful characters, many familiar, some new, intrigue, skulduggery, heroism and comedy all mixed in.

Considering some of the political ups and downs Hergé lived through, his final public comment on politics seems apt: the book starts and ends with almost identical scenes. At the beginning we see one form of tyranny, the neo-fascist regime of General Tapioca, which by the end is simply replaced by another, namely General Alcazar's socialist regime. Both add up to the same thing; slums policed by the salaried henchmen of the current regime.

By this time Hergé was fed up with both Tintin (not that this was at all apparent to me when I first read this as a child) and politics, but true pro that he was, he nonetheless turned in a decent solidly enjoyable final instalment in the long-running saga.

Comfortingly enjoying life in Marlinspike Hall, there 's a marked reluctance on the part of Tintin and Captain Haddock this time to get involved in another mad adventure, and one perhaps senses a similar reluctance from Hergé, eight years after publication of the previous Tintin adventure Flight 714, to run his characters through the same old paces once again. Once they all get going however, it's pretty much business as usual in Tintin and the Picaros, although it would prove to be the last completed Tintin adventure.

Hergé initially has a great deal of fun at the expense of his heroes' prevarication. The opera singer Bianca Castafiore has been arrested in San Theodoros while on a tour of South America and charged with spying offenses. Despite pressure from press and television reporters and despite the gallant words of Calculus, Haddock is the last person to the rush to the aid of the diva, believing correctly she is quite capable of looking after herself. The pressure mounts however as General Tapioca turns it into a very public challenge offering safe passage if they come to negotiate in person. Normally, Tintin and co. would be on the next plane for South America, but this time they are a bit more canny, and have clearly learned lessons from past, aware that the challenge is nothing more than an attempt to lure Tintin, as well as General Tapioca and his Picaros rebels, into a trap. Nonetheless they do make the journey and soon find their suspicions confirmed.

As recompense for putting Tintin and Haddock through the same old routines one more time, Hergé takes some pleasure in bringing back a few old faces, not only reigniting the struggle between Tapioca and General Alcazar from The Broken Ear for control of the Banana Republic of San Theodoros, bringing back the associated characters of Doctor Ridgewell and the Arumbaya Indians, but connects their revolutionary activities with the Kûrvi-Tasch regime from the fictional Balkan state of Borduria first seen in King Ottokar's Sceptre and later in The Calculus Affair, bringing in Colonel Sponz. The connection is somewhat forced, but it makes for a great deal of entertainment, Hergé finding a new way after the previous adventure, Flight 714, to characterise and make fun of villains and dictators and their mad, absurd lust for power.

Entertainment is to be found also in a few familiar places, with Captain Haddock - much to his horror - taking an aversion to whisky (with Calculus snickering in the corner of the frames), and the hilarious cockney-speak "foreign" language of the Arumbayas. The artwork is latter-day clear-line Hergé - not as pure as his early and mid-period style, with rather too many large speech-bubbles, but attractively designed nonetheless in its South American jungle and Carnival settings.