Monday, 19 August 2014 at 7 pm

Venue: RAS Library, Sino-British College

The RAS Book Club will meet to discuss:

Series: Adventures of Tintin

Author: George Prosper Remi (Herg̩) РBelgian cartoonist

ISBN: 1-4052-0616-0

Publication Date: 1936 (black and white)

Publication Date: 1946 (color)

Staying at the palace of the Maharajah of Gaipajama in India, Tintin is approached by a visitor from Shanghai.  The visitor supplies him with the name of Mitsuhirato, a Japanese businessman based in Shanghai, but before finishing his message is hit by a dart dipped in Rajaijah, the “poison of madness.”

Tintin and his fox terrier, Snowy, travel to Shanghai to meet Mitsuhirato, who warns them that the Maharajah is in danger and that they should return to India.  Surviving several attempts on his life by mysterious assailants, Tintin attempts to leave for India by boat, but is kidnapped.  His abductors reveal themselves as members of a secret society known as the Sons of the Dragon, who are devoted to combating the opium trade.  Their spokesman, Wang Chen-Yee, explains to Tintin that Mitsuhirato is both a Japanese spy and an opium smuggler, and enlist him in their fight to stop him.  Tintin agrees, and spies on Mitsuhirato at the Blue Lotus opium den.  Following the spy, he discovers him blowing up a Chinese railway.  The Japanese government uses this as an excuse to invade Northern China, taking Shanghai under its control.

Tintin is captured by Mitsuhirato, who plans to poison him with Rajaijah; however, a member of the Sons of the Dragon swaps the poison for colored water, and Tintin escapes unscathed. When Mitsuhirato discovers the deception, he convinces Dawson, the corrupt Chief of Police at the Shanghai International Settlement, to put a warrant out for Tintin’s arrest.

Meanwhile, Tintin enters the Settlement in search for Professor Fang Hsi-ying, an expert in poisons whom he hopes can develop a cure for Raijajah, but discovers that he has been kidnapped.  Dawson’s police arrest Tintin and hand him over to the Japanese, who sentence him to death before he is rescued by Wang.

Traveling to Hukow with the ransom money for Fang, Tintin comes across a flood that has destroyed a village and rescues a young Chinese orphan, Chang Chong-chen.  Chang accompanies Tintin to Hukow, where one of Mitsuhirato’s spies ambushes them; they realize that it was a trap and that Fang was not there.

Meanwhile, the detectives Thomson and Thompson are employed by Dawson to arrest Tintin, but fail on multiple occasions.  Returning to Shanghai, Tintin intends to confront Mitsuhirato, and allows himself to be captured by him.  Being held prisoner at The Blue Lotus, it is revealed that Mitsuhirato is working with the film director Roberto Rastapopoulos, who is the head of the international opium smuggling organization that Tintin had previously battled in Cigars of the Pharaoh.  However, Tintin has formulated a plan, with Chang and the Sons of the Dragon appearing to rescue Tintin and Fang; Rastapopoulos is arrested while Mitsuhirato commits seppuku. Fang develops a cure for Rajaijah, while Wang adopts Chang as his son.

Georges Prosper Rémi (22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian cartoonist.  His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he made from 1929 until his death in 1983.  Also responsible for two other well-known series, Quick & Flupke (1930–1940) and Jo, Zette and Jocko (1936–1957), his works were executed in his distinct ligne claire drawing style.

Born to a lower-middle-class family in Etterbeek, Brussels, Hergé took a keen interest in Scouting, producing both illustrations and the Totor series for Scouting and Catholic magazines. In 1925 he started work for conservative newspaper Le XXe Siècle, where under the influence of Norbert Wallez, in 1929 he began serializing the first of his stories to feature boy reporter Tintin, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.  Domestically successful, he continued with further Adventures of Tintin and the Quick & Flupke series at the paper, but from The Blue Lotus onward placed a far greater emphasis on background research.  After Le XXe Siècle was closed during the occupation by Nazi Germany, Hergé continued work for Le Soir.  After liberation, he faced accusations of being a collaborator, but was exonerated, and proceeded to oversee the creation of Tintin magazine, through which he remained artistic director over Studio Hergé until his death.

Hergé’s works have been widely acclaimed for their clarity of draughtsmanship and meticulous, well-researched plots, and have been the source of a wide range of adaptations.  He remains a strong influence on the comic book medium, particularly in Europe.  Since 2009, the Hergé Museum opened in Louvain-La-Neuve, honoring the world of Tintin and Hergé.

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