Product Description

The Adventures of Tintin (Les Aventures de Tintin) is a series of comic strips created by Belgian artist Hergé, the pen name of Georges Remi (1907 1983). The series first appeared in French in Le Petit Vingtième, a children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle on 10 January 1929. Set in a painstakingly researched world closely mirroring our own, Hergé's Tintin series continues to be a favourite of readers and critics alike 80 years later.
The hero of the series is Tintin, a young Belgian reporter. He is aided in his adventures from the beginning by his faithful fox terrier dog Snowy (Milou in French). Later, popular additions to the cast included the brash, cynical and grumpy Captain Haddock, the bright but hearing-impaired Professor Calculus (Professeur Tournesol) and other colourful supporting characters such as the incompetent detectives Thomson and Thompson (Dupond et Dupont). Hergé himself features in several of the comics as a background character; as do his assistants in some instances.
The success of the series saw the serialised strips collected into a series of albums (24 in all), spun into a successful magazine and adapted for film and theatre. The series is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, with translations published in over 50 languages and more than 200 million copies of the books sold to date.
The comic strip series has long been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in Hergé's signature ligne claire style. Engaging,] well-researched plots straddle a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy, mysteries, political thrillers, and science fiction. The stories within the Tintin series always feature slapstick humour, accompanied in later albums by sophisticated satire, and political and cultural commentary.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32982 in Books
• Published on: 1975-04-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 62 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780316358354
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
The Black Island is an exciting and very funny tale of intrigue in which a gang of international forgers leads Tintin to the Scottish town of Kiltoch, where a dreaded beast is rumored to live. Along the way, Tintin is framed and has to dodge the pursuit of his old detective friends Thompson and Thomson. He also meets Dr. Müller, who would return in Land of Black Gold. The Black Island is one of the earlier Tintin adventures, first appearing in Le Petit Vingtieme in 1937 and 1938, but it was revised and redrawn in 1966, which is why it has the more mature look of Herge's later work. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Perhaps the greatest Tintin adventure...
The Black Island is perhaps the greatest Tintin adventure. He flies an airplane, sails a boat, fights with "wild beasts" beats the bad guys (as usual), and even wears a kilt.

But this book is special for more resons. The landscape scenes around Tintin are superb. The drawing is great, and the plot, sublime. The suspense is incredible, too. No one will take him to the Black Island. Even though everyone is scared out of their minds, Tintin decides to go, risking everything...

There is something special about this adventure I can't really describe. A feeling I can't put into words...I love all the others passionately, but this one in particular, is perhaps my favorite among my favorites...

Tintin's potty and magnificent British adventure.
'The Black Island' is a major return to form after 'The Broken Ear', and one of my very favourite Tintin adventures. Set in England and Scotland, Herge utilises a very British whimsy and deadpan surrealism to chart the the young reporter's Richard Hannay-like hunt for a shady gang of forgers and fifth columnists (the adventure was serialised in 1937) - in fact the book's tone, mixing exciting mystery and bizarre humour anticipates that quintessentially English TV series, 'The Avengers'.

Much of the book's pleasure lies in Herge's threading of visual motifs to pattern the story - the spluttering airplane that begins the adventure followed by a doomed cat and mouse chase between hero and villains, leading to the Thom(p)sons comandeering a mechanic as pilot even though he doesn't know how to fly, and hilariously hijacking a prestigious aerial show; or the reappearances of striking black against the appropriately muted English colours, from hapless detectives the Thom(p)sons, to the equally hapless firemen, to the haunted Black Island itself, a craggy rock crowned by a crumbling castle (whose passages and portals will delight amateur Freudians) with ominously black birds spiralling out of it, to the berserk monster who gaurds it, to the policemen who attempt to rescue Tintin.

One extraordinary conceit displays Herge's masterful method of imperceptibly furthering the plot by seemingly digressive comedy, as Snowy's forlorn attempts to eat a found bone and drink leaking whisky reveal elements of the uncanny mystery. Another subplot, involving firemen who mislay the keys to the station during an emergency, and then have to chase a magpie to retrieve them, is pure Surrealism in the style of Rene Clair or (later on) Monty Python. Other jokes rework old favourites from silent cinema. The recreation of English villages and countryside, and the pub-sodden ghost-lore of Scotland, surpasses even TV's 'Ripping Yarns', while the furniture in this 60s reworking is to die for.

Fundamental to the pleasure of the Tintin adventures is Herge's intimate knowledge of the way dogs behave - their loyalty diverted by appetite; their happiness; their need for reassurance and sleep; the bad-temper when faced with giants and terror of creepy crawlies. Rereading these adventures with two girls of my own has added untold pleasure to these books.

great stuff
I prefer books like this that are not full of blood, guts, tortured darkness, sex, etc. I mean I look forward to handing down my comics/sharing my comics with my son. I don't buy books that lean on those cheap tricks to tell their story. A good writer can build suspense and action and adventure without devoting 10 panels straight of fighting. I was desensitized to that stuff I saw so much of it in movies and books for awhile, and I am happier having trimmed it out of my life to a great extent. Now I seek items like this book that can tell a great story without grossing me out.

Having said that this book is good clean adventure. It goes to a great locale in Scotalnd, and the artist does a fine job of giving you some flavor of the region. He does great with the accents too. Now Tintin gets shot, but it is a minor scene without blood, like the old west shows. This is a most enjoyable adventure.

Now at times the dialog goes from full and interesting to too simple (jarringly so) as if the writer had worked on it on different timeperiods, and sometimes does not seem fluid. But that makes me wonder how much is just lost in the translation from the original French language. TinTin races or maybe rushes from one mini-adventure into the next at a breathtaking pace that does not always allow for the characters motivations to be explained and so some stereotyping does occur. The thought ballons of the dog are not neccesary and cheapen the story, to my view.

Even with these minor complaints this is a fun book. Reading it maeks you feel as if you have stumbled onto secret treasure since these books are notnpart of the American mainstream. The art is great, and the locales, even the costumes are obviously researched with a very period sense. The castle is very well drawn and the draftsmanship of buildings, vehicles, and landscapes are superb. This softcover edition has great paper, strong cover material, good binding, and very nice color job in inking.

While I think that the story development/plotlines and dialog work of comic book artist/writer Carl Barks is superior, I really enjoyed this book.

I understand that of the 20 plus Tintin books, there are some real jewels. This book was enough to hook my interest.I look forward to reading the rest.