Continuing my series, as promised. In this post, I present the books I read in February 2024.

Book	Author	My Rating
Tintin in the land of Soviets	Hergé	2/10
Tintin in the Congo	Hergé	6/10
Tintin in Thailand	Baudouin de Duve	3/10

I read so much science fiction last few months that I started having space themed dreams. So I decided to take a break and read something else.

I had always known off the presence of the Tintin app in the App Store, but never bought anything there. So this time, I decided to buy all the comics, because mine are packed in boxes in Gurgaon. Although I have read each book at least 20 times, I keep coming back to them from time to time.

Tintin in the land of Soviets

I decided to go sequentially and first up was Tintin in the land of Soviets, which is easily one of the worst books I have ever read. Shoddy drawing and pure anti-communist propaganda. Soviets are shown as brutal people. The bad guys keep using absurd phrases like “By Lenin’s goatee”. They are also shown to be spreading propaganda to Britishers, showing them their “great” factories, which are actually fake and empty inside. In one absurd scene, poor Soviet people are shown to queue up for free bread and only those who call communism great are given a loaf. Also, Tintin comes off as a jerk, attacking people for no reason.

Tintin in the Congo

The second book in the series is Tintin in the Congo. There’s no good way to say it, the book is racist as fuck. First of all, all the Africans have been shown resembling apes. Tintin says he needs to hire “a boy”. Many other things which would have gotten Hergé cancelled if he were alive. Tintin kills wild animals for no apparent reason. He kills 15 antelopes “for dinner”. He kills a monkey just to skin him and wear his skin as a coat. Kills an elephant and takes his tusks for ivory. Also kills a buffalo for fun.

When his European car collides with an African train, the train derails. Then he screams at the Africans on board the train and forces them to fix it. Missionaries are shown to be super smart and benevolent. African children are shown as stupid, after spending all day, he cannot teach them what 2+2 is.

The good part is, the drawing is epic and as per normal Tintin standards.

Tintin in Thailand

Tintin in Thailand is an illegal parody of Tintin comics. I decided to give it a fair shot.

The comic starts with Tintin, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus sick in Marlinspike Hall, with no money. Then Jolyon Wagg’s wife comes along to tell them that her husband went to Thailand many months ago and hasn’t come back. She asks them to track him down and bring him back. So they go to Bangkok and find out that Jolyon Wagg has run away to Chiang Mai with a Kathoey (Ladyboy). Haddock and Calculus immediately start whoring around while Tintin spends the night with the male toilet attendant.

Tintin, looking for more boys, finds Tchang, who reveals that the Yei in Tintin in Tibet had been raping him and now desensitised to it, he works as a prostitute.

Meanwhile, Snowy is having his own Siam experience fucking Haddock’s Siamese cat. Also, Jolyon Wagg’s wife starts fucking Nestor. Tchang gets drunk and tries to cut off Tintin’s dick. Tintin reveals that he doesn’t have one to begin with.

Eventually, they all ring in the new millennium together in Thailand.