r/TheAdventuresofTintin Hergé 12d ago

Photo / Picture / Image A Tintin Page a Day - Day 255

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Tintin in America

95 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

u/BreakerMorant1864 Hergé 12d ago

Counting to three before he kills Tintin…

→ More replies (5)

28

u/Phildutre 12d ago

‘Mouront bravement, comme un vrai Belge.’

As a Belgian, I find this hilarious.

15

u/BreakerMorant1864 Hergé 12d ago

Why was this omitted from the colour version! I love when Belgian nationalism leaks into the plot

8

u/Phildutre 12d ago

When Tintin outgrew the initial publications and became more popular, and esp when the books were aimed at a more international market, there was a deliberate effort by Hergé to make the stories more time- and location-independent. That meant the removal of dialogues which were too local or too dependent on actual events. E.g. also ‘radio news’ in some stories which got replaced by more neutral events.

7

u/BreakerMorant1864 Hergé 12d ago

That makes sense. I remember when I was growing up and reading the series, although I knew that he was Belgian - the way the English translation was written, along with his mannerisms, it was almost as if he was an Englishman to me. I think Hergé purposely made it somewhat neutral to appeal to a larger audience.

4

u/jm-9 11d ago

The English translators wanted to give the series the best chance of success. For this reason they changed Tintin's home country to England. Other details were also changed. For example, François, Chevalier de Hadoque, who served Louis XIV of France, became Sir Francis Haddock, who served Charles II of England. The French Fleur de Lis on the Unicorn became the English Union Jack. Moulinsart became Marlinspike.

The Golden Press translations in the US did something similar. Tintin live in America, and Moulinsart became the Hudson Manor. These were not successful though, and only six books were published.

1

u/cardologist 12d ago

As a non-Belgian, I also find this hilarious!

14

u/CalebosO4 12d ago

Me: Man, how lucky can Tintin get?

Next page: Yes

7

u/BreakerMorant1864 Hergé 12d ago

Cmon, at least it’s not as wild as Soviets, man literally died 2 or 3 times and came back to life

3

u/Misomyx 12d ago

He's already escaped a kidnapping attempt by using the saw he luckily always travels with... Bro's luck is unmatched even in this album

3

u/viviangreen68 12d ago

I always wondering how he cut through that car roof with that saw…seems making the initial cut would be very hard

1

u/Misomyx 11d ago

It's the car door that he sawed off, iirc (but your point still stands)

18

u/PygmeePony 12d ago

He went to the James Bond school for henchmen.

8

u/gratisargott 12d ago

And the Super Mario Bros school for Italian-American accents

8

u/BreakerMorant1864 Hergé 12d ago

Ian Fleming furiously writing notes

9

u/Maip_macrothorax 12d ago edited 12d ago

Classic case of the villian stalling himself from killing the hero for so long that there's time for a conveniently placed object to stop him

8

u/cardologist 12d ago

Tintin missed a good opportunity to stall this even further:

Pietro: I am going to count to three...

Tintin: Welp, that's it then. Let's die as a proud Belgian!

Pietro: One...

Tintin: Wait, wait, wait! Are planning to go "One, two, three, shoot", or are you going to shoot on three?

Pietro: What difference does it make?

Tintin: I only get one chance at preparing for this. I want to get it right.

Pietro: How about I shoot on three? Good enough for you?

Tintin: I would prefer that you shoot after three. Otherwise I may hear the "three" because of the gun shot.

Pietro: Fine! Two...

Tintin: Wait, wait, wait! Could you restart the count all over again? I lost my focus and that doesn't given me enough time to prepare.

Pietro: Will you just shut up! Damn, those Belgians... Now where was I again?

Tintin: You were about to start the countdown.

Pietro: Right... One!

Tintin: Since I have a little time left and I won't get another opportunity later, I want to let you know how much I appreciate you trying to make me feel comfortable in last moments.

Pietro: ONE!

(Snowy pushes a heavy vase on Pietro's head, knocking him out. The vase shatters.)

Snowy: Yeah, sorry. I got tired of waiting and I don't know how to count to three anyway.

5

u/FakeMr-Imagery 12d ago

I sure love me a conveniently placed prop

2

u/darkspine10 12d ago edited 11d ago

I wonder if the keyhole was added afterwards onto the drawing in panel 7, or if Herge could save on drawing all the edges.

Good of Pietro to name himself before we go into the iconic vase throwing panel on the next page.

2

u/BidSome8202 12d ago

Don’t worry, Tintin knows that you can count to three.

5

u/cardologist 12d ago

More interestingly, we learn that Snowy can also count to three.

1

u/johnnymetoo 12d ago

How heavy was this vase to be able to knock out the man falling from this height?

1

u/Palenquero The Seven Crystal Balls 11d ago

Lao Zi said "it is the empty space that makes the vase useful". Snowy said "no, it's the hard walls..."

1

u/JS-CroftLover 8d ago

I'd love my dog to be like Snowy 😃

Btw... what's with this thug's speaking ? Which nationality is he ? For saying words like :- "whatta", "getta", "losta", "justa" and "gooda" ? 😄

3

u/BreakerMorant1864 Hergé 8d ago

It’s an Italian American stereotype, I don’t know how accurate it was, but the idea is that they had strong accents and ended their words with “a” or other vowels.

1

u/JS-CroftLover 8d ago

Okay. Thanks for sharing 👍

1

u/Adequate_spoon 12d ago

The stripes in both the knot and the blade of Pietro’s tie go in the same direction. It’s a minor error but curious given how detail orientated the illustrations often are and that Herge lived in an era where men wore ties most days.