Several Tintin stories were re-drawn and updated by Herge to be more modern, some of them multiple times.
The article mention Tintin in Congo, one of the earliest stories. It was later redrawn to tone down the “white mans burden”-vibe, but the redrawn version is still pretty racist by modern standards. And Tintin blows up a rhinocerus with dynamite.
In “The Black Gold”, Tintin travels to British Palestine and gets kidnapper by zionist terrorists. In the updated version, it is changed to a fictional Arab country, and there are no Jews involved.
The article suggest Chang cured Herge of racism, but this is simplistic. A later album, The Shooting Star, drawn during the Nazi occupation of Belgium, contains some strongly antisemitic stereotypes (obviously removed in the re-drawn version, which also changes the evil Americans into a fictional country).
Herge worked for a newspaper friendly to the Nazis, and this was close to destroying his career after the war.
Tintin is a brilliant series and I find it fascinating how the changing values and politics are reflected in it.
Redrawing means erasing the racist history, little by little. Just like they've started to rewrite novels (see the recent Penguin controversy for example). Over time, without the majority noticing, this becomes reality:
>Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.
You can still get the original versions. The market for Tintin completionist is big enough that you can purcase basically every iteration of the Tintin albums.
Btw the redrawing were much more than just toning down racism. Eg in The Black Island all backgrounds were redrawn based on careful research to be more realistic and detailed, and cars and trains redrawn to more contemporary models. This was part of Herges evolution from an initially more cartoonish style to the detailed “ligne claire”-style. (Fans debate which version is best)
The earlier stories were initially published as newspaper strips, but was later colorized and edited to fit in album format.
Note that all edits and redrawings were done by Herge, or by his assistants under his oversigt. After the death of Herge no modifications have been made. Herge didn’t want anyone to continue Tintin ater his death, and amazingly the estate have respected this.
The article mention Tintin in Congo, one of the earliest stories. It was later redrawn to tone down the “white mans burden”-vibe, but the redrawn version is still pretty racist by modern standards. And Tintin blows up a rhinocerus with dynamite.
In “The Black Gold”, Tintin travels to British Palestine and gets kidnapper by zionist terrorists. In the updated version, it is changed to a fictional Arab country, and there are no Jews involved.
The article suggest Chang cured Herge of racism, but this is simplistic. A later album, The Shooting Star, drawn during the Nazi occupation of Belgium, contains some strongly antisemitic stereotypes (obviously removed in the re-drawn version, which also changes the evil Americans into a fictional country).
Herge worked for a newspaper friendly to the Nazis, and this was close to destroying his career after the war.
Tintin is a brilliant series and I find it fascinating how the changing values and politics are reflected in it.