Tintin Forums

The purpose of this thread is for fellow Tintinologists each to add a detailed, thoughtful and sensible review for Tintins 3rd adventure, Tintin in America. Please take note though that one sentence posts like "Tintin in America is bull****." or "Tintin in America is amazing" are not reviews. A post like " I think Tintin in the Congo is a great/rubbish book because...." are much more interesting to read. Ratings out of /5 and /10 are great, but a post shouldn't just consist of a rating.

Ok, but where's the Congo thread? Or your review?

Well, anyway, I think Tintin in America is a pretty poor adventure, the gangster scenes aren't that interesting and there's practically no plot to speak of. It gets better later on with the Indians turning up and snowy getting kidnapped, but all in all I prefer Soviets and Congo to this.
Bobby Smiles is a decent villain though.

6/10

I remember being quite excited when I saw Tintin In America in the window of my local bookshop back in the late 70s when it was first released in English; the cover which showed an Indian Chief pointing threateningly to Tintin who was tied to a pole looked very promising. At that point I owned Crab, Crystal Balls, Prisoners and Black Gold and I'd read a few of the others, so I was expecting something along similar lines...

Well, clearly I was going to be disappointed. No Captain Haddock, Calculus or Thompsons, only the vaguest of plots... and Snowy... talks!

It was obvious really that America was a much earlier book. Actually, it's the only book that gives the date in which it's set in the first line; "Chicago, 1931, when gangster bosses ruled the city..." From then on it's easier to be a little more forgiving. It's a period piece, giving us a snapshot of a pre-war America at the time of prohibition and Al Capone. OK, there isn't much of a storyline, like the other earlier books it's a series of vignettes, most of which are either comical or completely fantastical.

However, there are some excellent sequences. I was always amazed by page 29 in particular, probably the book's finest moment. The sympathetic (for 1931) treatment of the Native Americans, their forced marching off the land by Rangers carrying rifles and the building of an entire city within hours. Only in America!

It's certainly not my favourite, but I still find it quite fun. Compare it to Picaros, his last complete book, and there is a stark contrast. Sorry for being so cryptic here, but... As Tintin gets older he gets more jaded and the world somehow becomes smaller. In America Tintin is still 'young' and the world a bigger, more 'innocent' place.

6/10

You can't really be too hard on Herge. He had never been to the US so it was hard to have that hyper realisim as he did in the later bookds.

I'll start by saying that America was never like how Tintin in America shows it. However, it is very much of an improvement from Tintin's previous adventure, which took him so deep into the wilderness of the politically incorrect that it was amazing he ever got out. America is a more inspired story than Congo, as Herge had wanted to send Tintin to America right from the start. If you read Congo, you will discover that it was not without reasons of his own that Tintin went to America. His newspaper wanted him to do a report on the situation there, and he had also become interested in gangsters from his experience in the Congo, so with these reasons put together, he started a new adventure, planning both on writing a story for his paper, and to foil as many gangsters as possible. The artwork is much more detailed than that in the Congo, showing that Herge was more into the story than he was in the previous book. Although it does not seem to have a plot at times, Tintin's third adventure was, in my opinion, the first of the "early" adventures that started to reflect Tintin's true character.

7/10

Yes, I agree the book is poorly researched, filled with stereotypes as the first two books were, several parts look like they belong in screen cartoons and I find the Wild West-style lynching extremely silly. Did you notice the mistake where, after the bandit switches boots with Tintin, the boots keep switching back and forth between Tintin's own boots and the bandit's boots - and all on the same page?

The plotting would have been a whole lot better if Tintin had pursued Capone throughout the book, as he does in the Nelvana adaptation. Instead Capone is disposed of in a few pages, which is rather disappointing, and Tintin goes off in pursuit of other gangsters but keeps getting sidetracked by American Indians, lynch mobs and other perils.

Still, the book has an energy which I like. You get the feeling that Herge is having blast, unlike Tintin in the Congo which gives you the impression that Herge's heart is not in it - and once you know the editor forced him to send Tintin to the Congo when he was itching to send Tintin to America, you know it isn't. Tintin in America is a lot more fun, and some parts are downright funny, such as the idiot detective and the hick whose wagon gets blown up when Tintin steals a train to pursue Bobby Smiles.

The artwork has also made a vast leap forward between Congo and America. The American Indians, for example, still look a bit stereotyped but they are a vast improvement over those poor pygmy Africans in Congo, and so is the portrayal of wildlife and their respective environments.

So my rating is: 6/10

With what really happened to Capone I don't think Herge would have tried to rewrite history. As in The Blue Lotus he based stories around things that were happening at the time.

The book is cliché ridden - Tintin being tied on the train tracks reminds me of John Ford's "The Iron Horse" - but this adventure is more exciting than any Western I have ever seen.
It's a non-stop action of a comic: Tintin falls through trap-doors, and nearly gets turned into dog food.
Though very thin on plot, it has more than Tintin in the Congo - at least Tintin isn't quickly rescued by a plane.
It's a great adventure, with a cliff-hanger on every page, and for this reason I give it
10/10 - how can you not?

I loved Tintin in America! It needs some revising, though. The beginning is to unbelievable! How could Tintin saw through the door of a car?In Land of Black gold, Abdullah jumps out of a car and gets hurt, but that car's moving! It takes longer to fix a car. Is the driver of the taxi that bad? Was it arranged to have the masked man hit the driver? Did the driver know he was going to be hit? Was it an act arranged by someone bad so the driver could escape? Probably not. He had no clue Tintin would saw through the door, or that the taxi would get a flat tire.
6/10

Mullergirl, why are you deducting an entire 4 points just because of the beginning? Tintin in America is one of my favorites. What's wrong with multiple plots? I am impressed how Herge changes the scene so well. And I love the action and cleverness (using many things as a weapon).
9/10