Tintin Forums

Spun off from this thread:


The Hardy Boys series was actually begun before Tintin...!

Paul

1927? Okay, thanks Paul. I did some research. I thought they were begun in the early 1950's but I was wrong. I've read almost all of the books, but it sounds as if I read the revised editions, not the originals (which are considered far superior). I read Hardy Boys books before I even discovered Tintin at the age of 8, so maybe Herge was influenced by the Hardy Boys?

Christian

I doubt Herge was influenced by them -- they were a very American series (as were all of Stratemeyer's other serieses) and probably weren't even known of in Belgium.

You probably know, having done some research, that the Edward Stratemeyer Syndicate created many children's book characters, including the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, and more, under various pseudonyms: Franklin W. Dixon, Carolyn Keene, Victor Appleton and Victor Appleton II to name a few! Hugely productive, and hugely successful, in bursts (the very early lot, then the 50s and 60s lot, and then an 80s and early 90s lot).

As regards originals being superior: I've read many of the original Tom Swift books (the first was 1910!), and they are far better than the later 50s and 60s series. All the ones I read are downloadable from Project Gutenberg, which is how I got hold of them :)

Which reminds me that I don't have either Tom Swift or the Hardy Boys listed on my Good Books list...

Paul

You must also be familiar with The Three Investigators: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery series - a fine detective series that began in the 60s. I still have many of the books.

Happy Easter.

Yes, I have read quite a few Three Investigators books. :)

And the quality of those went down very quickly after Hitchcock died and they changed the Investigators' 'introducer'. :(

They never had the classic goodies vs. baddies style of the Hardy Boys books...never so predictable, so enjoyably stupid, so intricately imbecilic. Or something. My brother Andrew has heaps in each series, I believe.

Paul

Ive got almost all of the 40 odd bar a few of the extras!!

They were a great read and much better than the Hardy Boys but unfortunally very, very underated.

I liked the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I thought the Tom Swift books were great, too. One think I particularly liked about the Tom Swift series was that the second series was Tom Swift, Jr. rather than just an update of the first series.

The Tom Swift, Jr. series made many references to the originals. Plus some of the main characters in the original series were supporting characters in the newer series.

I think that Moulinsart should consider something like this. Think of it, Tintin, Jr. and his faithful fox terrier, Salty, who was named in honor of Capt. Haddock.