Congratulations. I read my first Tintin’s book in 1964, The seven crystal balls. And I keep read his adventures and another books and movies and everything about Herge always as possible.. Great work.
My first introduction to Tintin was in grade two. I became best friends with a foreign student from Europe, and that year for my birthday he gifted me The Shooting Star & Tintin and the Picaros. These books changed my life, and I spent the next several years scouring the local book store in search of the other Tintin adventures shown on the backside of the books. One day, I found that my local bookstore had an enigmatic hardcover Tintin adventure that seemingly did not exist according to the canon I was familiar with. I saw the value in that and I purchased Tintin in the Land of the Soviets as an 8 year old. It didn't take me long to realize this was not like the other Tintin adventures I had read. As a child, I was actually very upset. I remember contemplating returning it to the bookstore, telling the kind lady that I know who Tintin is, and that this is not Tintin. Explaining that I could have picked up The Broken Ear & King Ottokar's Scepter for that price, and asking her how am I as a kid supposed to appreciate this Land of the Soviets adventure? Fast forward 20 years: I'm proud to list Tintin in the Land of the Soviets as my first purchase of art with my money! This experience was also my first honest critique of a piece of art that I felt didn't live up to my standards, and in turn helped me understand what an artist even is, and helped me to become one.
Wow! What an amazing and inspiring story. I can’t imagine what I would have made of Land of Soviets as an 8 year old! Luckily Castafiore Emerald was my first adventure. Amazing that Hergé inspired you to become an artist. Where did you grow up?
@@Tintincast it makes me cry sometimes thinking of how many people hergé inspired in his lifetime to make comics.. It is wonderfull, so i guess a lot of artists and others will be part of the 100. year annivarsary in 2029.. im loooking forward to it.. Tintin is THE comicbook who had the most influence in my life, and will be forever. i first got this in 99 in spanish, before i could read it, but my 1.readable edition was a danish in 2003. i just laugh from page to page i think.. it was also special to remember that This was the 1. story he ever wrote.
Ah this is great! Will share with friends/family who're into this. (I recreated the Black Island cover, in 2D and 3D, for a GCSE art project.) A great thing to be obsessed with.
fyi Yes, Tintin was always a serialized comic - originally in Le Petit Vingtième, then after the cancellation of Le Vingtième Siècle, it moved to the nazi-controlled newspaper Le Soir. That eventually got cancelled as well, but a few years later Tintin reappeared in his own weekly comic book simply titled Tintin, which would serialize all later stories. All the original stories up to The Seven Crystal Balls were in black and white, but Herge would later redraw them for publication in color albums. The only story he didn't do this with was Land of the Soviets, which is why that's the only one that's ONLY available in black and white... but you can find the other early stories in b/w with different art and formatting as well. Le Petit Vingtième and Le Soir printed two pages of Tintin a week, though Le Soir would eventually switch to a daily newspaper strip format. Starting with Temple of the Sun the series switched to one fully colored page a week, which was the standard for Franco-Belgian comic books at the time (the comic books were all anthologies, so you got one page of lots of different series in each weekly issue).
Thank you for doing this! Just revisited this book in its original non-colored format. And it's astonishingly good how political Tintin (I mean, Herge) has been since the very beginning. Best wishes from Iran.
Hi, I just happened upon your channel! I've decided to reread all the Tintin books for the first time since I was a kid, starting at the very beginning with this one. I'm then looking at all the articles and videos I can find about each one, which is what led me to discover this channel. I enjoyed your conversation and I look forward to watching future episodes. As far as The Land of the Soviets is concerned, it's an interesting read. I was fascinated the whole way through, but in sort of a detached way, where I'm more intrigued at what a strange and bumpy start this beloved franchise got off to than I am entertained by the story itself. The political element was interesting (I love that Tintin originated as a propaganda instrument), but I found the episodic nature of Tintin's escapades with each Soviet-henchman-of-the-week to be tedious and repetitive. I think a consistent villain would have been better. Also the diving suit was just about the most absurd "convenient plot device" I've ever seen. That definitely got a chuckle out of me. Overall, The Land of the Soviets was enjoyable to read for its importance in the Tintin canon, but as a standalone installment in the series, I found it somewhat lackluster. Anyway, tomorrow I shall move on to the infamous African adventure...
Couldn’t agree more with all that, Jack! Great that you are rereading these fantastic adventures / works of art! It has been a treat to get back into these books during lockdown here in the UK. Soviets and Congo make for a bumpy start but it’s onwards and upwards from there. Enjoy!
Indeed, lackluster is the most appropriate characterization for this particular story. I think Herge's portrayal of the Bolshevik/Soviet Junta, its thugs and commissars was spot on. They were brutal.
