TinTin Books discussion

In Destination Moon, Calculus is hired under veils of secrecy by the Syldavian government to build a moon rocket. As construction on the rocket takes place, Tintin and Haddock - who have accompanied the Professor to Syldavia - uncover the plots of a foreign power to intercept the plans and beat them to the moon. The Space Race has begun...

Writing seventeen years before the moon landings, and seven years before Sputnik-I was even launched, Hergé took pains to ensure scientific accuracy by taking advice from scientists of all disciplines. He also returned his characters to Syldavia - last seen in King Ottokar’s Sceptre - for the central plot. Predicting the Space Race and tapping in to a growing interest in sciences, "Destination Moon" also utilised espionage plots which were, of course, in vogue at the time.

"Destination Moon" - conceived as a lengthy story that would be published in two albums - began life in early 1950, but Herge was feeling considerable strain. He had already required four months off during the publication of Land of Black Gold but it was quite clear that he was beginning to suffer a nervous breakdown. After a few months work on the Moon stories, Tintin took an unexpected hiatus, while Herge left Belgium to travel and relieve his mind. The pages of "Tintin" Magazine - which, after all, featured various other strips anyway - covered for the artist during this time with a variety of characters.

It would be 18 months until Herge returned to work and by this time, his collaborator Edgar-Pierre Jacobs had left to publish his own strips. In Jacobs' place, a number of artists and administrators - many from "Tintin" Magazine itself - came to work with Herge in a new building and a new format. At Herge Studios, each artist would work on a separate element of the stories, seeing them from preliminary concept to completed design, with the creator himself drawing the principal figures and overseeing the works as a whole. (Michael Farr compares this to Raphael and other Renaissance masters). This new style allowed Herge to steadily work through the Moon stories - publishing "Destination Moon" at last in 1953, followed swiftly by its sequel Explorers on the Moon - and continue his relationship with his boy reporter.

By this time, Eagle and Casterman had attempted to publish "Tintin" in English (the former with "King Ottokar's Sceptre", and the latter with the two-part "Red Rackham" story). Neither publisher would attempt another translation, but it seemed likely that there was still a market in the English-speaking world - it would just require the right publisher. Methuen, who took over the publishing from 1958, issued "Destination Moon" in English in 1959.

"Destination Moon" has been adapted several times. First in 1959 for a Belgian TV film ("Explorers on the Moon"). That same year, it was one of the albums produced as a series of five-minute TV episodes by Belvision. Subsequently the story was utilised for the first "Tintin" video game - 1989's "Tintin on the Moon". In 1992, it was made into both a half-hour radio play (for the BBC series), and a two-episode animated story for the TV series.

Links:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer...

Tintinologist: http://www.tintinologist.org/guides/b...

24 Days of Tintin: http://tintinblog.com/2009/12/06/24-d...

Locations visited or mentioned in "Destination Moon":

* Brussels, Belgium
* Syldavia

Ah, "Destination Moon". As a child, I didn't have a particular affinity with the moon albums. I guess I was more interested in character stories and less in science at the time, but I have to say looking back this - and its second half Explorers on the Moon - is quite an achievement.

Briefly, the cons: "Destination Moon" is all set-up and little pay-off since it was designed from the start as the first half of an adventure. On top of this, there's a fair bit of filler since obviously Herge didn't want his heroes leaving Earth until the final pages. But unlike some of the earlier albums, where every page is a cliffhanger despite how ridiculous it may seem, this story is deliberately paced, filled with suspense and a genuine feeling of discovery.

On top of this, all the characters are given plenty to do. Calculus - who seems to have been the driving force in most of the albums from this era - has an ear trumpet to help him hear better (which of course, it rarely does) and his relationship with Captain Haddock is gorgeous. Note the scene where Haddock claims Calculus is "acting the goat". People love to draw Tintin and Haddock as a secret couple, but if anything it's these two!

Snowy also gets a lot of great sight gags, spending the first third of the album in an oversized outfit as he struggles to walk around the compound. And the Thompsons too, incompetence tempered by a genuine interest in the subject matter, are handled well. There's a lot of beautiful artwork evident in Herge's later middle period - the full-page shot of the rocket being prepared for take-off, for instance.

Sure, there are a few wrong notes: Tintin being mobbed by baby bears and then tricking them over a cliff seems both an unnecessary addition and a cruel resolution. But by and large, this is gold. (My favourite moment is Snowy somewhat self-referentially turning to the reader to join our excitement at the "sensational appearance of the Thompson twins!".

(Incidentally, in his original sketches for this album, Herge set the story in the US - where Professor Philostle from The Shooting Star steals Calculus' secrets to finance a diamond as a gift for Rita Hayworth...]

In some ways, these two albums are the end of Herge's middle period in which his insane amount of research was both the series' biggest blessing and its greatest curse. On the one hand, Herge's love for the subject matter really shines through - notably in the final few pages which feature several large drawigns of the rocket. In a possibly unique move, he donates an entire page to the rocket's blueprint! Because of this knowledge, the long stretches of dialogue in the early parts of the album are all the more meaningful and we come to feel the same level of anticipation and hope that the characters do, pushing us further into despair at the moments when all seems lost.

But countering this is the fact that, because he had so much knowledge to impart, Herge occasionally lets his storytelling skills lag. Even the Cold War villainy at play here is in the background, as most time is spent on discovery and knowledge. I should reiterate that the good elements far outweigh the bad, but one gets the impression that Herge had a long list of exciting facts and moments he just needed to convey, and plot could damn well come second.

All in all, "Destination Moon" is a labour of love for the artist. One could argue that a lot of the discovery (e.g. Haddock's testing of his spacesuit) had more weight in the '50s before this kind of thing was common-place. True, but Herge's passion bounces off the page, and I still feel genuinely enthralled by the politics and the sense of discovery. Four and a half stars.