TinTin Books discussion

En route to Sydney in Flight 714, Tintin, Captain Haddock, Snowy and Professor Calculus meet up with an old friend - Piotr Skut - and his billionaire client, Laszlo Carreidas. The six of them are kidnapped by Rastopopoulos, who takes them to his deserted volcanic island in Indonesia in an attempt to take Carreidas' fortune. But as a battle for their freedom begins, Tintin and his friends will discover much stranger secrets lurking on this island...

In 21 adventures, Hergé had taken his characters around the world and, in the last few, had begun to fiddle with his well-crafted formula. After a four year hiatus, he decided to return to Tintin's stories, and tell something more like a typical adventure story, even if he couldnt' disguise his own varying interests.

On one level, "Flight 714" is a rather typical 'Tintin' adventure, although with a decidedly modern James Bond-esque touch. There are recurring characters - Rastopopoulos, Allan, Jolyon Wagg and Piotr Skut from The Red Sea Sharks - and a more conventional capture-escape-chase format. But within these confines, Herge was still interested in exploring character and situation, particularly noticeable in the opening sequence in the airport, reminiscent of the character interplay in The Castafiore Emerald. Herge reportedly wanted to do another story set entirely in an airport, but never got around to it.

Noted Tintinologist Michael Farr is not a fan of "Flight 714", primarily because of the artwork. He states that Herge was delegating a lot more of the primary drawing to his assistants at the Herge Studios, meaning that - while the realism of his atmosphere and vehicles doesn't change - there is a perceived sloppiness in the work.

Whether or not this is true, "Flight 714" is certainly viewed more controversially by fans: first, because Herge overwrote the story by two pages, and in choosing what to delete from the final version, he omitted two pages of the climax, meaning that Tintin and his friends escape the volcano without our realising. And second, for the infamous end sequence which directly states that alien beings are involved. Critics and fans debate whether this was due to the increased publicity of fiction about "Alien ancestors" or just an interest in UFOs on the part of the author.

However, many fans thoroughly enjoy "Flight 714": combining Herge's more mature character-based writing style with high-stakes adventure. Either way, Herge had returned to writing globetrotting escapades for his reporter. The story was published in "Tintin" magazine in 1967, and subsequently released in album form in 1968.

It would be eight years until another "Tintin" album was released. Herge was in his sixties and no longer felt the obligation to continue churning out stories. He spent some time travelling the world, supervised three more English-language translations of albums, and was marginally involved with two animated "Tintin" films - "The Temple of the Sun" and Tintin and the Lake of Sharks, the latter of which was then adapted into a book which Herge did not want published. It would be twenty years before "Tintin" returned to the screen again - for the 1990s animated TV series that would capture the minds of a whole new generation. In the meantime, in 1973, Herge began work on an album that would take him three years to complete: Tintin and the Picaros

"Flight 714" was published in English by Methuen in 1968. It has only been adapted once: as a two-part episode in the 1990s animated TV series, however elements of the story and setting were also used in the 2001 video game "Destination: Adventure".

Links:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_714

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

24 Days of Tintin: http://tintinblog.com/2009/12/13/24-d...

Places visited or mentioned in "Flight 714":

* Brussels, Belgium (see note)
* Jakarta, Indonesia
* Pulau-Pulau Bompa Island, South East Asia
* Sondonesia, South East Asia
* Sydney, Australia (see note)

(This is Tintin's only reported visits to Indonesia and the fictional Sondonesia. It is also his last trip to Asia.

Tintin and friends are on their way to Sydney, Australia which would mean that the series has visited all seven continents - although it was the Thompson twins who went to Antarctica in Prisoners of the Sun.

The last scene is set in Jolyon Wagg's home. I don't really know where this is, but am assuming it is in Brussels, which means this book does feature Belgium after all.)

My review:

For a man who has been criticised (fairly or not) for sexism, padding of stories and racism to (among others) Africans, Jews, Native Americans, Japanese, Russians and Indians, it's amusing to think that his most controversial work amongst fans is probably "Flight 714", the penultimate completed adventure in the series. But, on re-reading, you can count me amongst those who think it was probably one big mistake.

"Flight 714" starts off strongly enough, with the first 12 pages devoted to something Herge had perfected in The Castafiore Emerald - comedies of manners featuring the main characters and others bound to annoy them - but combining it with that genuine sense of unease and discord which underlies all of his best works. Laszlo Carreidas is a truly fascinating character, and he brings out various dimensions of Captain Haddock; Snowy gets some business; and Calculus is at his rip-roaring malapropistic best. But from the moment Carreidas' plane is hijacked, we're into prime James Bond territory. The evil villain and his henchmen have co-opted an entire volcanic island for their ridiculously complex plan (any villain with a past like Rastopopolous can surely find a better means to cash than this...), and characters are tied up, tortured and pursued through various jungle locations.

None of the business in the first two-thirds of the album is bad; indeed it all has precedents in the series. But perhaps that's the problem? It's clear that we've come a long way: note the monitor and the proboscis monkey, who each receive two frames in a show of ambience. In early "Tintin" books, these guys would've been the subject of a one-or-two page adventure. Herge has learnt now how to balance the atmosphere with the plot. Yet, when we spend an entire third of the book on a chase sequence, one begins to realise that this in no way matches up to the amazing stretch of classic works that immediately preceded it. With the exception of Carreidas himself, the album lacks the emotional resonance of Tintin in Tibet; has none of the elegant plotting of The Red Sea Sharks; and - in spite of the jungle atmosphere - lacks the bravura artwork that so embodies The Calculus Affair and Explorers on the Moon.

Strangely, the only recent "Tintin" work that the album calls to mind is "The Castafiore Emerald" itself! Herge relished using the claustrophobic, trivial atmosphere of Marlinspike in that album, and it comes across here too. Entire pages focus on the petty trials of Rastopopolous, to the point where he isn't interesting or scary, but just... bumbling. And sequences in which henchmen stutter without teeth, or the villain literally emerges from a bomb blast with his clothes in tatters, are just beneath this era. Comdey is welcomed, and delightful in the early part of the album, but sections where Herge was just painting-by-numbers are brutally evident.

This isn't to deny the enjoyment of Carreidas as a character, or the hilarity of the sticking-plaster callback, but much is limited here. I've never noticed the severe drop in quality of art that Michael Farr mentions, but the frames certainly don't sparkle here.

And then there's the ending... Where to begin? From page 45, things get weird. Tintin and Haddock have been hearing voices that turn out to be telepathic communications from the queer little man, Mit Kanrokitoff. In and of himself, Kanrokitoff calls to mind other members of Herge's pantheon of humorous bores such as Jolyon Wagg: so far acceptable. And the idea that the ancient Sondonesians had met aliens, and their statues and totems are actually monuments to this? Not terribly original, but still captivating. (The image of a statue to a god turning out to be a man with communications equipment is startling).

So far, none of that really contradicts any of the wackier elements of some previous stories. But... the revelation that Kanrokitoff genuinely is an alien, and that he uses his powers - and his flying saucer(!) - to save our characters... is taking things a little too far, don't you think? For a series that has always held some connection to reality, the sudden switch to such fantastic adventures seems unnatural. It doesn't help that the final ten pages expose the formula so much, with literally every major character getting an end-of-page cliffhanger in a seemingly neverending chase. Closing with a four-page news story is also too wordy, and only serves to rehash what happened on the previous eight pages. (The closing revelation that Snowy actually remembers everything is a good one, but can't make up for what has passed.)

I'm far from certain about my feelings on "Flight 714". As an idea, it's quite intriguing. But with the exception of the opening act, the story never comes together as anything more than one giant chase. The villian is unappealing; the stakes feel too consistently high; and the alien nonsense is from another series altogether. (Again, there are many series where this could be done WONDERFULLY. It's just not in "Tintin"'s wheelhouse.) A shame, and a true letdown.