Land of Black Gold
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| Tintin: Land of Black Gold (Tintin au pays de l'or noir) |
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Land of Black Gold (Tintin au pays de l'or noir) is the fifteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It was first published in book form in 1950.
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[edit] Synopsis
The world is on the verge of war when car engines begin exploding all over the world. The root cause appears to be tampered fuel supplies. Following different leads, Tintin and Thomson and Thompson set off for the Middle East on board a petrol tanker. Upon arrival, the three are arrested by the authorities under various charges. The Thompsons are cleared and released, but Tintin is kidnapped by Arab insurgents.
In the course of his adventures, Tintin comes across an old enemy, Dr. J.W. Müller. He also meets his old friend Senhor Oliveira da Figueira. When the local Emir Ben Kalish Ezab's young son is kidnapped, Tintin suspects that Müller is responsible. He goes after Müller and in the process discovers that the doctor was the agent of a foreign power responsible for the tampering of the fuel supplies.
[edit] Names
Many of the names of characters and places in this album are puns in Brussels dialect: Ben Kalish Ezab (kalichesap, liquorice juice), Bir El Ambik (lambic, beer), Yussuf Ben Mulfrid (moules frites, French fries with mussels), Bab El Ehr (babbeleer, chatterer).
[edit] Rewrites
Hergé began working on the story in Le Petit Vingtième before World War II. The atmosphere of impending war throughout the adventure reflects contemporary concerns.
The original version was set at the time of the British Mandate of Palestine and the conflict between Jews, Arabs and British troops. Following the takeover of Belgium by Germany in 1940, Hergé decided that it would be wiser to drop this story whose political context would not have appealled to the German censors.
Thus during the war years Tintin's adventures focused on non-political issues such as drug smuggling (The Crab with the Golden Claws), scientific expeditions (The Shooting Star), intrigue and treasure hunts (The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure) and a mysterious curse (The Seven Crystal Balls).
After the war the story was concluded in Tintin magazine in 1948. By now Captain Haddock was an important part of Tintin's world and he therefore had to be added to the conclusion of the story even if there is no explanation as to how he suddenly turns up to find Tintin in Muller's bunker. Nestor makes a cameo and Cuthbert Calculus and Marlinspike Hall also get mentioned.
By the time the story was due to be published in English, the publishers, Menthuen, felt that the presence of British troops in Palestine made the book dated and asked for it to be reset in a fictional Arab state. Hergé and his assistant Bob de Moor rewrote the album and it was published in 1971. Pages 6, 17, 19 and 20 were redrawn. It is this version that is most commonly available in most countries today.
[edit] External link
| The Adventures of Tintin | ||||
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| Creation of Tintin · Books, films, and media · Ideology of Tintin | ||||
| Characters: | Supporting · Minor · Complete list | |||
| Miscellany: | Hergé · Marlinspike · Captain Haddock's exclamations | |||
