Tintin and the Picaros (1976)
Tintin and the Picaros Review
Tintin and the Picaros is the 23rd volume of The Adventures of Tintin comics series by Belgian cartoonist Herge. It was published in 1976 and it is one of the weakest installments in the series.
It follows Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus as they travel to the South American nation of San Theodoros to rescue their friend Bianca Castafiore, who has been imprisoned by the government of General Tapioca. Once there, they become involved in the anti-government revolutionary activities of Tintin’s old friend General Alcazar. This was not the first time that the team went to South America and this particular fictional nation, which begs the question whether this adventure was necessary.
I would much rather have Herge include another country. Our planet is huge, so repeating the same country multiple times seems like a very lazy, frustrating choice. He also failed to make a significant comment on the goings-on inside this continent, rendering this experiment unimportant in the bigger scope of things.
While the previous volume ended frustratingly, it at least featured a pretty good first half. Tintin and the Picaros does have a fine first half, but the energy was missing even in that section of the story. While certainly very well illustrated throughout and quite solid in its dialogue, the comic failed to make proper use of any of its characters.
Tintin was basically made fun of in this adventure. Depicting him as incompetent, Herge deconstructed his IP way too much here to the point of self-parody. It was obvious that his heart was not in the right place. Haddock and Snowy got some solid moments for themselves and the villains were actually well realized, but the overall story left a lot to be desired in terms of excitement, originality or adventure elements.
