One of the BEST albums of Hergé !!!

One of the BEST albums of Hergé !!!

The Adventures of Tintin, Volume 15: Tintin in the Land of Black Gold (Hardcover)

Customer Review

To my mind, one of the best albums of Hergé ... although it must deplore the ultimate grind updating the plot with contemporary events in 1971 ... This is again at the urging of his publisher English (who had even imposed the modernization of "Black Island") Hergé agreed to undertake this ultimate version ... Hence the disappearance of hergéenne evocation of the situation shortly after the Second world war ... in Palestine then under "British Mandate" (under agreements - secrets - Sykes-Picot signed May 16, 1916 between Great Britain and France), and the evocation of the dual bloodied terrorism - ALREADY - this ground:

- That of the Arabs, robbed (! And how) and driven from their ancestral lands (it is more than ever the case today in the "occupied territories" - illegally - by Israel, subject to annexation of more more accurate, more and more hypocritical by "colonization" of the most strategic sectors - including water -) and already at war against Zionism and the multiple abuses of its terrorist groups;

- That of the Jews, prior to the proclamation of the State of Israel (so can not claim a "state of war" and a "right" to defend "legitimate") of which there are the "Lehi "or Stern Gang (led by future Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir) and the Irgun, led since 1943 by the future prime minister and Nobel" Peace ", Menachem Begin ... Like what, authentic terrorists, n 'having no fear of committing criminal acts, can be washed reproach ... provided they are among the "winners" ...

It is therefore permissible to ask "WHO" to "WHAT" and is "expected" answer this British request (this requirement, rather) "recasting" ... absolutely antithetical to the will of Hergé to metaphorically evoke global political events of his time (Sino Japanese War in "The Blue Lotus", the Gran Chaco war in "The Broken Ear", in Europe the rising dangers in "Black Island", "The King Ottokar's Sceptre "and" The Black Gold "scientific war between Germany and the Allies in" The Shooting Star ") and will continue almost until the end of his work (in the Cold War "The Calculus Affair", decolonization in "Flight 714 Sydney pure" and the Latin American political instability in "Tintin and the Picaros" ... even an implicit tribute to Tibet, annexed by China in "Tintin in Tibet ") ...

As for the first version, we will never know how Tintin would have been saved from being buried under the sand storm which had sentenced Dr. Müller, history has been interrupted by the war (the final page, inserted into Little Twentieth, dated May 9, 1940.

Three versions Spring figure and criminal role of Dr. Müller (certainly of German nationality as suggested by his name) whose charisma is incomparably superior to that of Rastapopoulos !!! This role is changed, also in accordance with the logic of the scenario of versions in the presence:

- First version obviously, Dr. Müller is an agent of the Nazi secret services acting (as already in "Black Island") against the British ... in this case to ensure the control of Germany jugular artery of the oil market in the Middle East (then under British rule whole), vital in case of war (already seriously compromised by the "invention" of the "N 14" (*) and - probably - to rally nationalist movements Arab (the latter is perfectly correlated with history). "The Black Gold" is thus the third album (after "Black Island" and "King Ottokar's Sceptre") where news and the situation European policy in the years directly preceding the Second World War, is evoked;

(*) Referring to the Nitrogen - symbol "N", the basis for the manufacture of explosives, and its atomic number "14".

- Second version: Dr. Müller, agent of a "big foreign power" for the Near and Middle East ... and that it is not difficult in these early years of the Cold War generated by the consequences of the Second World War, to guess the identity (the USSR, mistress of communist East Germany), performs the same role and the same goals ... this time directed against the West Otano-Anglo Saxon . The scenario is contemporary of the double creation of NATO (04 April 1949) and the GDR (07 October 1949), the boards being published in the Tintin newspaper 16 September 1948 to 23 February 1950;

- Third version: Dr. Müller is the agent of a powerful oil consortium (the "Skoil Petroleum") declared in competition with "Arabex" (whose analogy with Western multinationals controlling Saudi Arabia and monarchies Gulf is transparent) ... Behind this competition (and terrorism) still divine (in much less dramatic this time) developments and avatars of the Cold War (the time is within the years of Brezhnev glaciation ) ...

Should we say that the political-economic-revolutionary role of Dr. Müller is incomparably more "credible" in the first two versions in the third (which takes into account the further developed scenario "Sea Sharks": the fictional Arab state " Khemed "rivalry between the Emir Ben Kalish Ezab and sheik Bab el Ehr) ...?

As for the "mystery" of the reappearance of Captain Haddock, besides the tasty (and GENIALE) "explanation" provided ... EVER ("it is both very simple and very complicated" ...) it is also permissible to imagine that it is done as part of a "mission" official (and secret) that the captain was responsible ... Indeed, on page 3 of the album, one sees the captain on ONE box, calling him reading Tintin and the convening of the "Marine Department" ordering him to "take command of the ship" John Doe "(the name must remain secret) where new instructions (it) will be given ". These "instructions" MYSTERY ... ... remained forever unfathomable beyond the END of the album !!!

How not imagine that Haddock was charged with some handshake or economic-political mission to the Emir (which, during his first meeting with Tintin, evokes the English company operating "the oil lands on (its) territory "and that can be guessed very important) ... whereas it has become a character" known "(and respectable, since his recovery from alcoholism) as a friend of" famous reporter Tintin ".. .? The fact that arise and, armed, at the head of the soldiers of the Emir ("Forward! ... Let's go! ..."), Is at least an evidentiary presumption ...

Note however that, in the first draft of the second version (the one published in the Tintin newspaper 16 September 1948 to 23 February 1950), Captain Haddock makes its appearance "sudden" in page 55 ... No mention of him on page 3 ...

Great low-cost filter! Rank: 5/5
January 24
No Interest 14 Rank: 1/5
August 6
freshness 1 1 Rank: 4/5
February 26
Good value 417 Rank: 4/5
December 16
top notch 59 Rank: 5/5
March 30
Estimated accuracy Rank: 1/5
September 22