Wed 9 July 2008 - The last Tintin
We all did stupid things when we were young.
I’m ashamed to admit that one of the sillier things I did in my teenage years was to dispose of my Tintin books.
After a while I realised my mistake, and started collecting them again, book by book. (I decided I preferred the full-size versions, not the 3-in-1 small editions.)
It’s taken me a few years, but last week I finally got the last one to complete the collection*: Flight 714.
Actually since I first owned it, they’ve amended the name to Flight 714 To Sydney, to better match the original French title, though I suspect I’ll always know it as just Flight 714.
When I bought it at Dymocks (their end of financial year 20% off sale) I had to ask for it at the Special Orders counter. I asked the lady why this was the case, and she said that Tintin books, apparently more than anything else in the store, let alone the graphic novel section, get stolen a lot.
Who knew? Apparently there’s a trade in stolen Tintin books. They’re probably smuggled inside statues with broken ears.
Re-reading it brought back some happy memories. Though I got the biggest laugh out of a bit I’d forgotten about, with the Proboscis monkey. And I like the mystery of their rescue.
*My collection does not include The Lake Of Sharks. I originally owned it, but it was not actually written by Herge, and the story is pretty naff. And actually, I don’t have Alph-Art, his uncompleted final work, either, and I don’t really want Land of Soviets. I do have a lovely edition of the original version of Congo that my sister gave me, and a number of very good books about Tintin.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:56am
Hello there
You should get anyway the books not in your collection, they are quite nice, especially “Land of Soviets”.
Guess that no more Tintin books are made :S
Cheers!
JS
July 9th, 2008 at 10:03am
Gawd I used to love Tintin!
Don’t feel so bad, I’ve heard heaps of people gave away/sold things only to regret it later.
But I still don’t regret giving away my ex-hubby, for some reason
July 9th, 2008 at 10:44am
fully loved tin tin when i was a kid! was watching some boys jam their guitars by the bonire on the weekend and one bloke had a picture on his that everyone recognised but it took about 15 minutes before we could say where we recognised him from - it was the captain!
July 9th, 2008 at 12:35pm
George, I don’t think there’s any danger of them going out of print any time soon.
July 9th, 2008 at 2:40pm
Lucky it wasn’t Flight 815 From Sydney
July 9th, 2008 at 3:47pm
why? whats flight 815 from sydney?
July 9th, 2008 at 3:49pm
The plane that crashed on Lost
July 9th, 2008 at 7:55pm
A quick Google figured it out, and led me to Oceanic Airlines, a commonly-used TV/movie name for a trouble-prone airline!
July 9th, 2008 at 9:22pm
What’s wrong with The Land of the Soviets? The book, I mean, not the country.
July 10th, 2008 at 8:38am
Like Congo but moreso, it lacks much of the sophistication and wit of the later stories, and presents the visited country in something of a clichéd manner. I suppose I could get it for completeness, but I doubt I’d ever read it as much as the others.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:14am
The Tintin movie - written by Steven Moffat - is due to be released in about half a year, I heard. I can’t wait.
My favourite Tintin would have to be TinTin and the Picaros.