Great Snakes! More TinTin Covers

Just when I thought I had a handle on faux Tintin covers …

They keep turning up.  Fans still love Tintin pastiches and continue to grind out covers for nonexistent books with tantalizing titles that never were.  I have slowly accumulated a few more Tintin covers to put together another Tintin blog entry, only to find that there is a fellow on the web that has the most amazing accumulation of Tintin tribute covers as well as a number of political/satire covers all in one spot.

 

I actually haven’t been aggressively pursuing more Tintin covers, but when an interesting one turned up, I tossed into a pile for an additional entry.  In this blog post, I have scattered about a few “new” covers that I turned up earlier, rather than plug them in to the categories I had previously established in older blog entries.  But I have hit the mother lode.   

Dave Ahl (SwapMeetDave) contacted me recently to let me know he had a huge trove of Tintin covers the like of which I have never seen.  He was right!  Let me caution you, SwapMeetDave’s collection of ersatz and unauthorized Tintin covers number in the hundreds, so expect to be overwhelmed. 

I have to take my hat off to this diligent collector of Tintin covers as Dave Ahl has surpassed my expectation of just how many covers might be out there.  I invite you all to go to his website to view his amazing collection – just use the links provided below.             CoastConFan

Original Tintin cover variants and other language editions from SwapMeetDave

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Herge/Tintin-cvr-sm/index.htm

Ersatz Tintin covers from SwapmeetDave

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Herge/Tintin-cvr-sm/

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Herge/Tintin-cvr-sm-1/Tin-Cvr-Sim.htm

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Herge/Tintin-cvr-sm-2/Tin-Cvr-Diff.htm

SwapMeetDave also has a cover contest for faux Tintin covers created by fans and he’d like submissions.  http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Herge/Tintin-cvr-contest/Design-Cover.htm

Tintin Postal Items and Philately from SwapMeetDave

http://swapmeetdave.com/Herge/Philately/index.htm

Previous CoastConFan blog posts on Tintin covers that I have made over the years: 

TinTin Covers 1 – The Reality

Tintin Covers 2 -- Lovecraft Connection

Tintin Covers 3 – Weird Science  

Tintin Covers 4 – Politics, Parody, Pastiches, and Irony

Classic Animated Tintin – CoC Game Ideas and Shameless Escapism

Lovecraft Tintin Books – Two Great Tastes, That Taste Great Together

OK, this last cover is a cheat as it’s not Herge or Tintin inspired but a Lovecraft and Dr Seuss inspired mashup – so I cheat at lists, so what. 

TINTIN COVERS 4 – Politics, Parody, Pastiches, and Irony

Tintin is an international icon, which in this post-modern world, seems to make him a target and vector for politics and messages.  Needless to say, none of these works are canon and Hergé would probably object to their messages.   In fact, I haven’t included a number of existing fan covers due to them being highly objectionable. I can't always agree with everybody, but I think that everybody has a right to be heard. 

Ironically enough, some of the original Tintin books have been under attack by various groups with “modern” agendas.  You can find those debates on line easily enough, if that's your cup of tea.  Hergé was born in 1907 and was brought up in the milieu (not Milou) of his era.  The first Tintin story appeared in print in 1929, over 80 years ago, although he had other works previous to that time.  Undoubtedly, his works will be continue to be studied, discussed, copied, and satirized for years to come.

I can’t say I agree with the message of these unauthorized covers and works, but I have included some of them here to show what a powerful iconic image Tintin is, within not only our culture, but in many cultures.  Tintin is printed in 98 languages and dialects, which gives Tintin global impact.  But I’m no Tintin scholar, just a long-time fan.

I haven’t made this an exhaustive list of ersatz Tintin covers, because I believe that Hergé intended for Tintin to be a young adult’s book and there are a number of subjects that he did not cover.  I won’t either because this is a family friendly, safe-for-work blog.

I have posted previously about my father reading Tintin books to me while I was a very small child and how important reading to children is to their development.  Children model themselves on their parent(s), peer group, and their society.  Set a good example and make them not just literate, but love reading and writing.  Kids these days need to be armed with literacy and have informed, critical thinking.  I’d like to think that the Tintin books had a hand in that, in my case.

                                                                                                                  CoastConFan

 TINTIN COVERS 1 – The Reality

TINTIN COVERS 2 – The Lovecraft Connection

TINTIN COVERS 3 – Weird Science

TINTIN COVERS 4 – Politics, Parody, Pastiches, and Irony

TINTIN COVERS 5 -  Great Snakes! - More Tintin Covers

Update 2014

This last one strikes dangerously close to home!