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!

TINTIN COVERS 3 – Weird Science

 

This is the third of a series of four posts about the fannish Tintin phenomena and the predilection of artistic fans to put their own spin on the famous Hergé series.

In the last Tintin post, The Lovecraft Connection, I showed a few fan-made Lovecraft-Tintin mashups, which placed Tintin in contact with Cthulhu mythos creatures and situations.  In this post I want to show a few clever science fiction covers produced by fans.

We know that Hergé had an interest in science fiction with the publication of The Shooting Star and the two-part lunar story, Destination Moon & Explorers on the Moon.

See if you can guess what famous books and movies these covers are referring to:  some are obvious, and a couple are more esoteric, but all are made with respect to Tintin and the works of Hergé.

The Magneto Affair not an overtly Tintin mashup cover, but the style is unmistakable.

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:  A few more weird science covers

 

                                                                                          CoastConFan

TINTIN COVERS 2 – The Lovecraft Connection

Previously, I posted Tintin Covers 1 – The Realty, about the sale of original Hergé artwork in Paris.  Now I want to show you some fan-made covers that are strictly non-canon.  I have been a fan of H. P. Lovecraft since I was young, although not as long as having been a TinTin fan.  But my enjoyment of both goes way back, nonetheless.

Fans have produced their own covers for nonexistent books, supposing a Lovecraft – Hergé connection that never was.  Fan art is a mainstay of fandom and no less than in Tintin and Lovecraft fandom, so mashups were inevitable.

  

 

These covers don’t undermine either genre, but rather show support for existing works.  Enjoy these covers in the playful spirit they were created.  It’s a pity that the complete books never really existed, but it’s nice to think they might in a parallel universe. 

We no long have H. P. Lovecraft or Hergé producing stories, but their corpus of works have been influential for a good portion of the 20^th century and into the 21^st.  I hope that in presenting these fan-made covers that people will be influenced to read the original works of both H. P. Lovecraft and Georges Remi a.k.a. Hergé.

 

One of the most prolific of the fan Tintin/Lovecraft mashup artists is Muzski, who is actually Murray Groat.  You can see more of his works at DeviantArt.

 

 

This post is a follow up to the one I made previously about the same subject, Lovecraft Tintin Books – Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together, February 25, 2011, and I felt there was so much good material out there, that I had to expand on the idea.

 

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  

I had to post this Peanuts/Lovecraft cover, although it is dangerously close to Cutethulu.  I always thought there was something eldritch about the Great Pumpkin. 

UPDATE 2014:  a few more Tintin Cthonian covers below for you to ponder:

TINTIN COVERS 1 – The Reality

I previously posted a few ersatz TinTin covers here on the blog that had Lovecraftian and themes.  Nearly as interesting as fan art is the fact that an early original cover recently at auction at $1.6 million at a Paris auction.  Now fans are typically broke, but the anonymous and anomalous buyer of this work clearly was not the typical Tintin fan.

 

This is the cover to Tintin in America (Tintin en Amerique) for the original 1932 non-English edition and was painted by Hergé himself.   

Subsequent and English editions had a variety of different cover art.  Over the span of years Hergé refreshed his books to keep the style and context up to date, so collecting Tintin books don’t just stop with having one of each book since there are a number of variations for each title in each language.

Other rare Hergé originals were on sale like this Red Rackham’s Treasure battle scene, above.

And this wide-angle work from Flight 714, above.

Three variant covers on the English language version
of Tintin in America

This is the first of a four part series about Tintin covers and how fans’ love of Hergé's creation spawned (and I do mean spawned) a plethora of faux covers from pastiches to mashups, but most generally done with love and admiration. 

                                                                                           CoastConFan

TINTIN COVERS 1 – The Reality   The first a four part series, posted here.

TINTIN COVERS 2 – The Lovecraft Connection 

TINTIN COVERS 3 – Weird Science

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

Update  GREAT SNAKES!  MORE TINTIN COVERS