The Black Island

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The Black Island
(L'Île noire)


Cover of the English edition
Publisher Casterman
Date 1938
Series The Adventures of Tintin (Les aventures de Tintin)
Creative team
Writer(s) Hergé
Artist(s) Hergé
Original publication
Published in Le Petit Vingtième
Date(s) of publication April 15, 1937 - June 16, 1938
Language French
ISBN ISBN 2-203-00106-2
Translation
Publisher Methuen
Date 1966
ISBN ISBN 1-4052-0618-7
Translator(s) Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner
Chronology
Preceded by The Broken Ear, 1937
Followed by King Ottokar's Sceptre, 1939

The Black Island (L'Île noire) is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero.

The Black Island is the seventh in the series of The Adventures of Tintin. It was first published in the newspaper supplement Le Petit Vingtième and published in a black and white album the year after. It is the only Tintin story to have had three major different editions in French.

When The Black Island came to be published in English in 1966, Hergé's British publishers, Methuen, decided that the book did not portray Britain accurately, so Hergé had to rework it completely. Most of Methuen's proposed changes were minor, and perhaps pedantic, like the uniform of a policeman or the style of a train. One quite ironic one was the removal of a colour television in favour of a monochrome one, only a year before colour television was invented.

In this book, Tintin's best-known disguise is when he puts on the traditional Scottish attire.

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Tintin sees a plane making an emergency landing, and goes to help. But as he comes near he is shot by the pilot. Tintin recovers at a hospital where police detectives Thomson and Thompson inform him that a similar plane has crashed in a field in Sussex. Tintin decides to investigate for himself.

While travelling on a train coach in Belgium, Tintin is framed for the assault and theft of a fellow passenger (who is in fact part of the mysterious criminal gang Tintin has inadvertently stumbled upon). He escapes by handcuffing Thompson and Thomson to each other.

Arriving in England he is kidnapped by gangsters who take him to a clifftop, intending to make him jump off it. Tintin escapes thanks to Snowy.

The trail leads Tintin to Dr. J.W. Müller who, with his chauffeur Ivan, is part of a gang of money counterfeiters, led by Puschov, the so-called victim on the train.

Tintin's pursuit of Muller and Ivan ends up in a plane crash in Scotland, where a friendly farmer gets him a kilt to wear. He visits the pub at Kiltoch, where he is told strange stories about the Black Island, where an evil beast is said to roam, killing humans. He buys a boat from a villager and heads for the island. There he is almost killed by a gorilla called Ranko. Stranded on the island, Tintin discovers that it is the hideout of the gang of forgers, led by Puschov and Muller.

Tintin calls the police on their radio signalling device after watching Thompson and Thomson win an air show race on a television set. After a desperate holding-out action (in which Ranko's arm is broken) the gang is captured, and Tintin returns to mainland Kiltoch - but the media and press do not stay very long after Ranko appears.

The gang is jailed and the now docile Ranko is put in a zoo.

[edit] Notes

When The Black Island was originally published in Le Petit Vingtième in 1937, many aspects of the story reflected popular movies of the time, such as Alfred Hitchcock's The Thirty-Nine Steps (the pursuit to Scotland) and King Kong (Ranko the gorilla).

While talking to the old local in the pub, Tintin mentions the Loch Ness Monster which had been the subject of recent newspaper reports.

When The Black Island came to be published in English, Hergé's British publishers, Methuen, decided that the book did not portray Great Britain accurately, so Hergé sent his assistant, Bob de Moor, to Britain to collect material. The story was also updated from the 1930s to the 1960s. [1] [2] The most significant changes:

  • The counterfeiters 1 pound bills were updated to 5 pound bills.
  • Snowy now drinks "Loch Lomond" while on the train.
  • The use and portrayal of firearms was reduced.
  • Some of Snowy's injuries, either from Tintin's doing or by accident were removed.
  • Marco Rizotto and Christopher Willoughby-Drupe were added in a frame.
  • 1930s model cars were updated to contemporary 1960s models.
  • Tintin's hair colour was darkened and his brown suit was changed to his blue sweater and knickerbockers. The other characters' clothing was updated as well.

The gang that Tintin confronts is made up of a wide variety of figures:

  • Wronzoff (or Puschov in the English version) wears a huge beard which implies that he is a Jew.
  • The name Dr. J.W. Müller implies that the character is a German, maybe even a secret agent out to destabilise the British economy. In Tintin The Complete Companion, author Michael Farr suggests that Muller is based on Georg Bell, who was an associate of Nazi leader Ernst Röhm.

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1] - Scans from the 1943 colour album (in Dutch).
  2. ^ History of the Black Island at Tintinologist.org
The Adventures of Tintin
Creation of Tintin · Books, films, and media · Ideology of Tintin
Characters: Supporting · Minor · Complete list
Miscellany: Hergé · Marlinspike · Captain Haddock's exclamations
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