Tintin and the Picaros

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Tintin Tintin and the Picaros
Comics by Hergé
Released	1976
Publisher	Casterman
Genre	Bande dessinée
Pages	62
Tintin chronology
Flight 714 (1968)	Tintin and the Picaros (1976)	Tintin and Alph-Art (1986)

Tintin and the Picaros (Tintin et les Picaros) 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.

Tintin et les Picaros is the twenty-third and final completed book in the series. It caused the most controversy of the Tintin stories since the first two (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo), although the controversies were aesthetic rather than political. Tintin doesn't like adventuring anymore and has abandoned his trademark plus fours, Captain Haddock can no longer drink whisky, and General Alcazar's masculinity is ridiculed by his new dominant wife.

[edit] Synopsis

Tintin hears in the news that Bianca Castafiore, her entourage, and Thomson and Thompson have been imprisoned for fraud and for trying to overthrow the government in San Theodoros, where General Tapioca has deposed Tintin's old friend, General Alcazar. Tintin, Calculus and Haddock soon become embroiled in the accusations, and, travelling to San Theodoros to clear their names, find themselves caught in a trap laid by their old enemy, Colonel Sponsz from The Calculus Affair, who has been sent by the nation of Borduria to assist Tapioca. Escaping, they join Alcazar and his small band of guerillas, the Picaros, in a forest near an Indian village.

To Alcazar's dismay, his men have become drunkards since Tapioca dropped copious quantities of alcohol on their camp. Calculus, however, has invented a pill which will make alcohol unpalatable to anyone who ingests it (which he proves to have tested on Haddock, much to the latter's ire). With his men cured, and the arrival of Jolyon Wagg's musical troupe the Jolly Follies, who intended to perform in San Theodoros, Alcazar - with a little advice from Tintin - launches an assault on Tapioca's palace during the carnival by 'borrowing' the troupe's costumes and sneaking his men into the city. He topples Tapioca, but on Tintin's urging Tapioca is not executed, as is tradition; instead he is exiled and Sponsz is brought back to Borduria.

For their part in the so-called conspiracy, Thomson and Thompson are to be executed by firing squad (although as naive as ever in their observations, the detectives show courage by refusing to be blindfolded). Tintin and Haddock reach the state prison in time to prevent the executions from taking place. Castafiore, her maid and her pianist are also released, and Alcazar can finally give his wife the palace he has promised. With everything back in order (or not), all return home.

[edit] Notes

Contrary to the optimism of his earlier works, Hergé here presents a more world-weary and (perhaps) less naive Tintin who aids a coup (demanding, admittedly, that no one be killed) only to free his friends from prison. The final frames of the book show that the coup has brought no improvement to the lives of the poor people of San Theodoras, and Tintin, tired of adventure for once, joins Haddock in wishing to return to the peace and quiet of home.

The book showed another break with Hergé's previous style - Tintin is depicted differently, practicing yoga in his spare time, even riding a motorbike, and trading in his standard plus fours in for a pair of bell-bottoms.

As in The Broken Ear, the invented language of the Arumbayas was originally based on Marols, the Brussels dialect spoken by Hergé's grandmother. The English translation replaces this with a version of pidgin English.

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