This is my first review of the popular Tintin comics. I chose this pair of “Destination Moon” and “Explorers on the Moon” since they are my first ever Tintin comics that I got when I was just a kid. Besides being my first collection, they are special since they contributed to my love of Rockets and Space travel. I used to have a complete collection of Tintin comics but I gave them away to other kids who haven’t read them. Hopefully they will get the Tintin’s bug that would enrich their knowledge and fantasy. Tintin stories also are good for kids since they contain lessons of life, morals, and creativity. Tintin has been my role model. Tintin has a dog named Snowy and some best friends who are just like his family. Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, Nestor, Chang, Abdullah, Thomson & Thompson, and Bianca Castafiore are just few names in Tintin’s world.
When I first got the “Destination Moon”, the design of the rocket was the center of my attention. There is a simplified blue print in the middle of the book which became my source of inspiration. Tintin has been translated into many languages and if I have to compare between english edition and my native language, I found it is much funnier in my native language’s edition. The translator did a good job on taking liberty of making loose translation and names closer into what folks in my native language could find relation to. I still have good laugh when reading the english edition. Unfortunately I don’t speak any other European languages (Dutch, French, German, etc). Perhaps I could find them even funnier if I understand those languages. It is a good cause for me to start learning those languages.
There was a significant time delay before I got the “Explorers on the Moon” book, which is the continuation from the first book, “Destination Moon”. If the first book has full of surprises and laughters, the second book is a bit “darker”. However, the author (Hergé) did a good job on making the story to be still kids friendly. Thomson & Thompson have few scenes that could make you chuckle from their silly acts.
To my surprise, there has not been many attempts to launch rocket in this proportion and shape and land it vertically. Perhaps the closest one was from Space-X and Blue Origin rockets. To give us a perspective, these comics were made in the early 50s. That’s way before we even dared to send humans to the moon and bring them back safely to earth. The author has rich imagination and creativity by creating and illustrating these books. I had fun looking at some of the artifacts and tools that were shown in “Explorers on the Moon”. They are almost similar with what we did when astronauts landed on the moon. The moon tank and the space suits are probably an exception (we had moon rover and the space suits are different). Perhaps I have to give caution that this book is not for historical accuracy. Seriously, it’s not Tintin and friends who first landed on the moon (are they?). For kids who love this genre, this is a good starting point.
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