Surely the reason for the sales success is because Aussie opposition leader Kevin Rudd looks like TinTin. 
To out this in context, Herge was part of a right-wing/fascist movement with collaborated with Hitler's genocidal regime.
I don't believe in censoring Tin Tin. But to see it as "innocent" is wrong. It was part of a cultural mind set which saw it as right for Europeans to rule African lands and to treat Africans as something less than fully human. Don't forget that the Congo was ruled viciously by the Belgian King Leopold and his Belgian officials. About a million people died directly as a result of the colonial experience; people had hands and legs cut off for not co-operating with the regime; and there was institutional slavery. Not a pretty chapter in the history of overseas intervention by Europeans.
field
Is that right about Herge? I have to admit i was totally unaware of that fact.
I agree with you that the Belgians should look back on their episodes in the Congo with total shame.
However, i strongly believe that books such as Tintin are now historical documents. They tell us of the pre-War attitudes that prevailed at the time.
To erase them from history is to erase our history - the fact that this is a less glorious part of our history is not the point.
Just bought my copy.
Jeremy
I would be fascinated to read it. Is it aggressively racist or is it more a benign patronising racism?
I find this to be funny in a weird sort of a way... who guessed that condemnation would garner this thing so much exposure and popularity?
Reverse psychology....
Ruth - indeed. i am rather hoping the CRE will ban this blog.
As a child I was a big fan of Tintin and also Rupert the bear which also depicted Africans in a somewhat similar light. However I never really associated the characters in the book with black people I saw on the streets of London. I simply assumed that this was how tribes-people in the very remotest parts of deepest Africa behaved - some time ago [well aware that the books were not contemporary]. I certainly don't think they made me into a racist.
Deep down this ban has its own bigotry. That somehow White children are too stupid to work this out for themselves.
Wolfie
Have you joined up BP now? welcome!
Hmmmmm how sad. Tin Tin is funny.
Banning a book is telling people that they are not capable of working out their own minds in being able to think critically.
How silly.who makes the decision to say taht Tin Tin is racist?
cheayee
you are very right.
....still pending 
thanks TDK
I can just see the do-gooders fuming at this statistic! They are like the nerd that nobody likes but got voted school captain because the teachers couldn't think of anyone 'suitable'.
Commenting by HaloScan
