My review, as posted in Tintin Books

The perils of this album are well-documented: written before Herge awoke to a wider worldview, and when he was still a pencil for hire, this is a propaganda piece and nothing more. Tintin as a reporter is an Everyman thrust into a land of corrupt politicians, and evil overlords.

To me, there's something messily beautiful about Herge's boyish scrawl. It's not polished, true, but that pudgy little potato boy and his scruffy dog make for delightful heroes, even if they barely do anything individual here at all. It's certainly a trademark of Tintin that henchmen concoct elaborate schemes to bring him down, but most of the time here he seems to slip out of these by chance in this book.

It makes sense though, since this book was published as a serial not one album, of course. Still a fascinating insight into how much Tintin himself doesn't really change: he becomes no less ambiguous in his nature and personality (a blank slate, I fear) but his investigative skills certainly do get better.

Even here, Herge is managing to capture atmosphere in his panels very well; it's just a pity that the atmosphere is so rigidly stereotyped. ( )

I came across Tintin adventures in several comic magazines over the years but this was first time I managed to get my hands on the collected works of Herge.

And so I started with the first volume and I gotta say it is a huge disappointment. I was not aware this was the weakest one in offering both in the visual presentation and story.

First the story - if you want to read something that has almost every stereotype about the pre-WW2 Russia then you need not to look any further. Stereotypes are portrayed in such a way that entire comics strip reads like a political pamphlet. It is shallow as it can be but considering the West's sentiment towards the revolution in Russia at the time and considering it was commissioned by conservative Belgium newspaper this is understandable. Also since this was serialized in the newspapers over a year period story seems disjointed and looks more like a collection of independent gags/sketches instead of comic strips linked by a cohesive story. So for this one star down.

Unfortunately additional two stars go down for the presentation. I understand that at some point comic plates got damaged and details were lost but art here is Crude (note the capital C). At some parts everything looks like a doodle, first draft of comic - take for example couple of panels portraying Tintin - his head is so lost in the doodle that if it weren't for the arms and torso I would not know it was human being in the panel at all. Some parts are well drawn (i.e. boat chase) but other is so crude it borders with almost sloppy. If you compared this to later works (even with the immediate follow up - adventure in Congo) it is like two completely different artists worked on the comic.

If you have not read Tintin before then trust me that later works get much better in both story and visuals so treat this one as curiosity. Thankfully Herge moved on to write much better stories after this one.

Recommended to completionists and collectors. For all others skip it and move on to later Tintin adventures. ( )

Interesting only as a peek into the beginnings of a character. The flow of the story was a bit too 'jumpy' for my taste. But I liked seeing that part where Tintin gets his trademark cow-lick hair (I heard about this from a Tintin tour in a local bookstore). ( )

This reads like a collection of 2-page magazine comics that Hergé never meant to be stitched together, yet was into this book. They do follow a story arc, but lack any and all cohesion past that. Tintin's having tiny sub-adventures on a back-to-back basis, and I come out with a light headache, feeling like I've been just been beaten and badgered around like poor Tintin every 2 pages. ( )

Early Tin Tin, from the days when he seldom had a mouth, and Snowy had a rectangular face. This story is action all the way with the two characters escaping from one near death experience into another, over and over again, until they are finally welcomed home to Belgium as Heroes. Fun, quick read. ( )