A review by franderochefort
Tintin au Congo by Hergé

1.0

The reputation of Tintin au Congo really does precede it, and if you're looking for shocking material you won't be disappointed - the Belgian empire propaganda and the braindead caricatures of the Congolese are as bad as you've heard and there's also an eye-watering amount of quite senseless cruelty to animals that had the unintentional effect of making me want to see the local fauna give the iconic reporter a proper comeuppance. Even leaving aside the fact this is Tintin's Censored Eleven episode however, Tintin au Congo is pretty dreadful just as a story and easily the worst thing I've read in French to date - it recapitulates the plotlessness of Soviets and while the art style is slightly improved and it's more abbreviated by comparison, it's still startling how little actually happens or connects together. The introduction of Al Capone as the big bad only presages the following, better volume in the series and it's really that which feels like the start of this series proper. At least this was easy and quick to read.