Tintin and the Picaros

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Tintin and the Picaros (Tintin et les Picaros) is one of 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 was the most controversial of the Tintin stories since the first two (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo).

It was poorly received by fans, who despised all the changes brought to their beloved characters: Tintin doesn't like adventuring anymore, Captain Haddock no longer drinks whisky, General Alcazar's virility is ridiculed by his new dominant wife, etc.

Storyline

Tintin hears in the news that Bianca Castafiore and her entourage have been imprisoned for fraud and trying to overthrow the government in San Theodoros, where General Tapioca has displaced 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. 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 drunks since Tapioca dropped copious quantities of alcohol near them. 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, Alcazar launches an assault on Tapioca's palace during the carnival; he has stolen the costumes of Jolyon Wagg's Jolly Follies, who intended to perform there. He topples Tapioca, letting him give his wife the palace he has promised.

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 twin 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.

Tintin and his friends had all been framed by their old enemy Colonel Sponsz from The Calculus Affair. They now fly back home.

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, and even riding a motorbike. Particularly irksome to many fans was the fact that Tintin has traded his standard plus fours in for a pair of flared jeans (the book was written in the 1970s).

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

Template:Tintin bookses:Tintín y los 'Pícaros' fr:Tintin et les Picaros id:Tintin dan Picaros nl:Kuifje en de Picaro's sv:Tintin hos gerillan