In Hergé's work, animals are never far from the heroes, when they are not themselves stars in their own right, like, of course, Snowy, the reporter's faithful (and for a long time only) companion and interlocutor.
Adventure is synonymous with exoticism, and what could be more exotic for a young Belgian ‘born’ at the dawn of the 1930s and for his no less young readers of that era (...and those that followed) than to meet ‘for real’ the lords of the forest, the savannah or the oceans - lions, gorillas, giraffes, pythons, sharks and so many others. According to exegetes, 112 species, wild or domestic, appear in the 23 albums of the saga!
During his travels in Africa, Asia, the Americas and even Europe, Tintin never stopped coming across animals... sometimes to their great misfortune, because protecting nature was not a priority for a cartoonist in the thirties, nor for those who read his stories... Fortunately, times have changed and Tintin himself has become better and better at dealing with animals, as recounted here by knowledgeable ‘tintinologists’ such as Philippe Goddin, Jacques Langlois and Thomas Sertillanges.
Today - and the scientists and historians (who are often fans of Hergé's work themselves!) who contributed to this album make it clear - we know that animals are not so far removed genetically from their human brethren and that each of them is a subject in its own right.
128 pages - hardcover - French - limited & numbered