Race and gender in Earthsea

Do you think comics are a children's or adult genre/media?

How does Farr (1991) justify Tintin's appeal to adults?

Certainly, comics can be marketed for adults. In fact there are some blatantly pornographic Manga comics that are aimed solely at adults. Japanese office workers read these on the train away from their family. When they get to the station, there are waste bins conveniently located, with notices on them, “Let’s not bring bad books home”.

There are also some comic strips, largely satire, that appeal to children and adults. Footrot flats is one example. On one level it has likeable characters that get into scrapes and do funny things. On another, it provides a useful commentary about New Zealand society. As an animal rights activist, I find Dog to be an enigmatic character, typical of many meat eating humans. He is fully aware of the killing and carnage prevalent in New Zealand society (as a farm-dog, he couldn’t not be), and not always comfortable with it, but he is too weak to change anything.

One cartoon strip, which unfortunately I can’t find, has Dog and Wal going possum shooting. Dog muses. “I know that possums are pests, but I can’t help thinking that in some other situation, we might be able to come to a solution that doesn’t involve shooting them.....

Like if they could shoot back.”

Footrot flats is a strip, and this genre lends itself well to making satirical points. Tintin, and other children’s comics like Asterix on the other hand are not meant to be read like sound bites. They are more like graphic novels. But in my opinion (and I was a keen reader of Asterix as a child) they fall short when it comes to engaging with adults.

Michael Farr considers that the quality of the drawing, the attention to detail, and the anticipation of world events justifies their appeal to adults. I don’t agree. The anticipation of and understanding of world events is superficial at best.

In the Blue lotus for example, the political situation is very black and white. The Chinese are good, the Japanese are bad, and the European colonials are buffoons. In fact, the political situation in China at that time was more complex.

There were at least two major factions in China, the Communists and the Nationalists; both were funded by the Soviet Union at some stage. Neither side were particularly good and both used torture and mass killing to advance their causes. According to Jung Chang’s book on the life of Mao, the Communists even made use of the Japanese invasion to further their own aims.

As was pointed out in class, Herge tried hard to present an anti-racist message and to destroy stereotypes about China but ended up establishing new ones. Tintin implied that eating rotten eggs is a rather backward thing to do. In fact, “rotten” food is popular in all cultures. In the west however, Stilton and other strong cheeses are called ‘fermented’ food, which makes it sound more acceptable.

Herge stated in the same strip that the practice of foot binding was a thing of the past. Unfortunately not true at the time it was written. Photographer Jo Farrell has taken photographs of the bound feet of old women born between 1921 and 1933. https://www.buzzfeed.com/hayleycampbell/lotus-feet?utm_term=.jqJm5M1y2#.mfPnaRvb0

Those who want to learn about pre-war Shanghai would be best to read non-fiction by Jung Chang, or the excellent Empire under the sun, which treated the Europeans, Japanese and Chinese in a more nuanced manner. Foot binding and life for Chinese peasants at around the same time is also expertly described in The good Earth.   

Tintin is more like the Famous Five in its simplistic good vs. evil mindset, and its implausible super-hero.  While the drawings may be accurate, Tintin is not a good source for learning about history, or human nature generally.