Out of sight, out of mind
In the controversial
"Tintin in the Congo," the blacks are a colonizer's wet dream. But at least there were blacks in Africa.
In the United States, publishers refused to print as-is the first English translation of cartoonist
Hergé's follow-up work,
"Tintin in America." As with the American populace, there were blacks within -- and that kind of realism, it turns out, was a no-no.
Let's start with page one, as our intrepid reporter arrives in Chicago. A group of racially mixed criminals -- including a black man -- receive their anti-Tintin marching orders from the big bad kahuna. The black guy goes bye-bye in the American edition. A few pages later, a black doorman becomes a pale male. And a black woman holding her baby becomes white, as does the tyke. In short, the blacks are disappeared.
American publishers, notes
Frederic Soumois in his 1987 book, "Dossier Tintin," refused to allow the mixing of the races.
When did this occur, you ask? The first American edition of
"Tintin in America" was published in... 1973.