Tezuka and Hergé: International Tropes

            As I was reading The Mysterious Underground Men, I couldn’t help but think of The Adventures of Tintin and the similarities between their conceptual features. Although two very different comics, both feature a young male protagonist with incredible skills and mental prowess, the communicative animal companion, the bumbling adults getting in the way etc. The set up of the two comics seems to be very similar.

           

            However, if you look beyond the basic set up the similarities seem become much more complex. Aside from the lack of explanation for Snowy and the overt explanation of Mimio, their characters serve very different purposes. Mimio does not serve as a narrator or commentator directly to the audience. Both characters do, however, help get their friends out of tough situations and display great intelligence and courage. The two lead male characters are both highly intelligent and oddly accomplished for their age. Rocket science and hard-hitting reporting careers are very rarely associated with young boys. That being said, while Tintin seems to be fighting for truth and fairness against bad guys, Young John and his moral fiber are not the focus of the Tezuka comic. Really, Mimio takes center stage and the comic really centers on Mimio’s preoccupation with humanness. The main conflict of the graphic comic may be the fight against the Underground termite group, but it reads on a much more esoteric level, asking questions about humanity as a concept. Tintin’s own subversiveness, about capitalism etc., is much subtler and never directly discussed.

            At the end of the day it really feels like the intention of the two could not have been more different. The moralizing simplicity of the Tintin and his adventures seems diametrically opposed to the complex moral gray area that Young John inhabits. This seems to serve as an interesting commentary on the differences in the two industries that exist even today. While comics in America were made to conform to the comics code and generally tended towards themes appropriate for their young audience, Japanese manga has always been read and consumed by a larger audience. Additionally what was thought acceptable for children was also culturally very different. These areas added up to create very different markets, which favored very different types of media, creating the divergence we see in the modern comic market.