The Tintin Riddle

Almost every page detailing the adventures of Tintin includes a near-death escape from which the hero escapes through either implausible coincidence bordering on divine intervention. Formulaic though this might seem, I found in my reading that the interaction of the visual form with the plot of the story produces an interesting effect on these coincidences, making them seem more like riddles or puzzles. First and foremost, the stylistic conventions of Herge's 'ligne claire' art make evident that suspension of disbelief is a prerequisite for reading. The approach to a 'simplified' style that makes frequent use of typical comics emanata and icons (such as stars of pain, drops of sweat, squiggles of confusion, and so on) plainly indicates that the stories told in such a style are going to require the cooperation of the reader's fantastical and adventurous sensibilities. As distinct a character as Tintin undoubtedly is, he is also fairly indeterminate: readers do not know his age, his country of origin (the translation we read interestingly removes some references to Belgium), or how he gained his considerable reputation. Clearly there is meant to be room for projection and the style welcomes the reader to cooperate in building Tintin as the international man of mystery. And of course, once the reader is involved in bringing the fantastical hero to life, the adventure cannot kill the character or it would, by extension, figuratively kill the reader. That is not what a Tintin adventure seeks to do. Instead, Tintin always escapes by some coincidence bordering on outlandish. One telling panel in Tintin in America has an agent from World Vaudeville Inc. offering Tintin a contract (46). But more than just vaudeville or slapstick, the visuals of the comic offer the reader the classic riddle of figuring out 'how did he get out?'

The answer to this riddle is usually the same as the answer to the question 'what wasn't shown?' I come from a background in film and one of the principles I adhere to is that the framing of a shot asks a question that is answered by something out of the frame that will come at some point in the sequence of shots. It is a very basic principle that has deep implications for any visual medium that works with images that are both contained and sequential, like both film and comics. It means that a frame or panel is always simultaneously asking a question and answering another question issuing from somewhere else in the sequence. Tintin uses this principle to great effect by rearranging the sequence. Tintin may, for example, plunge off of a cliff, leaving only a confused question mark hovering in the air (26). It is only until Snowy takes the same plunge that the panels 'move' to answer the question of how Tintin survived. There are many other examples; as previously mentioned, coincidences are the primary storytelling device of the Tintin adventures. But by far my favorite use comes during Cigars of the Pharaoh. Tintin has stumbled into a cloaked secret society and must go into a room with the leader and give a certain password. One by one, the members are called in. Cloaked figures file out in an orderly exposition until only one remains, anxious sweat drops flying from his head. The lone figure walks into the next room and is immediately knocked unconscious by Tintin, who reveals in a bit of expository dialogue that, luckily, he was the first to be called. I find this part particularly noteworthy because the removal of identity means that there is a considerably long stretch of suspended information. More information is being withheld, leaving more to guess at until the panels move us along. We might think Tintin is the last figure, sweating anxiously at the end of the long table. We might speculate what intervention will save Tintin from his fate. Only until the sequence answers the question the panels left unanswered do we find out that, behind the curtain, Tintin was taking control of the situation from the start. The withholding of information briefly leaves a space charged with potential for action, an unsolved riddle.