Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin is a fast-paced comic series that throws the hero, Tintin, into one risky enterprise after another. The one constant throughout the series (besides his banana-colored polo shirt and khaki pants), though, is the presence of his canine companion, Snowy.
At first, one might think that Tintin and Snowy are always talking to each other. But, the number of speech bubbles that appear when one character speaks to the other, illustrates how their conversations are rather one-sided. That is, Tintin says one thing in one speech bubble, then Snowy says something else in a second, though not necessarily in response to what his master says. Hergé's decision to have Snowy speak is playful and comedic. Moreover, it suggests that he wanted his bandes dessinées to appeal to a younger audience. Tintin's conversations with his dog are much like how a child talks to his or her imaginary friend, and many children surely would have related to this.
Interestingly, Hergé takes a step further in Cigars of the Pharaoh when he places Tintin among a herd of elephants (page 100-101). The elephants in this scene converse with one another and say things to Tintin. It's clear that he doesn't understand, because he doesn't offer a response. However, for the first time, Tintin tries to learn the language of the animal with whom he's speaking. By carving out a trumpet, he can suddenly communicate with the elephants. This makes one wonder why Tintin doesn't have a similar device for "speaking dog." Despite this inconsistency, these animal-to-human conversations further show the child-like quality of the hero, who is often in very adult-like situations.
I’ve tried to figure out Tintin and Snowy’s relationship for quite some time. When I read these as a young kid, I definitely thought they were talking to each other. Some of the dialogue they say does make sense, but most of the time, as you pointed out, it doesn’t.
ReplyDeleteYou could argue, then, that Snowy’s dialogue isn’t really important to the story itself since we’re essentially just seeing Snowy’s thoughts. Besides the fact that I love Snowy’s comments, which can be hilariously rude, I can’t imagine these stories without Snowy. He provides so much, yet in such a seemingly insignificant way. Sure, he saves the day every once in a while, but he provides something – comic relief perhaps…duality…I can’t quite put my finger on it. I’m trying to think of a similar relationship in popular culture and I’m having a hard time. Snowy is just…Snowy. And I can’t imagine Tintin without him. It would be interesting to see how Tintin and Snowy’s relationship progresses over time. I’m a bit rusty in terms of my Tintin knowledge, but Professor pointed out that Snowy’s dialogue starts to disappear as Thompson and Thomson get more “screen time.” So it’s possible that Tintin’s character just needs more depth, or something to round his character a little more.