Tintin and the Picaros
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Tintin and the Picaros (originally Tintin et les Picaros) is one of a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero.
Tintin et les Picaros is the twenty-third and final completed book in the series. It was the most controversial of the Tintin stories since the first (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets). Contrary to Hergé's previous style, Tintin is seen as an actual individual, rather than a blank silhouette. Indeed, we find in this story, that Tintin practises yoga in his spare time, and even rides a motorbike. Particularly irksome to many fans was the fact that Tintin has traded his standard plus fours for a pair of flared jeans.
Storyline
Tintin hears in the news that Bianca Castafiore is imprisoned for fraud and trying to abolish the government in San Theodoros where a battle rages between General Alcazar and General Tapioca. Tintin finds the general in a truck loaded with his guerillas, the Picaros, in a forest near an Indian village. The natives welcome them as they have met an explorer and Tintin earlier. Tintin joins the Picaros to destroy Tapioca's government and win the revolution. They topple Tapioca and Alcazar gives his wife a palace as Tintin flies away in a jet plane for home.
As in The Broken Ear, the invented language of the Arumbayas (at least in the original version, translations may differ) is actually based on Marols, the Brussels Flemish dialect Hergé's grandmother spoke.
Contrary to the more certain politics of earlier works such as Tintin in the Land of the Soviets or King Ottokar's Sceptre, Hergé here presents a more weary and (perhaps) less naive Tintin who permits (with large restrictions) a coup insofar that it serves his means. It is a coup that brings no change to the people of San Theodoras, rather than a triumphant liberation and Tintin, fatigued of adventure, wises to return home rather than bask in the moment.
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