Tintin in Slavers´ Bay

“The Red Sea Sharks”, originally published in 1956-58, is the 19th volume of “The Adventures of Tintin”, the popular Franco-Belgian comic created by Georges Remi (better known under his pen name Hergé). It has been described as a Tintin family reunion, since many of the supplemental characters from earlier volumes reappear, including General Alcazar, Bianca Castafiore and the arch-villain Rastapopoulos. The story itself is a relative straightforward Tintin adventure, with all the usual ingredients (including the hopelessly racist depiction of Black Africans).

I don't consider “The Red Sea Sharks” *that* interesting, but one aspect is worth noting. When I read the comic in my early teens, I considered the plot awfully unrealistic, since it centers on trade in Black slaves. Surely such things ended centuries ago? In reality, slavery and the slave trade had survived in Saudi Arabia until the 1950's. Hergé got the idea to “The Red Sea Sharks” after reading a magazine article about how Blacks were kidnapped on route to Mekka and sold into slavery. In the comic, however, the main slaver is the White European Rastapopoulos, although he has Arabs working for him. It's unfortunate that a story with an abolitionist message nevertheless depicts Black Africans as stupid!

I'm not sure how to rate this album. With some reservations, I give it three stars.