Talk:The Black Island

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Extent of the British rework
Between June and August 2008, there was a display in Valencia, Spain, of many memorabilia of Jordi Tardà's collection on Tintin. One of the panels in the display said that Methuen had requested a partial rework to better reflect Great Britain, followed by a statement that corroborates Wikipedia in that Bob de Moor was sent to the island to take pictures and drawings. However, the display stated that it was Hergé's initiative to completely redraw the book from scratch instead of only doing it partially as originally requested.

As I recall, the panel with this amount of information was actually a reproduction from the Tintin magazine of the 60's, which would make the latter a primary source and therefore eligible as a Wikipedia reference. I am going to check it and edit the information here. SrAtoz (talk) 18:52, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Air race or aerobatics display?
In my UK edition of the book the Thompsons are performing aerobatics and win the cup, making me think that it's not an air race as given here. Blue painted (talk) 11:20, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

A few issues
First of all, let me just say thanks to the author(s) of these articles. I've really enjoyed being able to check out a well-written, comprehensive Wiki article after reading each Tintin adventure. It's amazing to see how many of these have made it to GA (and even FA in a few cases). Keep up the good work!

There are a few issues with this article though, that I think should be addressed (if possible). I also left some comments at Talk:The Broken Ear, and if anyone's watching this page and wants to help out, then it might be good to check out that page as well.


 * When discussing the changes made for the 1943 version of the story, it's said that the television screen was depicted as being in color, "despite the fact that such technology was not yet available in the United Kingdom". I find the phrasing here to be rather odd, since it implies (even if only indirectly) that the technology was available in some countries at the time, just not the United Kingdom. I'm not familiar with the history of color television; looking at the Wiki page on the topic, it does seem that some early prototypes were made at least as far back as 1908. However, the Wiki page, Timeline of the introduction of color television in countries, suggests that color television wasn't actually adopted by any country until the 1950s. The way that things are presented in this article might not be inaccurate per se, but I do find myself wondering whether it would be better to cut out "in the United Kingdom" from the end of that sentence and simply say that "such technology was not yet available". I have no idea how Farr phrases things, but in the back of the 2011 Little, Brown and Company edition of the comic, there's a trivia section that says Hergé "colored in the television screen...years before color television was possible!" This might not be as scholarly of a source as the others that are being used in the article right now, but I'm sure that we could use it, in the event that anyone is uncomfortable about deviating from Farr's specific phrasing.
 * Agreed; I've removed the "in the United Kingdom" wording and added an additional link. Midnightblueowl (talk) 19:25, 11 October 2015 (UTC)


 * The "Critical analysis" section says that the Lofficiers were somewhat critical of the 1966 version and awarded it 2 out of 5. Did they give a separate score for the original version of the story? Should the 2 out of 5 score be seen as applicable to both versions? Or did they simply not score the original?
 * I don't have the book to hand, but if I recall correctly, they only scored the more recent version. Midnightblueowl (talk) 09:49, 29 September 2015 (UTC)


 * The final paragraph of the "Critical analysis" section opens by saying that Apostolidès saw a connection between the counterfeiting plot line and Snowy's drunkenness in this story and certain elements of previous Tintin adventures. When I first read this, I was somewhat puzzled, as I couldn't recall anything to do with counterfeiting or Snowy being drunk from earlier volumes. Further down, the paragraph mentions that McCarthy also felt that Hergé was continuing a counterfeiting theme in The Black Island that had first been established in previous stories. However this time, the article provides some explanation, pointing to the "fake bunker" in The Land of the Soviets and "the counterfeit idol" in The Broken Ear. Was Apostolidès commenting on the same ideas? Or something different? And what was the connection about Snowy's drunkenness? Is there a moment from a previous story that I'm forgetting, in which Snowy gets drunk? Or was the connection simply about drunkenness in general; perhaps a reference to the sheriff from Tintin in America?
 * The precise words used are "Snowy displays an inordinate attraction to Loch Lomond", so I've altered the prose a little so that we no longer mention "drunkenness" specifically, however it is fairly apparent from Apostolidès' framing that he considered this to be one of the "themes of the preceding adventures" - certainly, Snowy enjoys alcoholic beverages in some of the later adventures. Midnightblueowl (talk) 20:15, 11 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Don't we all. Prhartcom (talk) 01:02, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Thank you for addressing the above issue about color television and the below issue about Tintin and Wronzoff. Both of those sentences look a lot better now! That said, I'm not sure there's any particular need to change "drunkenness" to "fondness for whiskey". Use whatever phrasing you like best - my concern is simply that I don't recall Snowy drinking alcohol in any of the previous Adventures. Of course, I may be forgetting something. But do you happen to recall the specific instance in which this happened? I also do feel that it's worth elaborating (if possible) on what Apostolidès meant by "counterfeiting" - was he referring to the same plot points as McCarthy? --Jpcase (talk) 16:55, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
 * There are definitely instances at several points in the Adventures where Snowy expresses his fondness for alcohol but off the top of my head I am not sure in which volumes they can be found. Regarding the issue of counterfeiting, Apostolides only mentions it in passing here so I don't think that there is much I can do to expand the article prose on this issue, unfortunately. Midnightblueowl (talk) 17:12, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Reviving this long dormant discussion just to note that I was reading Secret of the Unicorn recently and noticed that Snowy gets drunk in that one as well - however that comes after The Black Island, and I still can't recall any earlier Adventures in which this happens. Let me know if anyone can clear this up! --Jpcase (talk) 20:01, 17 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Apostolidès' comment about the "human-animal link in the story" is fairly interesting, but the following sentence about how "Wronzoff represented evil while Tintin represented good" is utterly lacking in insight. Of course the protagonist represents good and the antagonist represents evil, haha... ツ The same could be said for most stories. Could this possibly be elaborated upon? Surely Apostolidès said a little more on the topic, did he not? --Jpcase (talk) 15:08, 4 July 2015 (UTC)
 * You're right, and I've tried to flesh this section out a little. Midnightblueowl (talk) 20:15, 11 October 2015 (UTC)

Since no one has commented in three months, I'll go ahead and ping, as she seems to be the most actively involved editor of Tintin articles. It looks like you more or less have your plate full at the moment, but let me know if you ever get the chance to address these issues. FYI - I've also left comments at Talk:Cigars of the Pharaoh and Talk:The Broken Ear. --Jpcase (talk) 01:21, 29 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Hi Jpcase; thanks for pinging me! I probably wouldn't have seen your comment otherwise. Best, Midnightblueowl (talk) 09:49, 29 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the response! No rush, but are you able to address the other issues that I've raised, both here and on the the other two Tintin talk pages that I've mentioned? In addition to those, I've also just left some notes on the talk page for King Ottokar's Sceptre. --Jpcase (talk) 03:34, 8 October 2015 (UTC)
 * , I'll try to get to these issues in the next week or so. Best, Midnightblueowl (talk) 09:58, 9 October 2015 (UTC)