Tintin in America Book Review

Tintin in America is a bright, colorful experience that is enjoyable and memorable from start to finish that is overall a major step-up from Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.

First, Herge this time takes Tintin to America for the first and only time. It provides for a great tour of America just at home in that time period and expresses in a comical way how Europeans think about America. Here, the story is much more intriguing and is less choppy and really doesn't feel like multiple comic strips being thrown together. The story is like a gangster/detective story and features memorable moments that I will not spoil for you. There are no filler moments and has a strong over-arching goal. The only issue that I find with the book is the pacing. This was also an issue with Herge's first Tintin book, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. The pacing takes off really fast and feels exciting at the beginning, but begins to slow down. It's very consistent and for a story like this, it's drags the experience down a bit. While the memorable moments are all varied, they all feel repetitive with the same outcome and structure each time. But despite these glaring issues, Tintin in America is a romance of America in the time it takes place. There is a great detective/crime story at play here that overall makes for an experience that is much more impressive, varied, comedic, and overall enjoyable than its predecessors.