The Adventures of Tintin, In The Land Of The Soviets, Les Editions Du Petit "Vingtieme".

From the foward of The Adventures of Tintin. Reporter for "Le Petit Vingtieme" in the Land of the Soviets."This first adventure of Tintin, the boy reporter, appeared in 1929 in a children'ssupplement to a Belgian daily newspaper, Le Vingtieme Siecle. Herge, Georges Aerni, then twenty-two years old, was employed on the staff as an artist. He had received no formal art training, but was already showing the originality and witthat would make him a unique figure in the world of the strip cartoon.Herge's satire on the Soviet state was very much of its time. He himself had not been to Russia, but had read a book published the year before, Moscou sans voiles: Neuf ans de travail au pays des Soviets by Joseph Douillet, a formerBelgian consul in Rostov-on-Don. Soviet propaganda to persuade the world outside Russia that the economy was booming was a particular target for Herge, as were the activities of the secret police, the OGPU. Incidentally, he errs on one occasion in the story when he calls