Click to play videoLondon: For more almost 80 years the adventures of Tintin have engaged and entertained.
The creation of Belgian artist and writer, Herge has been translated around 50 languages, sold hundreds of millions of copies and adapted to the big and small screen.
For the roving reporter, Tintin a cartoon character and his loyal dog Snowy, and mush of their history, one question has endured—Is Tintin racist?
Alan Christie from the Commission for Racial Equality is outraged by one book in particular. Tintin in the Congo that was first published in 1931. Christie says the drawings of native Africans are offensive.
“It’s horrible. It’s horrible. Look at the way they draw monkeys. Look at the way they draw Africans, you can hardly tell the difference. ‘It’s just incredible’. Then there's the dialogue,” says Christie.
'It portrays them as being uncivilised and desperately subservient to white people. In Britain, the book features a cover warning that tries to explain its historical context saying the book reflects the colonial attitudes of the time,” Christie adds.
But the Racial Equality Commission says it is worthless because it was being sold in the children's section of major retailers.
They did not comment except said that Tintin in the Congo can, from now, be found in the adult graphic novel section.
Even some of Tintin's most passionate fans believe this criticism is an over reaction.
Says Tintin Biographer, Michael Farr, “I would be happy for any child of mine to read it.”
Farr has written biographies of both Tintin and his creator Herge, who has described his own book as a sin of his youth.
“I spoke to Herge about this. He said it was something he would have done differently if he had done it later,” Harr said.
And about the images he said that they were dated and are merely caricatures or cartoons.
However, offensive or not, the controversial images are unlikely to feature in Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's planned Tintin film trilogy.
But they still have more than 20 other much-loved books to draw inspiration from.
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