1935-37 (collected 1937) / Ecomics / 62 pages / Belgium***
Oh yeah, I forgot Tintin was a journalist. This starts promisingly as he investigates the theft and forgery of a museum piece (no commentary on it being plundered heritage in the first place, alas), then the generic South American adventure is stretched out with the familiar cycle of imprisonment and lucky escapes. Tintin blacks up at one point, and the villains are so racist that they don't even spot him as a grotesque caricature. I'll pretend that's the point Hergé was making, anyway.
1982 / Audiobook / 240 pages / USA
****
I'm glad I didn't read a blurb, so I could enjoy the perspective shift when the nature of this self-described notorious murderer's crimes is revealed and it turns out this isn't edgy nihilism after all, but resigned despair. With recipes.
1987 / Audiobook / 336 pages / USA
**
Reading about a real artist would have been more interesting and probably more entertaining, but these bibliographies won't complete themselves. More mature (i.e. boring) than the typical Vonnegut, I didn't get this one or care enough to try.
2009 (collected 2012) / Audiobook / 78 pages / USA
***
Written for a tribute volume to the Dying Earth series, this is appropriately indulgent tomfoolery as Simmons digs out Vance's genre-troubling toys and decides his pirate ship will be an impractical sky galleon, because when else are you going to get to write that?
2014 / Ebook / 144 pages / USA
**
For want of an actual album to talk about (though it basically exists), this recounts the public domain history of the 'Boys and their contemporaries instead and figures you'll be okay with that.
