Tintin - children's or adult genre?

Do you think comics are a children's or adult genre/media? 

I’m not a huge comic fan, I rarely ever picked up a comic as a kid, and therefore my understanding of the world of Tintin was very limited. However I do recall watching Tintin cartoons and following the drama from episode to episode, the mystery and adventure element to Tintin appealed significantly to me as a child, it sat very comfortably amongst other adventure/mystery stories I was more familiar with like “The Famous Five” and “The Secret Seven” by Enid Blyton. In reflection as a child I think I connected with Tintin because the character appealed to me in similar ways as The Famous Five characters did. In both genres the character’s ages were similar to mine, both story lines showed young people being heroic and adventurist absent of parental figures, giving an impression that even at a young age we could discover the world. Then I think that the role of Snowy and Timmy as loveable and loyal pets to the main characters made them even more tangible. Outside of these reflections It was also interesting to learn that a driving force around Herge’s creation of Tintin was to help recruit a younger audience to it’s host newspaper. With this in mind and based on my own personal perceptions I would suggest comics are more a children’s genre than an adults.

In saying this the topics addressed in Tintin far exceeded those of Enid Blyton, Farr (1991) says “the stories were anchored firmly in fact,” (P. 8). He continues to comment that Herge had an exceptional ability to anticipate world events and use this material in his storylines. This would suggest Herge was drawing to relate to a younger audience but his messages were much more global with advocate undertones for an older audience. Farr (1991) comments “The child will be gripped by the excitement of Tintin, the comedy, even farce. The adult will additionally find political satire and parody, puns and presence.” (P. 9) We find in Tintin a formula that has the potential to connect across generations, and certainly proves that this comic can be an effective children’s and adult genre.       

References

• ·      Farr, Michael. (1991). Introduction. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp.8-9). London: John Murray.
• ·      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8006340/Enid-Blytons-Famous-Five.html