My Travels with Tintin – USA
I only have one Tintin album in American English, but really, if you already have Tintin in America, what else do you need? I’m not quite sure when my copy was actually published, but the copyright date is 1979, so I assume it’s more or less been in print since then.
Despite being his third adventure, Tintin has had a rough go of it in terms of publication in America. He was first published in the 1950s by Gold Books (a Branch of Western Publishing), but only six albums were published – in non-sequential order. Since they were “funny books” they were also heavily censored to remove “inappropriate” content… for example depictions of alcohol and racial mixing.
Children’s Digest did run some of the adventures in monthly instalments in the 1960s, but it wasn’t until Little, Brown started issuing the albums based off the British translations of Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner – with localization of certain words (i.e. “tyre” changed to “tire”) – that Tintin started to gain traction.
Interesting to note that in 2006 Hachette Book Group (HBG), which is owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France and one of the biggest global players, bought the entire Time Warner Book Group – which included Little, Brown. So, in effect, the American publishers of Tintin in America… are French.
My copy is the standard soft-cover album size, around 18.5 x 29.5 cm. It’s a used copy, with some shelf wear and tear, but considering it has a warning on the inside cover that says “Pursuant to agreement with Casterman, Paris, not for sale in the British Commonwealth”, that’s probably for the best. I’d hate to get arrested for having bought a copy in Canada.
Unfortunately, I don’t really have an adventure story from a strange land to share regarding how I purchased it. It’s in English… I ordered it online… it showed up on my doorstep a few days later. The end.
My trips to the United States of Amerca:
Are there any Canadians who HAVEN’T visited the United States of America? Of course, in 2025/26 it’s not nearly as popular a travel destination as it once was… but that more or less comes down to the actions of a single man. However, for someone who was born in the 1970s and grew up in the 1980s, it was a bit of a no brainer. To be honest, I’ve been to the USA more times than I can count – especially as a kid. I’ve got great memories of our family road trips down through Montana, Idaho, Washington State, etc. My dad STILL loves to tell the tale of how we almost died during a sudden hail storm – with hail the size of cherries – raining down on us just as we were coming in to Helena, Montana… and I slept through it all.
However, since then I’ve had several memorable trips to various parts of the USA. Let’s talk a bit about them.
First off, my wife and I visited Boston, MA from August 5-12, 2007. We weren’t alone though, almost my entire extended family descended on Boston for my baby brother’s wedding. I’d never been to U.S. East Coast, so it was a new experience for me. Since there was a large group of us, my wife and I stayed with my parents and my other brother and his wife (6 of us in total) in a rented townhouse in the city. Besides the obligatory wedding festivities and drama, there are a few things that stand out in my mind. The first was our “Duck Tour” of Boston. It was neat to see the old city sites while driving around in a replica World War II amphibious DUKW vehicle. Of course the main attraction is when it drives right out and paddles around in the Charles River. I also have a nice memory of walking through the part on Kenmore Block and wandering over to check out Fenway Park. I’m not a huge baseball fan – it ranks fourth in sports viewing after soccer, hockey and formula 1 – but who hasn’t heard of the Boston Red Sox? Too bad they were playing out in Anaheim at the time, or maybe we could’ve taken in a game. Or maybe not. They were World Series Champions in 2007, so tickets in August might’ve been scarce.
Oh, and since my brother actually lived out in Watertown, we stopped by to take a look at Harvard University on our way to visit him the day after the wedding. It was pretty majestic, but I’ve been to a lot of university campuses all over the world so I don’t think I was overawed by being there. It was neat, but if anything it lost some of its lustre. Seeing a myth up close tends to do that. It also didn’t help that the (likely) students I saw in the nearby Cambridge Common hardly seemed like erudite scholars.
From May 23 to 30, 2008 I had the chance to visit Washington, DC. It was a work trip, so it was mostly work (as it should be), but we still had a chance to visit some of the main monuments. I walked the National Mall, from the Capital Building, past the Washington Monument and all the way to the reflecting pool and the Lincoln memorial. Along the way I got to stop and visit the Freer Gallery, an Asian art museum that’s part of the Smithsonian Institution. It was a beautiful gallery and I remember being particularly struck by a woodblock print by Kawase Hasui called Washington Monument (Potomac Riverbank) (1935). It was inspired by the gift of cherry trees that Japan gave the U.S. as a gift of friendship in 1912, symbolizing growing goodwill and celebrating the strengthening relationship between the two nations. Besides being a beautiful print, it was also a reminder that Japan and America have more to their shared history than WWII and the economic boom of the 1980s.
I also wanted to visit the National Air and Space Museum in D.C., but it was undergoing significant renovations, and there wasn’t really time. So instead we went to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I’ve been to plenty of museums all over the world, and many of them are full of tears at man’s inhumanity to man, but seeing the displays at the holocost museum were on another level. Walking past the full size rail car and the huge pile of empty shoes is an image that will stay with me forever. It was sobering to say the least.
On the way back to the hotel we walked past the White House along Pennsylvania Ave. In fact, whenever we had a break from the conference we mainly just walked around. It was interesting to see so many things you’d only heard about or seen in the movies. I remember thinking it was somehow strange that the FBI Headquarters was just down the street from the Ford Theatre – the site of the President Lincoln assassination. No particular reason for it… just a strange bit of context. It was also nice to visit the Canadian Embassy for a networking reception – it’s right across the street from the Capital Building. I always thought that was a symbol of Canada’s close relationship with the U.S.A. – even though it doesn’t feel like it anymore.
Shortly after I returned from Washington, my wife and I decided it was time for a little vacation, so from June 25-29, 2008 we painted the town red in Las Vegas!
Well, a light pink anyway.
Neither one of us are gamblers, but there was still lots to do. We stayed at the Treasure Island… still the only hotel I’ve ever stayed at that feature a full size pirate ship docked outside. We didn’t spend much time in the casino – I doubled my money from $2 to $5 and decided to quit while I was ahead.
It was quite hot, but we enjoyed wandering around: seeing the elaborate interior gardens and flower displays at the Wynn; the gondolas floating around the Venetian; walking through the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace – there was plenty to see! We even stopped to hang out with Nicholas Cage in front of Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. The highlight of the Vegas trip itself was undoubtedly seeing the Cirque de Soleil show “O” at the Bellagio. There was a buzz of anticipation just from the crowd as we entered the theatre and once I saw the size of the water tank… I was floored. The show itself was everything you’d expect, people flying through the air, amazing dives into the water, epic sets, and water features galore!
Oh, and speaking of water features… the next day we took the opportunity to take a short flight from Las Vegas to go see the Grand Canyon. It was my first time in a small propellor plane and we got some amazing views of the Hoover Dam, the Colorado River and of course, the Canyon itself. I’ve seen a lot of amazing sites in the world, including several of the “Wonders” but the works of human kind can never really reach the splendor of Mother Nature. It looked amazing enough from the air, but being on the ground really gives you a much better sense of its immense scale. All in all it was a beautiful and unforgettable day.
From May 31 to June 4, 2010 I had another work conference to attend in the U.S.A – this time in Kansas City, MI! All things considered, I’m glad it was a work conference and I was traveling on my own. Mainly because the entire plane trip there was was singing “I’m goin’ ta KANSAS CITY…. KANSAS CITY here I come!”
Now usually on a work trip I find a little bit of spare time to “see the sights”, but for Kansas City… I didn’t see much of anything really. It was hot… the conference centre was massive, and they had good BBQ ribs at the restaurant – that’s about it. Oh, and I do remember being confused by the airport/hotel gift shops having a strange fascination with Wizard of Oz paraphernalia. I mean, the books take place on a unnamed farm in Kansas… not in Kansas City… Missouri. I bet they trick a lot of people with that though. Oh well, at least I got to sing the song.
From July 29 to August 1, 2011 my wife and I left the two-year-old at home with the Grandparents and took a trip to San Francisco! This was one of my best overall experiences. We took the BART downtown from the airport, started looking for our boutique hotel and were immediately almost run over by six or seven naked hairy guys on bicycles… with one of them taking his feet off the pedals and screaming “WELCOME TO SAN FRANCISCO!” to us. What a welcome.
We were only there for few days, but it was pretty packed. The evening we arrived we just walked around and found a restaurant to eat dinner… and right before that stumbled across a little shop that sold Tintin items. Strangely enough, it wasn’t a Tintin Shop, and they didn’t actually have any albums for sale or I’d likely have bought one. Instead they had a selection of post cards, plastic figurines, notepads and coffee mugs (among a great many other non-Tintin figures). I left with some post cards and a notepad, but the best part actually was the paper bag they gave me with my purchase. It was quite large and had a great B&W print of the panel from Tintin in America where Tintin tries to take a photograph of a “real red Indian”. It was so great that after I got home I carefully cut the bag, repositioned the text and framed the print. It’s one of my pride and joys pieces in my Tintin collection.
The next day we toured Fisherman’s Wharf. There was a lot to see so we spent most of the day there. In the morning, as we walked along, I was eager to stop and check out the World War II submarine USS Pampanito at Pier 45. We also spent quite a bit of time at the Aquarium of the Bay. It’s focused on the local aquatic animals of the Bay, so it was as informative as it was entertaining. We also wandered over to see the Sea Lions sunning themselves on the pier. All in all it was a pleasant walk, if a bit colder than I’d expected from California at the end of July.
Of course, when we took the short ferry ride out to the island to see Alcatraz, it didn’t get any warmer. I’m not sure I can say I enjoyed my tour of Alcatraz… you could almost feel the pain and hate imbedded into it’s very walls. My wife can sometimes be a bit psychic (aren’t most women?) and she really felt terrible. She was cold and shivering in a way that wasn’t just because of the damp concrete and wind blowing through the bars. I’m glad I saw it, but I was equally glad to be out of there.
Afterwards we wandered down to take a look at the Golden Gate bridge. It was quite windy, so after a couple of pictures we decided to head back and try to warm up a bit. We went back to our favourite restaurant that night and I had some delicious Dan Dan Noodles – probably the best since my trip to China. It was a small little restaurant just up the hill (there’s always a hill in San Francisco) from our hotel and the lady who owned the place was extremely friendly – especially to my wife. It turned out the restaurant was closing in a couple of days, so perhaps we just came at the right time. It was so nice, and almost made up for the thin walls and the creaky springs in the bed at our small hotel.
The next day we decided to say away from the water and we mostly spent it walking around the Golden Gate Park. On the way in we passed Haight-Ashbury which I thought was neat given that the neighborhood is basically the birthplace of the “hippies” of the 1960s. The park itself is a HUGE green space and you can spend a lot of time walking around on the paths. While we were there we also checked out the California Academy of Sciences. We’re suckers for hands-on science museums… with or without our child I guess. All in all a very nice little vacation.
My latest trip to the USA was from July 8-11 2022… just as the world was recovering from COVID. My Dad decided that it was time he and his three sons (I’m the oldest) to go on that Alaskan fishing trip he’d long been talking about. We met by middle brother (who was flying out from Calgary) in Seattle and then three of us flew up to Ketchikan, Alaska.
We had a bit of time to kill there, so we jumped on a bus and headed into town to grab a bite at a restaurant called the Pioneer Cafe – which looked exactly as you’d expect. The food was good and afterwards we had a chance to wander around town a bit. It’s the spot where most of the big Alaskan cruise ships come in to port, so there’s plenty of tourist items on offer. Afterwards we jumped back on the bus to meet up with my youngest brother who was flying in from Boston (the one who got married, remember?) and then flew up to Coffman Cove in a DHC-3 Otter. Anyone who knows my modeling projects will be able to guess how exciting that was. I’d never been in a floatplane before, but they’re one of my favourite aircraft.
Once we got to Coffman Cove we then spent three days fishing for Alaskan Halibut. Those suckers are BIG. Apparently not as big as the monsters you used to be able to bring in (according to the pictures around the lodge we stayed at), but still big enough for me. It was nice to be out of the water and it was a weird mix of a familiar environment (Alaska looks a lot like Canada), but then having to remember that we were ocean fishing and not lake fishing. It was a great trip and each of use went home with a huge frozen box of fish. I think it took my family 2 years before we finally ate the last fish
