Book Review: Pulau Hitam

Pulau Hitam (13 August, 2013)
© Timothy Tye using this photo

Pulau Hitam is my introduction into the Adventures of Tintin. The first of a series of Tintin comicbooks published in Malay, Pulau Hitam came out in the mid-1970s. The local publisher was United Books, which is the stationery provider at my school.

I was in Standard Three at that time, and a big fan of another United Books publication, Dunia Murid-Murid. To introduce readers of Dunia Murid-Murid to Tintin, United Books had the comics serialised in it.

It took some encouragement from the lady manning our school bookshop for me to buy the first Pulau Hitam book. (United Books published it in two parts). I thought it was quite a lot of money to spend - Dunia Murid-Murid only cost 50 cents whereas Part One of Pulau Hitam cost M$1.20. Nonetheless I accumulated the money to buy it. And then I was immediately hooked, and I got my dad to take me to United Bookshop on Carnarvon Street to get Part Two.



Pulau Hitam (13 August, 2013)
© Timothy Tye using this photo


It was Pulau Hitam that got me started on Tintin. I never expected a translated comic book could get me so gripped. At that time, there were no Tintin comicbooks in English, but I learned from my copy of Pulau Hitam that the original was in French, called L'Île Noire. It was only much later that I managed to obtain the English version, Black Island, but nothing beat reading it the first time in Malay. I was an impressionable 9-year-old back then, and the story gave me both excitement and fear (yes, there were pages that I avoided because I was scared). One moment I was scared, another I was rolling with laughter.

The original L'Île Noire was first published in 1937. What I see is not that version, but a re-work done in 1965, when all the pictures were re-drawn. It was extremely detailed and simply breathtaking.



Pulau Hitam (13 August, 2013)
© Timothy Tye using this photo


Pulau Hitam (or Black Island in the English version) introduces the Thompson Twins for the first time. They appeared as fumbling cops trying to catch Tintin, while the real villains got away scot free. Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus haven't made their entrance yet.

The story begins in Tintin's home village, whose name isn't mentioned (so that the reader than relate it to his own home town), but I later learned that the setting would be Belgium. It then continues to Scotland, to the forbidding namesake of the story.

I now have every copy of the Adventures of Tintin in English (which I hope to review one by one over time), but shall always treasure my irreplaceable copies of Pulau Hitam. To photograph them for this review, I had to remove the cover I had placed on them. They were just calendar papers which I folded to cover the books - back then, we don't have plastic covers as we do today.

ps: This book gave me cravings for chicken chop! Why? You've got to read it to find out.



Pulau Hitam (13 August, 2013)
© Timothy Tye using this photo

Details

Title: Pulau Hitam
Author: Hergé
ISBN: na
Publisher: Syarikat United Book Sdn Bhd in agreement with Casterman, Paris
Year of First Publication: 1937

Discuss this book

Discuss Pulau Hitam on My Little Bookshelf Facebook Group.

Buying this book

As far as I know, Pulau Hitam is out of print, but the English version, Black Island, is available on Amazon.