09 - ‘The Black Island’ (1938) || Radio Tintin

From the chase through the Great Britain, to the depiction of the Thompsons' being handcuffed together, The Black Island bears many similarities with Hitchcock’s 1935 adaption of John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps.

The gorilla Ranko, who protects the titular island from superstitious Scottish locals, is a combination of the Loch Ness Monster of Scottish folklore, the first alleged photo of which was published in 1934, and the hugely-popular King Kong, who captivated cinema-goers the year previous

Mueller, for his part, bears an uncanny resemblance to actor Charles Laughton in his portrayal of the sinister Doctor Moreau in 1932’s ‘Island of Lost Souls’.

The Black Island is unique amongst Tintin’s adventures in having three separate and distinct editions; a black and white edition (1938), a colored edition (1943), and a significantly-revised and modernized edition released in 1966.

In 1966, Methuen, the English-language publishers of the series, baulked at translating the 1943 edition of the story, finding Hergé’s Britain anachronistically-inaccurate and fearing it would prove too alien for British readers. Thoroughly, if pedantically, they compiled a list of 131 errors of detail that would need to be amended before publication.