Controversy Over Racially-Tinged Comic Book Inadvertently Creates Best Seller

Sales of a 1930's-era comic book have rocketed by 3,800% after Britain's equality watchdog claimed it depicted "hideous racial prejudice" The comic book "Tintin In The Congo" was the source of the controversy, as the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) said the comic made black people "look like monkeys and talk like imbeciles" and that it should be removed from public sale.

The Borders chain of bookshops agreed to move it to the adult graphic novels area of its shops, but the official Tintin shop vowed to keep selling it, as did Waterstone's and WH Smith.

"Tintin In The Congo" was the second comic book, written and drawn by the Belgian author Hergé, to feature the boy reporter. The comic, first published in 1931, contained images such as a black woman bowing to Tintin and saying: "White man very great… White mister is big juju man!"


In Britain, Tintin In The Congo was for decades excluded from reprints because of its content. The book became so synonymous with racism that when a Belgian foreign minister made critical remarks about the Democratic Republic of Congo's government in 2004, a spokesman replied: "It's Tintin In The Congo all over again."

The publisher Egmont issued a colour version of the book in Britain in 2005, but included a foreword which tried to explain the colonial attitudes prevalent at the time it was written. It was this edition which was spotted by a Borders customer in London last month, prompting them to contact the CRE.

A spokesman for the CRE said, "It beggars belief that in this day and age Borders would think it acceptable to sell and display Tintin In The Congo." The only acceptable place for the book was "in a museum, with a big sign saying 'old fashioned, racist claptrap' ". An assistant at the Tintin shop in London's Covent Garden said there were no plans to remove the book from sale and added that the book is "a product of its time".

Ann Widdecombe, the Conservative MP, said it was "ludicrous" for the CRE to try to ban a 75-year-old book and claimed its outburst would damage the watchdog's reputation. "I understand the view that it shouldn't be on sale to children but the publishers have taken care of that. It brings the CRE into disrepute - there are many more serious things for them to worry about."

The intervention of the CRE seems only to have increased the popularity fo the controversial book, as it quickly reached number eight on Amazon's most popular books list.