The Adventures of Totor, Chief Scout of the Cockchafers | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Le Boy Scout Belge |
Genre | Adventure comics, text comics |
Publication date | July 1926 – July 1929 |
Creative team | |
Written by | Hergé |
Artist(s) | Hergé |
The Adventures of Totor, Chief Scout of the Cockchafers (French: Les Aventures de Totor, C.P. des hannetons) is the first comic strip series by the Belgian cartoonist and author Hergé, who later came to notability as the author of The Adventures of Tintin series. It was serialised monthly from July 1926 to summer 1929 in Belgian scouting magazine Le Boy Scout Belge, with a nine month break in 1927. The plot synopsis revolved around the eponymous Totor, a Belgian boy scout who travels to visit his aunt and uncle in Texas, United States. Once there, he comes across hostile Native American tribes and gangsters, each of whom he outwits, before returning to Belgium.
Like the Bécassine comics, which were common in Western Europe at the time, the series is a text comic, consisting of pictures with separate captions, although Hergé had begun to experiment with the use of speech bubbles throughout, something influenced by American comics. In 1929, Hergé created the character of Tintin for the new story, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, which would be largely based on Totor. Literary critics have expressed mixed views on the narrative and artwork.