(Comic Review) Tintin: Flight 714 To Sydney Transit in Jakarta

Yes, I like Tintin comics very much since early 1980's. Tintin is a fictional comic character created by a Belgian cartoonist named Herge. It's actually only a pen name. His real name is Georges Remi. The series of The Adventures of Tintin was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. By 2007, these series had been published in more than 70 languages with sales of more than 200 million copies worldwide... wow! Not only that, these series also had been adapted for radio, TV, theater, and film. Tintin was a young journalist. His friends are: Snowy (his white-colored dog), Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus (hearing-impaired intelligent), Thomson and Thompson (2 incompetent twin detective), and Bianca Castafiore (an opera diva). 

The comics of Tintin has been admired for its clean and expressive drawings. It's also well-researched. The stories of Tintin are usually very funny with adventures full of fantasy, mysteries, political thrillers, science fiction, and slapstick humors. Long ago, I used to have almost all of the series. Through times in years, the comics were finally worn-out and I forgot whether I sold them all or I gave them away to the neighbor's children. Today, The Adventures Of Tintin series still can be purchased in modern bookstores, either offline or online ones. Back then in early 80's, I had the series published by Indira Jakarta and --of course-- translated in Indonesian. 

Flight 714 To Sydney was released in 1968. It was preceded by The Castafiore Emerald (1963) and followed by Tintin and The Picaros (1976). I myself also used to have these two comics. The story is about Tintin and his friends' journey to Sydney to attend a space exploration conference. Their flight 714 must stop for refueling in Kemayoran Jakarta International Airport. You see... why it's interesting? Suddenly they met an old friend named Skut, who is now working as a private pilot for Carreidas (a millionaire) who also attend the conference. Tintin and friends then agreed to join flying on Carreidas's protoype jet. When on the air, the jet was hijacked by Carreidas's secretary. The plane was then brought to fictional volcanic island named Pulau Bompa in Celebes Sea. The mastermind behind it was Tintin's old enemy named Rastapopoulos whoo was intending to seize Carreidas's fortune.

The story is very simple. What makes me interested was certainly the location... which was in Indonesia. Back then in 1960's the international airport in Jakarta was Kemayoran, not Halim or Soekarno-Hatta Airport. Inside the comic, we can also some cultural elements from Indonesia, some local exotic animals such as komodo dragon, and in fact some dialogues using bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian). However, Herge and his studio team didn't mention Indonesia. Instead, the call it Sondonesia as a fictional country of the location. The comic story also involved some scientific elements, such as flying saucer, truth serum, and telepathic communication. OK, how did Tintin and friends finally try to escape? Did the volcano erupt? What happened to Carreidas and Rastapopoulos? Well, you have to read it by yourself... haha. Really, the comic is very interesting and funny. I have a plan to buy me a new one soon.