The Adventures of TinTin

One of the most stylish cartoons (and characters) of all time in my opinion

Like all cyber campaigns for awareness, it will most definitely affect you in any way possible especially if you have Facebook. This week, it's all about raising awareness for child abuse, or something like that and they (whoever they are) asked for Facebook users to eliminate all human, living faces in the network and replace them with cartoons of your childhood. I'm not really against it or for it. But what I do like about this campaign is seeing the hundreds of similarities--like Little Lulu, Curious Play, Sailor Moon, Akazukin Cha-Cha, Disney's most famous characters, Captain Planet, etc., I have with most of my Facebook friends and it does take me back to being an obese kid, who only cared about seeing the next episode of Madeline or watching Popeye on Cartoon Network with our lolo. I have little to complain about my childhood and I thank my mom for that...Cartoons did play an important role for me, cause it was one of those mighty forces that helped me realize so many possibilities. And that's why I understand this whole campaign for it. However, I'm not changing my profile picture cause a.) ROGUE's latest issue is too kick-ass to change b.) I'm happy with this blog post and c.) I'm not tempted enough to join the bandwagon. But don't worry, I'm not the snobby kind or playing on the offensive side. 

Anyway, one of my favorite cartoons when the I Channel was still on cable (was it the I channel?) was The Adventures of Tintin. My mom loved Nancy Drew and I'm guessing my lolo had Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes to call his generation's detective. My detective would be the super chic, always pleasant and ever smart Tintin. Now, I don't remember much about him, but I do remember some of his adventures, his white dog whose name I forgot. But Tintin was one of those cartoons I looked forward to watching when I had the time to waste (because time back then didn't really matter...). What I loved about Tintin would be his clothes: they were always so simple, classic but never dull. How he'd wear trench coats with muted red, ballooning trousers and brown shoes, or his sweater plus button down combos in pleasantly bleeding colors and also all his preppy polo shirts that I know are from Fred Perry or Lacoste or Polo by Ralph Lauren. Of course, the best thing about Tintin was the entire cartoon: the feel, the mood, the colors, the classic plots of any espionage story and Tintin's always unassuming yet sharp hold on all situations. He wasn't the American I'm-so-cool-I-know-everything kind of detective. There was always that childish, or rather, eager curiosity about him that I found most appealing. Tintin might've been the very first unbiased, open-minded cartoon character I could remember and that's why I loved it. It didn't dawn on me back then, cause terms like "open-minded" and "unbiased" didn't matter, but now that I think about it, I know these are the reasons why I liked it. He was also one of the awesomest reasons I had to believe that I'd be able to pull of Criminology as a real course. Mind you, I had dreamt of being a detective when I was in elementary and highschool. That was after I realized being a doctor wasn't for me, being a professional singer meant risking my personal life for doing what I want to do. Well, now I know I can't be a detective. So, I'll stick to Tintin and reading about other famous detectives.

So, for Christmas, getting the comic books of Tintin wouldn't hurt...In fact, it's one of my top choices for this Christmas. I hope my sister gets me the entire collection. I hope the movie'd be good.

Enjoy (even those who don't find this whole campaign sensible) this campaign against Child Abuse. To whoever had this planned, it's a brilliant idea...You have truly gotten everyone nostalgic and aware...I just hope it inspires them to actually do something about child abuse. 

-Gerard