At 88, Tintin struggles to keep pace with new kids

KOLKATA: Tintin has ruled a million hearts for close to a century now — he turned 88 on January 10 — but the cub reporter’s popularity has started taking a hit, if the sales figures of top three city bookstores are anything to go by.
Even in the age of Harry Potter and Pokemon, Tintin hasn’t lost his charm among those who have grown up reading his adventures. Last month, poet Srijato re-read ‘Land of Black Gold’.“When I was growing up, I read each title at least 20 times over. I still like to read them. Tintin is a classic and I’d like to believe that its appeal will never go,” Srijato said.
“These days, we get many NRI buyers at our store. They insist on buying Tintin titles as gifts for children at home. They’ve read the books themselves and want to gift them to the next generation,” said Supratik Sen, deputy manager of Story, Elgin Road.
But when it comes to children making choices regarding what to buy, most of them are now gravitating towards ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ and ‘Geronimo Stilton’. Harry Potter, of course, enjoys its stronghold. In December, the Starmark store at South City sold a whopping 253 titles in the ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ series. In comparison, Tintin sold 147 titles. “We sold 190 titles of Geronimo Stilton. Harry Potter, in comparison, sold 197 copies,” said Noel Michael, head of book section of South City’s Star Mark.
Tintin hasn’t found favour with 11-year-old Saira Dua. “Though my mother wants me to read Tintin, I haven’t as yet. None of my friends read Tintin. Even as birthday gifts, we don’t exchange Tintin. But I’ve got a Wimpy Kid book as a birthday gift and have read five titles of Geronimo Stilton,” Dua said.
At Story, at least five titles of Tintin go off the shelf every week. In comparison, it sells 15 copies of Harry Potter per week. The figure touches 20 for both Geronimo Stilton and Wimpy Kid. “While Tintin has also become a collectors’ item, Wimpy Kid appeals for its simple language, pictures and themes. Geronimo Stilton has a lot of colour in the design and appeals to youngsters for its adventures and variety in contents,” Sen explained.
At Oxford Bookstore, too, Tintin sales have been outnumbered. “The average sales of Tintin titles per week is approximately 25-35 books. However, the sales of Geronimo Stilton and ‘Dairy Of A Wimpy Kid’ series are ahead of Tintin due to the price factor,” said the spokesperson of Oxford Bookstore.
When Hergé was once asked as to what will happen to his creation when he was no more, he had remarked: “Tintin is me and we will disappear together”. However, the truth is that newer attractions might attract attention but they can never make Tintin disappear from our shelves.