TINTIN GETS THE CHOP (Story From Publishers Weekly)

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, which had been planning to publish Tintin in the Congo, a book criticized for its racist, Colonial-era depictions of Africans, has quietly pulled the title from its fall list, PW has learned. The publisher also said it will not include the book in a forthcoming box set of all 24 books in the Tintin series.

Publicist Melanie Chang did not give a reason for the standalone book's cancellation, but of its omission from the box set she said, "Given the controversy surrounding the Congo title, we felt including it in the box set would eclipse the true intention of the collection, which is to showcase Hergé’s extraordinary art and his remarkable contribution to the graphic arts."

Tintin in the Congo, written in 1931 by Belgian artist Hergé, was slated for publication this fall. Part of a series of books centered on the adventurer Tintin, Tintin in the Congo depicts black Africans who strongly resemble monkeys and dialogue widely considered racist. After an uproar over the book's publication in the UK (prompted by a complaint from a British lawyer that the “highly offensive” book contained racist images), Borders reacted by announcing its U.S. stores would stock the popular but controversial children's book in an adult-oriented section of the store because of material the retailer said "could be considered offensive by some of our customers." Little, Brown had planned to wrap a belly band around U.S. editions of the book acknowledging that the book "may be considered somewhat controversial as it reflects the colonial attitudes of the time it was created."

Little, Brown is going ahead with its November publications of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin and Alph-Art. The house was also planning to publish a boxed set containing all 24 Tintin books in November, but that project has now been postponed because Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s forthcoming Tintin movie has also been pushed to next year. "We felt it best to time the publication of the box set closer to the release of what is sure to be a spectacular film," said Chang.