Tintin in Thailand is a parody of the The Adventures of Tintin books by Hergé, released in 1999. It is written and designed to emulate a volume of the Tintin books, but is the author's own story. It was deemed to have violated copyright laws and thus its publication is illegal.
Tintin in Thailand emulates the style and format of the original Tintin books, with some key differences. With the exception of the cover, the entire volume is in black and white. The characters are imitations of the originals, and are presented as acting out of character, such as by using profane language. Bud E. Weyser is listed as the author, and there is a one page foreword in French.
Copies were printed in Thailand to be distributed in Belgium, where Tintin in Thailand was thought to have been in circulation since December 1999.
Thousands of copies in both French and English were also distributed in Thailand. The quality of the Thai copies was later found to supersede that of the Belgian copies.
In February 2001, the Hergé Foundation heard about Bud E. Weyser's attempts to market Tintin in Thailand as an unknown Tintin book for sale to distributors in Belgium. The Belgian police organized a sting operation, with an officer pretending to be a prospective buyer, and two arrests were made in Tournai. They then arrested the designer in Antwerp. The three confessed to producing more than 1,000 copies for sale in Belgium, and 650 copies were seized. All three suspects were subsequently released.
As of July 2007, copies of Tintin in Thailand could still be found in Bangkok. The Hergé Foundation has continued to take quick action to have copies that are posted online removed." from Wikipedia
THE GUARDIAN:Forgers send Tintin to Sleazy Bars of BangkokTintin, the boy reporter of comic strip fame, has been caught up in a new adventure and the Belgian police are not best pleased. About 650 forged copies of "Tintin in Thailand" - a lewd tale of Tintin touring sleazy bars in Bangkok - have been confiscated and at least three people arrested, it emerged yesterday.
In Belgium, where the comic strip character with the quiff is something akin to a national hero, the episode has attracted considerable attention, and has been condemned as inbeing poor taste as well as illegal.
Tintin's Belgian creator, Hergé, dreamed up 24 separate adventures for the roving foreign correspondent and his white fox terrier Snowy, but none involved a trip to Thailand and all were considered suitable for children.
In the unauthorised Tintin in Thailand album, however, Tintin is seen with his friends Captain Haddock and the absent-minded Professor Calculus drinking beer at a lap dancing bar in Bangkok. He has abandoned his schoolboy vocabulary for a more colourful one inappropriate for young children. In another scene that is likely to anger fans of the comic strip, Tintin is pictured in a gay escort bar called "Sexy Boy", where he is propositioned by two male Thai hosts. The album also contains graphic scenes of sodomy involving Snowy and Tintin's Chinese friend Chang.
A police unit which specialises in investigating counterfeiting mounted an elaborate sting operation in which officers posed as potential buyers and chatted with smugglers in the town of Tournai, near the French border, before revealing their true identities.
Two men were arrested, and a third from Antwerp, after they confessed to having produced around 1,000 copies of the unauthorised tome in Thailand for resale in Belgium.
Ironically, unscrupulous Thai forgers decided to copy the copy and produced thousands of fake albums which investigators claim are of superior quality to the Belgian version". (14/2/2001)
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