Some people like Tintin (although I don't), simply because the Tintin stories were a part of their youth. I don't think they like Tintin because a particular episode of it involves depicting Africans as monkeys...

If you look at old Mickey Mouse comics from the 30's, you would find the stereotypical depictions of black people in them similarly offensive in today's terms. If you look at old Donald Duck comics from the 50's and early 60's, you will find stereotypical depictions of Native Americans ("Indians") and other Natives of various types that would be considered highly improper now.

The same was true of Popeye comics.

So what? It was a very different time.

People remember those various comics fondly now because of the good points they had, which were many, not because they want to see Africans depicted as monkeys or because they want to hear Native Americans saying things like...

"Ugh! That good. Heap good." (standard phony "Indian" dialect in the comics of my youth)

They remember these comics as reminders of their youth, and they remember them for the overall content, not the long passe cultural glitches and unconscious prejudices of a time that is no longer with us.

To get upset about those same books now, and expect them to dovetail in every sense with the cultural demands of our contemporary society is ridiculous. It's not worth working up a sweat over. It's a tempest in a teapot. People have objected to Mark Twain's marvelous writings for similar reasons, despite the fact that Twain simply wrote in the vernacular of the time. Even more ridiculous.

That's why this kind of controversy pisses me off. As if people didn't have more serious stuff to get worked up over.