When this writer was growing up, comic book series either meant The Adventures of Tintin or those of Asterix. With a narrow window into the genre, we dearly held on to our select heroes who capered through thrill and unsought challenges. And even after 20 years, we like to remember Tintin as a teenage adventurer, much like the aspirational family symbol of a ‘good’ cousin. Turns out — after a chance revelation at a second-hand bookshop in Fort — such fictional cousins hook up in Patpong, the red light district of Bangkok.

An illustrated section from the volume where Tintin, Haddock and Calculus are excited to experience pole dancing in Patpong