 Tintin in the Congo ( French : Tintin au Congo ; French pronunciation : <unk> [ <unk> ̃ <unk> o <unk> ̃ go ] ) is the second volume of The Adventures of Tintin , the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé . Commissioned by the conservative Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle for its children 's supplement Le Petit Vingtième , it was serialised weekly from May 1930 to June 1931 before being published in a collected volume by Éditions de Petit Vingtième in 1931 . The story tells of young Belgian reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy , who are sent to the Belgian Congo to report on events in the country . Amid various encounters with the native Congolese people and wild animals , Tintin <unk> a criminal diamond smuggling operation run by the American gangster Al <unk> . 
