Image posted on Le Pélicastre jouisseur blog.

A Brussels court will decide on 31 May whether to ban a comic from the Tintin series because it is racist. The case is being brought against the book's publishers by a Congolese man who says that "it makes people think that blacks have not evolved".

Children from around the world have grown up reading The Adventures of Tintin since Belgian cartoonist Hergé began illustrating him in the 1920s. The daring journalist and his faithful pooch are ruffling feathers in their home country however, where Belgium resident Bienvenu Mbutu has brought a hearing against publisher BD Casterman which could see one of the comics banned from sale or sold with a warning. Mbutu says the book in question, Tintin in the Congo, contains negative stereotyping of black people.

Hergé had already redesigned parts of the story when the comic was reprinted in colour in 1946. In the original comic from 1931 Tintin was shown teaching a group of half-naked children about their motherland: Belgium. The updated version saw the subject changed to maths.

It‘s not the first time Tintin in the Congo has come under scrutiny. For three years now British bookshops have been obliged to sell the comic with a warning after the Commission for Racial Equality categorised its content as offensive. In the Brooklyn Public Library the book is available only by appointment. And in Sweden animal rights groups have targeted another scene, where Tintin hunts a rhinoceros using dynamite.

Above, the section Hergé changed before reprinting in 1946. The first part reads "Today I'm going to tell you about your motherland.... Belgium!" The revised edition reads "We're going to start with some simple maths. Who can tell me what two plus two equals?" Image posted on Flickr by "uni.dijo".