Buzzing Files

Tintin - The Blue Lotus

2009-04-08T03:05:00.000-07:00

The Blue Lotus (French: Le Lotus bleu), first published in 1936, is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a sequel to Cigars of the Pharaoh, with Tintin continuing his struggle against a major gang of drug smugglers. The story also highlights the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The Blue Lotus is a pivotal work in Hergé's career, moving away from the stereotype and loosely connected stories and marking a new found commitment to geographical and cultural accuracy.

Storyline

In Cigars of the Pharaoh, Tintin pursued an international group of drug distributors through the Middle East and India. He managed to capture most of the cartel members, but not the mysterious leader, who fell down a ravine in the mountains. Some time after these events, his body has still not been found. Tintin though is shown to be enjoying a vacation with the Maharaja of Gaipajama. Then one day a Chinese man comes to meet him but he is hit by a dart dipped in a poison which causes madness (Rajaijah). He just had the time to tell him that someone going by the name of Mitsuhirato wants to meet him in Shanghai. Tintin travels to Shanghai, China, where he is awaited by the assassins of the opium consortium.

However, two attempts on Tintin's life are foiled by a young Chinese stranger who arranges to meet Tintin in a secluded area. Once Tintin arrives for their rendezvous, he discovers that the young man has been struck by Rajaijah juice, the poison of madness, used by the opium gang against their enemies.

Tintin also defends a young Chinese rickshaw driver from a Western businessman and racist bully, Gibbons, a friend of Dawson, the corrupt police chief of the Shanghai International Settlement. Incensed, Gibbons and Dawson set about making life difficult for Tintin.

While in Shanghai, Tintin meets Mitsuhirato, a Japanese businessman, who urges him to return to India and protect his friend the Maharajah of Gaipajama.

Having been persuaded by Mitsuhirato, Tintin is on his way back to India by ship when he is knocked unconscious and taken ashore along with Snowy. He wakes up outside Shanghai, in the home of Wang Chen-Yee, the leader of a brotherhood called "The Sons of the Dragon" dedicated to the fight against opium. Wang's son is the young man who helped save him on two occasions, but is now insane. He goes about threatening to cut people's heads off with a sword (thinking it will "show them the way") and only his father's stern authority can keep him in check....

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Tintin in the Land of the Soviets

2009-04-08T00:09:00.000-07:00

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (originally known as Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter du Petit "Vingtième", au pays des Soviets) is the first of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé. The series features young reporter Tintin as its hero.

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets was published for the first time in Le Petit Vingtième (the children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle) between 10 January 1929 and 11 May 1930, and appeared in album form in 1930.

The story is a political satire, expressing Hergé's distrust of the Soviet Union and poking fun at its claim to have a thriving economy. According to Benoît Peeters' book (Le monde d'Hergé), the only source used by Hergé to create his story was the book entitled Moscou sans voiles (Moscow Unveiled) written by Joseph Douillet, a former Belgian consul in Soviet Russia. For such reasons, Hergé decided to withdraw the album from circulation in the 1930s. In 1973, a facsimile edition was launched, that immediately became a best-seller (100,000 copies sold in that year alone).

It is the only early Tintin adventure which Hergé did not redraw or colourise in later years, and, as a result, looks and feels very different from the other books.

Storyline

Tintin, a reporter for Le Petit Vingtieme, and his dog Snowy are sent on assignment to the Soviet Union. Departing from Brussels, his train is blown up en route to Moscow by an agent of the Soviet secret police, the OGPU. Tintin survives and is blamed by the authorities in Berlin for the "accident". He is put in jail and even taken to a torture chamber, but escapes (here and in later imprisonments, which are common) by deceit and disguise. He then steals a car and goes through several adventures before eventually reaching Moscow.

In observing a Soviet election, Tintin finds that the Communists coerce people to vote for their list by pointing guns at them, and that apparently productive factories are just hollow shells intended to fool British communists by burning hay to produce smoke and hitting a large sheet of corrugated iron to imitate the sound of machinery. In wandering the streets of Moscow, he discovers that Soviet authorities hand out bread to starving children only if they declare themselves Communists; if they fail to do so, the children are beaten and refused food.

Due to the relegation of the bulk of Russia's wheat crop to export, so as to maintain the illusion that Russia is wealthy and can therefore afford to send huge quantities away, Moscow is experiencing severe famine. Thus, the Communist leadership plans to pillage productive farms. Tintin manages to save several kulaks by warning them of the approaching troops, but is again captured when he attracts the attention of a military officer.

Escaping across the snowy wastes, Tintin stumbles upon the secret cache of riches that Stalin, Lenin, and Trotsky have stolen from the Soviet people (including an ample supply of wheat, vodka, and caviar). Armed with this knowledge, he flees Russia via airplane, landing in Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, where he has a final encounter with OGPU agents who attempt to dispose of him before he can reveal what he has seen in the U.S.S.R. Finally returning to Belgium, he is greeted with great pomp by the rapturous public, arriving to a tremendous reception in the Grand Place in Brussels....

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Tintin - The Castafiore Emerald

2009-04-07T23:48:00.000-07:00

The Castafiore Emerald (French: Les Bijoux de la Castafiore) is one of a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero.

The Castafiore Emerald is the twenty-first in the series. The slowest-moving and most sedate of The Adventures of Tintin, it was conceived as a narrative exercise by Hergé. Becoming disillusioned with his most famous creation, the cartoonist wanted to see if he could maintain suspense throughout sixty-two pages in which nothing much happens.[1] Consequently it is a story without villains, guns or danger, but rich in comic setpieces, red herrings, mistaken interpretations, and colourful characters. Moreover, this is one of only two Tintin books in which the characters do not go to another part of the world (the other is The Secret of the Unicorn).

Storyline

Captain Haddock and Tintin are walking through the countryside when they come across a Roma community camped in a garbage dump. They investigate and upon learning that the community chose that site on account of being forbidden by the police to use any other location, the Captain invites them to his grounds of his estate, Marlinspike, over the objections of his butler Nestor.

Shortly afterwards, Bianca Castafiore, famous opera Diva and scourge of the Captain, decides to invite herself to Marlinspike for a holiday. All manner of mayhem ensues. For some time, one of the marble steps leading to the foyer in Marlinspike Hall has had a plate-sized chip; Nestor has been waiting for the repairman, who has been fobbing the Captain off. Upon hearing of Bianca's impending visit, Haddock rushes to pack for a trip to Italy, figuring that now would be a good time to visit, because he had always avoided visiting the country precisely to avoid Bianca. In his haste, Haddock misses the step, which, just moments before, he had been sanctimoniously warning Nestor and the others about. He sprains his ankle as a result. The doctor arrives, examines the Captain, and insists upon putting the foot and ankle in a cast while imposing a minimum of a fortnight's bed rest. As a result, the Captain remains confined to a wheelchair for all but the last couple of pages. The broken step becomes a running gag for the rest of the comic, and every character, with the exception of Castafiore, slips and falls down the step at least once.

Bianca arrives, bringing her entourage and a parrot for the Captain called Iago. The bird instantly takes a disliking to him, and its behaviour borders on the homicidal. Not unlike the parrots featured in Red Rackham's Treasure, the creature manages to pick up some of the Haddockian argot, much to the Captain's annoyance. He narrowly averts having to share his study with Bianca and her piano, managing to convince her to locate the instrument, along with her somewhat rebellious pianist Wagner, in the maritime gallery. Wagner, it turns out, indulges a penchant for gambling by making furtive runs into the local village to place bets. Increasing the Captain's problems, two over-zealous Paris Flash reporters concoct a story claiming that Haddock and Castafiore intend to get married (following a misinterpreted conversation with the very hard-of-hearing Professor Calculus), and an avalanche of congratulations from friends from all over the world pour in for several hours....

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Tintin in Tibet

2009-04-07T23:44:00.000-07:00

Tintin in Tibet (French: Tintin au Tibet) is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring the young reporter Tintin as the hero.

Tintin in Tibet is the twentieth book in the series. It is said to have been Hergé's favourite of the Tintin series (previously The Secret of the Unicorn), and was written during a personally difficult time in his life, as he was divorcing with his first wife. The story is unlike any previous Tintin books, before or since: there are only a small number of characters and no enemies, villains, spies or gangsters. This adventure revolves around a rescue mission of Tintin's Chinese friend Chang Chong-Chen.

Storyline

Whilst on holiday in a resort in Vargèse with Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus, Tintin reads about a plane crash in the Gosain Than Massif in the Himalayas. That evening at their hotel, Tintin dozes off while playing chess with the Captain, who is having trouble deciding his next move. Tintin has a vivid dream that his young Chinese friend Chang Chong-Chen (see The Blue Lotus for back story) survived a plane crash, and awakes with a violent start, yelling "Chang!" and throwing the whole recreation room into chaos. The next morning, he reads in the paper that Chang was aboard the plane that crashed in Tibet. Believing that his dream was a telepathic vision, Tintin travels to Kathmandu with Snowy, followed by a skeptical Captain Haddock. They meet with a sherpa named Tharkey, and accompanied by some porters, they travel from Nepal to the crash site in Tibet.

Upon entering Tibet, they discover footprints in the snow that Tharkey claims belong to the yeti. The porters abandon the group in fear, and Tintin, Haddock and Tharkey go on, taking the porters' loads as well. They reach the crash site, where Tintin finds a teddy bear half-buried in the snow, which he believes may have belonged to Chang. Tintin sets off with Snowy to try and trace Chang's steps, and find a cave where Chang carved his name on a rock, proving that he survived the crash. Following a snowstorm in which Tintin falls down a crevasse, he rejoins Haddock and Tharkey, who had sheltered in the plane.

Tharkey decides not to go on any further, believing Chang to be dead, and Tintin, Snowy and Haddock travel in the direction of a scarf that Tintin spotted on a cliff face. While attempting to climb upwards and after having his pick-axe caught with St. Elmo's fire, Haddock loses his grip and hangs perilously over a cliff edge, impaling Tintin, who is attached to the other end of the rope, upon a rock. He tells Tintin to cut the rope to save himself, but Tintin refuses, saying that they will either both be saved or they die together. Tharkey, moved by Tintin's selflessness, returns just in time to save them. That night, they pitch their tent in a storm, but it blows away, into the face of the yeti. They trek onwards, unable to sleep lest they freeze, and eventually arrive within sight of the Buddhist monastery of Khor-Biyong before collapsing due to exhaustion. An avalanche occurs, and they are buried in the snow....

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Tintin - The Calculus Affair

2009-04-07T23:39:00.000-07:00

The Calculus Affair (French: L'Affaire Tournesol) is the eighteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero.

Some, such as Benoit Peeters in his book Tintin and the World of Hergé, have labelled this as the greatest of the series. The Tintin website dubs The Calculus Affair as the most "detective-like" of the whole series.

Storyline

The story is set in the 1950s, several months after Tintin and his friends have returned from the Moon. Tintin and Captain Haddock are on a stroll in the countryside around Marlinspike, but are suddenly caught out by an approaching thunderstorm and rush back to the manor.

Events take a mysterious turn during the storm. Inside Marlinspike, several items of glass within the house break for no apparent reason. Then, Jolyon Wagg, an annoyingly gregarious and impolite insurance salesman, turns up uninvited to seek shelter. He claims that all the windows of his car have somehow blown to bits.

Once the storm passes, Wagg leaves, but gunshots are heard from outside, and Wagg is found hiding in the bushes. Another man is also found injured but then disappears. In the midst of the mystery, Professor Calculus, who has been working in a small house on the estate that serves as his laboratory, returns to the manor with bullet holes in his hat. Calculus, somewhat apathetic to the whole series of events, leaves the following day to attend a conference on nuclear physics in Geneva.

When he is gone, things grow calmer. Tintin suspects that the strange events may have been connected with Calculus, and suggests to Haddock that they have a look inside his laboratory. They find a strange sonic device and are surprised by an eastern European wearing a trenchcoat and a mask. The intruder escapes after punching and knocking out Haddock. However, Snowy bites off the trenchcoat's pocket, and two items fall out: a key and a box of balcanic cigarettes with the name of the Hotel Cornavin (where Calculus is staying in Geneva) scrawled onto it. Concerned that Calculus is in danger, Tintin and Haddock decide to follow him to Switzerland....

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Tintin in the Congo

2009-04-07T23:37:00.000-07:00

Tintin in the Congo (French: Tintin au Congo) is the second of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero.

It appeared between June 1930 and June 1931 in Le Petit Vingtième (the children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle). The story was published as an album in 1931, in black and white form. It was re-drawn in 1946, with additional changes in 1975.

It has provoked much controversy, particularly in modern times, with many complaints from people who feel the depiction of Africans is racist, and from animal rights groups who feel Tintin engages in cruel behaviour.

Storyline

Tintin in the Congo begins with Tintin and Snowy departing from Antwerp on a ship bound for the Belgian Congo. Snowy has several accidents on board the ship, including an encounter with a stowaway, but eventually they arrive safe and well at Matadi. Here, they rent a Ford Model T and hire a guide named Coco. They set out into the depths of the Congo, where Tintin hunts numerous animals.

Upon returning to Coco, Tintin finds that his car has been stolen by a man whom Snowy recognises as the stowaway. They recover the car but the man escapes.

Later on, Tintin, Snowy, and Coco find their way to a village. However, the man who stole the car joins forces with the village doctor, and unsuccessfully tries to dispose of Tintin several times. In his last attempt, the criminal (named as Tom) tries to hang Tintin above a river full of crocodiles so that they can eat him, but Tintin is rescued by a Belgian missionary.

Tintin and Snowy are taken to a missionary station where the ever-persistent Tom once again tries to get at Tintin, who resolves to end this, and in their final struggle, it is Tom that is eaten by crocodiles, though that was not what Tintin intended. Tintin finds a letter giving Tom instructions to kill him. The letter is signed A.C., which stands for Al Capone, who is operating a diamond smuggling ring in the Congo. Tintin reveals the operation, and the gang is captured....

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Tintin - Land of Black Gold

2009-04-07T23:32:00.000-07:00

Land of Black Gold (French: Tintin au pays de l'or noir) is the fifteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero.
It was first published in Le Petit Vingtième from 1939 to 1940, but ended in mid-adventure. It was later redrawn, colourised and published in Tintin magazine and in book form from 1948 to 1950. Both these versions were set in British Mandate of Palestine. In 1972 parts of the story were again redrawn in order to set it in the fictional state of Khemed.

Storyline

Car engines are spontaneously exploding all over the country. The reason is narrowed down to the petrol used in the cars which is tampered in some way to cause an explosion. As a result most form of transport from cars to airlines are cutting down on fuel usage, thus affecting the economy.

Furthermore political tensions are heightening, leading the world to the brink of war, and Captain Haddock is mobilised in anticipation of an outbreak of hostilities. Following different leads, Tintin and Thomson and Thompson set off for Khemed (a fictional country in the Middle East) on board a petrol tanker. Upon arrival, the three are framed and arrested by the authorities under various charges. The Thompsons are cleared and released, but Tintin is kidnapped by Arab insurgents. (In the original version of the story he initially arrived in the port of Haifa in British Palestine and was first kidnapped by members of the Irgun, before being subsequently abducted by Arabs.)

In the course of his adventures, Tintin re-encounters an old enemy, Dr. J.W. Müller (see The Black Island for back story), whom he sees sabotaging an oil pipeline. He reunites with the Thompsons and eventually arrives in Wadesdah, the capital of Khemed, where he comes across his old friend, the Portuguese merchant Senhor Oliveira da Figueira. When the local Emir Ben Kalish Ezab's young son, Prince Abdullah, is kidnapped, Tintin suspects that Müller (who is masquerading as an archaeologist under the name of Professor Smith) is responsible. He pursues Müller in hopes of rescuing the prince and in the process discovers the doctor to be the agent of a foreign power responsible for the tampering of the fuel supplies, having invented a type of chemical in tablet form that increases the explosive power of oil by a significant amount. The Thom(p)son twins find the tablets and, thinking them to be aspirin, swallow them, causing them to grow long hair and beards that change colour....

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Tintin in America

2009-04-07T23:27:00.000-07:00

Tintin in America (French: Tintin en Amérique) is the third in The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as the hero.

Storyline

It is the year 1931. Having encountered Al Capone's gangsters in his last adventure, Tintin in the Congo, Tintin is sent to Chicago, Illinois to clean up the city's criminals. He is captured by gangsters several times, soon meeting Capone himself. Although Tintin temporarily captures Capone and some of his henchmen, the policeman he calls to help arrest the gangsters does not believe his story and tries to capture him instead (Tintin's failure to capture Capone reflects the fact that Capone was still active when the comic strip was written).

After several attempts on his life, Tintin meets Capone's rival, the devious Bobby Smiles, who heads the Gangsters Syndicate of Chicago. Tintin spends much of the book trying to capture Smiles, pursuing him to the Midwestern town of Redskin City. There he is captured by a Blackfoot Indian tribe (fooled by Smiles into thinking Tintin is their enemy), and discovers oil. This unintentionally causes the expulsion of the tribe, as unscrupulous oil corporations take over their land, depriving them of any share in the oil profits. Finally, Tintin captures Smiles, and ships him back to Chicago in a crate.

After Smiles is captured, an unnamed bald gangster kidnaps Tintin's dog, Snowy. Tintin manages to save him and arrests most of the bald gangster's henchmen, although the gangster himself manages to escape. The next day the bald gangster orders a subordinate named Maurice Oyle to invite Tintin to a cannery, where Tintin is tricked into falling into the meat grinding machine. However, because the workers at the cannery are on strike, the meat grinder is deactivated and Tintin escapes. Tintin later tricks and captures both Maurice and the bald gangster....

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Tintin in Thailand

2009-04-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

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.

Storyline

The plot opens on a rainy and cold Marlinspike Hall; the occupants, Tintin and Captain Haddock are miserable and poor because there are no new Tintin adventures sending them to adventures in the sun any more since the death of their creator Hergé. (This is the first of many self-references the plot makes.) As they consider their plight, Jolyon Wagg's wife arrives and ask them to go to Thailand to look for her husband who went there on a trip he won from his employer, the Rock Bottom Insurance Company, but never came back. The wife has already sent Thomson and Thompson there to look for Jolyon but without any results. As it is an all expense paid trip, the group eagerly accept and are soon off to Thailand. Nestor, Snowy and the cat are left behind, but Professor Calculus comes along too.

As the group checks in to their Bangkok hotel they are spotted by Derek Dimwit, a representative of the Marlinsprick Company that holds the rights to the Tintin franchise. He calls head office and is told that he must stop the group from going on any more adventures that would be the basis of a pirated book not controlled by the Marlinsprick Company.

The group head out to the red light district where they run into General Alcazar, now the owner of a Thailand bar after being deposed by General Tapioca. Alcazar has seen Jolyon Wagg pass through the bar, but he has gone north to Chiang Mai with a kathoey (transexual). Calculus and Haddock both hook up with prostitutes in the bar but Tintin prefers the company of a young man instead....

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Tintin - The Shooting Star

2009-04-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

The Shooting Star is the tenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip books that were written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French-language title is L'Étoile mystérieuse ("the mysterious star").
The Shooting Star tells the story of Tintin's voyage to the Arctic Ocean to recover a meteor that is composed of Phostlite, an unknown metal. It was first serialized in the newspaper Le Soir in black and white in 1941, and was subsequently published in a colour album in 1942.

Storyline

One night Tintin is out walking with his dog Snowy. The evening is particularly hot. Tintin then notices an extra star in the Great Bear. When he reaches home, he calls the Observatory. They say that they have the phenomenon under observation and hang up.

Tintin wonders why it is so hot, and opens the window. He sees that the star is getting bigger every minute. He walks to the Observatory, and, after some trouble, gets inside. He meets a man called Philippulus who proclaims himself to be a prophet and tells him that "It is a Judgement! Woe!" Puzzled, Tintin proceeds to the main room with the giant telescope. There he meets the director of the observatory, Professor Decimus Phostle, who explains that the extra star is a vast ball of fire making it way towards Earth, which will cause the end of the world.

In the event, however, the shooting star passes by the Earth, though a piece of it, a meteorite, lands in the arctic ocean, causing an earthquake that lasts a mere few seconds.

After an analysis of a spectroscopic photo of the meteor, Phostle deduces that it is composed of an entirely new metal. He names this metal "Phostlite", but is dismayed to discover that the meteor has landed in the sea and therefore, presumably, is lost. Tintin, however, realises that the meteor could be protruding above the surface of the water, and the Professor is persuaded to organise an expedition led by himself to find the metal and to retrieve a sample of it for further research. The expedition consists of leading scientists, as well as Tintin, Snowy and the alcoholic Captain Haddock (ironically serving as president of the Society for Sober Sailors), aboard the trawler Aurora....

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Tintin - The Seven Crystal Balls

2009-04-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

The Seven Crystal Balls (French: Les Sept boules de cristal) is the thirteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero.
It was first published in the Le Soir newspaper from December 1943 to September 1944 but was postponed three-quarters of the way through when, following the liberation of Belgium at the end of World War II, Hergé and other members of the Le Soir were investigated for working for a collaborationist newspaper. The story was resumed in Prisoners of the Sun in the newly-launched Tintin magazine in 1946.

Storyline

A mysterious illness is afflicting members of an archaeological expedition recently returned from the Andes, where they had unearthed the tomb of the Inca, Rascar Capac.

5 days earlier:

One by one, the expedition members fall into a mysterious coma. The only clue is shards of crystal found near each victim, which are fragments of shattered crystal balls. Concerned, Tintin, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus go to stay with Calculus's old friend, and expedition member, the ebullient Professor Tarragon, who is keeping Rascar Capac's mummy in his house. But the mummy soon disappears when a lightning storm sends a ball of fire down the chimney, and, after each being visited in their nightmares by the mummy, the three wake to find Tarragon comatose, with the telltale shards of crystal by his bed. Tarragon later wakes up but screams about mysterious figures attacking him. Tintin later visits a hospital where all the other stricken explorers go through the same horrors at a precise time of day.

The plot thickens even further, however, when Calculus, taking a stroll around Professor Tarragon's house, discovers a striking gold bracelet, puts it on (remarking on how nicely it goes with his coat), and then mysteriously disappears. The bracelet had previously been worn by the now-vanished mummy.

While looking for Calculus, Tintin and the Captain are fired upon by an unseen gunman who escapes in a black car, having kidnapped Calculus. The alarm is raised and the police set up road blocks, but the kidnappers switch cars and slip through the net....

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Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn

2009-04-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

The Secret of the Unicorn (French: Le Secret de la Licorne) is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. The Secret of the Unicorn is the first part of one of the four multi-book stories in the Tintin series, the story continuing in Red Rackham's Treasure.
The Secret of the Unicorn is the eleventh in the series of The Adventures of Tintin.

Storyline

There is an amazing epidemic of wallet-snatchings around Brussels. Thomson and Thompson - who, during the course of the story, eventually lose their wallets by the dozens to the thief - look for the culprit at the Old Street Market where they meet Tintin. Tintin buys a boat model of an old ship for Captain Haddock, but, as he does, two men try to haggle it off him. The first is a Mr. Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine, and the second is later revealed to be named Barnaby. Sakharine calls on Tintin at his flat later, seeking to convince him -unsuccessfully- to sell his ship, but leaves his card. A little while later, the mainmast is broken by Snowy, and Tintin repairs it.

When the Captain visits Tintin, he sees the ship and reacts with astonishment. Haddock takes Tintin back to his apartment and shows him a portrait of one of his ancestors, Sir Francis Haddock, the captain of a 17th century naval vessel. In its background is the very same ship, called "the Unicorn" (a French ship in the original; in the English translation part of the fleet of Charles II of England, and a Union Flag has been inserted as the flag flown by the Unicorn). When Tintin and the Captain return to Tintin's flat, they find that the model boat has been stolen. Tintin visits Sakharine, accusing him of having stolen it. While he discovers an identical ship in Sakharine's collection, it is evidently a different one, for in this case, the mast has not been broken. The ship carries the letters "UNICORN" on the back as well. When Tintin returns home, he finds that his flat has been ransacked, and while cleaning up he finds a mysterious parchment. He realizes that it must have been hidden within the mainmast broken by Snowy, and subsequently rolled out onto the floor. He guesses that the parchement holds the clue to finding treasure and rushes back to the Captain's flat....

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Tintin - The Red Sea Sharks

2009-04-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is Coke en stock ("coke in stock") referring to a slang term for African slaves.

Storyline

The Red Sea Sharks is an adventure in which Tintin investigates the supporters of Sheikh Bab El Ehr's overthrow of Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab, the Emir of Khemed.

After watching a movie, Tintin and Captain Haddock round a corner and bump into General Alcazar, who drops his wallet. Tintin attempts to return it, but the hotel he claimed to be staying at has never heard of him, and when Tintin calls a phone number found in his wallet, the man refuses to talk to him. When Tintin and Haddock return home, they discover that the Emir's bratty, impossibly spoiled son Abdullah has been sent there for protection, along with a colourful entourage of servants and dignitaries who have established a bedouin-bivouac in the great hall of Marlinspike Hall.

Thomson and Thompson inform Tintin that they know of his meeting with Alcazar due to their investigation of an arms dealer called Dawson. They then tell him the name of the real hotel where the General is staying. At the hotel, Tintin and Haddock see Alcazar talking with Dawson, whom Tintin recognises as an enemy he met in The Blue Lotus.

Haddock returns the wallet to Alcazar, while Tintin follows Dawson and overhears him discussing how successful his sale of De Havilland Mosquitoes were in starting a coup d'état in Khemed. Tintin decides to go to Khemed and rescue the emir, who has been overthrown by Sheikh Bab El Ehr. Reluctantly, as usual, the Captain agrees to go along, partly because he knows it's his only chance of getting rid of Abdullah, whose practical jokes are getting too much for him....

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Tintin - Red Rackham's Treasure

2009-04-07T20:05:00.000-07:00

Red Rackham's Treasure (French: Le Trésor de Rackham le Rouge) is the twelfth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a continuation of The Secret of the Unicorn, and is one of very few Tintin books to directly carry on the story of the preceding title. It is notable for the first appearance of the eccentric and deaf but ingenious Professor Cuthbert Calculus. According to Michael Farr's Tintin: The Complete Companion, it is also the best-selling book in the Tintin series.

Storyline

In The Secret of the Unicorn, Tintin and Captain Haddock discovered the location of the Unicorn, a cruise ship which was blown up in the West Indies by Captain Haddock's ancestor Sir Francis Haddock in 1676. After destroying the vessel, Sir Francis fled to a nearby island. Tintin and Captain Haddock believe that the pirate's treasure is in the remains of the sunken Unicorn.

Tintin and the Captain hire the Sirius, a boat under Haddock's command, to search for the said treasure. As the crew prepare for the search, their plans are discovered and publicized by the press, forcing Tintin and Haddock to deal with numerous strangers claiming to be Rackham's descendants and insisting on a share of the treasure. They are quickly driven away by Haddock, whose claim to be the descendant of the man who killed Red Rackham has more weight.

Another petitioner is Professor Cuthbert Calculus, an eccentric and largely deaf inventor who offers the use of a special shark-shaped, electrically powered one-man submarine to help search for the sunken ship without being bothered by the numerous sharks in the area. The treasure hunters turn him down and later set off for the trip.

Before Tintin and the Captain clear the port, their friends, Thomson and Thompson intercept them with orders to join the crew to protect the treasure hunters from the possible threat of Max Bird, a rival treasure hunter who escaped from prison. (Ultimately, Bird is never seen or mentioned again, making him a MacGuffin for getting the detectives on board the ship). Shortly after the departure, Tintin and Haddock discover that Calculus has stowed away on board (in a lifeboat, complete with bedclothes;pillow and blanket stolen from the Thompson twins cabin over which they are shown quarreling; and a tin of biscuits which the ship's cook had blamed Snowy for swiping from the galley). The professor has stashed the unassembled parts of his submarine in the hold--removing the Captain's crates of whisky in the process. Despite initially threatening to throw Calculus into the hold on bread and water, Haddock grudgingly decides to keep him along for the trip....

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Tintin - Prisoners of the Sun

2009-04-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

Prisoners of the Sun is the fourteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is Le Temple du Soleil ("The Temple of the Sun"). The album continues the story begun in the previous book, The Seven Crystal Balls.
The book, along with The Seven Crystal Balls, was adapted into a 1969 film, Tintin and the Temple of the Sun by Belvision. It has been also adapted into two episodes of the 1990s television series The Adventures of Tintin.

Storyline

15 March 1948 Tintin and Captain Haddock arrive in Peru to look for Professor Calculus, following the events in The Seven Crystal Balls, which ended with Calculus being kidnapped for putting on the bracelet of the mummified Inca, Rascar Capac. Although Tintin and Haddock intercept the ship carrying Calculus, the Pachacamac, near Callao, they are unable to rescue him, and they set off on the trail of the Quechua-speaking natives who have taken him. It leads them to the mountain town of Jauga, where a train is sabotaged in an attempt to kill them. They find both the authorities and the locals extremely unwilling to help them track Calculus' kidnappers.

10 minutes later:

Tintin then encounters a young Indian boy named Zorrino, whom he protects from two bullying men of white descent. Following that, a mysterious Indian gives him a medallion, telling him it will save him from danger. Soon after, Zorrino offers to take them to the Temple of the Sun, where he claims their friend is being held. The Temple lies deep in the Andes, and the journey there is long and eventful - it involves hindrance from natives and Captain Haddock being terrorised by the local wildlife.

Finally they come upon the Temple of the Sun - and stumble right into a group of Inca who have survived until modern-day times. Zorrino is saved from harm when Tintin gives him the medallion (the Indian who had given it to him reveals himself as one of the Incan high priests, and explains that he gave it to Tintin because he was moved by his effort to protect Zorrino from abuse), but Tintin and Haddock are sentenced to death for their sacrilegious intrusion and end up on the same pyre as Calculus. Tintin has, however, chosen the hour of their death to coincide with a solar eclipse, and the terrified Inca believe he can command their God, the Sun. Afterwards, the leader of the Incas tells them the "magic liquid" mentioned in the preceding volume was a coca-derivative used to hypnotize the explorers who had excavated Rascar Capac's tomb as punishment for their sacrilege. Tintin convinces him to break the curse, and they return to Europe with a gift of Incan gold and jewels, while Zorrino decides to stay with the Incas....

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Tintin and the Picaros

2009-04-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

Tintin and the Picaros (French: Tintin et les Picaros) is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip graphic novels, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero.
Tintin et les Picaros is the twenty-third and final completed book in the series. It caused the most controversy of the Tintin stories since the first two (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo), although the controversies were aesthetic rather than political: Tintin no longer enjoys adventuring and has abandoned his trademark plus fours; Captain Haddock can no longer drink the Loch Lomond brand whisky; and General Alcazar's masculinity is ridiculed by his new dominant wife.

Storyline

Tintin hears in the news that Bianca Castafiore, her maid Irma, pianist Igor Wagner, and Thomson and Thompson have been imprisoned in San Theodoros for allegedly attempting to overthrow the military dictatorship of General Tapioca, who has yet again deposed Tintin's old friend, General Alcazar. Tintin, Calculus, and Haddock soon are accused themselves and, travelling to San Theodoros to clear their names (though Tintin at first refuses, only to change his mind and follow a couple of days later), find themselves caught in a trap laid by their old enemy, Colonel Sponsz, who has been sent by the East Bloc nation of Borduria to assist Tapioca. Sponsz has concocted the conspiracy of which Tintin and his friends are accused in a plot to wreak revenge upon them for humiliating him in The Calculus Affair. Escaping, Tintin, Haddock, and Calculus join Alcazarr and his small band of guerrillas, the Picaros, in the jungle near an Arumbaya Indian village.

Meanwhile, in a show trial orchestrated by Sponsz, Castafiore is sentenced to life imprisonment and the Thompsons are ordered to be executed by firing squad. Tintin enlists Alcazar's help in freeing his friends, but upon arrival at his jungle headquarters, finds that Alcazar's men have become demoralised drunkards since Tapioca started dropping copious quantities of alcohol near their camp. Additionally, Alcazar is continually henpecked by his shrewish wife Peggy, who nags him constantly about his failure to achieve a successful revolution. Fortunately, Calculus has invented a pill which will make alcohol unpalatable to anyone who ingests it (which he proves to have tested on Haddock, much to the latter's ire). Tintin offers to use the pill to cure the Picaros of their alcoholism if Alcazar agrees to refrain from killing Tapioca and his men. Alcazar reluctantly agrees; moments after his men are cured, Jolyon Wagg arrives with his musical troupe the Jolly Follies, who intend to perform at the upcoming carnival in San Theodoros. Alcazar — with a little advice from Tintin — launches an assault on Tapioca's palace during the carnival by 'borrowing' the troupe's costumes and sneaking his men into the capital. He topples Tapioca, but on Tintin's urging, does not execute him, as is tradition; Tapioca is instead forced to publicly surrender his powers to Alcazar and is exiled, while Sponsz is sent back to Borduria...

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Tintin and the Lake of Sharks

2009-04-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

Tintin and the Lake of Sharks (originally known as Tintin et le Lac aux Requins) is a Tintin animated film, directed by Raymond LeBlanc (1972). It was not written by Hergé, who supervised, but by the Belgian comics creator Greg (Michel Regnier), a friend of Hergé. It was later adapted into a comic book with illustrations made to look like still images from the film.

Storyline

Late one night, in Brussels, Belgium, a pair of crooks discreetly break into the aquarium and steal a priceless pearl. As soon as the security guards on duty see the empty shell, they rush away to raise the alarm. The crooks take advantage of the guards' absence by putting a fake pearl, the same size as the real one, in the shell. When the guards return with the director and the director sees the fake pearl, he thinks the guards were making it up, but then has second thoughts about the incident as a similar case happened at another museum two weeks before. The moment one guard says "a real shark," the guards and director look at the aqaurium's shark, the only witness to the crime, swimming in its tank. The scene then shifts to the opening credits.

Some time later Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock arrive in Syldavia, a country in the Balkans. They have come to join their friend professor Cuthbert Calculus who has rented a villa near a lake in order to build his latest invention. The Captain is especially keen in improving his golf. At the airport they run into Thompson and Thomson who are also heading for Calculus on a special mission.

The four men and dog fly by hired plane to Calculus' house, but during the flight they get into some engine trouble and the pilot bails out with the only parachute. Tintin attempts to safely land the plane, but it ends up on the edge of a cliff and on fire. They are saved with the help of two local children, Nico and his sister Noushka, and their dog Gustav (who is somewhat goofy and bumbling compared to Snowy). The pilot discreetly watches this from a distance. He then contacts his superior ("Mr. Big"/"Shark King") via a walkie-talkie disguised as ordinary binoculars, telling him that their plan to kill Tintin and his friends has failed...

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Tintin - King Ottokar's Sceptre

2009-04-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

King Ottokar's Sceptre (French: Le Sceptre d'Ottokar) is the eighth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring the young reporter Tintin. It was first serialized as a black-and-white comic strip in Le Petit Vingtième on 4 August 1938. A new colour version was drawn and published in 1947.

Storyline

Tintin finds a lost briefcase and returns it to the owner, Professor Hector Alembick, who is a sigillographer, an expert on seals (as in the sort used to make state documents official). He shows Tintin his collection of seals, including one which belonged to the Syldavian King Ottokar IV. Tintin then discovers that he and Alembick are under surveillance by some strange men. Tintin's flat is even bombed in an attempt to kill him. Suspecting a Syldavian connection, Tintin offers to accompany Alembick to Syldavia for research.

On the plane Tintin begins to suspect his companion. The Alembick travelling with him doesn't smoke and doesn't seem to need the spectacles he wears, while the Alembick he first met smoked heavily and had very poor eyesight. During a layover, Tintin fakes a fall and grabs Alembick's beard, thinking it is false and Alembick is an imposter. However, it is (for Alembick) painfully real. Tintin decides to let the matter drop but then, while flying over Syldavia, it is the pilot of the plane who opens a trap door and Tintin drops out, landing in a haywagon.

Tintin has a hunch that a plot is afoot to steal the sceptre of King Ottokar IV. In Syldavia, the reigning King must possess the sceptre to rule or he will be forced to abdicate, a tradition established after a past king used the sceptre to defeat a would-be assassin. Every year he rides in a parade during St. Vladimir's Day carrying it, while the people sing the national anthem. Tintin succeeds in warning the reigning King, Muskar XII, despite the efforts of the conspirators. He and the King rush to the royal treasure room to find Alembick, the royal photographer and some guards unconscious and the sceptre missing...

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Tintin - Flight 714

2009-04-07T19:24:00.000-07:00

Flight 714 to Sydney, published for a time under the title Flight 714, first published in 1968, is the twenty-second of The Adventures of Tintin, the penultimate volume of a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is Vol 714 pour Sydney ("Flight 714 to Sydney"). In spite of the title, the action takes place mainly at an airport, a private jet and a Pacific island; it is only in the very last panel that the protagonists embark on the titular flight to Australia.

Storyline

Tintin, Captain Haddock and Calculus are on their way to Sydney for an international conference on space exploration. While their flight makes a refueling stop in Jakarta's Kemayoran Airport, they unexpectedly meet their old friend Piotr Skut (see The Red Sea Sharks for backstory), who is now the chief pilot for eccentric millionaire Laszlo Carreidas. A short time earlier, the Captain had erroneously taken the somewhat disheveled Carreidas for a tramp and surreptitiously slipped him a five-dollar bill, which later is taken by the oblivious Professor Calculus, making the millionaire laugh for the first time in years. When introduced to Carreidas, the Captain inadvertently shakes the hand of the millionaire's secretary, the tall, aloof Spalding.

Unable to politely refuse Carreidas's offer of a ride on his prototype private jet, Tintin and his friends join the millionaire on the way to Sydney. Carreidas plays Battleships with the Captain, defeating him repeatedly by cheating with a hidden closed-circuit television camera and monitor. Unbeknownst to Carreidas and the others, Spalding and two of the pilots, Boehm and Colombani, have been recruited to hijack the plane and bring it to a deserted volcanic island called Pulau-Pulau Bompa in the Celebes Sea. Skut is not involved in this plot; therefore he becomes a prisoner too. After a rough landing, our friends are escorted out of the plane, and a terrified Snowy breaks out of Tintin's arms and runs off. Armed guards shoot at him, and a mortified Tintin believes that he has died....

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Tintin - Explorers on the Moon

2009-04-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

Explorers on the Moon, published in 1954, is the seventeenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is On a marché sur la Lune ("We walked on the Moon"). It is the second of a two-part adventure begun in Destination Moon.

Storyline

The story continues from Destination Moon. Professor Calculus is taking Tintin, Tintin's dog Snowy, Captain Haddock and his assistant Frank Wolff to the Moon in his rocket. However, the detectives Thomson and Thompson come up from the hold, having mistaken the time of the launch (1:34 a.m. on Tuesday, 3 June 1952). Calculus is concerned at the effect this will have on their air supplies; Haddock is furious, and lambasts the detectives for being too imbecilic to understand the difference between 1:34 a.m. and 1:34 p.m.

The journey to the Moon is not uneventful — Haddock has smuggled some whisky aboard in hollowed-out books, becomes drunk, and engages in an unscheduled spacewalk that results in him briefly becoming a satellite of the asteroid Adonis. Tintin also dons a space suit to fetch him, and, in a very rare display of temper, lashes out at the Captain, declaring that the latter's recklessness has "nearly cost us our lives." When the rocket engine must temporarily be shut down in order to execute the turnaround maneuver that will enable it to land on the moon right side up, the momentary lack of artificial gravity also poses problems for Haddock, who has neglected to put on his magnetic-soled boots in time.

Additionally, Thomson and Thompson suffer a relapse of the condition caused by their ingestion of the energy-multiplying substance Formula Fourteen (see Land of Black Gold). As a result, they sprout thick hair that grows at lightning speed and frequently changes color. The Captain, having no other immediate duty, volunteers to cut their hair, but can scarcely keep up with it, and begins to suffer blisters from the scissors. He remarks sarcastically that in the future, when people ask him what he did on the rocket, he will reply, "Me? I was the hairdresser!" Gradually, however, the detectives' condition abates, and their appearances begin to return to normal...

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Tintin - Destination Moon

2009-04-07T19:17:00.000-07:00

Destination Moon (French: Objectif Lune) is the sixteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Destination Moon is the first part of one of the four multi-book stories in the Tintin series, the other part being Explorers on the Moon (On a marché sur la Lune).

Storyline

Tintin's friend Professor Calculus has been secretly commissioned by the Syldavian government to build a rocket ship that will fly from the Earth to the Moon. Tintin and Captain Haddock agree to join the expedition, even though Captain Haddock shows considerable reluctance. Upon arriving in Syldavia, they are taken to the Sprodj Atomic Research Centre, called simply "the Centre", headed by the scientist Mr. Baxter. They are escorted by the "ZEPO" (Zekrett Politzs), a special security force charged with protecting the Centre from outside threats. While working for Syldavia, Calculus is assisted by engineer Frank Wolff, who works in the Centre, and accompanies Tintin and Haddock around the facility. Prof. Calculus reveals that the Syldavian government invited nuclear physicists from other countries to work at the Centre, which was created four years earlier when large uranium deposits were discovered in the area. The Centre is entirely dedicated to peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Calculus heads the Centre's astronautics department, since this is his primary area of expertise.

While in the Centre, they soon come to realize the purpose of the ZEPO: They are to block a foreign power that is also interested in the project. On one particular night, spies are parachuted into areas surrounding the facility and the Centre is placed on high alert. The security staff later arrest and interrogate two men dressed in Greek dance costumes, but discover they are the detectives Thomson and Thompson, whom Tintin instantly recognizes and clears. The pair remain in the Centre.

An unmanned subscale prototype of the rocket — the "X-FLR6", resembling a V-2 rocket — is launched on a circumlunar mission to photograph the far side of the Moon, as well as test Professor Calculus's revolutionary nuclear rocket engine. The rocket successfully orbits the moon, but is then intercepted by the foreign power, giving the research team no other option than to destroy their rocket. As the compound is heavily secured, there must have been a spy who leaked information, but no suspects are found....

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Tintin - The Crab with the Golden Claws

2009-04-07T19:13:00.000-07:00

The Crab with the Golden Claws (French: Le Crabe aux pinces d'or) is the ninth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is also the first to feature Tintin's longtime friend, Captain Haddock.

Storyline

intin is informed by the Thompsons of a case involving the ramblings of a drunken man, later killed, found with a scrap of paper from what appears to be a tin of crab-meat with the word Karaboudjan scrawled on it. His subsequent investigation and the kidnapping of a Japanese man interested in talking to him leads Tintin to a ship also called the Karaboudjan, where he is abducted by a syndicate of criminals who have been hiding opium in the crab tins. Escaping from his locked room, Tintin encounters Captain Haddock, an alcoholic who is manipulated by his first mate, Allan, and is unaware of his crew's criminal activities. Escaping the ship in a lifeboat in an attempt to reach Spain, they are attacked by a seaplane. They hijack the plane and tie up the pilots, but a storm and Haddock's drunken behaviour causes them to crash-land in the Sahara.

After trekking across the desert, Tintin and Haddock reach a Moroccan port, but the Captain is kidnapped by members of his old crew. Tintin tracks them down and saves the Captain, but they both become intoxicated by the fumes from wine barrels breached in a shootout with the villains. Upon sobering up, Tintin discovers the necklace with the Crab with the Golden Claws on the now-subdued owner of the wine cellar, Omar Ben Salaad, and realizes that he is the leader of the drug cartel. After capturing Allan, the gang is put behind bars....

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Tintin - Cigars of the Pharaoh

2009-04-07T19:05:00.000-07:00

Cigars of the Pharaoh (French: Les Cigares du pharaon) is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. This was his fourth published adventure and is notable for the introduction of Rastapopoulos and Thomson and Thompson.

Storyline

Tintin and his dog Snowy are on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea when they meet Dr Sarcophagus, an Egyptologist who owns a papyrus that he believes will lead him to the undiscovered tomb of the Pharaoh Kih-Oskh (a pun on kiosk, a newspaper stand). He invites Tintin to accompany him. Tintin also has an unpleasant encounter with Roberto Rastapopoulos, a wealthy businessman.

Later on the cruise, Tintin first meets the Thompson twins, who accuse him of smuggling opium they have found in his cabin. Locked in the hold of the ship, Tintin craftily escapes and meets Sarcophagus in Port Said, Egypt.

Tintin and Sarcophagus set off and discover the tomb of Kih-Oskh. On a nearby sand dune, Tintin finds a cigar bearing the symbol of Kih-Oskh — a circle with a wavy line through it and two dots on it, rather like a yin-yang symbol. But when he returns to the tomb, Sarcophagus has disappeared.

Entering the tomb, Tintin and Snowy are startled several times by doors closing behind them. They come to a room where rows of Egyptologists are mummified. At the end of the row are empty sarcophagi with notices to indicate that they are intended for Tintin, Snowy (and Sarcophagus too in the later edition). Following items of Sarcophagus' clothing which have been left lying about, Tintin enters another room where drugged vapour puts him to sleep....

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Tintin - The Broken Ear

2009-04-07T19:01:00.000-07:00

The Broken Ear (French: L'Oreille cassée) is the sixth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. First serialized in Le Petit Vingtième from 1935 to 1937, and first collected in book form in French in 1937, it was later redrawn and colourised in 1943.

Storyline

A fetish which originally belonged to a tribe of South American Indians is stolen from the Museum of Ethnography in Brussels. The following day it is back in the museum, along with a note apologizing for the inconvenience caused, saying that the reason for the theft had been a bet. Tintin, who is among the reporters looking into the story, realizes that the replacement is a fake, the distinction being an ear broken on the original but intact on the replacement.

He peruses a book from his own library with an image of the fetish, drawn by an explorer: it confirms that one of the ears is damaged, while the one back in the museum is not. Tintin then reads that a wood carver called Balthazar has died. Suspecting that Balthazar made a duplicate of the fetish and was murdered, Tintin tries to obtain the man's parrot in order to get a clue to the killer's identity. But he soon discovers that a pair of South Americans — Alonso Perez and Ramon Bada — are also on the trail of the fetish, following the same clues and employing more ruthless methods. They even make attempts on Tintin's life.

The parrot eventually repeats the last words of his late owner, naming a man called Rodrigo Tortilla as his killer. Alonzo and Ramon know Tortilla, and Tintin, having tracked them down, overhears their conversation. This takes the three men, and their attempts to outwit each other, to South America, where the plot thickens....

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Tintin - The Black Island

2009-04-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

The Black Island (French: L'Île Noire) is the seventh of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It was first published in the newspaper supplement Le Petit Vingtième in the late 1930s and subsequently in a black-and-white album. Two more versions of the story were published in 1943 and 1966.
In France it was first published in 1937 in the magazine Coeurs Vaillants as Le Mystère de l'avion gris (The Mystery of the Grey Plane).

Storyline

While walking in the Belgian countryside Tintin sees an un-registered plane making an emergency landing, and goes to help, but as he comes near he is shot by the pilot. Tintin recovers at a hospital where police detectives Thomson and Thompson inform him that a similar plane has crashed in a field in Sussex, England. Tintin decides to investigate for himself.

Tintin takes a train from Brussels to the coast in order to board the ferry from Ostend to Dover. During the journey he is framed for the assault and theft of a fellow passenger (who is in fact part of the mysterious criminal gang Tintin has inadvertently stumbled upon). Thompson and Thomson arrest Tintin, but he escapes by handcuffing them to each other while they are asleep.

Arriving in England, Tintin is kidnapped by the same men who framed him. They take him to a clifftop, intending to make him jump off it, but Tintin escapes thanks to Snowy.

Tintin's investigations lead him to Dr. J.W. Müller who, with his chauffeur Ivan, is part of a gang of money counterfeiters, led by Puschov, the so-called victim on the train....

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