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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 6, 2020 14:22:40 GMT -5
Another excellent and well-thought-out review, Confessor! As far as I am concerned, Tintin in Tibet truly stands out. It is a very personal and mature work. It may lack in the high adventure spirit of Red Rachkam's treasure, the sense of historical drama of The Blue Lotus or the breathtaking concepts of the Moon two-parter, but it feels like a much more "real" story (for all that there is an abominable snowman and levitating monks in it).
That being said, I do not share your reserves concerning Hergé's orientalism or lack of mention of the Chinese occupation of Tibet!
In the first case, while Hergé does indeed take advantage of the exoticism provided by a foreign land, he does so with respect and humility; his orientalism, such as it is, is closer to that of Alexandra David-Néel than to Rudyard Kipling's. I didn't get a "Tarzan meets the Natives" vibe from this book at all, and certainly not in the way Tintin in the Congo showed things. Here, while Tintin and Haddock make a brave show of it, they are clearly a couple of fish out of water compared to the Sherpas; inexperienced, not that well-prepared and quick to judge. I had the impression that they were in over their head in more than one occasion, and they even needed to be saved by their guide.
Sure, Tibet in this book looks like a stereotypical peaceful and spiritual place, which might be something of a western conceit, but I don't necessarily view that as a bad thing in an adventure book aimed at kids. We're just passing through, on our way to the mountains, and Hergé might not have felt comfortable in exposing the less pleasant sides of a country he did not actually know. (His outlook would be less optimistic when depicting the plight of the Roms in the next book, The Castafiore's Emerald; I would assume he knew more about Gypsies in Europe than about Sherpas in Tibet).
That the invasion of Tibet is not mentioned might just mean that Hergé wanted to focus on the book's plot: the rescue of a child who survived a plane crash. Political comments would have been a distraction -perhaps not unwarranted, especially in hindsight, but a distraction nonetheless. In the Blue Lotus it was a different thing, as the plot hanged on the Japanese occupation of China. Besides, it could be that in 1959 Hergé assumed that the Chinese occupation would be a temporary thing, and incorporating it in his story would have dated it. Had he known how things would turn out, he might have decided to call this book Tintin in Nepal and the plot would have remained the same (considering that the journey toward the crash site started in India). Or he might have decided that the situation really warranted a few pages, the way he showed how Latin American revolutions often lead to exactly the same type of regime they replaced (in Tintin and the Picaros). In any case, I don't view the decision as reprehensible.
The yeti's coloration and the shape of its head were apparently inspired by the alleged yeti scalp kept at the monastery of Khumjung Gompa; Hergé was truly serious when researching a subject!
By the way, am I mistaken in thinking that The Castafiore Emerald is another Tintin adventure without a villain? (Not even a misunderstood one!)
I look forward to the next review!!!
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Mar 7, 2020 14:09:33 GMT -5
Another excellent and well-thought-out review, Confessor! Thanks, RR. And may I say thank you for another thought-provoking reply. As far as I am concerned, Tintin in Tibet truly stands out. It is a very personal and mature work. It may lack in the high adventure spirit of Red Rachkam's treasure, the sense of historical drama of The Blue Lotus or the breathtaking concepts of the Moon two-parter, but it feels like a much more "real" story (for all that there is an abominable snowman and levitating monks in it). It does indeed stand out. For one thing, the art is fantastic, even by Hergé's high standards. But the heightened emotions of the characters -- particularly of Tintin -- is unique in the series as well. I can't say that I regard it as more "real" than other volumes, but I kind of get what you mean. To me it feels as "real" as books like The Shooting Star or the moon two-parter, even though Tintin in Tibet is definitely more grounded. That being said, I do not share your reserves concerning Hergé's orientalism or lack of mention of the Chinese occupation of Tibet! In the first case, while Hergé does indeed take advantage of the exoticism provided by a foreign land, he does so with respect and humility; his orientalism, such as it is, is closer to that of Alexandra David-Néel than to Rudyard Kipling's. I didn't get a "Tarzan meets the Natives" vibe from this book at all, and certainly not in the way Tintin in the Congo showed things. Oh, I think Hergé's racism is always, how shall we say? "Casual." "Innocuous?" What I mean by that is that I don't believe for one minute that Hergé was a nasty, vindictive racist. Or that he ever meant to cause any offense.
I think his dated depictions of various peoples from far flung locales are simply the result of the inherant predjudices of his era, which he picked up from the wider society. His Orientalism in Tintin in Tibet is no different in that respect. But it is precisely because it's couched in, what was even then, a well worn "mystic East" backdrop, that I personally find it more offensive and -- dare I say it, dangerous -- than the "rubber-lipped" and ignorant natives we saw in Tintin in the Congo. Your mileage may vary, of course. Here, while Tintin and Haddock make a brave show of it, they are clearly a couple of fish out of water compared to the Sherpas; inexperienced, not that well-prepared and quick to judge. I had the impression that they were in over their head in more than one occasion, and they even needed to be saved by their guide. I disagree, I'm afraid. In particular, Tintin is portrayed as being the experienced white explorer, well versed in local customs and admired by the natives wherever he goes. I definitely get more than a little whiff of the "white man's burden" to civilize this exotic, but backward region from both Tintin and Haddock. Maybe that's just me though. As for Tintin's relationship with Tharkey, the Sherpa guide, let's not forget that initially Tharkey is afraid to accompany Tintin on his trek into the Himilayas. Now, as far as the construction of the narrative goes, this creates a nice sense of forboding when we see that even the experienced Sherpa guide is worried that they might never return. But on a more subliminal level, it emphasises the courage and nobility of Tintin (the white man), in contrast to the cowardly Tibetan native. Later on, Tharkey abandones Tintin and Haddock, and he only comes back to save their bacon as a result of how inspired he was by Tintin's (the white man's) bravery. Sure, Tibet in this book looks like a stereotypical peaceful and spiritual place, which might be something of a western conceit, but I don't necessarily view that as a bad thing in an adventure book aimed at kids. We're just passing through, on our way to the mountains, and Hergé might not have felt comfortable in exposing the less pleasant sides of a country he did not actually know. You're right, of course, that we should never lose sight of the fact that this is ultimately a book for kids. But then again, Hergé had shown on a number of previous occasions (with The Blue Lotus and King Ottokar's Sceptre particularly) that it was possible to address real world politics in the Tintin books successfully. That the invasion of Tibet is not mentioned might just mean that Hergé wanted to focus on the book's plot: the rescue of a child who survived a plane crash. Political comments would have been a distraction -perhaps not unwarranted, especially in hindsight, but a distraction nonetheless. In the Blue Lotus it was a different thing, as the plot hanged on the Japanese occupation of China. Besides, it could be that in 1959 Hergé assumed that the Chinese occupation would be a temporary thing, and incorporating it in his story would have dated it. Had he known how things would turn out, he might have decided to call this book Tintin in Nepal and the plot would have remained the same (considering that the journey toward the crash site started in India). Or he might have decided that the situation really warranted a few pages, the way he showed how Latin American revolutions often lead to exactly the same type of regime they replaced (in Tintin and the Picaros). In any case, I don't view the decision as reprehensible. I agree that, had Hergé made reference to the 1959 uprising it would've dated the book. And I also accept that he may have felt referencing the bloody uprising would've been a distraction from his story about the power of friendship. And perhaps he was absolutely right to do so. But, as I said in my review, it is precisely that "passing over" or "ignoring" of the real world situation, in favour of the more acceptable "mystic East" trope, that is troublesome. By the way, am I mistaken in thinking that The Castafiore Emerald is another Tintin adventure without a villain? (Not even a misunderstood one!) Well, there's the magpie! But throughout a lot of the book, the gypsies are suspects and therefore kind of the antagonists, even though they're not. So, I would say that the book does have a villain(s) of sorts. I look forward to the next review!!! Thanks. The Castafiore Emerald is not a book that I've re-read very often, so I'm looking forward to revisiting it for my next review.
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Post by profh0011 on Mar 12, 2020 21:52:36 GMT -5
THE BLACK ISLAND
I read this over 2 days. I often think protracted, complex adventures work better if not done in one go, as the time it takes to read (or watch) them adds to the feeling of time passing in the stories.
A question: I first read TINTIN in CHILDREN'S DIGEST, where it was serialized in 12 monthly installments. Was the Belgium comics supplement a monthly, or weekly? The regular 62 page length suggests it took 62 weeks for these to come out originally. I've never seen the originals, but I understand the series Wally Wood did the armed forces magazine-- SALLY FORTH and CANNON-- were also serialized at a rate of one page per issue, with each page having almost a vague "cliffhanger" feel in the last panel.
I know the JAMES BOND 007 newspaper comic-strip was a daily (presumably 6 days a week). While many stories took perhaps 4 months or so to tell, the adaptation of "ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE" took an entire YEAR to tell!
I'm rather astonished this story was drawn in its entirety TWICE. My 1975 (?) American edition says the English translation was 1966, but the art is Copyright 1956. Could this be a typo?
Much of "THE BLACK ISLAND" reminds me of an even more light-hearted version of "THE BROKEN EAR", as there's so much extended humor involved. And once again, the Thompsons spend half the book chasing after Tintin for some trumped-up (and seemingly trivial) matter. I appreciated when he, exasperated, asked them, "THAT? Are you STILL beating that dead horse?"
When I was about 3/4ths of the way thru, I looked at the cover and wondered, "Are we EVER going to get to that damned island?" I found it slightly jaw-dropping when, after he miraculously managed to overcome and tie up pretty much the ENTIRE GANG, he suddenly discovers one of them got loose, and then freed all the others, so now they were ALL after him, and armed, at once. Good thing the cops showed up when they did.
While I was in the middle of reading this, the other day I found myself reminiscing about various series which have had stories set in castles in Scotland and the like, including SHERLOCK HOLMES, STINGRAY, CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE MYSTERONS, THE AVENGERS (season 4 with Diana Rigg), NICK FURY, AGENT OF SHIELD, and DOCTOR WHO.
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Post by profh0011 on Mar 13, 2020 6:17:20 GMT -5
KING OTTOKAR'S SCEPTREBuying and reading these out of sequence in the 1970s made it somewhat confusing when it came to chronology or continuity. This one always seemed to me like it must be one of the early ones. No Captain Haddock yet, but the Thompsons already knew Tintin. Re-reading it this morning, in one go (insomnia AGAIN!!! --it's been a problem since the 1970s), it was quite NOTICABLE how the art seemed somehow "primitive" compared to the previous book. While the Thompsons continue to leap to the wrong conclusions, at least they weren't suspicious of Tintin AGAIN when they saw the unconscious man or the broken window. I seem to have missed what they were doing there at his apartment in the first place, though. The really odd thing was the total LACK of mangled phrases. Were some of the other books transdlated more than once, or have dialogue modified in subsequent editions? If this was indeed the earliest one translated into English, that could explain this oddity. Like so many things, it took me ages to connect with " THE PRISONER OF ZENDA". Outragiously, my first exposure was in-- of all places-- " GET SMART", where they did a stand-alone story doing a parody of it, followed a year later by a 2-part sequel! Don Adams got to play the dual role of his normal character Maxwell Smart and his identical look-alike King, who is being plotted against. More than a decade later, I saw the DOCTOR WHO tribute (that show did so many), " THE ANDROIDS OF TARA", from season 16 (Tom Baker's 5th). This changed and complicated the story by having a robot replica of the King, as well as by having The Doctor's assistant Romana be the exact image of a Princess, allowing Mary Tamm to play no less than 4 characters in one story (Romana, the Princess, a robot Romana and a robot Princess). A real highlight is the climax, where The Doctor gets into a swordfight with the charming baddie Count Grendel (Peter Jeffrey), who, at the end, runs off after saying, " NEXT time, I will not be so LENIENT!" It wasn't until somewhere in the 2000s that I FINALLY got around to watching the real thing, " THE PRISONER OF ZENDA", on TCM. By that time, via several other films, Ronald Colman (who Don Adams had been doing a take-off on) had become one my favorite actors. He gets to play the dual role of the traveller who gets mixed up in court intrigue due to looking exactly like the King, teams up with David Niven and eventually swordfights with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The story has been adapted to film several times, and TCM actually ran the later version with Stewart Granger less than an week after I saw it, but somehow I wasn't in the mood that week and still haven't seen that version.
I read " OTTOKAR" some years after " DESTINATION MOON" / " EXPLORERS ON THE MOON" and so recognized the main baddie was the same in both. It's remarkable how Tintin went thru so much, including getting arrested, before finally being face-to-face with the King, but if he hadn't PUNCHED out the King's assistant right in front of him, he might never have been able to tell the guy about the plot against him. That the King recognized his sincerity so quickly is amazing, considering HOW MANY people in his administration was involved in the plot.
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Post by Confessor on Mar 13, 2020 10:50:51 GMT -5
THE BLACK ISLANDA question: I first read TINTIN in CHILDREN'S DIGEST, where it was serialized in 12 monthly installments. Was the Belgium comics supplement a monthly, or weekly? The regular 62 page length suggests it took 62 weeks for these to come out originally. I've never seen the originals... The Tintin strips, whether published in Le Petit Vingtième, Le Soir or Tintin magazine, were weekly. The stories were much longer in their original monthly format though, with many extraneous scenes (some of which were inserted just to provide weekly cliffhangers) that Hergé later removed when the stories were collected into the common 62-page book format. I think our very own Roquefort Raider posted some examples of scenes from the weekly strip that didn't make the books earlier in this thread. These "complete" weekly versions of each story have, as far as I'm aware, never been collected. They can only be found in back issues of their respective magazines. I must say that Hergé's estate has been very shoddy at issuing archival editions of the Tintin strip aimed at the collector's market. These original weekly strips should be available, in both their original French and later English translations, in deluxe collector hardcovers, just like IDW have done so successfully with their Library of American Comics collections. I'm rather astonished this story was drawn in its entirety TWICE. My 1975 (?) American edition says the English translation was 1966, but the art is Copyright 1956. Could this be a typo? Not sure, but my guess would be "yes". The partially redrawn colour version (which was itself the second version) was published in Belgium in 1943, and, as far as I know, it was never translated into English. The second, redrawn version was done in 1966. So, since only the 1966 version is available in English, your copy must be the 1966 one. I don't know what 1956 has to do with anything, but my guess is that it is a typo and should read 1966. Much of " THE BLACK ISLAND" reminds me of an even more light-hearted version of " THE BROKEN EAR", as there's so much extended humor involved. And once again, the Thompsons spend half the book chasing after Tintin for some trumped-up (and seemingly trivial) matter. I appreciated when he, exasperated, asked them, " THAT? Are you STILL beating that dead horse?" When I was about 3/4ths of the way thru, I looked at the cover and wondered, " Are we EVER going to get to that damned island?" I found it slightly jaw-dropping when, after he miraculously managed to overcome and tie up pretty much the ENTIRE GANG, he suddenly discovers one of them got loose, and then freed all the others, so now they were ALL after him, and armed, at once. Good thing the cops showed up when they did. It is a funny story, for sure. I do think, however, that the farcical humour does kind of get in the way of the more serious plot elements and kills some of the tension of Tintin's pursuit of Dr. Müller. But I like this book an awful lot, in spite of those criticisms. I think it is a much more cohesive read than The Broken Ear, for example. While I was in the middle of reading this, the other day I found myself reminiscing about various series which have had stories set in castles in Scotland and the like, including SHERLOCK HOLMES, STINGRAY, CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE MYSTERONS, THE AVENGERS (season 4 with Diana Rigg), NICK FURY, AGENT OF SHIELD, and DOCTOR WHO. Yes, I agree. The latter half of The Black Island does share plenty of similarities with other Scottish castle mysteries. KING OTTOKAR'S SCEPTREBuying and reading these out of sequence in the 1970s made it somewhat confusing when it came to chronology or continuity. This one always seemed to me like it must be one of the early ones. No Captain Haddock yet, but the Thompsons already knew Tintin. Re-reading it this morning, in one go (insomnia AGAIN!!! --it's been a problem since the 1970s), it was quite NOTICABLE how the art seemed somehow "primitive" compared to the previous book. That's a result of Hergé's artwork in King Ottokar's Sceptre being of 1939 or 1947 vintage, whereas The Black Island is of 1966 vintage. In some cases, you're comparing artwork that was drawn 27 years apart. Hergé had improved a lot in that time. I believe that I did mention in my reviews that the art in TBI looks slightly out of place if you're reading the stories in publication order. While the Thompsons continue to leap to the wrong conclusions, at least they weren't suspicious of Tintin AGAIN when they saw the unconscious man or the broken window. I seem to have missed what they were doing there at his apartment in the first place, though. The really odd thing was the total LACK of mangled phrases. Were some of the other books transdlated more than once, or have dialogue modified in subsequent editions? If this was indeed the earliest one translated into English, that could explain this oddity. King Ottokar's Sceptre was the first Tintin adventure to be translated, yes, but that translation was done by a professional Belgian interpreter for its original British publication as a serial in the British boy's comic, the Eagle, in 1951. However, when the series was relaunched by Methuan in Britain in 1958, the series' official English translators, Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner, came on board and the first two books that they worked on were King Ottokar's Sceptre and The Crab with the Golden Claws. So, King Ottokar's Sceptre is one of Lonsdale-Cooper and Turner's earliest translations.
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Post by profh0011 on Mar 13, 2020 11:45:03 GMT -5
On the back of my copy of KING OTTOKAR'S SCEPTRE: Now available: THE CRAB WITH THE GOLDEN CLAWS KING OTTOKAR'S SCEPTRE THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN RED RACKHAM'S TREASURE CIGARS OF THE PHARAOH TINTIN IN TIBET FLIGHT 714 THE BLACK ISLANDBased on that, you can see how confusing it might be to an American reader in the 1970s. I could tell while reading that some of these had to be out of sequence. And, the confusing dates in the indicia didn't help much, for reasons that are very obvious reading this thread. I've been updating my index with the dates you've listed, and it makes it much clearer what was going on.
The JAMES BOND 007 novels I bought in 1970 were worse. They were all listed alphabetically on the backs. Fortunately, the Copyright dates inside did make sense, and I had no trouble figuring out the correct order.
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Post by profh0011 on Mar 14, 2020 12:51:21 GMT -5
Very true; another Goscinny-written title that should have ended with Goscinny. (Or at least with Morris)! As the decades go on, I have seen an increasing number of corporate-owned series that, arguably, SHOULD have ended when their original creators departed.
I used to say that EVERYTHING-- and I mean EVERYTHING-- done with Spider-Man has been 3rd rate or worse since John Romita stopped WRITING the book (and most Marvel fans to this day don't even realize he was writing it from the moment he got on it).
But then when I re-read all my 60s Marvels chronologically-- something I was never able to do earlier-- it really, really hit me what a JARRING change it was when Romita took over. It made me begin to understand the attitude of those extremists who felt it should have ended when STEVE DITKO left.
That said, these days I've given up on everything frm Marvel and DC... except for the old stories from way back. The last Batman book I bought was stories from 1943, and I have a lot to catch up with that era. (I just DON'T GIVE A S*** about anything new, by anybody, on those kind of series. And my best friend and I are always at odds about it, whenever he insists, "I still LIKE THE CHARACTERS". And I feel sad knowing in so many cases, he's NEVER read the "real stuff".)
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Mar 14, 2020 18:22:32 GMT -5
I used to say that EVERYTHING-- and I mean EVERYTHING-- done with Spider-Man has been 3rd rate or worse since John Romita stopped WRITING the book (and most Marvel fans to this day don't even realize he was writing it from the moment he got on it). A bit off-topic, I know, but I don't believe this is correct. Both Romita and Stan Lee have been very open about how they worked together on ASM. Initially, Stan was plotting and scripting the stories alone. Of course, Romita was working "Marvel method", so he was certainly creating the story beats and the pacing of each story, but it wasn't until a few years into his tenure on the book that he actually began co-plotting with Stan. And even then, it was sporadic. Do you have a reliable source that supports your suggestion above that Romita was actually writing ASM from the start of his time on the comic?
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Post by profh0011 on Mar 15, 2020 10:48:46 GMT -5
S*** L** NEVER plotted SPIDER-MAN. NEVER. Some of the stories from the first year came from JACK KIRBY plots, which Steve Ditko then wrote the stories based on. Ditko was also in the habit of writing his own dialogue on separate sheets of paper, from which his editor could use or alter at will. But as Ditko has pointed out over the years, his editor NEVER knew what was going on in the stories, until Ditko turned in the work.
It was the same way with John Romita. The main difference there was, especially since Romita worked at the office, his editor found it easier to be a "back-seat driver", telling him what direction HE felt things should go in, even if it was to the detriment of the characters' natural trajectories. "Make Gwen nicer". "Make Gwen prettier". "Have Pete & Gwen get serious." "Make MJ uglier."
In 3 separate interviews in the 90s, Romita admitted he fought a lifelong battle against low self-esteem, and his biggest regret was never being able to stand up against his boss and tell the truth.
What came to be known as "The Marvel Method"-- plot / pencils / dialogue -- did not REALLY start until Roy Thomas got involved, because unlike his editor, Roy WANTED to write. Before that, it had always been a case of the artists WRITING the stories, the editor writing or re-writing the dialogue, and taking FULL PAY and credit for the writing. I've come to believe that the later version of "The Marvel Method", was only enforced in order to make it falsely appear that it had always been that way from the beginning... but it never was.
Don McGregor was held in CONTEMPT by "editorial"-- because he NEVER worked "Marvel Method". Don did full scripts with layouts. A lot like Harvey Kurtzman. That's why, whoever the artist was, the visual storytelling was always exactly what Don wanted.
Most Marvel fans have NO IDEA how much better comics they never got to see, because of non-stop editorial interference.
Compared to Jack Kirby, Herge had it easy. Even under Nazi occupation. Geez, what a thought!
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Post by profh0011 on Mar 15, 2020 11:00:32 GMT -5
THE CRAB WITH THE GOLDEN CLAWS
Well, this has long been one of my favorite Tintin stories. Compared to many of the others, the plot runs in a pretty smooth straight line. The introduction of Captain Haddock, of course, is THE highlight of the entire story, and it's hilarious to see how unstable he was early-on, often being a danger to everyone around him as well as himself. His explosive expletives, which of course never quite run into profanity, are a joy and an vocabulary education.
Insomnia saw me once again read this in one go, even though more than once I felt like taking a break... I just kept reading instead, and next thing I knew, the book was over.
The main villain being such a minor character who goes unsuspected, even when the police are alerted, reminds me of the large number of cliffhanger serials where they'd keep the identity of the main baddie a secret until the last 2 minutes of the final chapter, by which point, you tended not to really care anymore. The first mate really stole the show this time around on that score.
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Post by shaxper on Mar 18, 2020 14:36:29 GMT -5
With the shut-in happening pretty much across the globe, I finally have the time to give Tintin a second chance. Based upon your reviews and your specific recommendations to me, Confessor, I have ordered the standard-size Blue Lotus volume to read with my girlfriend's son. Hopefully, I'll enjoy it more than my shrunken-sized Cigar of the Pharoahs. It should be here Saturday, and I'm quite excited for it!
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Post by Confessor on Mar 18, 2020 14:52:05 GMT -5
With the shut-in happening pretty much across the globe, I finally have the time to give Tintin a second chance. Based upon your reviews and your specific recommendations to me, Confessor, I have ordered the standard-size Blue Lotus volume to read with my girlfriend's son. Hopefully, I'll enjoy it more than my shrunken-sized Cigar of the Pharoahs. It should be here Saturday, and I'm quite excited for it! Excellent news! The Blue Lotus is Hergé's first masterpiece and a fantastic place to start.
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Post by profh0011 on Mar 21, 2020 16:51:39 GMT -5
THE SHOOTING STAR
Well this was a strange one. Not having a clue when I originally read it as to WHEN it was written, I had no idea there might be some subtle undertones abot the real world going on.
What struck me the most was how it reminded me of a Jules Verne-style adventure, between the scientists at the observatory, the voyage to a remote spot of the globe, and the fantastical elements once they reach there. Not to mention, the sight of Tintin standing on the last remaining bit of the rock BEFORE it's swallowed by the waves is almost exactly how the climax of Verne's "THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND" novel went, before the castaways were just-barely rescued at the last minute by a ship who found them because they'd left a message detailing their position on another island they visited halfway thru the book.
The best part, of course, was the return of Captain Haddock, still a drinker, but no longer a drunk, and far more in control of his faculties. The scene where he's accepting the award of the society while his crew is that moment loading the ship with his supplies was hilarious.
I had to go back and double-check... If I hadn't actually seen that Tintin went to sleep in the parachute, then woke up in a different position and place WITHOUT it, I would have almost sworn the entire sequence with the giant plants and the giant spider were nothing but a NIGHTMARE induced by his having seen what he THOUGHT was a giant spider back at the telescope! But, no-- apparently, it really happened. Whatta ya know?
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Post by shaxper on Mar 22, 2020 17:59:30 GMT -5
My girlfriend's son and I wrapped up reading The Blue Lotus today, and your analysis was spot-on. I had been wondering how the Japanese pulling out of the League of Nations in response to something depicted in the story worked in real life. And I was also keenly aware that Tintin was holding an opium pipe right before springing into action, wondering if he was actually inhaling the stuff.
We both really enjoyed the adventure, so I purchased two copies of the next two stories to enjoy as well. Thanks for encouraging me to give this another chance!
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Post by profh0011 on Mar 23, 2020 11:44:20 GMT -5
THE SECRET OF THE UNICORNThis has long been one of my all-time favorite books. It was only the 2nd TINTIN story I ever read. I started out with an incomplete set of CHILDREN'S DIGEST the year they did RED RACKHAM'S TREASURE. I believe I was missing the beginning, and the end of the story. If memory serves, my Mom got them from a friend of hers who had a subscription, but somehow didn't get the entire year. But sometime later, I believe, at the used book store in my neighborhood (long gone since 1970), I was able to find the missing issues-- and most (but again, not all) of the previous year's worth of issues. So I may well have read the bulk of this story, and then the entirety of the 2nd book right after, having already read most of the latter book earlier. Those were all printed in 2-color printing, with a different 2nd color used alternately in different sections of the story.
It wasn't until the series was reprinted in the mid-70s that I was able to finally read this in its entirety, and, in full color.
My favorite part has long been Captain Haddock telling Tintin the story and acting it out. I've been quoting one particular section of that for decades now... "They got abominably drunk. That's the word-- ABOMINABLY!" ...and... "So saying, he lifted the glass to his lips, and drained it at a gulp-- like this." "THAT'S alright Captain, I get the picture, continue with your story."
Re-reading these in sequence, I note this was at least the 3rd time Snowy got drunk. It was so absurd how the main villains might never have gotten caught if they hadn't stupidly added KIDNAPPING to their list of crimes (breaking and entering, theft, murder). And Tintin really didn't have what they were after, nor did he know where they were. The real coincidence of the plot hinges on Tintin finding a model which just happens to be of the ship Haddock's ancestor commanded. The final punch line of the book had to be when Tintin suggests the detectives check under "T", and discover the kleptomaniac pickpocket has a huge collection of wallets he stole just from the two of them alone. Lots of laughs in this story.
Interesting bit about the Union Jack. It's no wonder that for decades, I always assumed that Tintin was set in ENGLAND, not Belgium. Especially as The Thomsons were dressed exactly like John Steed.
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