HADDOCK SWEAR WORD OF THE DAY Steamrollers!"Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles"
If you don't read Tintin, You're missing out!!!
THE ADVENTURES of TINTIN,
Are excellent. I'm surprised the comic-book series has not received more global recognition hitherto than it has.
Herge the author from Belgium, who created Tintin, was with out doubt a genius. The man on the street understands Tintin, but because the comic book cartoon format is generally regarded as trivial amongst literature greats, this notion mitigates his esteem, for Tintin. The man on the street understands nothing of Shakespeare, yet ironically he is always ready to support Shakespeare as a work of genius. It is. But so is Tintin, and it ought to be recognised as such. The Adventures of Tintin is perfect in so many ways. In so far as the work appeals to all age groups young and old child and adult alike, one can draw the comparison with 'The Simpsons", regarding this similarity. For the young boy, growing up raised on Tintin: all the world is put in perspective. The reality of the worlds great dramas is accurately reflected on the page.....In pictures and words. It ought to be compulsory for schools to stock in their' libraries the complete series. The stories should be analysed in High School English Class. Their depth offers many lessons.
Tintin has good values. He protects the weak, fights bullies, always does good and never does bad. And how funny the series is! Who can ever in their life forget Captain Haddock's vocabulary of hilarious swear-words! I will always laugh at the sticking plaster incident on the plane, in 'the calculus Affair' Or the time the Llama kept spitting in the captain's face in 'prisoners of the sun', Or the time General Alcazar and General Tapioca are having a 'moment' together in 'Tintin and the Picaros', reminiscing over the good old days when coups were bloody affairs, and their mutual disappointment that Tintin would not allow them to observe Latin American coup De'Etat tradition of executing the fallen leader. Tapioca was just as sad as Alcazar at this interruption of tradition; despite the fact that Tintin had just prevented Alcazar from executing Tapioca! Hilarious stuff, every one should read The Adventures of Tintin. Remember its a work of art to be held in the highest esteem, just like the Mona-Lisa painting, the architectural beauty that is the Empire State Building, and of course Shakespeare. The Tintin Adventures are published in perhaps thirty-five countries world-wide.
The Blue Lotus is an example of the best Tintin work. Through out the adventure is the scent of fear - this one is a nail biter. The setting is Shanghai in the late 1930's as Japan begins to invade and the city is carved up with check points bristling with barbed wire and menacing bayonets, the poison of madness and corruption and the exotica of 1930's Shanghai provide the backdrop for this adventure in which Tintin evades opium smugglers hell bent on taking him down for exposing their operation
Tintin battles a gang of crooks who have as their primary weapon a poison that makes its victims loony-tunes MAD.
As Tintin gets closer to uncovering their sordid opium smuggling operation, the crooks become ever more dangerous. Tintin wakes up in a coffin floating in the middle of the sea. But he escapes this peril thanks to a passing trading ketch. His nose for a fight leads Tintin from the pyramids to the Orient. Get this book before reading The Blue Lotus.
The Shooting Star is an innovative story - it was the forerunner to the big blockbuster Hollywood Computer generated graphics type stories of asteroids heading for the earth or giant tidal waves etc. But what really captures th imagination is the notion of a strange effect the new metal "phostlite" has on living creatures and trees (as depicted on the front cover!) This one is a great story.
This is an unorthadox Tintin story in that no great adventure really takes place, Instead, the focus is on the art work and the character depth. This is not to say that these things are missing from the other books, but this story focuses on them and nothing else. There is a novelty mystery of sorts - when opera DIVA Bianca Castafiorie invites her self to live-in at Marlinspike Hall (Captain Haddock's mansion) and installs all her "stuff" and her "entourage" and then some of her stuff goes missing. Hence the mystery. However in this idylic catalogue of Foux pas, a darker side of society is highlighted by herge with the depiction of racism and xenophobia which much of europe's gypsie population experience. Bravo!
Al Capone and his gang of MOBSTERS have taken over Chicago, So Tintin and Snowy his dog, go to Chicago to get Capone.
Capone gets wind of this and puts a price on his head. What ensues is a cat and mouse slug fest of viscious proportions.
Talk about bad dreams and nightmares. After reading this WHACK episode, you'll never want to sleep again. An ancient INCA mummy is on display in a glass cabinet. It breaks free and goes around the house during a thunderstorm; everyone has the same dream. In the morning the mummy is gone. Calculas is missing too. Its time to head to the Andes mountains to get to the bottom of this...Get this one along with Prisoners of the Sun.
Scary, stunning, bizzare and epic. These words sum up this adventure. Captain Haddock clashes with the fauna and flora, Professor Calculas shows up in Inca fancy dress- Book 2 of 2 following on from The Seven Crystal Balls.
A Rastapopolous roughly resembling Onasis, DeHavilland Mosquitos one eyed baltic pilots, arms dealers, desert trekks. Greedy slave traders and a whole world of bad guys for Tintin to teach some lessons. 5 Loch Lomond's.
General Alcazar and General Tapioca play musical chairs in San Theodoras - or was that TapiocaPolis...All of Latin America blended into one grand adventure, the Mardi Gras, the Aztec pyramids, the anaconda and the pirrahna. Ridgwell from The Broken Ear makes a cameo appearance.
FLIGHT 714
A supersonic corporate jet, the Billionaire who never laughs - laughs at the sight of Calculas, Skut makes a cameo, some more bad guys Allan and Rastapopolous are up to no good again, a volcanic island a mysterious ancient cave, telepathy and extra terestrials. Non stop action. 5 Loch Lomond's.
Follows on from Secret of the Unicorn. Ahh the complexities of personal submarine operation: be careful not to get the propeller caught in the sea weed, and remember your air supply is limited...Red Rackham's Treasure gets 5 Loch Lomond's.
Tintin travels to Scotland to battle bank note counterfeit forgers and a giant ape in a remote island castle perched a top a craggy rock. The tide comes in, hes in the cave, bad guy Dr Muller is involved, snowy samples the Loch Lomand Scotch whiskey on the train and the Thompsons: perpetually in hot pursuit, commandere a DeHavilland Tiger Moth and inadvertantly win the Scottish Aerobatics Championships live and televised, while trying to chase Tintin to THE BLACK ISLAND.
Professor Calculas dissapears for several weeks. Then a telegram arrives at Marlinspike from Calculas. He asks Tintin and Haddock to come to Syldavia. Tintin smells another adventure. Snowy fights with the cat, Haddock is very upset to discover Syldavians only drink mineral water, so packs a suitcase full of booz. Calculas loses his memory, Haddock says hes acting the GOAT.
The year: 1954. The task: Fly to the Moon in a nuclear powered Rocket. Haddock acts irresponsible, some twists and turns in the plot you'll never guess, high drama half way out to space, a technically correct description of a trip to the moon, before one had actually been made in real life. A suspencefull action thriller. 5 Loch Lomond's.
This one's PURE GOLD. French Foriegn Legion outpost in a sea of sand, a shoot out with bandits Captain HADDOCK MAKES HIS FIRST APPEARANCE. 5 Loch Lomand's for THE CRAB WITH THE GOLDEN CLAWS
King Ottocar of Syldavia = Borris of Bulgaria? Tintin delves into Yugoslavian border disputes and helps the king to retain his thrown from the ursurpers. Tintin lands in hot water and has to fly he escapes in a Messerschmitt BF 109, and trekks the mountains. Quaint villages, but watch out its that nasty peice of work Colnel Sponz...By the Whiskers of Curvy Tasch!
Tintin battles the mighty Amazon. What would you find if you walked into the Amazon jungle? Tintin finds out. Dr Ridgewell I presume? Ridgewell teaches the head hunter to play GOLF.
Dr Muller's up to no good again, but Tintin smells and uncovers the plot, the Thompsons see mirages in the desert and find a bottle of asprin, they will never be the same again! A naughty brat plays practical jokes, a car chase in the desert with big old 1950's cars, and an ingenious story plot. 5 Lochlomond's.
An under-rated episode. This is the book of a movie made in the 1960's thus the art work is a bit different to the clear line in the normal books. Also in accordance with the fashions of the time, everyone is wearing bell bottoms, flares and sporting sideburns. A giant pearl goes missing, Calculas invents a duplicator machine, A trip to a massive artificial lake, Rastapopolous throws a spanner in the works, frogmen and under water vehicles that shoot torpedos are the order of the day. Not a classic, but still very very cool: 3 Loch Lomond's.
Black and white very basic graphics. Some colour sections at the beginning. This is a really old episode and has only become available in recent years. This one is to be read in the same spirit as one would the congo episode: An episode that lacks the refinement of better known Tintin books, but nonetheless, shows the nucleus of what Tintin would become.
Tintin and Alpha art is the very last and somewhat unfinished work of Herge. Its a great read...Tintin negotiates the modern art scene in his most modern adventure of them all.
A study on Tintin. Basically this is a documentary on the world of Tintin. It is a book for those who never heard of Tintin, who want to find out all about Tintin.
Tintin in Tibet begins with a series of uncanny and eerie coincidences that lead Tintin to intuit that his old mate Chang is in trouble far far away. A search expedition is launched and this takes Tintin and Captain Haddock on a journey frought with danger, from the swealtering streets of New Dheli, to the rarified air of the Himalaya mountains.
Professor Cuthbert Calculas, is Tintin's friend, who he first met in a treasure hunt, when Calculas - a scientist and inventor - presented himself to the expedition along with his latest invention, which was a submarine shaped like a shark.
Calculas by appearance alone seems to be somewhat of an oddball often MR Bean-esque in his eccentric mannerisms and ways. However judging Calculas by different criteria of say personal life philosophy Calculas is probably the most noble personality in the world of Tintin. Calculas has a sense of justice and a soft spot for a damsal in distress. He seems to be enamoured with the opera singer Bianca Castafiore" and he is sure to kiss her hand whenever he meets her - always refering to the big blonde italian lass as "dear Lady". In his youth he was a capable athlete, and apparently knew his way around the boxing ring, as he practised a French style of kick-boxing called savate
Calculas demonstrating a fly kick. Thus from his sporting and romantic persuites we can see that Calculas is almost a contradiction, in terms of his vital character superimposed by his outwardly ancient appearance. He's physically ancient but his heart is young. Calculas gets involved in a great deal of adventures and he is often kidnaped by goons who either take offence to him or want to use his scientific knowledge for amoral purposes. Calculas creates great scientific advancements, such as the nuclear moon rocket. He also invented the duplicator machine, sound wave machine, the shark submarine and impressively a pill that can make alcohol taste permanently disgusting its recipient. He also experimented on lighter amusements like motorised roller skates.
For all his scientific logic, calculas is somewhat of a mystical character. Whenever he needs direction he whips out a pendulum and uses it to kind of divine where to go. It swings to and fro and Calculas seems to know how to interpret its movements. This superstition defies his scientist's vocation and aptitude, yet he swears by it.
Old and slow, Calculas is almost deaf and constantly miss-hears people. He wears thick spectacles and suffers from vertigo. One time he lost his memory completely, but it came back after a choice insult uttered by Haddock, and basically Calculas is an old man. Haddock and Calculas are unlikely friends considering the huge conflict that occurs between the two on a constant basis. However Haddock knows a good sort and lets Calculas live at Marlinspike Hall and even to keep a loboratory in the grounds.
Basically Calculas is a pretty cool guy although he could do with a cochlear implant. Whats more his character is of fine quality and he can be relied upon and acts in an honorable manner at all times. Throughout the series of adventures, Calculas' character is deepened and forms a complete identity. Calculas is not just a background extra to fill in the scenes like say Chandler in Friends. Professor Cuthbert Calculas is a surprisingly interesting role model. When I grow old I want to be just like Calculas. This mystical pendulum swinging scientist adds massively to the believability and depth of the overall Tintin experience.
Tintin in Tibet ice glacier
Tintin in Tibet the remains of the DC3
Tintin in Tibet climbing with sherpa team
Herge employs stunning simplicity in the artwork.
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