So, a while back I decided to read all the Tintin books in 2015, which I’m really looking forward to. The challenge itself is pretty simple – I have to read about 2 a month. What might take a bit of time will be tracking down the first few and the last one. (The others I have on the shelf 🙂 )
And being as it’s 2015 now, I’m kicking off with one of the earliest Tintin’s I remember reading as a kid – Cigars of the Pharaoh. (I’ll read in chronological order from here, looping back to the first Tintin in December.)
Still one of my favourites, Cigars of the Pharaoh feels like ‘classic’ Tintin, even if it’s only the fourth release in the series and a lot of aspects to Herge’s Tintin-universe were still being developed.
It’s got a heap of action and the twists are piled on, there’s great word play from Thomson & Thompson (who make their first appearance) and the bounds of reality are amusingly stretched when Tintin carves a trumpet and learns the language of elephants. There’s also plot lines that run into the next volume and Snowy’s asides are great – and as ever, I love the ‘clear line’ style and the expressiveness of those few lines. There’s a panel where Snowy thinks Tintin has been killed and the despair on his poor face is drawn so well!
Easily one of the best Tintin adventures in my book.
Next up: The Blue Lotus.
ashley capes 
Leave a Reply