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The one that is out of this world The slow build-up of Destination Moon , slightly overburdened with technological background details taking precedence over the spy thriller elements, proves to be justified by the sheer brilliance, imagination, thrills and entertainment provided in the second part of the story which takes Tintin and his friends into genuinely new territory. Explorers on the Moon , in many ways, is Hergé at his very best. Consequently, having established the scientific principles of space flight in the opening book, there's little time wasted here in getting the rocket ship to the Moon. The story still has time before then however to explore some of the strange phenomenon of space flight, and it has considerable fun with weightlessness and extravehicular activity, mostly at the expense of Captain Haddock and his attempts to imbibe some contraband whiskey. There is some licence taken here, as there is with the eventual exploration of conditions on the moon, but it ha...

The one where Calculus acts the goat The problem with Destination Moon is that it's really just a scene-setter for Explorers on the Moon . While the opening books of the other two double-length Tintin adventures,   The Secret of the Unicorn and The Seven Crystal Balls , are essentially just the opening acts for the main adventures in their respective storylines, they each have their own strengths as standalone books and, arguably, the build-up in each even surpasses the follow-up. That certainly isn't the case with Destination Moon , which necessarily takes a rather long time to go into the preparations for Tintin and his pals making the first manned journey to the Moon. Preparation for Destination Moon began in 1946 one must remember, and it was published fifteen years before the first moon landing, so this is quite a leap of imagination all the same. Hergé would research the subject thoroughly for all the latest post-war technical advances in nuclear technology and rocket ...

The one the introduces Calculus Later in The Castafiore Emerald , Hergé would write an interesting Tintin story which goes through the motions of a typical Tintin adventure, but in reality nothing criminal actually occurs. Red Rackham's Treasure , the rather disappointing conclusion to the adventure that started in Secret of the Unicorn (both stories combined due to appear on the screen in a film by Steven Spielberg), is rather similar in that, after a terrific set-up, nothing really happens, and the potential is not really followed through. There are nonetheless important events that occur that are to have a major impact on the direction of the series and other pleasures to be found in Red Rackham's Treasure . Red Rackham's Treasure even opens with one of those incidents that usually promise intrigue - a conversation between two dock workers about the journey to discover secret treasure being organised by Tintin and Captain Haddock that is overheard by an inquisitive eav...

The one that Spielberg is making into a film The Secret of the Unicorn marks the beginning of Tintin's adventures in their prime and Hergé at the top of his craft, and as such, it seems like as good a place as any to start Steven Spielberg's long cherished ambition to bring the young investigator to the screen. There are certainly strong and thrilling Tintin adventures prior to this -  Cigars of the Pharaoh , The Broken Ear and King Ottokar's Sceptre  - but they are patchy and episodic, only really looking their best when the artwork was redrawn years later by Hergé studios for the new 62-page album format. The purest Tintin adventures, and the best, are the mid-period double-length features, The Secret of the Unicorn & Red Rackham's Treasure , The Seven Crystal Balls & Prisoners of the Sun and Destination Moon & Explorers on the Moon . Like the other double-length adventures, The Secret of the Unicorn would appear to have the disadvantage of being th...

This is a fascinating little murder mystery investigation that on the surface appears to be a quiet old-fashioned police procedural investigation in the style of Maigret. The investigation proceeds initially at a fairly leisurely pace, Inspector Imanishi following leads that seem to be unfruitful, trying to balance a modest family life with a determined duty to see justice done, and relying often on flashes of inspiration to make connections. In that respect, Inspector Imanishi Investigates is a competent police thriller, but almost without you noticing, the novel takes in and reveals much about the complex layers of Japanese society along the way. The murder investigation is centred on the discovery of an unidentified old gentleman, found dead on the railway tracks in Tokyo. Initial investigations fail to gain enough information and the case is reluctantly categorised as unsolved, pending any new information turning up. When a missing person report is connected to the murdered man, I...

The one that isn’t by Hergé Just in case it’s not obvious, this is not one of the official Adventures of Tintin series by Hergé, but rather an album based on the original 1972 animated film Tintin and the Lake of Sharks , scripted by Greg (Michel Régnier). A look inside the album will certainly reveal that this isn’t drawn by Hergé or his studio, the book derived rather from animation cels with a great deal more detail in the backgrounds and richness in the colouration. The album also only runs to 44 pages rather than the standard 62 pages of a regular Tintin adventure. So, it’s certainly not Hergé, but is it Tintin? Well, in a way, yes, but only because the story uses familiar characters and puts them through certain situations that are taken straight from other Tintin adventures. The story opens up with the theft and switch of an object from a museum that is almost identical to the opening of The Broken Ear , while the conflict between Borduria and Syldavia from King Ottokar’s Sceptr...

The one with the total eclipse of the sun Prisoners of the Sun is the second part of a story started in The Seven Crystal Balls , but really, until very late in the adventure, there’s little reference made to events in the earlier book and consequently, there’s no need to have read the previous book, terrific though it is (one of the best Tintin adventures, in fact), since as far as second part is concerned, it can be summed up as… Calculus has been kidnapped. Well, ok, to expand slightly on that since it’s a regular occurrence in Tintin adventures, Calculus has been kidnapped and taken to Peru, although the reasons for his abduction are rather flimsy, it seeming to be on account of him inadvertently picking up and wearing a precious artefact belonging to the mummy of the ancient Inca ruler Rascar Capac (which seems to have disappeared, vaporised in a ball of lightning in the last book). All you really need to know is that Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock are in Peru to try to rescue...