/hob/ - Hobbies

>>67222
>Can you elaborate?
Not really.
Media analisis isn't something I do in detail so if I attempted it I would just make a ass of myself in trying to rationalize things I just feel but don't have the fancy words for.
>That sounds interesting
It's probably not. Just personal preference when you get to the bottom of it.

The Crab with the Golden Claws is the story I really wanted to get at when I started with Tintin. This is the book that introduces Captain Haddock and his presence makes this entry the very best of the first 10 books. His hilarious self-pity, anger problems and alcoholism makes for an endearing and extremely entertaining character to follow around. Also Tintin finally has a person that resembles a friend and Haddock makes for a good counter-balance for Tintin’s extreme straight edge existence. In this book Tintin is again investigating drug smugglers operating in North Africa and beyond. I think the initial draft of this story had a much grander scope because we have a Japanese investigator at the beginning that suggests there was a plan to make these opium smugglers a more international bunch but in the end the story takes place almost entirely in and around the Saharan desert. Fine by me btw, I love deserts.

Excellent pacing, beautiful artwork, hilarious moments with Haddock, who quickly overshadows both Snowy, Thomson and Thompson and dare I say, even Tintin himself. The segment where Haddock realizes he’s in the Saharan desert, the “land of thirst” as he calls it, is my favorite scene from all the Tintin books I’ve read so far. The scene where they shoot his last whisky bottle is also pretty funny. I would say this is the first Tintin book that feels 100% like the Tintin people are familiar with (if they were introduced to the character through the cartoons.). Having Haddock around brings the whole thing together and it’s a breath of fresh air. It also makes the story more engaging and less uptight than having to follow only Tintin 100% of the time.

Next up is The Shooting Star.

>>67217
I don't know, I searched what metanarrative means and to me it sounded mostly rubbish, but I don't have the energy to do more than a superficial duckduck search about it. What are some comics you do like? I've been posting alone itt for years, so excuse me if I use any opportunity to make other wizards to post here more. lol

can't have even a comic's book thread without ppl talking about crabs *sigh*

Yesterday I ended up reading 3 titles in a row. The Shooting Star, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's treasure. The Shooting Star is a very odd story and several scenes look like a fever dream. There's a scene where Tintin thinks a meteor will destroy the Earth and he sits on his sofa and goes to sleep, saying he's tired of it all. The pastel colors, the slightly odd remarks and the artwork makes for a rather cryptic scene imo and the rest of the plot is not far behind. It goes slightly off rails here and there, as Herge plays around with some fantasy tropes. We even get Tintin fighting a giant spider on this one.

Next one is Secret of the Unicorn and while I liked the book, a rather long section of it is dedicated to Haddock telling about his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock and his encounter with the pirate Red Rackham. Although I appreciate the comedic intervals between Tintin and Haddock I didn't quite care for the tale of Sir Francis. The said, there's a maturity to the plot and artwork here that surpasses the polish of most, if not all the previous books. I also enjoyed the slice of life scenes on this one like Tintin perusing items at a local flea market.

Secret of the Unicorn is a two-part story and it continues on Red Rackham's Treasure. This is the book that introduces Professor Calculus and just like it happened with Haddock, the appeal of this character can be felt immediately. He's a hard of hearing, brilliant professor who single-handedly builds a submarine in order to help Tintin and Haddock recover the remains of the sunken ship Unicorn and its treasure. The scenes where they visit Calculus's lab is quite a joy to read through. Thomson and Thompson are there too and serve as the butt of all the jokes. This is also the book that contains one of the two panels Herge said to be his favorites in all the Tintin books. Now Calculus is in, from here on we'll have the whole crew populating the stories, let's see how it goes.

Next stop, The Seven Crystal Balls.

As much as I dislike Tintin I appreciate these reviews and your diligence. It would almost make me want to give them a chance but I'm too prejudiced.

The Seven Crystal Balls is one of my favorites. It's the closest Tintin ever got of a horror story and there are a couple of actually freighting moments in there that works, even with the bright colors and optimistic atmosphere of the artwork. It's also a very effective mystery, for the first time it feels like Tintin's investigations are necessary for plot development instead of stumbling upon the bad guys like it usually happens, though to be honest we do have a fair share of Tintin luck here too. This book has one of my favorite comedic moment in the series in which Haddock, now living in the mansion Cuthbert bought him after the Unicorn adventure, goes through pains to look like an English gentleman. Nestor is also now working in the mansion and has some good comic moments as well. Several minor characters from previous books make an appearance, something I always appreciate, it gives a sense of solidity to this fantasy world.

The plot is based on the curse of the pharaohs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_pharaohs). A bunch of scholars are falling into a comma just days after returning from an expedition from Peru with an ancient Inca mummy. One of the things that have improved considerably as the series progressed in the pacing of the stories and The Seven Crystal Balls is pretty much perfect, never boring you with long expositions or rushing too quickly making you forget what the characters are even doing. There's also a very good balance between inside and outside backgrounds. We have roads, hospitals, mansions, labs, piers and the open sea, all in the course of a single book. This is a two-part story, concluding in Prisoners of the Sun, a story that has my favorite scene in all of the books. I'll talk about it when I get there.

This was a hard book for Herge. He got arrested several times during the The Seven Crystal Balls' production due to being accused of being a Nazi collaborator after the end of the WWII. Also his brother got back from a prison camp and his mother died during this period as well. No wonder this is the closest he ever got of making a horror book.

>>67238
Glad to know you read or at least skim through these, I'm usually conflicted about making the effort to talk about stuff here, it feels like talking to myself most times, so why bother with actually writing it down? But it's a good way to organize one's thoughts at least.

>It would almost make me want to give them a chance but I'm too prejudiced.
If you dislike Tintin but these posts stir some interest in you, you can try Tintin's less known cousin, Mortimer. Tintin is just one in a rich culture of Belgian comics from the first half of the last century. Blake and Mortimer has a more serious tone and it's geared towards a more mature readership. It's less goofy and many consider it to have better literary value. The artwork is beautiful, too.
https://getcomics.org/other-comics/blake-and-mortimer-1-26-2007-2019/
You can find the first 26 issues in this link. The first 12 are drawn and written by the original author, Edgar P. Jacobs but the series got so successful it goes on to this day by other authors. Fun fact, Jacobs helped Herge in several Tintin books and he's honored in the cover of Cigars of the Pharaoh >>67179 you can see his mummified self with the plaque 'Jacobini' at his feet.

Prisoners of the Sun concludes the plot that began on The Seven Crystal Balls. This one is less of a mystery and more of an full fledged adventure. Tintin and Haddock travel to Peru in order to find Prof. Calculus who got kidnapped at the end of the last book. It has a very 'treasure hunt' feel to it and it feels very close to an old, no nonsense adventure novel. Artwork is beautiful and I loved the way the Peruvian landscapes are rendered here. Every time a llama shows up you know an endearing and fun comedic scene is coming up. Thomson and Thompson show up to go on a wild-goose chase of their. I hope they still get a chance to be heroes in one of these adventures, they have an unshakable sense of duty and deserve to be more than the butt of the jokes.

Edgar P. Jacobs was very involved in the development of the plot and the artwork for this adventure, to the point where critics feel like he should also be credited for the book. Apparently Jacobs himself brought it up but Herge refused and this is where they stop collaboration. Jacobs would go on to continue his own successful series, Blake and Mortimer.

Next is a story Herge was forced to abandon due to WWII and picked up 10 years later; Land of Black Gold.

>>67244
And to my surprise the Tintin shirt I have uses an illustration that comes from this book. It's when Haddock and Tintin are trying to cross a cliff using rope in order to get to the Sun temple.

Land of Black Gold is a story Herge was forced to abandon at one point and came back to it almost a decade later. There are 3 parts in this story I really like. The hegemonic presence of Thomson and Thompson, there are quite a few pages dedicated to their antics. Second is the Emir's son Abdullah, a funny and nasty little brat and last but not least the Oliveira makes an appearance here after his debut in Cigars of the Pharaoh. The plot itself is serviceable but it didn't really do much for me. A villain from a previous books is adding a substance to make the oil being exported to the West in order to make it 10 more explosive. His plan is to become the sole main suplier of the black gold but how this is exactly to be achieved is not 100% clear. It's a bit of a clunker of a plot that's not even used very much. The story improves once Abdullah is kidnapped and Tintin suddenly has a clear goal in mind.

I have the impression Herge was fond of deserts like myself, this is the fourth book we have that biome for the backgrounds. I can't get enough of deserts so it's fine by me.

Next up is Destination Moon. The adaptation of that book by Nelvana is one of my favorite episodes from the cartoon series. It will be interesting to visit the original material. We'll see.

Destination Moon is where Herge and his collaborators reached excellency as far as plot development goes. Unlike the artwork that is pretty damn good and reliable since pretty much Cigars of the Pharaoh, the stories and pacing can be pretty hit or miss in several books. Destination Moon is a perfect balance between procedural sci-fi, adventure and comedic moments. As Tintin, Haddock and Calculus prepare themselves to embark in a journey to the moon, we get it all. Detailed explanations of how a rocked works, comedic moments with Haddock and Calculus, and action/adventure type moments when Tintin sets out to intercept some spies in the secret base they're located.

The result is a thrilling book full of delightful surprises, or at least it was for me. As I mentioned before Destination Moon and its sequel are my favorite cartoon episodes of Tintin and the book definitely didn't disappoint, even though I had the highest expectation for it. It concludes in Explorers on the Moon, so that's what I'll read next.

>>67259
Again with the gags but the one thing i really remember from this book is it ending with the villain attempting to kill himself, failing and everyone laughing in his face. I remember that making me howl when i was younger.

Explorers on the Moon concludes Tintin's moon journey with the perfect pacing and balance between sci-fi, comedy and action that you get in the first book. After finishing Destination Moon, Herge became clinically depressed and he was able to start the second book only a year and a half later. Perhaps – spoilers ahead – Wolff's suicide was the result of some of his dark thoughts during that period. Other than that the story is actually imbued with the optimistic atmosphere that all Tintin stories have. I feel like Explorers on the Moon and Destination Moon is the most well accomplished Tintin story and it's many people's favorite. There's only 6 books left now (plus an incomplete title) and the only one I think has a chance to best the previous stories is Tintin in Tibet. I remember the cartoon version for that one being really good.

Next up is The Calculus Affair.

>>67267
I think you remember it this way because of Abdullah, the emir's son who would prank and laugh at everybody's expense but in fact nobody laughs at Muller's suicide attempt. The scene is indeed followed by a comedic routine though, when Thomson and Thompson have their hair grow wild and change color after they ingest formula 14 pills by accident. Thanks for your comment!

>>67267
And here are the pages where it happens in case you're interested.

>>67273
>>67274
I could have sworn thats whats happened but yeah, it seems i'm mixing the actual comics up with the animated version.
https://youtu.be/pvi6UsxA1yg?si=NG38XoY_zURwdsP9&t=2303

I've been meaning to read these again for years but i'm lazy so i'm enjoying your read through.

>>67278
Holy shit I completely forgot how they did it in the animated version. In fact I don't have a memory about this episode at all, maybe I didn't watched it back then. It's pretty damn brutal if you think about it. Guy tries to kill himself and becomes a laughing stock when he fails. Not the most boy scout moment for Tintin.

The Calculus Affair is a cold war type story where two rival nations try to kidnap Prof. Calculus in order to use his sound wave machine for military purposes. Of course Tintin and Haddock can't allow that to happen and so we have a fast paced chase adventure through Geneva, Syldavia and a couple other places. Thomson and Thompson are barely in this one which is a pity. Calculus himself, despite being on the titles, spends most of his time kidnapped, so there's not much he can do in this book, either. This book introduces Jolyon Wagg and makes extensive use of him for comedic moments, something I didn't care one bit. In fact I quite dislike Wagg, I find him annoying instead of funny or amusing.

To be honest I didn't really care for this particular story. In fact it's one of my least favorite books so far, perhaps the one I enjoyed the least. I didn't care for Wagg, you go in thinking it's going to have a lot of Calculus in it but there isn't, Thomson and Thompson are all but absent, the villain is to derivative of previous villains (I don't even remember his name!). There's only a couple things I really enjoyed here. The beautiful panels showing the environs around Marlinspike Hall, the panels showing the mansion itself and the – spoilers ahead – the tank chase at the end. Once I finish all the books I'll post a selection of my favorite panels in all of the adventures. This one has a couple of really good ones, but that was not enough to elevate this book for me. That said, this is the favorite book of a lot of Tintin fans and it's generally praised by the critics.

Next one is The Red Sea Sharks

>>67286
And here's a funny scene from this book showing how Tintin determines who's the bad guy. That is when the bad guy is not shooting at him, making that determination easier.

The Red Sea Sharks is a very chaotic story filled with past and new characters, all fighting for a little bit of space in this adventure. This time Tintin and Haddock are investigating military airplanes being sold in the black market to the rebels overthrowing the emir of Khemed. As the plot thickens, the heroes find themselves going against slave traders in several different ships, planes and even a submarine shows up at some point. I did like this one a lot but it is a rather disjointed story with perhaps too much going on at once.

Herge was obviously fond of ships. So many of his stories are filled with sailors, oceans, high seas adventures and plenty of different ships, from cruisers to freighters, all illustrated quite accurately. Next story is one I'm really looking forward to; Tintin in Tibet.

I've just finished Tintin in Tibet and imo it's the absolute best Tintin story ever published. I can say that with confidence, even if there's still 3 more book to go. I feel this is the very first time Tintin becomes fully human and a complete character instead of an engine to push an adventure forward. In way this is the opposite of a Tintin adventure. He's not going against villains or trying to end some drug smuggling operation, or getting bad guys behind bars. He's just trying to find his friend Chang after his airplane crashes into the mountains in Tibet. The friendship between Tintin and Chang is the reason for the adventure to happen but the friendship we get to see is between Haddock and Tintin and Haddock really goes above and beyond as an endearing, lovable character here. His failure to listen to reason and instead follow his friend Tintin to whatever end makes for a beautiful, personal story.

Artwork is amazing as always. Every scene in the – spoilers ahead – The Buddhist monastery is nice to look at and hilarious at the same time. This is also the only book so far that I feel Herge had total control over the plot and its pacing. The writing is superior in every way compared to previous entries. I'm not surprised this is also Herge's favorite Tintin book and it is considered his best by many critics. Incidentally, the Dalai Lama is also fond of this book and Herge got the Light of Truth Award for it. If you're to read a single Tintin adventure in your life, make it this one. You won't be disappointed.

Next up is The Castafiore Emerald, a book I'm looking forward to because the story takes place entirely inside Marlinspike Hall (Haddock's mansion.)

The Castafiore Emerald is what I like to call a domestic story. This is the type of story you get when you have a long running series and at one point one of the episodes is going to be the main characters going shopping or to a restaurant or something like that. Here we have the disappearance of Castafiore's emerald. The plot is filled with red herrings and small slice of life moments for all the characters involved. This is mostly a Haddock book and you spend several pages with him as he goes through the pains of having Castafiore living under his roof for the week to flee from paparazzi. Of course it doesn't work and the journalists are all over the mansion. There's also some gypsies temporarily camping in front of the house, mostly to increase the number of suspects for the events that eventually unfolds. Tintin takes his time to solve this one but it doesn't feel like a slog at all.

I quite enjoy this book but according to wikipedia it didn't get so well accepted as the other Tintin books. It is a very different type of story. There are no chases, fights, travels or important events going on, like I said, it's a domestic tale for those who have grown to appreciate the characters and want to see them outside the chaotic world of high adventure they usually find themselves in. Some critics say this should've been the last book and I agree. Back in Tibet Haddock mentions how he's tired of running around with Tintin, getting himself into all sorts of trouble. This homely outing would be a perfect farewell to Tintin and his friends.

One thing that I really dislike in this series and in this book it becomes very evident is the growing imbecility of Thomson and Thompson. When they first show up in Cigars of the Pharaoh, they're honorable, duty bound police officers. Although certainly clumsy from the start, they're actually able to perform their police duties well and in fact manage to save Tintin in more than one occasion and trick the bad guys in order to do so. As more books come out however they grow increasingly stupid, to the point where it's actually uncomfortable to watch. It's like watching a man with broken legs try to run upstairs. It's painful. They go from clumsy and funny to severely mentally challenged and sad. In this particular book they're barely capable of breathing to stay alive. They can't even exist as humans anymore, let alone be police officers. It's a pity, but I don't think there will be anything in the remaining books to remedy this injustice. They deserved a lot better.

Next is a book I don't remember anything about. Flight 714 to Sydney.

Flight 714 to Sydney is interesting in how it fails. This post will be filled with spoilers, so if you want to experience this book by yourself (and my advice is that you do, it's a weird Tintin outing) hide this post and come back later. In an interview, Herge was growing increasingly disinterested in Tintin by the point he was developing this story and I dare say the final result makes that very obvious. Starting with the villains. Rastapopoulos and Allan, two of the most cunning and menacing bad guys throughout the series, start out strong with a ploy to kidnap a billionaire and his prototype aircraft. About 20 or 30 pages in however, they change completely and become clowns and completely toothless, in Allan's case, literally. It's like the author suddenly became completely unable to take what he was doing seriously. From then on the villains just wander around, accidentally getting hit by swinging tree branches and having rocks dropped at their heads for comical effect. It's over for them in terms of involvement in the plot.

This sudden and shocking veering off course doesn't happen with just the villains. The plot itself clearly suffers from a change of heart constantly. For example, Tintin and Haddock find an old war bunker inside the subterranean passages of the island they were taken by the bad guys. But then it feels like the story loses its interest in that and so they leave for another subterranean passage, this time an ancient cavern complex with long forgotten stone idols. But then again, it feels like Herge is not interested in doing that again, either (see >>67244 for this type of plot), so suddenly Tintin and Haddock find some guy down there wondering around the cave, literally out of nowhere. There's absolutely no reason for him to be down there, but there he is, ready to take the plot into another direction.

This guy, called Mik Kanrokitoff, has been using telepathy (!) to communicate with Tintin so he could find his way through the labyrinthine subterranean passages of the island. As if this is not ridiculous enough, even for a Tintin story, this guy is actually using telepathy to communicate with aliens. Aliens! Mmkay. Meanwhile the chase continues, pretty much for no reason, since at this point Rastapopoulos and Allan have nothing to gain from this enterprise and have effectively became too stupid to keep up with anything.

So, about 10 pages left to go and having solved nothing, Mr. Kanrokitoff uses his telepathic powers to hypnotize everyone and make them go aboard an UFO. Yup. Because fuck it, I guess, at this point, why not? Then the UFO flies away, saving everyone from blowing up with the island since the volcano at its center just became active and erupted. Because why not? And then Kanrokitoff telepathically erases everybody memories of all the events that occurred and Tintin and Haddock go to the airport to get another flight to Sydney. The end.

I have been reading these books daily and have them all fresh in my memory and to me it's very clear this book is the result of a guy completely losing interest in his own creation. Or rather, he wants to use his famous character to explore other ideas he's currently interested in, but those ideas are completely incongruous with the world he wants to explore it in. Sure, we have black magic in Seven Crystal Balls and a yeti in Tintin in Tibet but in those cases it's worked into the plot in a very elegant and enjoyable manner. Here we have an off the rails plot that pretty much feels like it's making shit up as it goes, just so it can end. Despite that, this is actually enjoyable in a train wreck sort of way.

And now we finally reach the final completed issue, Tintin and the Picaros.

>>67328
I can't remember if Rastapopoulos shows up in Herge's unfinished 'Alpha Art' but Tintin's arguable arch-nemesis straight up getting abducted by aliens and never being seen again is kind of hilarious.

I got anxious about reading the last completed Tintin adventure so I read it soon after Flight 714 to Sydney. Tintin and the Picaros is such an odd book. While the world Tintin lives in breaks and falls apart in Flight 714 to Sydney due to the introduction of several out of place elements in the story and the ruination of key villains, in Tintin and the Picaros it's the heroes themselves that start to break apart. The whole thing starts when General Tapioca kidnaps the Thompsons and Bianca Castafiore. If this was in any other book, Tintin would immediately come up with a plan to infiltrate Tapioca's hideout and find a way to free his friends. Even Haddock wouldn't sit idly, even if the victim is Castafiore. In here though Haddock celebrates (!) that Castafiore has been kidnapped by a dictator and Tintin flat out REFUSES to go help them. They just lounge around the mansion reading the news and laughing about it. It's like these are completely different characters at this point.

Eventually Haddock decides to go there for selfish reasons and Tintin yet again refuses to go, allowing Haddock and Prof. Calculus to go alone behind enemy lines. And then he just shows up out of nowhere because his name is on the book's title. That's the only reason I can think of at this point. It is quite astonishing how the characters feel odd in this book. The only one that resembles his former self is Calculus and Castafiore. When some critics say the last book should've been Castafiore's Emerald this is what they mean. Whatever change of heart Herge had about these characters, it was to their detriment.

Herge began working on this book nearly 10 years after completing Flight 714 to Sydney and something must have happened during that time because everything feels quite different and off, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. It's also the only book Herge managed to finish in the last 15 years of his life. I guess he was just completely done with comic books at this point, though I hear his unfinished project, Tintin and Alph-Art is much better, I guess we'll see. Maybe in that story he managed to be interested in the project because it dealt with the art world. At that point in his life Herge was trying to establish himself as an abstract artist, which he mostly fails from what I read.

All in all Tintin and the Picaros is a very odd book, rather sad, uncanny in many ways and not the best good bye for such beloved characters. I'll read the script for Tintin and Alph-Art next, so I can catch a glimpse of what Tintin's last adventure would've been. As it stands, Tintin and the Picaros is usually considered the last Tintin book.

>>67330
It's like Herge didn't care at all at that point and just brings some god inside the machine to solve everything in a page or two.

And here's the very last Tintin adventure. Tintin and Alph-Art, the book Herge worked at for 3 years and left it unfinished by the time of his death in 1983. We have half a script and about 150 pages of sketches, ranging from decent pencil drawings to quick lines jotted down in pen you can't tell what's going on. Judging by what we have, this is a return to form for Tintin. He's back to be an active investigator, trying to bring bad guys to justice. The story is about the murder of an art curator and the art forger behind it. Judging by the script it's a very standard Tintin adventure, and its atmosphere, pacing and plot is much closer to the early books like Cigars of the Pharaoh and King Ottokar's Sceptre than the later oddballs Flight 714 and Picaros.

I guess one sees what one wants to see in it. Some critics say it would have been a triumphant return for Tintin after two lackluster books, others say it would have been a run of the mill, derivative adventure. I think it would have been a very interesting book and it's an artistic tragedy Herge's wife forbade Bob de Moor to finish it. Mr. de Moor was the most talented artist in Tintin Studios, and he was known to be able to draw in Herge style better than Herge himself. The publisher wanted him to finish it, the public certainly wanted him to finish it and for a little while Herge's wife actually requested him to finish it. de Moor himself was very keen into finishing this book for Herge as an homage. Alas, the wife eventually shut down the entire project because Herge mentioned he didn't want Tintin to continue after his death.

The thing is, this didn't stop artists to make their own homebrew versions of Alph-Art. The tragedy here is that Bob de Moor, having worked with Herge for decades and being a co-creator of so many Tintin books, was definitely the right man for the job, probably the only one after Herge's death and now it's too late. Mr. de Moor passed in 1992. We're left with half a script and sketches of what could've been.

And that's it, Alph-Art is the last one. I loved going through those comics and I appreciate Tintin not only as a huge part of my childhood but also as a part of my adulthood now. The past 3 weeks have been immense fun thanks to Tintin and his friends. We're not done yet. I'll be making some posts about my favorite panels from each book and some commentary I forgot to write down the first time.

>>67334
Any plans to go through Herge's other work like Quick & Flupke?

I’ll make 8 posts in a row talking a little bit about my favorite panel for each story. The reason I don't do this in a single post is because I can only post 3 pictures per post and I don’t want to just link some imgur folder, I want to upload every image individually. The reasons behind my selection vary. Sometimes I really like the panel for its artistic value, other times I have an emotional attachment to it, either for the art or the moment the picture represents in the story. In many stories there are objectively better panels as far as art goes but they’re not always my favorites.

1 - Tintin in the land of Soviets
Both the artwork and the plot for the first book are primitive but we can detect glimpses of what’s to come. This panel of Tintin running away from a train encapsulates a lot of what Tintin is. Lots of vehicles, crazy chases and daring escapes. The panel also makes it look like Tintin is running inside a tunnel, and subterranean passages, caves and generally underground places are very common locations in all Tintin stories. I’m sure people who like psychoanalysis would have a field day with that one.

2 - Tintin in the Congo
Herge didn’t quite like the first two books. He got some flak for the way he depicts the Congolese but like I said before, they’re not shown in a bad light at all. Drawing them in a blackface style didn’t help. I always thought blackface actually looks cool for a character. It has a simplicity to it that makes it visually appealing and even endearing in a way. For example, in this picture the Congolese look all cooler than Tintin imo. Again you can see vehicles appear quite often in all Tintin stories.

3 - Tintin in America
Herge was fascinated by native americans and always wanted to see one irl as a kid. This panel shows the artist realizing his childhood fantasy through his fictional work. Tintin meets a real Red Indian! I think it’s funny the Indian here is not at all happy to see Tintin and probably considers him a disturbance, which let’s be honest, he usually is.

>>67337
Probably not, there are other comic book artists I want to explore. I think I gave Herge a fair shake. I'll talk about it here when I decide what'll read next.

4 - Cigars of the Pharaoh
One of my favorite books. It’s hard to pick a favorite panel. I love the vastness this book offers through its desert illustrations and I also think it has the best coloring work in all of the books. In this scene Tintin finds water after wandering around the desert for days. I always like to imagine the peaceful oasis like a jewel in the vast desert and the relief of a weary traveler when first seeing the trees in the distance.

5 - Blue Lotus
This book is too opinionated and ‘adult’ for me to really love it. I don’t need the awfulness of the world to sweep through in beautiful illustrations. That said, I still quite like this one. I tend to grow fond of the quieter panels, like this one. I can hear the rain gently hitting the roof tiles.

6 - The Broken Ear
The only fault of The Broken Ear for me is the lack of jungle. There’s just not enough of it imo. Cigars of the Pharaoh did it right, having a lot of desert in it. This book should’ve tried to follow suit and have a lot of jungle in there. Here’s one of the very few scenes Tintin has to deal with his environment in this adventure.

7 - The Black Island
The most beautiful book of the bunch, as far as the illustrations go. Hard to pick a favorite panel, there are so many. The depiction of the English countryside and the Scottish highlands is plentiful and perfect. The rocks, the trees, the buildings, everything looks great here. The colors are quiet and invite a mental quietness I can’t quite explain. I guess you would have to read it for yourself.

8 - King Ottokar's Sceptre
Where Black Island is quiet and charming, King Ottokar's Sceptre is loud and pugnacious. In this story Tintin spends a lot of time in and around palaces, royalty and royal, regal things and those things are made to impress and exaggerate. The clothing, the buildings, everything has a visual excess to it. This panel captures it well. An excessively slippery marble. Poor Thomson and Thompson don't stand a chance against it.

9 - The Crab with the Golden Claws.
One of my favorites. Haddock’s debut book and a definite turning point for the series as a whole. An easy choice for this one, here we have Haddock, Tintin and Snowy wandering the desert, quite lost. The beautiful, deadly desert, the scorching sun. The yellow hues of the sand contrasting against the clear, blue sky. Snowy not giving a shit. Perfect.

10 - The Shooting Star
Plenty of better panels in this book to choose from but this one panel right here is brutal and weird. Tintin visits a scientist after sighting a strange light in the sky. The scientist tells him it’s a huge meteor that is going to collide with Earth in a matter of hours. There are already signs of the collision already, and the scientist presents his calculations to Tintin. Tintin is absolutely convinced he’ll die and the world is coming to an end.. So he goes back to his apartment and this scene happens. He decides to go to sleep. It’s such an ominous moment and it’s the only time Tintin simply gives up in the entire series. Sure, there’s nothing he could do, but it’s still a depressing moment. Snowy looks dead at his feet. A bizarre, striking panel for me.

11 - The Secret of the Unicorn.
Slice of life is a genre that wasn’t in the scope of the comic book format when Tintin was being produced. I would very much like to have more quiet moments for Tintin and the other characters to exist in, maybe a page for every book of mundane, peaceful moments. They happen in many books but it’s almost an accident. In this panel we have Tintin and the Thompsons shopping for canes in an antiquity fair. What a nice moment to seize here with this panel. A few panels later Tintin will find a ship model in the same fair, triggering one of the best adventures of the entire series.

12 - Red Rackham's Treasure
This is one of the two favorite panels by Herge in the entire series. I agree with him. The disposition of the characters is very nice and it looks like it could be a painting if it were drawn in a different style. Again, this is a book that has plenty of very cool panels; you have hidden rooms, a mansion, treasure, open sea, ships, but capturing the moment Haddock steps in the island of Rackham’s treasure for the first time while Tintin and the Thompsons pull the boat ashore makes for foreboding moment. Alas! We have a coloring mistake. The bottom part of Haddock’s shirt is painted wrong. It doesn’t detract from the picture imo.

13 - The Seven Crystal Balls
This might not look like much but this is the most terrifying panel ever drawn for a Tintin book. You would have to read all the way up to this point to appreciate it. 13 books in and we never had a paranormal moment, no real ghosts, monsters or anything of the sort. Then this happens. At first you’re not sure if it’s a dream or reality. This emaciated figure emerging from an open window, its bright, golden necklace, the realistic way it needs to move in order to get inside the room, makes it for my favorite panel in one of my favorite books.

14 - Prisoners of the Sun
Haddock’s irascible temper against the powers of nature. In this case, a llama. Haddock VS llamas has to be the funniest comedy routine for the character in all the books and that's why I picked this panel. Haddock hits the animal after he got too close and the llama took the opportunity to chew on his beard. What comes next is the llama spitting in Haddock’s face, both humiliating him and showing the beast has a temper to match. This is just one instance of several bouts between Haddock and llamas that happens during this book.

15 - Land of Black Gold
I didn’t care much for the plot of this book but it’s beautifully drawn. We’re back in the desert for this one and here we have the Thompsons ready to dive in a mirage. The fact they would keep their bowler hats for a swim for some reason amuses me more than it should. Their bathing suits are ridiculous and the fact they have their hands put together like children ready to get inside the pool makes for one endearing panel. Fun fact: you can recognize them by the shape of the mustaches. Thomson is the one pointed mustache. Thompson is the one with the mustache going straight down. I prefer their original names Dunpont and Dunpond.

16 - Destination Moon
The moon adventure has the best cliffhanger moment in the series imo and it all comes down to this panel. You can see the rocket managed to reach space, but we don’t know if the crew lived to tell the tale. We're just they’re desperately trying to contact Tintin on the radio but there’s no response. I don’t feel Tintin and his world is the most appropriate territory for a sci-fi story but Destination Moon and the next book certainly made it work.

17 - Explorers of the Moon
So many shenanigans happen in this book the only reason they managed to survive at all is due to plot armor. There are plenty of more awe inspiring panels in this book, lots of lunar scenery and the insides of a highly advanced rocket and moon vehicle. However I picked this one rather shabby panel because of how hilarious it is to me. Wolff, one of the astronauts, is a double agent and almost gets everybody killed by bringing a villain aboard the rocket. As a result, they’re quickly running out of air and may not make it back to earth alive. Haddock doesn’t spare Wolff, deriding him at every opportunity for his incompetence and villainous conduct. But then Wolff makes the ultimate sacrifice, killing himself in order to save oxygen for the others. This act of bravery has a deep impact on Haddock, who now considers Wolff a hero. Thompson, unaware of Haddock’s change of heart and Wolff sacrifice, casually asks Haddock about “that thug Wolff”, as he puts it, and Haddock explodes in rage, giving the speech you see in this panel.

18 - The Calculus Affair
I didn’t care much for this particular adventure. I can’t shake the fact Calculus is in the title and he barely shows up. Also the plot feels like a bricolage of earlier adventures. So I picked this panel for its artistic quality. This one here is a fine example of ligne claire, the style Herge and other Belgian artists developed during the 30s, 40s and 50s. It’s one of the best panels depicting an urban scene in that style. The fact it’s raining adds to my enjoyment of the scene.

19 - The Red Sea Sharks
There are a lot of cool scenes in this adventure and lots of cool panels to choose from but this one is by far my favorite, easy pick. This beautiful illustration is based on the Al-Khazneh in Jordan. I’m averse to traveling but I would like to see this piece of architecture irl someday. Having cast enormous shades on the rock face to the sides and letting the sun shine bright at the center, giving Al-Khazneh an almost divine presence is a very cool idea. I like to think this could be the ruins of a cave entrance from the mythological days of the garden of Eden. Too bad the scan I have for this book is of bad quality and it slightly cuts the panel.

20 - Tintin in Tibet
Best book imo and here’s my favorite interaction Tintin has in Tibet. These monks save Tintin and Haddock after finding them almost dead in the mountains. The monks advise they should give up their search for the missing boy, who is certainly dead after all this time, and return to Belgium and to safety. Tintin refuses to accept that and pushes on with the search. Haddock agrees searching for Chang in the mountains is insane and deadly, but bound by friendship, goes along anyways, ready to die with his friend instead of leaving Tintin to his fate. Of course, Chang is alive and despite all perils and hardships, Tintin and Haddock manage to find him. The monks, utterly impressed by their kindness of heart and willingness to die for a friend, come to greet them in full Buddhist gear, to celebrate their efforts. A heartwarming moment to give close to a pretty much perfect adventure.

21 - Castafiore’s Emerald
The book that should’ve been the last. What nice farewell this book would’ve been for these characters. A small, quiet adventure happening all inside Marlinspike Hall. We have a nice mystery, good comedic moments and Prof. Calculus dressed in lovely gardening attire. This panel captures the leisure and peace this book expresses in its pages. A sunny, fresh morning, a walk around the garden, tending roses, Calculus in a yellow hat. Can’t ask for more than that for a series finale.

22 - Flight 714 to Sydney
The book with the broken plot. Irregular, constantly changing pace, abandoning ideas, abandoning characters, loses focus all the time. The art is good and it’s surprisingly enjoyable despite its shortcomings. However the best I can say for it is that I prefer it to exist than to not exist. One of the worst books in my opinion. I picked this panel because Calculus walking around with his pendulum is such an iconic image for the series and here we have a clear instance of that. He’s practicing dowsing, a pseudoscience practice that kinda works in Tintin’s universe, it almost works sometimes, but not quite.

23 - Tintin and the Picaros
The book with the broken characters. Are these impostors? What have they done with the real Haddock and Tintin? That buffoon can’t even get his pants right. I don’t know who he is but he’s not Tintin. What better way to celebrate this bizarre entry in the series with this bizarre panel. A South American carnival. Haddock, Tintin and Alcazar donning Gilles outfits coming from the inside of a giant king with machine guns, saving the Thompsons from certain death! Balloons and music everywhere. Total chaos. I guess you have to enjoy it for what it is.

24 - Tintin and Alph-Art
The book that never was. Not much to say for this one. It looks like it would be better than the last two. It’s a curious book because we get a lot of sketches, something you don’t get to see often. It’s fun to look at the skeleton and rough ideas behind the finished product. Here’s the very last page Herge ever did for Tintin. He never completed it, page 42. The last panel: Tintin is being taken away by the villain of the book. He’ll be encased in plaster and transformed into a statue, an art piece. In a way it’s a very fitting last page. There’s no danger for Tintin here, he is already an art piece. The villain doesn’t seem to understand his plan poses no threat.

Here's my list of books I enjoyed the most in order. 1 is the one I enjoyed the most, 23 the least. I consider Picaros and Flight 714 to be objectively the worst entries (that's not to say they're bad or not entertaining) but that doesn't mean I couldn't enjoy them for what they are. Tintin in America is my least favorite "proper" Tintin adventure. Tintin and Alpha-Art is in there for completion sake, being just a few sketches and half of a first draft for a plot, and I feel the same about Land of the Soviets, being more of a prototype than anything.

1 Tintin in Tibet
2 The Crab with the Golden Claws
3 The Black Island
4 Cigars of the Pharaoh
5 The Seven Crystal Balls
6 Prisoners of the Sun
7 Red Rackham's Treasure
8 The Secret of the Unicorn
9 The Castafiore Emerald
10 The Red Sea Sharks
11 Land of Black Gold
12 Explorers on the Moon
13 Destination Moon
14 The Blue Lotus
15 The Shooting Star
16 Tintin and the Broken Ear
17 King Ottokar's Sceptre
18 The Calculus Affair
19 Flight 714
20 Tintin and the Picaros
21 Tintin in America
22 Tintin in the Congo
23 Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
24 Tintin and Alph-Art

After Tintin I felt like trying something a little more recent. During a quick search I read a lot of good things about Donjon, so I decided to pick it up. Donjon, or Dungeon, is a parody of DnD tropes and it's a lot smarter than it sounds. Not the parody itself, though that is often good too, but the quiet, serious moments are very good and it gets you by surprise. If I'm being brutally honest, I didn't quite care for the two main characters though, Herbert and Marvin. I'm not sure why, they're OK characters, nothing obviously wrong with them. Maybe it's the artwork, they look pretty much like a sketch, though I find the artwork decent and serviceable for the most part. Perhaps is the fact the Herbert tries to be funny to much, it feels forced at times, I don't know.

I read the first two volumes, Duck heart and King of Fighting, in English they're bound in a single volume as Duck Heart. The first story introduces the premise. A huge dungeon in DnD style, and we focus on the guys running this deadly labyrinth, keeping the monsters fed, corridors clean and traps functioning. Also we're introduced to our hero, Herbert the duck. He's given the job to bring a barbarian to the upper management people but when he accidentally got the guy killed, hr decides to pretend to be a barbarian and go in his place. This turns out to be a big mistake and after he gets captured they send Marvin the Dragon to help him out.

Their friendship is central to the book but I couldn't quite see why Marvin would bother to befriend this guy. Anyway, it's not important. They fight some monsters, retrieve some treasure and save the dungeon from certain destruction. It's mostly comedy but like I said there are some heartfelt moments in there I was not expecting. I was not too impressed but interested enough to try the second book. This time Marvin has a more central role to the plot and it explores his past a little bit. This is a much better story, but again I didn't quite care for the main characters.

That said, I completely understand why this is such a beloved series. It's funny, has a lot of clever moments and it's visually appealing.. for the most part. Apparently the authors are planning a humongous series, sprawling dozens of books. I didn't loved it enough for that but it was certainly fun. Maybe I'll come back to it eventually but for now I'll be trying something else.

>>67361
Forgot to add the wiki to the series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_(comics)
And you can read the first volume for free in archive.org: https://archive.org/details/dungeonzenithvol0001sfar_f4r5/mode/2up
All you need is a free account.

>>67361
Never read Dungeon but something Trondheim related i read last year ( and when i say 'read' i mean that very loosely as this is a wordless comic) was la mouche, or 'the fly' (nothing to do with the Cronenburg movie). It was turned into a series of short 5 minute animated cartoons that used to play ad nauseam on television over here when i was a kid. Just looking at his work makes me a little nostalgic.

>>67174
>He shoots an entire herd of antelope.
Wasn't that an accident, in that he saw one antelope at a time over a small ridge and he thought he missed it every time he shot it?

>>67382
Give it a shot if you haven't already. I linked the first vol at >>67362, you can read it for free. It turned out not to be really my thing but it's quite popular and a lot of people rate it highly.
>>67408
It was but it's still a joke made about killing a huge amount of animals. Herge himself said he regretted the animal cruelty stuff shown in that book and tried to redeem Tintin by showing him helping animals in the subsequent books. I mean everything is a product of its time. It's a book from the 30s, sensibilities were different.

After reading the first two books of Donjon I decided to go back to classics I haven't read and went through Asterix The Gaul, the first Asterix book. It's interesting, with Tintin you might even forget you're reading a comic book. Herge and his collaborators were clearly more artists than they were writers. In fact there's only one truly solid as far as storytelling goes in the entire Tintin series and that is Tintin in Tibet, but the beautiful artwork make every book worth a look. However comics are not really about making beautiful pictures. It helps of course, but a comic book is about telling a story and that's why you might even forget Tintin is a comic, because the focus is clearly on the artwork's side.

Asterix on the other hand, is what I consider a creation fully devoted to the idea of what comic books are. For one, it's quite comical, if nothing else. Writing is excellent from the get go here and the jokes and pacing to me feel like the definition of what comic books should be. The artwork is not nearly as beautiful as in Tintin but it doesn't try to be. It's not trying to be beautiful, it's trying to tell you the story. The characters are incredibly expressive, both their faces and their body motion. Mr. Uderzo excelled in conveying movement in those clunky funny bodies his characters live in. The noses alone are amusing to look at and go through, making comparisons and how they enhance each character's personality. Even with the terrible coloring work his drawings shine through.

The plot is simple enough. You have Asterix, a Gaul, living during the Roman invasion of his homeland. All Gallic tribes are vanquished, except the tiny village Asterix lives in. Their local druid, Panoramix is able to brew a concoction that gives Asterix immense strength for a short period of time. On top of that Obelix, his buddy, fell in a pot filled with said potion, so he's also super strong forever. This premise is put to use to make several visual jokes and slapstick comedy to great effect. The centurion in charge sends a spy to try to retrieve Asterix's secret but he fails of course.

Goscinny's writing and Uderzo's artwork work incredibly well together and this first entry in the series is considered by Le Monde as one of the best books released in the last century, quite an honor for a comic book, but it is that charming and amusing and it probably deserves its place in that list.

Also if you're learning French and you're a beginner I highly recommend picking this series up for reading practice. I was able to breeze through this one in the original language despite having quite a subpar understanding of the language.

Asterix and the Golden Sickle feels more like an adventure than the first entry. This time Asterix and Obelix have to go to Lutetia (present-day Paris) in order to purchase a new golden sickle for Panoramix so he can attend a druid conference somewhere. Things don't go as planned when the sickle maker, who also happens to be Obelix cousin, is mysteriously gone. The heroes then decide to investigate, leading to a series of stints in prison, escapades and fists fights with law enforcement as well as barbarians, brigands and whatnot.

Obelix gets a lot more exposition in this one and becomes a full character. My favorite character still is Panoramix (Getafix) but I'm usually partial to sages/wizards type anyways. Obelix always seem to be in some sort of haze, like he's drugged or something. It's because of his eyes, they're never fully open. Anyway, this was a fun read so I'll continue with the next book, Asterix and the Goths.

While looking for more Asterix comics I came across this one, Le Génie des alpages (Genius of the Mountain Pastures) and it's pretty damn good. It has this surreal atmosphere and odd comedy to it. It also never been translated to English so I decided to make a fan translation of the first story. If anybody think this is interesting enough I might do some more. The publisher Dargaud released all the books in a 5 volumes collection. Now this is not professional work but I kept as close as I could to the original.

I always wanted to check Peyo's Johan and Peewit books. I quite enjoyed The Smurfs cartoons growing up and later on when I found out they debuted as side-characters in a Johan and Peewit story I became very curious about it. Yesterday I finally sat down to read the first Johan's adventure: Basenhau's Punishment. Peewit will only appear in the third entry of the series, so it's not Johan and Peewit yet. The plot is simple enough: In a medieval nondescript time and town, evil guy Basenhau tries to cheat in the jousting tournament by breaking Count Tremaine lance. Johan warns Tremaine of the plot, Basenhau gets punished and later tries to get his vengeance against the king, Johan and Tremaine. Thanks to Johan's courage Basenhau fails and end up being thrown in jail.

The more interesting aspect of this book for me is the artwork. It has such solidity, it's hard to describe. Everything feels heavy and strongly in place. There's very little tone variation for the colors, which I think helps giving that impression. I'm pleasantly surprised by it so I'll continue to read the other books as well. Apparently Johan and Peewit was Peyo's favorite creation and he even relegated the Smurfs books to his studio so he could continue with the series.

>>67409
I'll give it a look eventually, Reading other stuff at the moment.

I've read The Push Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. I was feeling like a change of pace and came across this title more or less by accident when looking for alternative, against the grain comics and manga. There's an oppressing atmosphere and pessimism in all the stories in this collections but somehow they manage to be poetic and charming in a way. Many stories have relationships between men and succubi as their core and how they bring misery and disappointment from both sides of the deal. But then again, it seems like engaging with society at any level, being entering a romantic relationship, employment or simply going out in the streets, invariably results in varying degrees of bitterness, confusion and anger. Despite this, most characters keep the stiff upper lip to the point of looking numb, apathetic or pathologically reticent. Society feels like something made to humiliate and grind the characters' souls to that point.

The artwork is simple but charming and effective. Text is sparse, which I think helps with the pacing and the atmosphere. Silence is a big part of how these stories play out and is an essential part of the characters. It somewhat elevates them beyond the terrible situations they take part in or are responsible for, almost like if these things happen in silence they're less horrifying and crushing. If nothing is said there's less to think about. Yet this book gave me a lot to think about. I definitely recommend it.

You can borrow it for free at archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/pushmanotherstor0000tats
1 hour is enough to read the whole thing but you can keep borrowing it if it takes you longer. All you need is a free account. There are tons of comics and books in there to borrow, so making an account is quite worth it.

>>67474
Yeah it was all right, though Abandon the old in Tokyo was slightly better (unless that's the one with the slightly evil facially deformed lady, as far as I can recall).

Lately I've been binge reading the legendary mechanic. The basic gimmick, being sucked into a VR video game, has been done a lot, but it's a decent base gimmick imo and they add additional stuff on top of it to make it interesting.

Just finished reading A Drifting Life after having a positive experience reading The Push Man and Other Stories by the same author, Tatsumi Yoshihiro. This is a very long book, at almost 900 pages long and it tells the story of the author from 15 to his mid 20s. It’s a quiet and introspective autobiography about the author’s obsession with manga. This is an interesting book on several levels, one of them being his drive and passion for the media. This is something that always feels amazing to me, being a person without a great passion for anything, reading about people that have one great love that serves as the foundation of their very existence in this world. It's so odd and comforting in a way. The author himself is impressed at times at how deep he is into his own manga world bubble and how the world is changing around here without him noticing it.

This is an autobiography and a historical document of the development of manga in Japan in the 50s and 60s. If you’re interested in that at all, you’ll have a great time with it. If you’re not interested in the subject matter, this can become a slog. Like I said, at almost 900 pages, most of it is dedicated to the conflicts between the magazines and the mangaka, trends in artwork and script, important publications, important authors at the time and so on. Fortunately for me I’m interested in the world of comics and manga, so I had a great time with it. It was very interesting to read about manga before the great magazines, how they came to be and what they destroyed to become the hegemonic method of manga publication. There’s a bittersweet tone to the whole thing, and the feeling of longing the author has for the past is very evident. It’s like he’s trying to capture as much as he can from his young years and the events that made those days so important to him. I was very moved in many places during my reading of it. I say longing but there isn’t a sentiment of nostalgia, or a combative stance of ‘the good old days’ vs now. The work has a quiet peace about the whole thing, even in the moments of struggle. Like the previous work I read from this guy, I have to recommend this one.

This is a little more demanding than most comics/manga just due the sheer amount of pages. It took me 3 days to finish it but I was going purposely slow with this one. You can read it for free at archive.org. https://archive.org/details/manga_A_Drifting_Life/mode/2up

>>67480
I might read that one at some point.

>>67485
Since you're posting itt I assume you're reading the manhua adaptation and not the web novel. I've tried to find some good manhua lately but all I could find were works painfully derivative of Japanese stuff. I don't know Mandarin so my search was probably superficial at best. There are amazing works of literature from China (The Scholars and Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio probably being two of my favorite books of all times) and I'm sure they can produce deeply personal and moving manhua but I just couldn't find it yet.

I picked up Monsters Are My Business while perusing new stuff coming out. The cover struck me as the writers and artists have a fondness for the good old schlocky comic booky fun and I was right. It’s a comic that doesn’t take itself seriously, mixing some fun modern fantasy tropes and artwork that is giving me a sense of nostalgia for something I can’t quite pin it down. Perhaps the Comix Zone game for the Genesis, and also a smidgen of Metal Slug, I’m not sure.

This is a fast food type of comic, fast pacing, lots of action and likable characters. Not much to think about but super fun to go through. It does a very good job at establishing its characters right off the bat with minimal text, which I love. It’s the sign of a good comic book writer right there. The plot is simple and it’s piece together from well known tropes. Basically an evil cult in the best Lovecraftian tradition brings about some demonic rain that wrecks the planet and now you have all sorts of abominations walking around. The rich are all walled up somewhere but our hero, Tanner "Griz", his mute koala companion Cuddles and a necromancer named Hillary live in the Flooded Zone, helping people in need. If you ever watched the movie Cemetery Man and you like that sort of thing, this book will be a treat for you. It’s like that movie but without the eroticism and a lot more humor to it. I’m very happy to have picked this one up. It’s very refreshing in a way, which is weird because there’s nothing particularly new in this book. The art and the writing have this enthusiasm for the medium that is contagious in a way and I had more fun than I expected. Looking forward to the second issue.

corto maltese. read it. it's like a daydream