On board a polar vessel with Captain Haddock at the helm, Tintin and a team of European scientists sail to the Arctic Ocean where an aerolite made of an unknown metal crashed. But soon they find out that another ship is sailing toward the strange meteorite and their expedition turns then into a true race.
The Calculus Affair (1956) or “how scientific inventions can serve humanity without being coveted by military powers”, in the tense climate of the Cold War. This new adventure takes Tintin back to Syldavia and Borduria. After inventing an ultrasound machine, Professor Calculus is kidnapped. Jolyon Wagg, an insurance sales rep, makes his entrance in this story, and will prove to be a constant nuisance. A thrilling chase, surprises, old friends getting back together, headlong fights... all this for a stake in what seems to be limited to an ordinary umbrella. This is probably the most “detective-like” story.
Captain Haddock simply cannot believe it, but human trafficking really is still going on, even in the twentieth century (and today in the twenty-first century). The Red Sea Sharks lifts the veil on the scandal of the modern day slave trade. Herge stayed abreast of current affairs, and as was his style, for this story he wove real-life news into action-packed adventure.
The Castafiore Emerald is a story in which, essentially, nothing happens. Captain Haddock's mansion, Marlinspike Hall, can be considered a theatre; the characters in the story are the actors in a play. Various outsiders, including a doctor and some gypsies, mingle with the residents.
Flight 714 to Sydney (1968), is the interrupted voyage, the hijacking which will turn everything upside down, Tintin and his friends' foray into the unknown, in a surreal world highlighted with telepathic phenomena. It is also the incredible contact with extra-terrestrials and the emerging from a dream... or is it a dream? Jakarta, the last stop for the Boeing and flight 714 to Sydney.
The twenty-third episode in the series, Tintin and the Picaros (1976) is a Latin-American tale of a coup d’état, complete with hostage-taking and guerrilla warfare. Tintin returns to the country of San Theodoros, which he first visited in The Broken Ear (1937). Hergé’s story reveals the hypocrisy behind the apparently endless cycle of revolution and counter-revolution in South America. Tintin and the Picaros was the last book written by Hergé, and it took more than ten years to complete. As Hergé grew older readers had to wait longer and longer between each new adventure!
While looking through an old sea-chest found in his attic, Captain Haddock chances upon the diaries of his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock. This legendary sea dog achieved fame through his renowned run-in with the fearsome pirate Red Rackham. So are the words of Sir Francis Haddock just another chronicle of life at sea? Certainly not! His journals speak of a fabulous hoard of jewels: for Tintin, Captain Haddock - and a gang of crooks - the treasure hunt is well and truly on. But as the search continues, the plot thickens...
Red Rackham's Treasure (1944), sequel to The Secret of the Unicorn (1943), Tintin and the Thom(p)sons accompany Captain Haddock on a journey in the footsteps of the Captain's illustrious ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock. The parchments discovered in the previous adventure are in fact a treasure map pointing the way to the hidden gold and jewels of a notorious pirate, Red Rackham. A new character, named Professor Cuthbert Calculus, will prove invaluable in the search for the lost treasure; by the end of the adventure Calculus will also help Captain Haddock to acquire his family's ancestral home, Marlinspike Hall. This story is full of twists, turns and surprises, not least the moment when Professor Calculus demonstrates a new type of machine for underwater exploration...
The tale unfolds in China, a place as yet unknown and mysterious to Tintin. It looks like our hero may have bitten off more than he can chew as he takes on the task of wiping out the international opium trade, which has a vice-like grip on this beautiful country. With the assistance of the secret society Sons of the Dragon, and his friend Chang (whom he encounters later on in the story), Tintin succeeds in overcoming myriad obstacles to finally triumph over his adversaries and disband their network of corruption.
On 10 January 1929, a young reporter boarded a train from Brussels to Moscow accompanied by his dog, Snowy. It was the start of Tintin's first great adventure and the beginning of Hergé's career. The Adventures of Tintin, Reporter for "Le Petit Vingtième", Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, was published as a book in 1930. That year marks the birth of a legend and the start of one of the most engaging relationships between fiction and reality, of the twentieth century.
The Broken Ear (1937) is the story of a thrilling pursuit. Tintin sets off to South America to retrieve a stolen fetish. There, all sorts of interests are in conflict: military, economic and the war of the Gran Chaco which had been opposing Bolivia and Paraguay for the past three years. A small Arumbaya statue has been stolen in a museum, then returned. One little detail though will tell Tintin that instead of the original, a mere replica was returned. There must be a secret hiding behind this small statue since its robbery was carefully concealed. This is in South America that Tintin will find the key to this enigma.
The Adventures of Tintin, reporter at Le Petit Vingtième, in the Congo (1931) is a naïve depiction of the colonial times and paternalistic views as they existed in Belgium in the early 1930's. For this new story, Hergé will improvise. Tintin becomes a sorcerer in the Babaoru'm Kingdom. He will outsmart the traps of the gangsters who want to take control of the diamond production of Congo.
In The Seven Crystal Balls (1948), Seven scientists mysteriously fall into a profound state of lethargy. As Calculus has disappeared,Tintin and Captain Haddock set off in search of the Professor. Created in 1929 by Georges Remi - who was already signing his drawings under the pseudonym of Hergé - Tintin will be subjected to twenty three adventures whose success - among those between 7 and 77 - has yet to wither.
In Tintin in America (1932), Tintin confirms his reputation as a righter of wrongs. He faces Al Capone and his gang as well as all sorts of other villains. Hergé shows his generous vision of the world as he offers a very well documented depiction of the sad plight of the Native Americans. Tintin's fame extends beyond the Atlantic Ocean, so, when he arrives in Chicago in the middle of Prohibition, all the gangsters in the city have gathered to make sure that he gets the most uncomfortable reception. Tintin will need to use all his determination and intelligence to survive! Tintin in America is the highest-selling Tintin title of all time. It is the clear winner ahead of Tintin in the Congo and Explorers on the Moon, which come in second and third places respectively.
This adventure was the first story published in TINTIN magazine when it was launched on 26th September 1946, and heralded the opportunity for the continuation of an adventure which had been interrupted two years earlier. Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock fly to Peru in search of Professor Calculus, who has involuntarily committed sacrilege, and has been condemned to suffer the ultimate punishment.
In Cigars of the Pharaoh (1934), Tintin finds himself entangled in a drug trafficking ring that will take him all the way to India. In the meantime, he meets Thomson and Thompson, two clumsy policemen whose role will progressively become more important throughout the series. Tintin, fighting against the drug traffickers of Egypt and India, meets with a few characters he will encounter again soon, Villains such as Allan Thomson or the mysterious Rastapopoulos as well as some of his future companions like Senor Oliveira.
On 9 May 1940, the invasion of Belgium during World War II brutally interrupted the publication of Land of Black Gold. Tintin's universe was still young: Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus and Marlinspike Hall did not yet exist. Eight years later the adventure was re-started in Tintin magazine; with a couple of nifty tweaks, Hergé integrated into the story the new characters who had come along in the meantime. In 1950 the adventure was published as a book, and as the years went by and the world changed, a slightly updated version was released in 1971.
On his return from South America, Tintin embarks on an exciting British adventure, full of unexpected surprises. Tintin clashes with the villainous Dr. Müller for the first, but not the last time. Müller is the mastermind behind a vast European counterfeiting operation. After numerous incidents, Tintin succeeds in breaking up this criminal network.
Destination Moon (1953) gives a detailed account on the preparation and the launching of the expedition to the Moon for which Professor Calculus has chosen Syldavian soil. The red-and-white chequered pattern on Hergé's rocket was based on a technique used to measure movements in a rocket during launching, developed by NASA. The pattern made it easier to observe rolling and spinning in a rocket at take-off.
Created in 1939, this book is most impressive and has its sights on Germany. Tintin finds a brief-case on a park bench and this leads him to Prague, then to Syldavia. He will save the Kingdom from being overthrown by a fascist "coup d'état".
A passenger plane travelling to Europe, crashes into the Himalayas. It turns out that Tintin's young Chinese friend Chang was on board the aircraft. Tintin in Tibet (1960) is a story of pure friendship, without any of the usual villains: a tale of Tintin's desperate search to find his friend. The unusual narrative, which is much more introverted than those of other books in the Tintin series, tells the story that faith and hope are able to conquer all obstacles, and that pre-conceived judgements of others – in this case in regard to the yeti – are the fruit of ignorance.
This story was first published in French in 1941 and returns to the theme of an exotic adventure. Tintin sets off for North Africa. He thwarts a scheme thought-up by a gang of criminals who have hidden opium in tins of crab-meat. Thanks to this adventure, Tintin meets Haddock who will become his side-kick in the future.
