Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts are my favorite comics. I hadn't read adventure comics before. The adventures of Tintin was only something that I had heard of, but never read. My husband turned out to be a huge fan of Tintin and got home some movies one day. Once I watched 'Cigars Of The Pharoah', I was hooked. Next began our book collection. At 500 bucks a piece, these comics are expensive and since they are illustrated beautifully, we wanted new copies for the color and the freshness. Slowly, we started buying three to four books a month, as and when Amazon had an offer on them. As they came in, I devoured it in glee.
For those unaware of the concept, Tintin is a character created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who writes under the pen name Hergé. The series of books are called 'The Adventures Of Tintin'. The hero is a young Belgian reporter, Tintin who is aided in all his adventures by his faithful dog, Snowy. He is at times joined by Captain Haddock who curses and drinks whiskey more than he helps and Professor Calculus who is very intelligent but hearing impaired. Throw in a couple of incompetent detectives, Thomson and Thompson for comic relief and you have quite an adventure in hand. There are a total of 24 books and each one is a different adventure apart from a couple of books that are linked to each other.
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We now have close to 16 books and they form the perfect quick read for me. Every time I finish a heavy book, I pick up a Tintin to break the monotony. Else when I am in the mood to read but not in the mood for something serious, I sit and read these adventures back to back. Tintin is a very cheerful character and his enthusiasm in solving a crime does rub off to you. The illustrations are brilliant and make reading so easy. The colors and the precision is outstanding. The mysteries are simple but the build up is excellent. The language used is not layman and you get to learn quite a few new words. Snowy is super cute and plays his part well. He does provide comic relief from time to time too.
Professor Calculus is one cutie. He's hard of hearing but very intelligent. He keeps working on mysterious experiments and most of them are successful. His umbrella, his hat and his glasses give him the perfect look. Captain Haddock is a retired captain who is never sober. He cannot think straight without whiskey but is a strong support to Tintin during his adventures. Of-course there are some other characters who are repeated in several books like Bianca Castafiore - the opera singer, Nestor - the butler, Chang - the loyal Chinese boy, Rastapopoulos - the criminal mastermind and General Alcazar - the South American freedom fighter and President of San Theodoros.
The setting of each adventure is very well thought out and executed neatly. Be it Sydney, Tibet, America or India, it all looks beautiful and the mysteries weave themselves very well. We even have the corresponding movies of all the books and it is quite interesting to be honest. Earlier I thought it was a bit childish, but soon I realized that it was for all ages. Give it a try if you haven't already.
Have you read Tintin before?
Oh yes! Tintin is my favourite too.
ReplyDeleteFell in love with him when I was in school:)
'Tintin in Tibet' was the first adventure I was introduced to. Then, there was no looking back.
Yes, I have. I also loved Garfield. :D
ReplyDeleteMy whole family - we are die-hard Tintin fans. Do you know we have the entire Tintin and Asterix collections? Yep. Prized possessions :) I hope I am reading them till the day I die. I so agree with you on the cuteness that is Calculus :)
ReplyDeleteI remember reading Tintin as a kid. Few years ago, we saw The Adventures of Tintin 3D movie and that was my first exposure to Tintin as an adult. My son has a couple of Tintin comics. Will check them out sometimes...
ReplyDeleteYes I did read a few books of TinTin before and I enjoyed reading. This was a long time ago when I was in school. I miss reading them now!
ReplyDeleteAwww Tintin, one of the first "books" I read was the Black Island, and I can still remember scenes and dialogues from it :D
ReplyDeleteOne of my favourite comics too and yes they are a tad bit expensive. I had collected a whole tonne (sadly this got split up during my divorce and my Ex got the comic collection of both Asterix and Tintin).
ReplyDeleteI have read al of them and you rightly said the illustrations are just superb.
Taaza Thindi in Bangalore
Tintin!! ... loved the movie too besides the comics. It brings back my childhood times and brought a smile to my face
ReplyDeleteLove love love! I have a set. And I am wearing a Tin Tin t-shirt right now!
ReplyDeleteOh I love Tintin and the outlandish exclamations of Haddock. Yeah they are pretty expensive.Of late, I have only read e-books.
ReplyDeleteI love Tintin, though I haven't read the comics but watched the TV series and movies. It holds a part of my childhood memories when me and my brother watched it together (and me enacting Professor Calculus) It was fun! Later I remember digging in library books to find the comic and give it to him to read as he was never bored to read despite of watching the series.
ReplyDeleteLove Tintin .Read them on and off whenever I need something light or km bored . Of late I read Little Lulu too who makes me laugh
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