Talk about bad dreams and nightmares. After reading this WHACK episode You'll never want to sleep again. An ancient INCA mummy is on display in a glass cabinet. It breaks free and goes around the house during a thunderstorm; everyone has the same dream. In the morning the mummy is gone. Calculas is missing too. Its time to head to the Andes mountains to get to the bottom of this...Get this one along with Prisoners of the Sun.

 
Scary, stunning, bizzare and epic. These words sum up this adventure. Captain Haddock clashes with the fauna and flora, Professor Calculas shows up in Inca fancy dress - Book 2 of 2 following on from The  Seven Crystal Balls. 



A Rastapopolous roughly resembling Onasis, DeHavilland Mosquitos one eyed baltic pilots, arms dealers, desert trekks. Greedy slave traders and a whole world of bad guys for Tintin to teach some lessons. 5 Loch Lomond's.



General Alcazar and General Tapioca play musical chairs in San Theodoras - or was that TapiocaPolis...All of Latin America blended into one grand adventure, the Mardi Gras, the Aztec pyramids, the anaconda and the pirrahna. Ridgwell from The Broken Ear makes a cameo appearance.


A supersonic corporate jet, the Billionaire who never laughs - laughs at the sight of Calculas, Skut makes a cameo, some more bad guys Allan and Rastapopolous are up to no good again, a volcanic island a mysterious ancient cave, telepathy and extra terestrials. Non stop action. 5 Loch Lomond's.  


A rum tale of epic proportions, spanning two books, captain Haddock get in touch with his roots, to find the family treasure Sir Francis Haddock his ancestor had hidden. Lots of undersea diving with an old diving suit, sunken pirate ships and super aged rum from the hull of a long dashed gallion.


Follows on from Secret of the Unicorn. Ahh the complexities of personal submarine operation: be careful not to get the propeller caught in the sea weed, and remember your air supply is limited...Red Rackham's Treasure gets 5 Loch Lomond's.




Tintin travels to Scotland to battle bank note counterfeit forgers and a giant ape in a remote island castle perched a top a craggy rock. The tide comes in, hes in the cave, bad guy Dr Muller is involved, snowy samples the Loch Lomand Scotch whiskey on the train and the Thompsons: perpetually in hot pursuit, commandere a DeHavilland Tiger Moth and inadvertantly win the Scottish Aerobatics Championships live and televised, while trying to chase Tintin to THE BLACK ISLAND.



Professor Calculas dissapears for several weeks. Then a telegram arrives at Marlinspike from Calculas. He asks Tintin and Haddock to come to Syldavia. Tintin smells another adventure. Snowy fights with the cat, Haddock is very upset to discover Syldavians only drink mineral water, so packs a suitcase full of booz. Calculas loses his memory, Haddock says hes acting the GOAT. 

The year: 1954. The task: Fly to the Moon in a nuclear powered Rocket. Haddock acts irresponsible, some twists and turns in the plot you'll never guess, high drama half way out to space, a technically correct description of a trip to the moon, before one had actually been made in real life. A suspencefull action thriller. 5 Loch Lomond's.

An under-rated episode. This is the book of a movie made in the 1960's thus the art work is a bit different to the clear line in the normal books. Also in accordance with the fashions of the time, everyone is wearing bell bottoms, flares and sporting sideburns. A giant pearl goes missing, Calculas invents a duplicator machine, A trip to a massive artificial lake, Rastapopolous throws a spanner in the works, frogmen and under water vehicles that shoot torpedos are the order of the day. Not a classic, but still very very cool: 3 Loch Lomond's.

A study on Tintin. Basically this is a documentary on the world of Tintin. It is a book for those who never heard of Tintin, who want to find out all about Tintin.






Black and white very basic graphics. Some colour sections at the beginning. This is a really old episode and has only become available in recent years. This one is to be read in the same spirit as one would the congo episode: An episode that lacks the refinement of better known Tintin books, but nonetheless, shows the nucleus of what Tintin would become.


This one's PURE GOLD. French Foriegn Legion outpost in a sea of sand, a shoot out with bandits Captain HADDOCK MAKES HIS FIRST APPEARANCE. 5 Loch Lomand's for THE CRAB WITH THE GOLDEN CLAWS




King Ottocar of Syldavia = Borris of Bulgaria? Tintin delves into Yugoslavian border disputes and helps the king to retain his thrown from the ursurpers. Tintin lands in hot water and has to fly he escapes in a Messerschmitt BF 109, and trekks the mountains. Quaint villages, but watch out its that nasty peice of work Colnel Sponz...By the Whiskers of Curvy Tasch!



Tintin battles the mighty Amazon. What would you find if you walked into the Amazon jungle? Tintin finds out. Dr Ridgewell I presume? Ridgewell teaches the head hunter to play GOLF.






Dr Muller's up to no good again, but Tintin smells and uncovers the plot, the Thompsons see mirages in the desert and find a bottle of asprin, they will never be the same again! A naughty brat plays practical jokes, a car chase in the desert with big old 1950's cars, and an ingenious story plot. 5 Lochlomond's.  


Each book is rated out of 5. (LochLomond's)
















Now you can take your books with you everywhere, with the ultra new "Kindle", which is so cool it will be for books, what the Ipod was for music... However because the page is not colour image enabled, I recommend Tintin readers wait for a Kindle 2.0 - hopefully it will be able to show colour pictures. Click on the above link to have a look.








Some interesting links:

Paris Hilton

Property

THE ADVENTURES of TINTIN,
are excellent. I'm surprised the comic-book series has not received more global recognition hitherto than it has.



Herge the author from Belgium, who created Tintin, was with out doubt a genius. The man on the street understands Tintin, but because the comic book cartoon format is generally regarded as trivial amongst literature greats, this notion mitigates his esteem, for Tintin. The man on the street understands nothing of Shakespeare, yet ironically he is always ready to support Shakespeare as a work of genius. It is. But so is Tintin, and it ought to be recognised as such. The Adventures of Tintin is perfect in so many ways. In so far as the work appeals to all age groups young and old child and adult alike, one can draw the comparison with 'The Simpsons", regarding this similarity. For the young boy, growing up raised on Tintin: all the world is put in perspective. The reality of the worlds great dramas is accurately reflected on the page.....In pictures and words. It ought to be compulsory for schools to stock in their' libraries the complete series. The stories should be analysed in High School English Class. Their depth offers many lessons. Tintin has good values. He protects the weak, fights bullies, always does good and never does bad. And how funny the series is! Who can ever in their life forget Captain Haddock's vocabulary of hilarious swear-words! I will always laugh at the sticking plaster incident on the plane, in 'the calculus Affair' Or the time the Llama kept spitting in the captain's face in 'prisoners of the sun', Or the time General Alcazar and General Tapioca are having a 'moment' together in 'Tintin and the Picaros', reminiscing over the good old days when coups were bloody affairs, and their mutual disappointment that Tintin would not allow them to observe Latin American coup De'Etat tradition of executing the fallen leader. Tapioca was just as sad as Alcazar at this interruption of tradition; despite the fact that Tintin had just prevented Alcazar from executing Tapioca! Hilarious stuff, every one should read The Adventures of Tintin. Remember its a work of art to be held in the highest esteem, just like the Mona-Lisa painting, the architectural beauty that is the Empire State Building, and of course Shakespeare. The Tintin Adventures are published in perhaps thirty-five countries world-wide.



Tintin movie news:


STEVEN Spielberg


 
andPeter Jackson



are to join forces to direct and produce a series of three films based on Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin.

Entertainment journal Daily Variety reports in its Tuesday edition that the legendary film-makers would direct at least one of the films each, and serve as producers on all three. The report said Tintin had been a long-time pet project for Spielberg, who finally secured the film rights to the comic series in the past 12 months. Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, had already developed a test film that had brought the characters created by George Remi, better known by his pen name Herge, to life, the report said. Spielberg said the computer animation technology used for the films would be unlike anything ever seen. "Herge's characters have been reborn as living beings, expressing emotion and a soul which goes far beyond anything we've seen to date with computer-animated characters," Spielberg said. "We want Tintin's adventures to have the reality of a live-action film, and yet Peter and I felt that shooting them in a traditional live-action format would simply not honour the distinctive look of the characters and world that Herge created." Jackson said although the movies would be computer-generated, the characters would not look cartoonish. "Instead, we're making them look photo-realistic," Jackson said. "The fibres of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people — but real Herge people." Spielberg and Jackson have chosen three stories from the 23 Tintin books published between 1929 and 1976, although they did not say which ones.

FEATURED PLAYER

Professor Cuthbert Calculas, is Tintin's friend, who he first met in a treasure hunt, when Calculas - a scientist and inventor - presented himself to the expedition along with his latest invention, which was a submarine shaped like a shark.

Calculas by appearance alone seems to be somewhat of an oddball often MR Bean-esque in his eccentric mannerisms and ways. However judging Calculas by different criteria of say personal life philosophy Calculas is probably the most noble personality in the world of Tintin. Calculas has a sense of justice and a soft spot for a damsal in distress. He seems to be enamoured with the opera singer Bianca Castafiore and he is sure to kiss her hand whenever he meets her - always refering to the big blonde italian lass as "dear Lady". In his youth he was a capable athlete, and apparently knew his way around the boxing ring, as he practised a French style of kick-boxing called savate
 

Calculas demonstrating a fly kick.

Thus from his sporting and romantic persuites we can see that Calculas is almost a contradiction, in terms of his vital character superimposed by his outwardly ancient appearance. He's physically ancient but his heart is young. Calculas gets involved in a great deal of adventures and he is often kidnaped by goons who either take offence to him or want to use his scientific knowledge for amoral purposes. Calculas creates great scientific advancements, such as the nuclear moon rocket. He also invented the duplicator machine, sound wave machine, the shark submarine and impressively a pill that can make alcohol taste permanently disgusting its recipient. He also experimented on lighter amusements like motorised roller skates.

For all his scientific logic, calculas is somewhat of a mystical character. Whenever he needs direction he whips out a pendulum and uses it to kind of divine where to go. It swings to and fro and Calculas seems to know how to interpret its movements. This superstition defies his scientist's vocation and aptitude, yet he swears by it.

Old and slow, Calculas is almost deaf and constantly miss-hears people. He wears thick spectacles and suffers from vertigo. One time he lost his memory completely, but it came back after a choice insult uttered by Haddock, and basically Calculas is an old man. Haddock and Calculas are unlikely friends considering the huge conflict that occurs between the two on a constant basis. However Haddock knows a good sort and lets Calculas live at Marlinspike Hall and even to keep a loboratory in the grounds.

Basically Calculas is a pretty cool guy although he could do with a cochlear implant. Whats more his character is of fine quality and he can be relied upon and acts in an honorable manner at all times. Throughout the series of adventures, Calculas' character is deepened and forms a complete identity. Calculas is not just a background extra to fill in the scenes like say Chandler in Friends. Professor Cuthbert Calculas is a surprisingly interesting role model. When I grow old I want to be just like Calculas. This mystical pendulum swinging scientist adds massively to the believability and depth of the overall Tintin experience. 

FEATURED BOOK

  Tintin in Tibet

Tintin in Tibet begins with a series of uncanny and eerie coincidences that lead Tintin to intuit that his old mate Chang is in trouble far far away. A search expedition is launched and this takes Tintin and Captain Haddock on a journey frought with danger, from the swealtering streets of New Dheli, to the rarified air of the Himalaya mountains.


   Tintin in Tibet ice glacier



   Tintin in Tibet the remains of the DC3


   Tintin in Tibet climbing with sherpa team


 
        Herge employs stunning simplicity in the artwork