After reading my profile and much to my surprise, many of my tv.com friends seem to ignore who Tintin and Asterix are. It wouldn't be a great deal to me if they hadn't been so tied to my childhood as they are. And not only my childhood; as soon as I started to work, I saved some money and bought both collections in full, so nowadays they keep on filling many hours of my leisure time with the greater entertainment. If you have the chance, give them a try. Today, I'll start with Tintin and tomorrow I'll blog about Asterix.
Here are my collections:
(Some parts are edited from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Tintin)
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of 23 comic books created by Belgian artist Hergé. Despite Tintin is the hero of the adventures, a lot of recurrentcharacters play an important part in the series. My favourite character is the always hilarious Captain Haddock. He makes me laugh to tears. My favourite book is "The Castafiore Emerald"; I just can't read it without bursting out laughing. It is my favourite book of the series, which I strongly recommend.
Hey, and I recently got a Tintin bag :D
Tintin is a young Belgian reporter and traveller. He is aided in his adventures by his faithful white terrier Snowy. Being a reporter, Tintin becomes involved in dangerous cases in which he always plays a heroic part. Snowy travels everywhere with him and they save each other's lives several times. Snowy frequently "speaks" to the reader through his thoughts, which are not heard by the characters in the story. His fondness of whisky and his arachnophobia, usually get him into trouble.
Captain Archibald Haddock, is Tintin's best friend. He lives in his luxurious mansion called Marlinspike Hall. He uses a range of funnyl insults and curses to express his feelings, such as "billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles", "ten thousand thundering typhoons", " troglodites", "bashi-bazouk", "kleptomaniac", "anacoluthon", and "pockmark", but nothing that is actually considered a swear word. Haddock is a hard drinker, particularly fond of Loch Lomond whisky, and his bouts of drunkenness are often used for comic effect.
Bianca Castafiore, is an italian opera singer who becomes a friend of both, always pronounces the Captain's name incorrectly (Bartok, Fatstock, Drydock, Hopscotch, Stopcock, Hammock, Paddock, Hassock, Havoc, Maggot, Bootblack, Balzac, Bedsock, Padlock, Hatbox, Stockpot, Harrock, Hemlock), and whenever she showers him with tokens of affection the results are disastrous.
The Castafiore Emerald is the 21st in the series of 23. It is the slowest of the series and it was conceived as a narrative exercise by Hergé who wanted to see if he could maintain suspense throughout 62 pages in which nothing much happens. Beyond the opening, the action never leaves the confines of the Marlinspike estate. Consequently it is a story without villains, guns or danger, but rich in humour and colourful characters.
Storyline
Captain Haddock and Tintin are walking through the countryside when they come across a gipsy community camped in a garbage dump. Upon learning that they chose that site on account of being forbidden by the police to use any other location, the Captain invites them to his grounds of his estate, over the objections of his butler Nestor.
Shortly afterwards, Bianca Castafiore, famous opera Diva and scourge of the Captain, decides to invite herself to Marlinspike for a holiday. All manner of mayhem ensues. For some time, one of the marble steps leading to the foyer in Marlinspike Hall has had a plate-sized chip that Nestor has kept replacing while waiting for the repairman, who has been fobbing the Captain off. Upon hearing of Bianca's impending visit, Haddock rushes to pack for a trip to Italy, figuring that now would be a good time to visit that country, which he had always avoided precisely to avoid Bianca. In his haste Haddock misses the step, which, just moments before, he had been sanctimoniously warning Nestor and the others about. He sprains his ankle as a result. The doctor arrives, examines the Captain, and insists upon putting the foot and ankle in a cast while imposing a minimum of a fortnight's bedrest. Consequently, the Captain remains confined to a wheelchair for all but the last couple of pages. The broken step becomes a running gag for the rest of the comic, and nearly every character slips and falls down the step at least once.
Bianca arrives, bringing her entourage and a parrot for the Captain. The bird instantly takes a disliking to him, and its behaviour borders on the homicidal. The creature manages to pick up some of the Haddockian argot, much to the Captain's annoyance. He narrowly averts having to share his study with Bianca and her piano, managing to convince her to locate the instrument, along with her somewhat rebellious pianist Wagner, in the maritime gallery. Wagner starts making furtive runs. To add to the insult, two over-zealous reporters concoct a story in which Haddock and Castafiore intend to get married following a conversation they had with the very hard-of-hearing Professor Calculus, and an avalanche of congratulations from friends from all over the world keep pouring in for several hours.
A bit later, thanks to some careless talk and misunderstandings, Captain Haddock discovers to his horror that rumours that he is engaged to Castafiore have spread to the tabloids, explaining the congratulatory phone calls and cards. Then, Castafiore's most prized emerald goes missing, and all eyes turn to the gypsies, although Tintin also suspects Wagner may be involved.
Once the mystery is solved and as soon as the emerald is found, it is (temporarily) lost once more by the detectives Thompson and Thomson, only to be found again a few frames later by Snowy and called a "brandyball," underlining the fact that the emerald is merely a McGuffin for the whole story to happen, and is in itself meaningless.
This is the whole cast of The Castafiore Emerald