From: jholstei@scott.skidmore.edu (jeremy holstein)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Re: Tintin Cronology
Date: 11 Nov 92 21:04:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: scott.1992Nov11.210435.2443
Organization: Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs NY

yngvar@krill.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Yngvar Foelling) writes:
> Thank God!  I thought that this group was American comics only.
> 

Seriously.  Someone should kick off a discusion on the works of
Moebius, especially the Airtight Garage and its sequal.
 
> In article <1dpsg1INNeeb@pollux.usc.edu>, akhale@pollux.usc.edu (Abhijit Khale) writes: 
>    [Arguments about Tintin's first meeting with Captain Haddock deleted.]
> 
> |> Anyway, the chronological order in which the books were written is
> |> (I'm probably slightly off on some). 
> |> 
> |> Tintin in the land of the Soviets
> |> Tintin in the Congo
> |> Tintin in America
> |> Cigars of the Pharaoh
> |> The Blue Lotus
> |> The Broken Ear
> |> The Black Island
> |> The Crab with the Golden Claws
> |> King Ottokar's Sceptre
> |> The Shooting Star ???
> |> The Secret of the Unicorn 
> |> Red Rackham's Treasure
> |> The Seven Crystal Balls
> |> Prisoners of the Sun
> |> Land of Black Gold
> |> Destination Moon
> |> Explorers on the Moon
> |> The Calculus Affair
> |> The Red Sea Sharks
> |> Tintin in Tibet
> |> The Castafiore Emerald
> |> Flight 714
> |> Tintin and the Picaros
 
Sounds about right.  The chronology which is printed on the back of
the Blue Lotus (American edition) is correct with the exception of the
Blue Lotus placement (which is right after Cigars of the Pharos).  I
don't think that King Ottokar's Sceptor came in between Crab and the
Star, although Star DID come immediately before Unicorn.
  I'll have to check on that.
 
> |> There was also the film book 
> |> 
> |> Tintin and the lake of Sharks
> |> 
> |> I'm slightly uncertain about the position of the Shooting starsince I cant
> |> remember if Calculus appears in it (if he does, then Shooting Star would
> |> postdate Red Rackham's treasure). 
> 
> No, he doesn't, but there were several other nutty professors.

Right.  The Star has Captain Haddock, but no other major characters.

> |> Herge's first works are ok, but not all that good. Blue Lotus is probably
> |> the first which has a coherent plot,then he goes back to Broken Ear, which
> |> has a very confused and bizarre plot.The series takes a jump in qual-
> |> ity with Black Island, and the quality continues till "Castafiore .."
> |> [Castafiore is probably the funniest of the Tintin books].
> 
> I agree with the humour. I didn't feel "Castafiore" was that interesting,
> plot-wise.I mean, what kind of Tintin story stays put in the manor throughout
> the entire issue?

Agreed.  Catafiore is in my mind one of the lesser Tintin's.  It has
it's good parts, but it doesn't strike me as teriabely memorable...

> |> Picaros is
> |> just OK, and Flight 714 is bad.

Ah, now here is a major diagreement.  I loved Flight 714.  It's what
got me hooked on Tintin in the first place.  Tightly ploted, well
drawn, characterization down to a T.  The only argument I can see
against it is the Science Fiction aspects to the plot, which I thought
were daring for Herge to delve into.

> Tintin and the lake of Sharks was not
> |> done by Herge and is a real loser (no Herge book, even Flight 714,
> |> could be a real loser). 
> 
> "Lake of Sharks" has never been translated to Norwegian, so I don't have it.
> I suspected all along that I hadn't missed anything.

It's fun, but certainly only for Tintin fans.  It includes a dopey
pair of kids that the animators wanted the audience to identify with.
That fails miserably.
  I'd say if you can find a copy, read it, but don't actively search
for it.

> BTW, aren't the two detectives called Thomson and Thompson (with and without
> "p") in English?

Yes, you're right.

I remember that the French copies that I've obtained had Tintin still
being called Tintin, but Snowey was called Milou.


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