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The Adventures of Tintin: Cigars of the Pharaoh (Adventures of Tintin (Facsimile Edition))

Description

Cigars of the Pharaoh is one of Tintin’s earliest adventures. This story was written in 1932, but in the ‘50s was shortened and rewritten. In this facsimile edition, it appears as it did 70 years ago. Tintin and Snowy are on a cruise to Egypt when they happen to meet Professor Sophocles Sarcophagus (the first of Tintin’s absent-minded professors) and join his expedition. But they become embroiled in a complicated scheme involving a fakir, cigars marked with an unusual brand, and Rajijah, the poison of madness. Most significantly, Tintin meets the detectives Thompson and Thomson as well as the movie mogul Rastapopolous.

This 2006 hardcover reissue of Cigars of the Pharaoh is a must for the Tintin completist. It's a black-and-white facsimile edition of the story as it appeared in the 1930s, before Herge revised, shortened, and redrew it to for the style of the later adventures. So it's 129 pages compared to the standard 62, though the larger panels mean it isn't really twice as long as the familiar version. But there are noticeable differences. The detectives Thompson and Thomson call themselves X33 and X33A, frequent nemesis Captain Allan is no longer involved, and when Tintin is forced to enlist, rather than happening in Abudin, it's in Mecca in the middle of a Christian-Muslim dispute. The anachronistic glimpse of Destination Moon is now gone, replaced by the more logical Tintin in America, and most interestingly, Tintin encounters additional perils (two involving cobras) while on the trail of the fakir. When he revised Cigars in the 1950s, Herge left pretty much all of the story intact, but his layouts and storytelling were vastly improved. If you've read all the standard Tintin adventures, this is fascinating stuff. --David Horiuchi

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-06-01
Summary: "The one Tintin adventure that has everything"

Tintin's earliest adventures are often rather underrated in favour of the more sophisticated plotting and artwork of the mid-period high-points, but Cigars of the Pharaoh certainly stands up better than much of the latter-day Tintin (Flight 714, Picaros) and in some ways there's a purity and innocence here that is unmatched in any other Tintin adventure.

What some see as a weakness - the episodic nature dictated by the original 1932 serialisation and tendency of the story to lose sight of the main plot - actually works to its advantage, the story accumulating one fantastic incident after another. Some are of the knockabout slapstick humour variety - the Thompsons make a fine first appearance here in a running theme where they are trying to arrest Tintin and inadvertently saving him from worse situations - while others are highly imaginative and thrilling, particularly to the younger reader.

Here in The Cigars of the Pharaoh, while going on a cruise across the globe with just Snowy as a companion (too early yet for the introduction of Haddock, Calculus et al), Tintin is arrested for drug smuggling, is trapped in an ancient Egyptian tomb, is abandoned at sea in a custom-built coffin, is attacked by sharks, conscripted into an Arabian army, faces a firing squad (not for the last time) for spying and is buried alive - and that's not even all the incidents in just the first half of the book! But it's more than just an aimless grand adventure in exotic locations that were the theme of earlier Tintin books. Here Hergé introduces a mystery and an investigative element to Tintin's character, tying all the escapades together rather well through the visual element of the secret symbol that keeps recurring wherever Tintin goes.

Originally serialised in 1932, Cigars of the Pharaoh was completely redrawn and coloured for album publication in 1955 with the assistance of Hergé's studio, and the results are outstanding, giving this book a considerably more smooth and professional look than the adventures around it (Tintin in America, The Blue Lotus). A globe-spanning adventure, the seas, deserts, jungles and rocky North African landscapes are magnificently rendered, as pure an example of the brilliance of Hergé's clear-line work as you'll find anywhere.

And then there's the cover. A minor consideration maybe, but for those of a certain generation who grew up with these Tintin adventures, there's something truly iconic in all the Tintin covers and this is one of the most stylish and most memorable. The theme of ancient Egyptian curses all the rage in the years after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen, with thrilling mystical elements that Hergé would successfully draw from again in another of the best Tintin adventures, The Seven Crystal Balls. The themes and the use of locations may be better paced and more balanced in individual Tintin adventures, but Cigars of the Pharaoh delightfully has everything in the one story.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-02-14
Summary: "The first really good Tintin book"

The fourth Tintin book, it is the first "real" Tintin book with a fully-developed plot and strong secondary characters beyond Tintin and Snowy; it is also the first of four of Hergé's "two-parter" stories as the story doesn't really conclude at the end of this book (although it is more self-contained than any of the other two-parter books). Of course, it was also re-drawn in 1955, much later than most of the others (which may have come later in the chronology, but were redrawn earlier). Since it was redrawn in 1955, the lines are strong, the colours are good, and the story holds together beautifully. In the story, he meets his first of many absent-minded professors (are there any other kind?), a gentleman named Sophocles Sarcophagus. He also, on page three, meets Roberto Rastapopoulos, a Dr Evil type of guy who is his nemesis in four of the 24 Tintin stories (five if you count the person who looks a lot like him in a frame on page 57 of "Tintin in America"); their interaction is in some ways friendly, or neutral in this book and the next, "The Blue Lotus." The book also introduces the detectives Thomson and Thompson, who initially want to arrest Tintin because they've bought some cooked-up story about our hero from people who want to frame him. Just a day in the life of Tintin, boy reporter.

Tintin meets egyptologist Sarcophagus on a boat cruise, they discover and investigate an ancient Egyptian tomb, they get involved with drug smugglers, gun runners, they survive being cast adrift at sea, they meet corrupt sailor Alan (a later addition - his first chronological appearance is in "The Crab With The Golden Claws", where he's Captain Haddock's first mate). We also meet Senhor Oliviera da Figueira, a salesman from Lisbon who can sell anything to anybody. There's Rastapopuolos' film shoot in the desert (which pops up later in a scene in "The Blue Lotus"), Tintin is impressed into an arab army again, he's lost in the desert, and sentenced to be executed. He escapes in a plane, he's shot down over India, and he makes friends with a sick elephant. In one of the series' truly strange moments, he is seen fashioning a trumpet so that he can learn how to speak the language of the elephants. He meets Sarcophogus again, now mad after being poisoned by Rajaijah juice (many go mad from it in this book and the next). More adventures, including train and ambulance wrecks, tiger traps, and plenty of other sub-continental madness. Tintin exposes the international criminal gang, but the mastermind gets away - until the next adventure, anyway.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2009-02-01
Summary: "An Early Tintin Mystery...."

Belgian artist Herge wrote "Cigars of the Pharaoh" in 1932, making it one of the earliest graphic novels featuring his cartoon hero Tintin, young journalist and adventurer. The artwork apparently was redone in the 1950's, making the presentation consistent with the later Tintin stories. "Cigars of the Pharaoh" is notable for its twisting plot, but also for introducing many of the series regulars, including the villain Rastopopoulos, the bumbling dectives Thomson and Thompson, and the corrupt mariner Allen.

As the story opens, Tintin and his faithful dog Snowy are aboard ship arriving in Egypt. Tintin rescues the absent-minded Egyptologist Professor Sophocles Sarcophagus from an unfortunate encounter with the film mogul Rastopopoulus. The Professor invites Tintin to accompany him on a trip into the desert to find the missing tomb of a Pharaoh. However, Tintin must first escape from the ship, having been framed by parties unknown and arrested for drug smuggling by Thomson and Thompson. Tintin and Sarcophagus will find the tomb, but discover a larger mystery involving drug smuggling by a mysterious cartel whose agents are everywhere. The trail will lead to the Red Sea, to Arabia, and finally to India, where Tintin will face a unknown villain in a climactic car chase.

The storyline is a bit convoluted but has held up well; it is all presented as good fun and exotic adventure of the type appreciated by young boys before digital gaming was invented. "Cigars of the Pharaoh" is highly recommended to Tintin fans of all ages.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2007-11-28
Summary: "Tintin in Egypt and India"

First published in Le Petit Vingtième between 8/12 1932 and 8/2 1934. The book appeared in 1934 . Redrawn in 1955. It was first published in English in 1971.


A colourful and detailed adventure , Tintin and his dog Snowy meet up with an eccentric Egyptologist on a cruise , taking Tintin on a danger-filled adventure from Egypt to Arabia to India , in a hunt for whoever is behind the mystery of the Cigars of the Pharaoh , he is framed for heroin possesion , caught up in an Arabian war and sentenced to be executed , lost in the desert , locked up in a mental assylum in India , before being led to an international ring of drug trafficers. It is amazing the amount of detail Herge worked into these adventure comics.

Many of us grew up on them and love them for the nostalgia value.
I loved the animation in the underground Pharaoh's tomb, and the incredible dream sequence there.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2007-10-01
Summary: "excellent!"

It is a great work by a classic 20th century cartoonist. An outstanding 1930s black and white story about drug and arms smuggling. For all ages, full of mild humour, suitable for young children.