The Red Sea Sharks (The Adventures of Tintin)

Tin TIn stories --- recognized around the world for the best in adventure!

Tintin is one of the most famous comic book characters in the world. Unfortunately he is not as well known in the U.S. Hopefully I can help change that. The Tintin albums were created by the Belgian comics writer and artist Georges Prosper Remi under the pen name Hergé. His first Tintin album "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" appeared in the pages of Le Petit Vingtième on January 10, 1929 and his last completed album was "Tintin and the Picaros" in 1975/1976. The Tintin albums are primarily for children but they are written so that adults also greatly enjoy them. Tintin is a Belgian investigative journalist who gets drawn into all kinds of dangerous and eventful adventures around the world. Already in the very first album "Tintin in the Soviets" he is aided by his talking dog, a fox terrier called Snowy. In Swedish and in French Snowy is called Milou. In "The Crab with the Golden Claws" he meets the grumpy but hilarious Captain Haddock. A lot of the best comic situations arise from Captain Haddock's bad temper in combination with his bad luck and above all his creative use of words. As a sailor Captain Haddock is expected to swear a lot but all swear words have been replaced by expressions like "billions of blue blistering barnacles", "you Mameluke", "Macrocepahlic Baboon", "odd-toed ungulate", "and troglodyte "," Pithecantrophus", but never real swear words. Another source of many comic situations is the genial but hearing-impaired Professor Cuthbert Calculus (Kalkyl in Swedish, Tournesol in French). Other prominent supporting characters are the incompetent twin detectives Thomson and Thompson (Dupond and Dupont), and the constantly joking and laughing but irritating insurance salesman Jolyon Wagg. In this album from 1958 Tintin and Captain Haddock unexpectedly meets an old friend of Tintin, the former dictator from South America, General Alcazar. It turns out that General Alcazar is trying to purchase weapons from a shady arms dealer who is also illegally selling arms to two fighting parties in the Middle East. The son of the emir Ben Khalish Ezab (one of the fighting parties) the rambunctious Abdullah is staying with Captain Haddock (and Tintin) and is playing all kinds of tricks on everyone. To get away from this Arab Dennis the Menace and all his pranks they go see the emir himself and end up getting deeply involved in an incredible adventure. They also stumble upon an organization that is selling African slaves (slavery still existed in the Middle East and Africa in 1958). A lot of old crooks and friends from other books show up here, including Captain Allan, Rastapopolous, and the lovely but highly irritating Prima Donna and opera singer Bianca Castafiore. This album is fast paced, action packed and very exciting and quiet interesting. It is difficult to put the book down even for an adult. The humor is superb and there are laugh out loud moments on almost every page. It is my experience that American kids will love the Tintin albums once they have been acquainted with them (an album is a hardback comic book with the pictures in series). My kids love them and their friends love them as well. As a child, I read all of the Tintin books in Swedish, and as an adult living in the U.S., I am reading them again to my children, but this time in English. This book is intensely exciting and full of action and therefore it is one of my favorites, and one of my children's favorite. I highly recommend this Tintin album to young and old.

I think this is my favorite Tintin adventure; has the best combination of humor and drama. For novices to this Series, parents may not find the content appropriate to young children (though my seven year old son loves it dearly; particularly the visual comedy); I do a LOT of explaining. The content was written from the point of view of the European Colonists of that era and so there is a certain racism and patronizing tone expressed towards the non-Western peoples depicted, that one has to take into account and yet it is still an amazing graphic novel.

love, love, love the tintin books. those are really nice, big enough to read, but flexible to take anywhere, in a back pack, or in the car. highly recommend!

Great comic book. A classic!

The brat Abdullah returns to torment Captain Haddock, this time at Marlinspike, where Abdullah has been sent for safekeeping. This is because there is political intrigue in Khemed, the Middle Eastern emirate of his father Ben Kalish Ezab. Things are very bad for Haddock as he explodes at the very loud, nasty tricks of this little pest. But they are no good for the Emir either, who gets deposed by his rival, Sheik Bab El Ehr (see "Tintin in the Land of Black Gold" for background on the rivalry). Tintin and Captain Haddock go to rescue the Emir. So Nestor the butler, setting aside a typically unfocused Professor Calculus, has to endure Abdullah alone. Before leaving for Khemed, Tintin gets an introduction to what is going on with the Emir without really knowing it. Tintin's old enemy Dawson is selling combat aircraft. In Europe, he is negotiating sales to General Alcazar, Tintin's old friend who is seeking to throw out his political rival. But later, from the Emir, Tintin finds out Dawson has sold aircraft ("Mosquitos") to Bab El Ehr that were instrumental in deposing the Emir. He also learns that old enemy Rastapopoulos, under a new alias the Marquis di Gorgonzola, was instrumental in putting Bab El Ehr in power. After secretly visiting the Emir's residence in exile, Tintin and the Captain are hunted by Bab El Ehr's men and become castaways after their sambuk is sunk by Mosquitos. Who is dispatching the Mosquitos? Another of Tintin's old enemies, Dr. Muller (Mull Pasha here). However, they rescue the pilot of one they shoot down, and Skut becomes a friend. Rastapopoulos picks them up on his luxury liner only after the insistence of his passengers, but immediately dumps his two enemies and Skut on a trawler commanded by another old enemy of both Tintin and Haddock, Captain Allan. I will give no more plot away; suffice it to say that the bad guys were engaging in another hideous activity that had to be altered for the video/DVD versions of the book. So, after a land-based adventure in "The Calculus Affair," Tintin and the Captain are out on the high seas again. Captain Haddock once remarked in "Destination Moon," when an object hit Atomic Center Director Mr. Baxter's nose, "I thought that sort of thing only happened to me." In "The Red Sea Sharks," that comment hits home as everything one can imagine in terms of slapstick and accidents happens to Haddock. He explodes again and again, even in the last panels, in a chuckle-inducing conclusion involving Jolyon Wagg (yes, another old character). It is so loud that the reader almost becomes Haddock, experiencing his frustration. Unfortunately, his tribulations are not all humorous; there is an ugly scene when he is decked on a further ill-fated plane flight back to Beirut after he and Tintin had been told they could not enter Wadesah, Khemed's capital. Herge relied heavily on old characters to weave a new story, as shown above (Senhor Oliveira de Figueira is of course in the story too). With so many books behind him now, he had a big and interesting pool to draw from, but then more originality is wanted too. Indeed, the only new person of any import introduced is Skut. Herge presents his recurring themes of disdain for arms dealing, political coups, and corruption, but the overall story lacks the passion of his best works. It is more like "The Odyssey" in the sense of a journey into continual danger and pursuit (and, for the Captain, humiliation), with of course the unpleasant aspects unique to this particular story. The sense of being hunted, crudity, and unpleasant tension dominate "The Red Sea Sharks"; the reader rarely feels good. Furthermore, the ending is mixed in terms of results, some of which Herge displays through incomplete newspaper headings and stories. The Captain and Tintin return to Marlinspike without a clear-cut victory or even a direct hand in some of the developments, and Herge seems to expect the reader to realize that the world is not a place for idealism, even though goodness and idealism shine in so many other Tintin books. Three and a half stars, rounded up to four. Yet Herge returns to idealism, and how, in his next Tintin book, "Tintin in Tibet."

In our age of decline a good comic book is hard to come by. Fortunately Herge had you covered. Red sea sharks has some difficult content (slave/opium trade) but remains suitable for all ages

My 5 year old taught himself to read on Tin Tin books...the illustrations are that fastastic

Histoire intemporelle, en anglais c'est savoureux ! la traduction ne manque pas d'humour. Tintin infatigable et son compagnon le capitaine Haddock dans des aventures pleines de fantaisie, je recommande.

bel libro e utile

It was extremely gripping and also funny at the same time. My 9 year old kid went through it a number of times.

كل شيء

Classic Tintin.