Since time immemorial, I've often wondered which of Tintin's adventures is the best of the lot. At the end of the day, I find it is difficult to pick any one story as superior over the others - after all, each adventure has its own share of ups and downs, and of course its own charm.
I ended up realising one fine evening that I have a thing for sequels... it just feels so right, if one great adventure is followed by another. Add to that a fantastic plot, and you get a brilliant tale that is full of twists and turns, and a lot of uncertainty...
Hmm... Sequels... So where does that leave us... The only logical contenders were:
- Cigars of the Pharaoh & The Blue Lotus
- Secret of the Unicorn & Red Rackham's Treasure
- The Seven Crystal Balls & The Prisoners of the Sun
- Destination Moon & Explorers on the Moon
I ended up choosing The Seven Crystal Balls & The Prisoners of the Sun... The sheer plot makes it the winner as far as I am concerned... Herge really delivers when it comes to storytelling... Page after page is full of action. Not to mention VooDoo (!) as the answer to the Archaeologists illness. The Prisoners also features some very memorable sequences, like when Tintin jumps off the mountain train; or when he crashes through a waterfall curtain only to discover a secret entrance to the tomb of the Inca; and of course, the never-ending Peruvian trek through the Tropical forests and mountains full of wild beasts, guided by the helpful Zorrino.
And lest I forget, the legendary Inca, Rascar Capac (pic above) was and shall remain the scariest character ever in this genre for ages to come. Remember your pulse rate when he sneaked into a sleeping Tintin's room one fateful night?
One must also point out that stories like King Ottokar's Sceptre, The Calculus Affair & The Black Island are masterpieces in their own right. Land of the Soviets and Congo remain my least favourite titles since they're amateurish. However being a die-hard collector I have owned all the titles, both Hard & Soft copies, for quite some time now.
As a self-proclaimed Tintinologist, it is rather difficult to pick any single adventure above others. Especially because most are so well written, and towards the latter half, very well researched too. It's always a mission to strive for perfection, isn't it? Maybe Herge understood this only too well... Look where Tintin has reached from being just another comic strip - For most of us who have had the pleasure of reading these adventures, he's actually a childhood hero!
