{"id":2783,"date":"2021-08-20T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=2783"},"modified":"2024-02-08T08:29:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T08:29:08","slug":"book-review-cigars-of-the-pharaoh-herge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=2783","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REViEW: Cigars of the Pharaoh, Herg\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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With a relatively smooth continuity between Cigars of the Pharaoh<\/em> and The Blue Lotus<\/em> Herg\u00e9 gives his readers their first glimpse of what later became the classic Tintin ‘double-bill’ format. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In COTP which, like the later adventure The Crab With The Golden Claws, is basically a drug smuggling yarn, Herg\u00e9 introduces the smoothly plausible but deviously villainous movie-mogul Rastapopolous, who will return in several future Tintin adventures, including, naturally enough, the Blue Lotus, it following on from COTP as it does. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

COTP’s Dr\/Prof, Sophocles Sarcophagus, is a kind of experimental forerunner of Cuthbert Calculus, particularly in his absent-mindedness and mis-hearing or misapprehending things. Like Shooting Star’s Decimus Phostle and (prof\/doc?) Alembick (KOS), Sarcophagus allows Herg\u00e9 to experiment with the ‘mad professor’ type. In this instance the scientist does become literally mad, and is left that way, whereas Calculus is just ‘dotty’, absorbed in his own world of experiment and inquiry, and not at all lunatic. We are also introduced to Thomson and Thompson for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herg\u00e9’s craft is clearly developing, inasmuch as these two adventures are better plotted, drawn and generally realsed than either Congo<\/em> or America<\/em>. But his skills are evolving, and this work, whilst very enjoyable, is not yet on a par with his best (the next three double-bills, Calculus<\/em>, Tibet<\/em> or Flight 714<\/em>). Although substantially reworked, as was much of his early work, traces of Herg\u00e9’s earlier ‘long-body’ style remain apparent, and at this point contextual\/background detail is more cursory on the whole than in later adventures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said all this, it’s still long on good old-fashioned fun. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a relatively smooth continuity between Cigars of the Pharaoh and The Blue Lotus Herg\u00e9 gives his readers their first glimpse of what later became the classic Tintin ‘double-bill’ format.  In COTP which, like the later adventure The Crab With The Golden Claws, is basically a drug smuggling yarn, Herg\u00e9 introduces the smoothly plausible but … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “BOOK REViEW: Cigars of the Pharaoh, Herg\u00e9”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-IT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2783"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11374,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783\/revisions\/11374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}