Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28820 in Books
• Published on: 1995-04-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Amazon.com
Volume 4 of the 3-in-1 Tintin series begins in the middle of an adventure, concluding the story begun in The Secret of the Unicorn. (Keeping all the two-part stories together was not possible in the 3-in-1 format because chronologically, the Unicorn/Rackham and Crystal/Prisoners two-parters are back to back.) Red Rackham's Treasure follows Tintin and friends as they search for the pirate booty procured by Captain Haddock's ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock, in the West Indies. They receive some unexpected help in the form of a hard-of-hearing inventor named Professor Calculus, who would go on to become one of the most endearing characters of the series. (Herge admitted that the character was one "whom I never suspected would take on such importance.") It's a lot of fun, with some submarine and diving adventures, humor from the Thompsons, and an unexpected (but satisfying) ending. The Seven Crystal Balls begins on a light note, as Captain Haddock tries to adjust to his new life as a gentleman following the events of Red Rackham's Treasure. He wears a monocle and frequents the music hall, where in a not-unusual coincidence he and Tintin happen to find General Alcazar (The Broken Ear) and the dreaded diva Bianca Castafiore. However, it's the act of fakir Ragdalam with Madame Yamilah, the amazing clairvoyante, that reveals the central adventure: the scientists excavating the tomb of Racar Capac have incurred the curse of the Inca. Despite the efforts of bungling detectives Thompson ("With a P, as in Philadelphia") and Thomson ("Without a P, as in Venezuela"), the explorers are stricken, and one of Tintin's closest friends disappears mysteriously, leading to a trip to Peru in the second part, Prisoners of the Sun. After The Seven Crystal Balls set the eerie stage, Tintin and his friends continue their adventures in Peru. There Tintin rescues an orange-seller named Zorrino from being bullied, and the young man becomes their guide in their quest to find the Temple of the Sun. But they find more than they bargained for and end up in a hot spot. The perils of this engaging two-part adventure are especially harrowing in their combination of the supernatural and the real, although the resolution is a little too deus ex machina. Calculus and the Thompsons provide their usual comic relief.

The 3-in-1 format provides excellent value, but the small size (about 40% smaller than the single-story paperbacks) makes it harder to enjoy the detail in Herge's layouts. --David Horiuchi

Language Notes
Text: English
Original Language: French

About the Author
Hergé, one of the most famous Belgians in the world, was a comics writer and artist. The internationally successful Adventures of Tintin are his most well-known and beloved works. They have been translated into 38 different languages and have inspired such legends as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. He wrote and illustrated for The Adventures of Tintin until his death in 1983.

Customer Reviews

Great comic book!
Tintin is a great comic book ... funny, witty, adventurous, and with clean language. These are classics! I used to read them growing up in Europe, and I am glad that I can have my children read them too.

Kids read this over and over again.
My kids are voracious readers, and my son in particular loves the Tintin books. He began reading them in 3rd grade, and he still reads them all the time, over and over. I love these adventurous stories.

great three in one set of Tintin classics
Many of us grew up on Tintin and love them for their great nostalgia value, and reminisces of childhood, as well as the brave values of a simpler, more clarified world of yesteryear.
This volume brings together three of the best loved Tintin classics in one handy volume- and for not much more than the price of one.
They are:
Red Rackham's Treasure:
Tintin and Captain Haddock prepare to depart on the search for the hidden treasure of Red Rackham, and are approached by an eccentric hard of hearing inventor, Professor Calculus, who simply won't go away.

His shark submarine is to prove invaluable in Tintin and the Captain's search, and Calculus will be a constant figure in all subsequent Tintin books.
They are also joined by the irrepresible Thomp(s)on twins.They take a ship to a remote tropical island and come across all sorts of interesting things like skeleton human remains of pirates, and parrots that have handed down from generation to generation, Haddock's vocabulary.
After much adventure they return home, where the real treasure is waiting and where Captain Haddock inherits the mansion Marlinkspike, his ancestral home, which was previously owned by the criminal Bird brothers (See the Secret of the Unicorn).
Another courful and action packed Tintin classic:
Tintin and Captian Haddock prepare to depart on the search for the hidden treasure of Red Rackham, and are approached by an eccentric hard of hearing inventor, Professor Calculus, who simply won't go away.

His shark submarine is to prove invaluable in Tintin and the Captain's search, and Calculus will be a constant figure in all subsequent Tintin books.
They are also joined by the irrepresible Thomp(s)on twins.They take a ship to a remote tropical island and come across all sorts of interesting things like skeleton human remains of pirates, and parrots that have handed down from generation to generation, Haddock's vocabulary.
After much adventure they return home, where the real treasure is waiting and where Captain Haddock inherits the mansion Marlinkspike, his ancestral home, which was previously owned by the criminal Bird brothers (See the Secret of the Unicorn).
Another courful and action packed Tintin classic.

The Seven Crystal Balls

On a train to Marlinspike, Tintin is reading an article about the Sanders-Hardiman expedition which has spent two years excavating Inca tombs.
A gentleman on the train warns that a nasty end will await those "busybodies violating the Inca's burial chamber", comparing their predicted fate to that of the archaeologists, involved in the Tut-Ankh-Kamen affair.
On his visit to Marlinspike, Tintin is re-united with Captain Haddock, who is playing the role of the country lord of the manor in his newly inherited mansion of Marlinspike.
Tintin and the Captain go see a show at the Hippodrome, of magic and mystery, where the psychic Madame Yamilah has a vision of the serious illness of the husband of one of the audience, who hapens to be the photographer of the Sanders-Hardiman expedition.
The psychic revelation proves to be correct.
One after the other each of the men involved with the Sanders-Hardiman expedition falls into a coma, with fragmented crystal shards next to them, in each case.
Tintint and the Captain then accompany Professor Calaculus to his friend Professor Tarragon, and in a strange occurance the Rascar Capac mumy on Tarragon's posession mysteriously disappears, and each of the guests is visited by a frightening dream of Rascar Capac entering their guest rooms and smashing down a crystal ball on the ground.
Professor Tarragon soon also falls into the mysterious coma, and then Professor Calculus disappears, leadin Tintin and Haddock's investigations to lead them to plan a trip to Peru, which sets the stage for the sequel to this comic, Prisoners of the Sun (The Adventures of Tintin).
The Tintin adventures are amazingly detailed and intricate for a graphic novel, and this one is filled with much intrigue, suspense and action failing to disappoint, and reminding us why Tintin remains popular after nearly 8 decades.

Prisoners of the Sun

First published in the original French in 1949 as Le Temple du Soleil (The Temple of the Sun), Prisoners of the Sun is the sequel to The Seven Crystal Balls.
After Professor Calculus is kidnapped in The Seven Crystal Balls, for putting on the bracelet of the mummified Inca Rascar Capac, Tintin and captain Haddock travel to Peru to find him. After getting no help from the police, and after an attempt on Tintin's life, Tintin and Haddock come across a young Indian guide by the name of Zorrino.
They then travel through mountain and jungle and eventually stumble across the hidden mountain temple where Calculus is imprisoned.
Sentenced to death by the Incas for defiling their Temple, Tintin tricks the Indians by timing their execution (of which date the condemned are allowed to choose) to coincide with the solar eclipse.
The terrified Incas then are convinced that Tintin has powers to control the sun, and release Tintin and his friends, giving them gifts and sending them home with Calculus.
The eclipse incident is a misnomer as the Incas, as s worshippers of the Sun and experienced astronomers, the Incas would have been able to predict a solar eclipse almost as well as any modern scientist.
Zorrino chooses to stay in the Temple.
Full of action. adventure and colour.