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Title: Cigars of the Pharaoh (Adventures of Tintin) by Herge ISBN: 0-416-08830-9 Publisher: French & European Pubns Pub. Date: 1985 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $35.00

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: The beginning of the first really great Tintin adventure
Comment: If your understand of the vast scope of human history leads you to believe that the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt did not smoke cigars, then you will not be surprised to learn that this 1934 adventure of Tintin is not what it seems at first glance. Our intrepid reporter is sailing the Mediterranean with Snowy when he encounters a strange academic type named Sophocles Sarcophagus, whom he quickly dismisses as a clumsy nitwit. Tintin also has a run-in with Rastapopoulos, the film tycoon who owns Cosmos Pictures. The next thing we know we have the first appearance of the Thom(p)soms, who arrest Tintin for having heroin in his cabin. Obviously, our hero is getting to close to something, but what could it be?

From an Egyptian tomb filled with cigars, to floating in a coffin on the Mediterranean, to wandering the Arabian Desert, to being lost in the jungles of India, Tintin does some major traveling to solve this particular mystery. Hergé certainly shows more of an understanding for various cultures than he did in the previous Tintin adventure, where America was literally reduced to gangsters and Indians. However, the improvement of "Cigars of the Pharaoh" over "Tintin in America" is pretty noticeable and quite impressive when you think of the state of comic books stories in the early 1930s. The story here continues in "The Blue Lotus" as Tintin and Snowy make their way to India to finally get solve this particular case. If you did not get hooked on the first of the Tintin adventures still in print, then this one will certainly do the job.

Rating: 5
Summary: The first truly great Tintin adventure.
Comment: 'Cigars Of The Pharoah' traverses the pyramids of Egypt, the deserts of Arabia, the jungles and palaces of India; and sees a vacationing Tintin stumbling on a gun-running, drug-smuggling plot centring on crates of Flor Fina cigars. An encounter with absent-minded archaeologist Sophocles Sarcophagus instigates the action and sees our heroes, among other things, cast adrift the ocean in coffins, where they are attacked by sharks; press-ganged during a tribal war, and lined up for execution; crashing a plane in the jungle and learning the language of elephants; committed to a lunatic asylum; escaping assassination attempts by a shady fakir; as well as participating in the more familiar car chases, train adventures, mountain climbs; meanwhile, Snowy is mobbed for attacking a sacred cow.

The two parts of the story are sensitively differentiated by Herge's astonishing drawing, the bright wide plains of Egypt contrasting with more richly colourful Indian milieux, with their elaborate costumes and decorations. Herge pulls off some remarkable tableaux - the Egyptian death chamber of mummified European archaeologists; Tintin's lurid, narcotic hallucination; his flight through the gates of Mecca from an army; his sitting on elephant-back in the jungle with mad Professor Sarcophagus. Although Herge respects the native hierarchies of the countries he draws, his image of beleagured colonialism is quite damning, with the unforgettable decline of an already barmy Sarcophagus into a babbling madman dressed in top hat, tails and undergarments shooting at butterflies a warning to all who would excavate ancient cultures for European benefit.

But 'Cigars', the first truly great Tintin adventure (and part one of a story that concludes with 'The Blue Lotus'), is most notable for the introduction of two legendary characters, Thomson and Thompson, those near-identical, always resourceful, but ultimately hapless police detectives; Magrittean, bolwer-hatted Englishmen doomed to each other's punning company: 'What a surprise to see your face again! We'd lost you completely!' 'To be precise, we'd completely lost face!'

Rating: 5
Summary: amazing book
Comment: very frequant thrilling hot events as if u are watching a movie not reading a book....it's part one of the [ the blue lotus ] book..takes place in egypt,arabia,india