Tintin Forums

Moderator Note: This thread had to be retitled, as the poster had made a mistake in their recollection of where the incident involved was to be found.

Hi.

In one adventure Tintin is captured under the sea and he is given a last cigarett before he wil be forced out in the water to drown deep under the water.

But the pressure is so high in the sub chamber so Tintin burn his fingers because the cigarett burn much much faster in high pressure air.

How deep was Tintin under the water when this happened?

How high was the air pressure?

Was it normal air or another air mix on the sub chamber?

Regards Magi

Sorry - not Tintin, that's Spirou, in "Le repaire de la murene", by Andre Franquin. Possibly the best album of the series.

Also, to answer the question : it takes place 200m below the surface. In an interview, Franquin said that he had been asking around him whether a cigarette could be smoked in pressurised air, and couldn't get an answer, so he invented the "burns faster" thing.

I have no idea myself whether it matches any scientific reality - but even if it does, it was just a wild guess from Franquin.

Also, Spirou doesn't smoke either (as he lights it, he thinks something like "My poor Spirou, your first cigarette could very well be your last"), but you know how it is.

When you're offered the choice of being drowned immediately or have a cigarette first...

Interesting, are Spirou albums any good? Would a lifelong Tintin fan like them?

regards,

mat

I think I like Franquin's Spirou better than Tintin, and yet I'm supposedly a tintinologist (according to quizzes, etc). Franquin is much less strict and much more of a 'leftist' than Herge, and his poetry touches me more.

I'd say both are very complementary - I couldn't do without any of them. But they both represented the opposing schools of french/belgian comics, "le journal de tintin" (a BIT more educative, serious, and rigorous) and "le journal de spirou" (a BIT more delirious, imaginative, anarchist), though many authors jumped back and forth between both. The approaches and aims were quite different. To give you an idea, the Smurfs and Lucky Luke belonged to the "Spirou" side of comics, while Blake & Mortimer are more representative of the "Tintin" side.

While I love Herge, and consider him a very clever and very interesting person, I see Franquin as the best human being I've heard of. And this is after having read numerous interviews books on both. So of course I for one would advise to read some Spirou (and some Gaston too). Just beware of the non-Franquin Spirou, as it isn't a character Franquin created or owned, and no other (former or later) Spirou author had this talent.

Also, Herge would probably give you the same advice. In an interview, Herge confessed he couldn't understand how he and Franquin could be compared : "Franquin is a great artist, next to whom I'm a mediocre cartoonist". Needless to say, this embarrassed the morbidly insecure Franquin quite a lot.

Take a look at the following debate on the subject of Spirou

Thankyou for your informative and insightful description of Spirou, Amilah, looks like I should investigate, I'm also intrigued by the Blake & Mortimer books.

Thanks mct16 for the link.

regards,
mat

Thanks Amilah.

200 m yes.

Whell the question is still how much faster solids and fluids and gases burn in compressed air.

To bad that I did not remember it was Spirou.

I am very sorry for that.

Thanks for your nice answers.

M.Sc. Magi