Tintin Forums

jock123
I find much of this depressing, not inspiring...

Sorry about that. Aren't we just dealing with complicated avatars? Please don't worry.

Here's a clue about the main question: one of those items is defined thanks to the setting in the book.

yamilah
By the way, I never heard of The Red Crab, would you be so kind to give a reference?

It's been ages since I read it - and I admit I never actually finished it - but I think it's in Pierre Assouline's Hergé.

Richard
I think it's in Pierre Assouline's Hergé.

Thanks Richard I'll try to find it.

yamilah
Aren't we just dealing with complicated avatars?
Apparently you think so, whatever they are - nobody else appears to…

I couldn't find any Red Crab mentioned in Assouline's book.

For what concerns the books' spines, I can only confirm the French versions' show four* different colours only.

(namely 11 red, 7 orange, 3 blue and 3 green ones)

Most inspring thread, I must say! Makes me happy to see so many people so enthusiastic about Tintin.

And at the same I feel rather sad about myself. I have no enthusiasm to count any objects in the covers, instead I feel obliged to make one cynical remark based on probability calculation: If four is an especially relevant number in the world of Tintin, then three is even more relevant than that.

yamilah
I couldn't find any Red Crab mentioned in Assouline's book.

I'm fairly sure it's in there, although I wouldn't swear by it. Might be Fils de Tintin or Tintin noir sur blanc, sorry I can't be more specific!

For what concerns the books' spines, I can only confirm the French versions' show four* different colours only.

(namely 11 red, 7 orange, 3 blue and 3 green ones)

Tintin et les Picaros most definitely has a yellow spine, though, does it not?

Richard
Tintin et les Picaros most definitely has a yellow spine, though, does it not?
Yeah, looking on the French Amazon site, I reckon it does too - the same pale yellow as on the UK version, and very different to the orangey amber yellow of The Shooting Star, Land of Black Gold etc, in the French editions as well as the English.

So if you're formulating a theory in which the number of spine colours is significant, yamilah, I think you do have to start off by recognising that there are five spine colours in the French versions, not four. Sorry if this messes your theory up. But I'm sure you can easily come up with a new theory that instead involves the number five having some special significance in the covers, and that this new theory will have just as much plausibility as your existing 'four' theory. ;-)

I have a numerical theory.

Five spine colours minus two Thompsons equals three models of the Unicorn. Add seven crystal balls, divide by two letters found on the Bordurian in King Ottokar's Sceptre, subtract three floating coffins in the Red Sea, and that equals two reporters in The Castafiore Emerald. Subtract one experimental rocket and add six native's skulls on Sir Francis' island, and finally by subtracting two wigs - of different colour - from Castafiore's dressing room it brings us back to colours of a different kind, namely the colours of the spines.

This must, however, be taken in jest. :p

mondrian
I have no enthusiasm to count any objects in the covers
This is more a matter of reading than counting, though. Of reading the cover text, to start with... But the issue is of course of little help and interest for the initiate...

instead I feel obliged to make one cynical remark based on probability calculation: If four is an especially relevant number in the world of Tintin, then three is even more relevant than that.
Maybe cynical, but well spotted:
- four is generally virtual and mainly connected with series of items or avatars
- whereas three was disclosed as a letter in the relettered* albums last year via its funny long z's avatar, but was since long rather commonly seen as a cypher connected e.g. with the Thompsons, initially named X33 and X33 bis in Cigars B&W version... (with four long-z shaped 3's)

Richard
Tintin et les Picaros most definitely has a yellow spine, though, does it not?
Used to have a yellow spine, but things are changing (or just getting more simple, or visible?), and not just in the English versions: since a few years you can find Tintin et les Picaros with the orange spine even in the shops...

see http://data.magicsquare.be/ouvrages/2203/001/2203001232_0g.jpg
(as featuring on Casterman's site)