Tintin Forums

Herge was a master of atmosphere and surreality, what are you guys opinions on the most atmospheric and surreal books? I'm going to kill two birds with one stone and say The Seven Crystal Balls, you feel as if you're literally there in the stifling heat as a feeling of doom hangs over the world. Coupled with some great art, simply marvelous.

The most atmospheric Tintin book is The Seven Crystal Balls
The most surreal Tintin book is The Shooting Star

Atmospheric probably Tintin in Tibet, or the Moon books. Surreal, maybe Shooting Star. (For the weirdness of the beginning and ending.)

I'm not against people simply listing things, or stating what they think is the most atmospheric or surreal of the books, but why not add a little further explanation? I think it would be nice to know why people find certain books more atmospheric or surreal. It would be more interesting to read, wouldn't it?

I agree about The Seven Crystal Balls. There is an atmosphere of unease which builds steadily throughout the book. It culminates when the characters arrive at Professor Tarragon's house. The house itself looks mighty spooky and the dark storm clouds certainly help to build the oppressive atmosphere. Then of course that dream sequence which they all have about Rascar Capac climbing through the window, brrrrr! I'll admit, I found that scene the most creepy of anything in the books. Especially not recommended for youngsters at night before bedtime!

The Seven Crystal Balls is certainly very atmospheric. Possibly the most atmospheric (I wouldn't know; I still haven't read enough of the books). But I'd also like to say that I find the moon adventures very atmospheric indeed - from the moment you arrive in Syldavia, you know something incredible is up.

The time spent at the research institute is so believable and emotionally involving for the reader, but it's nothing compared to the time spent on the rocket! For once, all the characters are trapped together (a key device in many plots but, interestingly, not Tintin) in an amazingly small space. They know there's a good chance they won't make it back alive. All their hopes are, effectively, riding on each other's support. There's no help coming from outside this time! And, worst of all, they must totally trust their compainions. There's such an air of shock when it's discovered that Wolff is a traitor, is there not? In a way, they were also betrayed by Archie when he smuggled all that whiskey aboard. That's pretty unsettling too.

Of course, there's the scene at the end of Explorers when it seems that Archie is not going to survive the shortage of oxygen because he's been soaking himself in alcohol for so long. It's almost as if you've stepped out of the cosy world of certainty that it's all going to be OK. You can feel Tintin's horror. Now that's atmosphere.

Totally agree with this. The book had a very uneasy feeling about it the first time I read it. Nearly 40 years later the face of Rascar Capac still creeps me out a little.

If Shooting Star is surreal then Flight 714 must surely fall into this category? Personally I find the prospect of a UFO far more surreal than giant spiders or moths. Having said that, the beginning of Shooting Star also had a slightly uneasy feeling to it. I remember the starkness of the observatory, the strange man who opens the door to Tintin, Phostle and his unnamed colleague and finally the continued appearances of Philippus(sp?) the Prophet. Bleak I would describe it as. Does this then make it atmospheric?

Both Shooting Star and Flight 714 are surreal Tintin books in my opinion, because they both have that strange encounter with odd objects, ie. the giant spiders and the UFO.

Most atmospherical feels like Tintin in Tibet, as it is just a dramatic story about friendship and belief. Plus it almost made me teary-eyed reading it the first three times, and the stage version almost did too!

If we're using the term surreal in the art-movement sense of the word - ie: bizarre dreamlike juxtapositions of everyday objects in strange ways - rather than just wierd or supernatural, then Cigars of the Pharaoh has some very surreal scenes. Those mummified explorers, neatly labelled and drawn with no hint of gore or decay seem very surreal, as do Sarcophocus's umbrella and items of clothing placed on the Egyptian statues. And even though there's a logical explanation for it, the scene where Tintin and Sarcophogus find themselves floating around on the empty sea in wooden coffins is a very surreal image. Then there's the image of someone rowing a lifeboat even though it's suspended high above the sea, or the strange symbol painted on all the forest trees. Although there are also sort of logical explanations for these two (Sarcophogus's eccentricity and then madness), they still make rather surreal pictures.

There's something about Hergé's clear black line and flat colour that makes his pictires look surreal and dreamlike anyway.

And Hergé's actual dream sequences, such as the one that Captain Haddock has when walking along in Tintin in Tibet, are of course very surreal, as you'd expect in a dream. Perhaps the most disturbingly surreal dream is the one in The Crab with the Golden Claws of Captain Haddock trying to uncork Tintin's head with the corkscrew. Again the clear-line style adds a lot to the dreamlike strangeness.

As for the most atmospheric book, I'd agree with others in saying The Seven Crystal Balls. I wonder if Hergé and E.P. Jacobs finding out that the real-life model for Tarragon's house was being used by Nazi officers (just after they'd finished sketching it) added an extra degree of menace to their final drawings of it.

I think the idea of the surreal is a really interesting one in relation to Tintin, and the way the books developed.

For me the first album with a surreal tone is Cigars of the Pharaoh where a sub-level of reality is introduced right away through Professor Sophocles Sarcophagus, whose mad irrationality leads Tintin into a mysterious underground world of ancient egyptian tombs, narcotics and cult organizations, with accompanying hallucinations - much like Alice in wonderland being led down the rabbit hole.
Surprisingly the second volume in this 2 part story - The Blue Lotus - discards the surreal for political realism. The subsequent Tintin books fall into either of these two camps for me, I personally prefer the former.
Probably the best of the realistic political albums is The Calculus Affair, and it would be unimaginable to find any surreal dream sequences such as Captain Haddock with cash register eyes trying to uncork Tintin, one of my favourite episodes. But later in Tintin au Tibet it seems natural to introduce a vivid nightmare sequence where Captain Haddock meets a colourful Calculus with a sack full of umbrellas on a chess board. Again one couldn't imagine this sequence occuring in The Castafiore Emaralds.

regards,
mat

Oh dear - after posting I've just seen Balthasar's post, and has said virtually what I said already - apologies -

mat