The Thom(p)sons: Which books show them at their best?

In your opinion, which books are the Thom(p)sons at their best?

I liked them in Land of Black Gold, especially during the mirage sequence and the part when they fall asleep and crash into the mosque (?).

From your example, I suppose that "at their best" is when their are the height of their bungling. Hmmmmmmm, tricky. There are so many examples.

I suppose that for me it is in "Explorers on the Moon" where they cause an endless succession of problems: getting on board the rocket in the first place because they thought it was not due to take off for another 12 hours; causing the weightlessness incident - and holding on to each other rather than something fixed to the wall; the hair growing so suddenly; their ignorance of moon geography that leads to a row with Haddock. Need I go on?

All this bungling off course means further delays to the moon mission which results in tragedy - almost for everyone. Who needs plots by foreign powers led by Miller and Jorgen when you have Thom(p)sons?

Cigars of the Pharaoh especialy when snowy drops a grenade on the gun runners boat and they escape on a boat a day passes and they say something like "that grenades taking its time"

For me it's Secret Of The Unicorn and their antics with the pickpocket.

I go with Land of Black Gold, with those mirage and that Formula Fourteen thing. XD

Hello,
I just registered and thought I would share my opinion. I think 'The Secret of the Unicorn/Red Rackham's Treasure" is where they are at their best (especially the oxygen pump incident! Later on, they go to a friend's farm house to 'get away from it all' only to find more pumping!)
Apart from these, I also think that their aerobatics display in "The Black Island" is funny.
Regards.

I was never a huge Thom(p)son fan- pair of muttonheaded buffoons- but I nominate the skeleton business in Destination Moon - that still cracks me up - and their non stop bungling in Castafiore Emerald.

Their behaviour therein, with their firm conviction the gypsies are guilty, are a terrific parody of Agatha Christie type detectives. True, it's a shock to see how bigoted they can be, but it's an attitude most of the characters in that album (e.g Nestor!) share.

I reckon the Thom(p)sons' unwittingly award-winning aerobatics display in The Black Island is one of the most brilliant moments in any Tintin book!

I'm not a big fan of theirs either. But I love this scene in "Prisoners of the sun", when the're asleep and the captain calls them on the telephone.

- Answer it!
- No, I'm sleeping.
- You can't be sleeping! You're talking!
- You know that I always talk in my sleep...

I would go with Thomson & Thompson, Detectives, their solo adventure, by Hergé & Paul Kimmett (hee-hee-hee - evil laugh)!

Moderator Note: Please take care with your spelling and punctuation when posting - your message has been corrected.
Also, rather than devoting time to evil cackling, it would help if you actually said why you thought that this somewhat obscure story was the Detectives at their best - especially as that would mean that someone other than Hergé had produced their defining moment.
The Tintinologist Team