Tintin Forums

the early tintin adventures are mostly just tintin and snowy, and the odd friendly local or something. however in crab with the golden claws, haddock arrives on the scene, and after red rackham's treasure the friends have met professor calculus and can call marlinspike hall a home.

for many people, these later adventures are their favourites, i've found. they're certainly the better-selling ones, i think, like red rackham's treasure, seven crystal balls/prisoners of the sun, destination/explorers on the moon, tintin in tibet, castafiore emerald, tintin and the picaros...

but for me the best ones are the early ones. (of course all the tintins are brilliant and i love them all equally, as children.) for example the blue lotus (my personal favourite), cigars of the pharaoh, the black island, king ottokar's sceptre....

it's more noticable in the 1991/1992 (or whenever it was) animated tintin TV show i suppose

but do you see what i mean? i'm interested to see which the proper tintin fans prefer!

(sorry if this is already a topic. i couldnt see it if it was, and i thought it was too complicated to search, really.)

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The Happy Tintinologist Team

For me, the adventures go better when Haddock and Calculus entered in Tintin's serious world. There's fun in ultimate bonding. They blend in their sense of humor and clumsiness which make the story more unforgettable with their movements and catchy lines. They add color and vibrance to Tintin and Snowy's lives. And the honesty of the Captain? Yeah, a plus factor for me.

The adventures before the arrival of Haddock and Calculus are good, in fact, Cigars of the Pharaoh is one of my favorites, but I think that they did get better when those two arrived. Now, Soviets, Congo and America are before even the Thompsons arrived. Tintin was really alone then!

My favourites are the early solo adventures from Cigars to Ottokar. Tintin and Snowy had to rely on their own resourcefulness.

I would say there's definiteley a change in Hergé's style of writing when he introduces Captain Haddock because he starts putting much more emotion into his albums.
I wouldn't say it was better when Haddock came though.
From Cigars of the Pharaoh to Tintin and the Picaros I don't think there's a bad Tintin book.
Professor Calculus relieves us of some of the more tense moments in Tintin by providing a funny "deaf joke" and so I thought he was a great character to bring in.

I preferred the pre-Haddock adventures, although there are some like "Tintin and the picaros" which I absolutely adore, but all in all, I love the pre-Haddock adventures because somehow I feel that Tintin was more active before Haddock entered the scene than during the post- Haddock adventures.

It's one of the delights of Tintin that his world evolves over the years and it's incredible that he was able to bring in such such perfectly imagined characters as Haddock and Calculus and they feel completely natural there, not like Poochie in the Simpsons episode where the cartoon makers are looking for a quick fix.

Overall, probably the later adventures, but The Blue Lotus and The Shooting Star are 2 of my favourites and they don't feature any of the later characters that much. Actually Broken Ear is another great book without Calculus or Haddock.

The two parters are all great as well though, as is Tibet so to be honest, I would say it depends on the actual book.

I prefer definetly the stories with Haddock (and Calculus). Tintinagalog already expressed quite well what is my opinion, too.
If it wasn´t for the captain, I would have NEVER become a Tintin fan (or better said, kept my interest in Tintin beyond my 12th year, or more precisely, regained it a few years later.)

That's not hard for me! The other characters add so much depth and life - not that it was missing from the early books, of course, but I can't imagine the Tintin series without Haddock or Calculus. And anyway, Tintin is so nice; so forgiving. Even if the Captain always ends up doing what he wants, it's helpful and fun to have a bit of hardened cynicism, or indeed drunken idiocy. Or just people being hit on the head from time to time.

Yes, a cast of two - one of which is a dog - will not hold up forever.