rossn
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Post by rossn on Aug 9, 2017 9:21:55 GMT -5
In absolute fairness Clark has been called on his jerkishness at times. Like back in his Superboy days when he was turned into a girl for being a mysgyonist:
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rossn
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Post by rossn on Jul 1, 2017 13:49:22 GMT -5
The Crab with the Golden Claws (a strangely Roger Moore-era Bondesque title!) is an odd little story. In many respects it is a step down from the books from The Blue Lotus onward Hergé makes up for what is otherwise a fairly thin story in two ways. First some of the art is very beautiful with the desert in lush golden tones. Secondly and far more importantly we are introduced to Captain Haddock, my favourite character in the series and I suspect a lot of others too. I actually think he only starts coming into his own in the next story but it is wonderful to see him here. I concurr...and, in fact, I would go even further - I think it's the least good Tintin book since Tintin in the Congo. It's much, much better than that book, of course, but I still rate all of the books from Tintin in America to King Ottokar's Sceptre higher than The Crab with the Golden Claws. As I noted in my review, the introduction of Captain Haddock is a major selling point, but, with the exception of the scenes on the Karaboudjan, in the sea plane, and in the desert afterwards, this is a decidedly uninspired Hergé book. Yeah that's fair. Luckily I think the next book, which admittedly has some problems, is much better. BTW Confessor I've been thinking over your suggestion of doing reviews. I'm still weighing up ideas so I might get back to you! One thing I was considering was 'Obscure Star Wars' - I have the Wild Space omnibus volumes that Dark Horse printed and there is some interesting stuff from the 1990s there.
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rossn
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Post by rossn on Jul 1, 2017 13:42:26 GMT -5
Roquefort Raider I found a blog which talks about the Asterix translations here. Man, those translators are indeed brilliant! I have to swallow my own words, they do make Astérix as good in English as it is in French! Thanks for the link! No problem, glad to help. I love the books myself! According to Wikipedia apparently there was also a few less well known English translations. I've never actually read the very early British or any of the American translations (Britain and Ireland have the Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge translations like the ones I linked to on that blog.)
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rossn
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Post by rossn on Jul 1, 2017 6:07:10 GMT -5
Roquefort Raider I found a blog which talks about the Asterix translations here.
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rossn
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Post by rossn on Jun 30, 2017 12:08:09 GMT -5
I'm not very familiar with Asterix at all. When I first got into Tintin, my best friend was reading Asterix and we used to have this rivalry about who was best. Obviously I was right and Tintin is infinitely superior to the little fella with the big moustache. Heh! Heh! Heh! I'm not sure I would agree... But I'm not sure Astérix can be translated successfully. The references are very, very French and Goscinny had an amazing way of turning a phrase; it would take an outstanding translator to go beyond the simple puns. I would definitely not bother with the Astérix books not written by Goscinny, though. In that, the series failed to do what Tintin did: present a uniformly great, classic series, without the slow death of the overextended title. I've only read Asterix in English (Iznogoud too) and they seem pretty good, though obviously not being able to read French I can't directly compare them!
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rossn
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Post by rossn on Jun 30, 2017 12:04:47 GMT -5
The Crab with the Golden Claws (French: Le Crabe aux pinces d'or) Original publication dates: October 1940 – October 1941 First collected edition: 1941 (redrawn colour edition published in 1943) Author: Hergé Tintin visits: Belgium (Brussels), Sahara Desert, Morocco (Bagghar). Overall rating: Another great review Confessor! The Crab with the Golden Claws (a strangely Roger Moore-era Bondesque title!) is an odd little story. In many respects it is a step down from the books from The Blue Lotus onward - Lotus and King Ottokar's Sceptre are far political and complex (the first in research, the second in world building.) The Broken Ear is funnier and much darker (and i'd say has a pulpier feel too.) For pure adventure and villains The Black Island is just all around better even if I am less of a fan of it than some .
Crab is also the first book since Cigars of the Pharaoh that feels timeless in a negative way. All the Tintin books of the Thirties have some strong streak of the decade in their DNA. In some this very overt ( King Ottokar's Sceptre for instance could only be set in the late 1930s) but even in The Black Island with its allusions to The 39 Steps, King Kong and the Loch Ness Monster there is that period feel. Crab on the other hand feels oddly unmoored in time, so that it could be set anywhere in the first half of the 20th century. There is a very good reason for that of course - Belgium was under German occupation - but it feels jarring. The villain is very thin indeed here - Omar ben Salaad has perhaps the least personality of any Tintin villain (not counting villains not actually seen on page like Müsstler or Marshal Kûrvi-Tasch.) No wonder Allan outshines him! Hergé makes up for what is otherwise a fairly thin story in two ways. First some of the art is very beautiful with the desert in lush golden tones. Secondly and far more importantly we are introduced to Captain Haddock, my favourite character in the series and I suspect a lot of others too. I actually think he only starts coming into his own in the next story but it is wonderful to see him here.
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rossn
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Post by rossn on Jun 24, 2017 20:29:13 GMT -5
Ha, ha! You've well and truly caught the Tintin bug, Crusader. My Comic Book Store had a copy of that book and they are sending it to me in 2 weeks from now and I've couldn't wait reading it and comparing it from your reviews of it. I caught the Tintin bug because of the art itself and the charm of Herge's work that he made it simple and easy to follow along. That's beauty of it. Hope you enjoy it Caped Crusader!
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rossn
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Post by rossn on Jun 22, 2017 18:48:13 GMT -5
Yeah, I think you said that this was a favourite of yours earlier in the thread. I really do like it quite a bit, but I still think that The Blue Lotus is technically superior and The Black Island is the more enjoyable "solo" Tintin adventure overall. I think it is fair to say The Blue Lotus is more moving with Chang and all, but I think it is the sheer imagination and skill Hergé showed with the creation of Syldavia that lifts it above the other pre-war adventures. If you've ever read or seen a story with a small fictional, old fashioned Eastern or Central European country (double points if it is a monarchy) you've probably come across something that at least has elements of Ruritania. The actual novel is smarter than most of the later copycats though! That's fair. Yeah I love that movie. If you want to picture a 'generic' Ruritania, Zubrowka from that film is really an excellent example - while the original novel is set when it was written in the 1890s in some ways the 1930s setting suits the trope even better because you can feel things about to change for good. I think it's hard to say why the art in The Black Island doesn't quite grab but for some reason it just doesn't. As I've said before it might be as much because it feels like the modernised style doesn't quite match up with tone of the story - not even the 1930s atmosphere I've mentioned before, but the cognitive dissonance between The Castafiore Emerald-era art and the pre-war storytelling. I know that's my personal bugbear though. I will concede that art in King Ottokar's Sceptre is more variable on a technical level, but what the art depicts is generally more interesting, in my opinion. Thank you but I can't claim credit for all of the observations I've made; I've come across some of them before. I have occassionally considered doing a review thread though - alongside Tintin and the Star Wars run you did I'm a fan of Asterix, and older (Golden and Silver Age) Superman, Supergirl and Lois Lane stories. I'll have to think about it!
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rossn
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Post by rossn on Jun 22, 2017 11:35:05 GMT -5
King Ottokar's Sceptre (French: Le Sceptre d'Ottokar) Original publication dates: August 1938 – August 1939 First collected edition: 1939 (redrawn colour edition published in 1947) Author: Hergé Tintin visits: Belgium (Brussels), Germany (Frankfurt), Czech Republic (Prague), Syldavia (unidentified villages, Klow), Borduria. Overall rating: Very much a personal favourite of mine and probably my favourite 'solo' Tintin and Snowy title (much as I'd like to I can't promote the Milanese Nightingale to any sort of co-protagonist status here.) I'd rate it higher than The Blue Lotus and The Black Island.I think King Ottokar's Sceptre feels like a combination of the best aspects of The Blue Lotus and Cigars of the Pharaoh. Hergé managed to combine political commentary and travelogue with a thrilling adventure story. The highlight is of course the Kingdom of Syldavia, a wonderfully realised Balkan principality with it's own 'language', history and traditions. I always felt it was a shame we never saw King Muskar XII again but I suppose Hergé would have difficulty explaining the presence of a sympathetic constitutional monarch in the post-Second World War Balkans. Though it is strongly set in the 1930s, which immediately gives it a strong period feel and though it draws on then contemporary events I feel that it would be amiss not to mention The Prisoner of Zenda. Zenda, for those who have not read it, is a 1894 novel by Anthony Hope that popularised what is now known as the ' Ruritainian Romance' (Ruritania was the name of Hope's fictional central European kingdom.) Without Hope we'd probably have no Genovia, Latveria or of course Slydavia. I won't spoil Zenda here just in case you aren't familiar with it but it is very much worth a read and you can easily see the influence on Hergé. I mentioned that 1930s setting. While I wouldn't quite agree being rooted in a particular time period is unique to King Ottokar's Sceptre - in setting, characters and tone The Black Island has a very strong 1930s vibe even if the updated 1960s art weakens that connection - I think that the period nature of this story is both essential and huge asset. The whole story has the feel of impending disaster; sinister figures spy on Tintin and track his every move, soldiers and warplanes are massed on the border, Tintin discovers documents detailing the movements of saboteurs. The Broken Ear played war largely for comedy; often bitter satire but still. The Blue Lotus showed the menace of life under armed occupation. The genius of King Ottokar's Sceptre is that feeling of immediately before the war, that great oncoming menace that an individual is helpless to resist. In a way when I reread this story I'm reminded of a much more recent story that works off similar themes - The Grand Budapest Hotel, one of my favourite films. Much like that movie there is a sense that we are watching the last flickers of normal life before the howitzers open up and the tanks cross the border. There is a great moment where Tintin, clad in his plain coat almost literally falls face first into a ballroom full of elegant aristocrats in their splendid 19th century uniforms. Immediately thereafter he is dragged away by royal guards and we get that panel you posted Confessor, the one with the Hergé and Jacobs cameos. The dialogue here is very revealing: Colonel Boris, who we know to be a secret fascist is smoothly telling King Muskar that Tintin is an anarchist. 19th and early 20th century royalty did have a lot to fear from murderous anarchists but 'now' (that is to say in the late 1930s) the traitors are much closer, disguised as respectable men. It is hard not to immediately think of the German conservatives reassuring themselves that Hitler and cronies could be tamed if they were brought into the circle of power - though at least poor Muskar has the excuse of being truly unaware of his advisor's leanings. Would aspect I'd have to disagree with you over Confessor is the art. On a technical level I'd agree The Black Island is the superior, but I honestly find The Black Island a little too polished, if that makes sense. This story feels like it has a certain charm and I'd argue is more visually interesting purely by it's location and nature - I like The Black Island but there isn't really anything that lives up to the brochure Tintin reads on the plane or the uniforms at Kropow Castle. Also, and I know this might be a personal quirk but the updating in The Black Island weakened it for me, taking what was a very 1930s story and trying hard to reshape it into a Cold War era setting. King Ottokar's Sceptre, though obviously art updated too feels like it is set in the period it should be.
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rossn
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Post by rossn on May 12, 2017 10:19:29 GMT -5
Yeah that was what Harry Thompson wrote. Just to specify: Hergé didn't have a problem drawing a beautiful woman, and he actually enjoyed it; he just didn't enjoy caricaturing them, making them ugly. I know, I was agreeing with you there. In my earlier post I didn't mean to say he was incapable of drawing beautiful women, just that didn't fit the style of the comic - hence my image of Mrs. Clarkson up there.
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rossn
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Post by rossn on May 12, 2017 10:02:26 GMT -5
I also think part of it is that most characters in Tintin have to put up with a lot of slapstick - even Tintin himself, a comparatively straight edged and ultra competent character gets plenty of what TvTropes calls 'Amusing Injuries'. I can see why Hergé might have been squeamish about putting female characters through that. Even leaving aside slapstick however there, is a lot of non-comedic violence in the stories - not gory violence of course but plenty of punches thrown and, again, our heroes get hit a lot. A modern artist might feel okay with dropping a heroine into such fight scenes but perhaps not one who grew up in pre-war conservative Catholic Belgium. Finally, and I think Harry Thompson brought this up in his book about Tintin, Hergé tended to draw caricatured faces and might have had difficulty drawing a 'normal' looking female face (unlike the Milanese Nightingale who is deliberately over the top and intentionally garish.) For instance this is one of his relatively few named female characters, Mrs Clarkson from The Seven Crystal Balls: Now in fairness Mrs Clarkson is probably intended to look particularly glamorous, but compare her with the nameless male audience member just above her. Unlike Mrs Clarkson he has no lines and no plot importance but his face is a much easier fit for the slightly cartoonish look Hergé goes for with most of his characters. I once saw an interview with Hergé in which the author said he didn't lie drawing women because most of his characters are caricatures, and that he didn't like caricaturing women. He felt it was an unchivalrous thing to do to present them in a ridiculous way. (Hah! Writing that, I figured the interview might be available online... Here it is!) Yeah that was what Harry Thompson wrote. I can't blame Hergé because he was a man of his times and it certainly isn't offensive in the way his very early stereotyping of the Congolese was (you could even see it as admirable if dated), but it is sort a shame. It is also is one aspect that feels old fashioned to me in a way the stories themselves don't - I have literally read French language comics entirely about caricatured, slapstick dumb blondes so Hergé's attitude just does seem distant.
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rossn
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Post by rossn on May 11, 2017 12:19:48 GMT -5
I also think part of it is that most characters in Tintin have to put up with a lot of slapstick - even Tintin himself, a comparatively straight edged and ultra competent character gets plenty of what TvTropes calls 'Amusing Injuries'. I can see why Hergé might have been squeamish about putting female characters through that. Even leaving aside slapstick however there, is a lot of non-comedic violence in the stories - not gory violence of course but plenty of punches thrown and, again, our heroes get hit a lot. A modern artist might feel okay with dropping a heroine into such fight scenes but perhaps not one who grew up in pre-war conservative Catholic Belgium. Finally, and I think Harry Thompson brought this up in his book about Tintin, Hergé tended to draw caricatured faces and might have had difficulty drawing a 'normal' looking female face (unlike the Milanese Nightingale who is deliberately over the top and intentionally garish.) For instance this is one of his relatively few named female characters, Mrs Clarkson from The Seven Crystal Balls: Now in fairness Mrs Clarkson is probably intended to look particularly glamorous, but compare her with the nameless male audience member just above her. Unlike Mrs Clarkson he has no lines and no plot importance but his face is a much easier fit for the slightly cartoonish look Hergé goes for with most of his characters.
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Post by rossn on Apr 27, 2017 12:00:10 GMT -5
Good point! I hadn't specifically thought of that, but, yeah...the shadow of Nessie certainly does loom large in the tales that Tintin hears from the Kiltoch locals about the mysterious monster prowling around the Black Island. Yeah, the dates kind of work. The first modern sightings of Nessie are from 1933 and the famous/infamous "Surgeon's photograph" was in 1934 so it was very current when the story was being written. I'm very poorly read when it comes to Agatha Christie, I'm afraid, and have also seen precious few of the film adaptations of her books. As such, I'm unfamiliar with The 39 Steps, but my girlfriend is a big Christie fan, so I'll have to ask her about it. Oh sorry should have been clearer: The 39 Steps was written by John Buchan in 1915 but Hitchcock updated it to the (then present day) 1930s for his film, changing a lot of details along the way. It's been remade a few times since then mostly following Hitchcock's version but not always (the 1978 film version is set in the same period Buchan set it, immediately before the First World War.) (I'd really recommend the 1935 film at least. There is also a modern play version which runs it as a farce.) The Christie connection is more thinking along the lines of all those richly appointed English country homes Poirot seemed to end up in and Müller being a doctor fits that sort of feel (see also the Golden age of detective fiction).
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Post by rossn on Apr 27, 2017 9:26:26 GMT -5
The Black Island (French: L'Île noire) Original publication dates: April 1937 – November 1937 First collected edition: 1938 (partially redrawn colour edition published in 1943; second redrawn colour edition published in 1966) Author: Hergé Tintin visits: Belgium (Brussels, Ostend, unidentified village), England (Dover, Eastdown, Beachy Head), Scotland (Kiltoch, the Black Island, Glasgow) Overall rating: As always a very neat review Confessor! I'm glad you find the sudden leap into the mid Sixties as jarring as I do and to be honest other than the vehicles and some aspects of the technology (Tintin's nonchalance about stumbling across a TV set for instance) practically everything about the story 'feel's more at home in the Thirties - as you say Ranko is inspired by King Kong and there is definitely a hint of the Loch Ness Monster in the mystery of a monster hiding out in remote Scotland. Actually the whole Scottish setting seems very similar to Hitchcock's 1935 adaptation of The 39 Steps which ties it further into the period and Dr. Müller's stately home (and his 'legitimate' occupation) fits in a very Agatha Christie mood. It isn't something that spoils the story for me, but I admit I find it distracting especially since King Ottokar's Sceptre could not feel more Thirties if it tried while Tintin's actual post-war adventures have a decidedly different vibe. Anyway, I like this story a lot. It isn't one of my favourites - I'd probably rank it below The Blue Lotus and King Ottokar's Sceptre (Hergé's twin masterpieces of his 'Early' period in my view) and perhaps equal with The Broken Ear - the superior art, sense of mystery and much tighter pacing in this story play off against The Broken Ear's better comedy, biting satire and more exotic locale. I'm not sure but this might be the best use of Tintin as a detective. In other, later, books mere criminals tend to take more of a back seat and Tintin is more likely caught up in political turmoil or exploration. We will see a couple more crime stories down the road of course (which I won't spoil for people like Juggernaut still working their way through the series), but a good argument could be made this handles it best.
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Post by rossn on Apr 12, 2017 9:02:20 GMT -5
Loved The Broken Ear and it's was wonderfully scripted and tastefully done. The art is fantastic. Glad to hear there are more fans of The Broken Ear around, I really do find it underrated. Poor Colonel/Corporal Diaz is possibly my favourite 'one book' supporting character because he isn't a traditional bad guy and his grudge is quasi reasonable. I feel sorry for him honestly.
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