Travelling with Tintin

Hot on the trail of opium smugglers, Tintin travels across Egypt and India visiting Port Said, Cairo, Ancient Egyptian tombs, the Pyramids and the Red Sea. He explores a jungle and discovers a herd of elephants. As the adventure progresses the brave reporter narrowly escapes being poisoned and going mad, meets an eccentric archaeologist and comes to the rescue of a Maharaja whose life is in grave danger. Cigars of the Pharaoh is an action-packed adventure which was also one of Hergé's first books. The author was 27 years old when the first edition of the book was published in 1934. The story marked a turning point in the young illustrator's career, after which Tintin's adventures became suffused with fantasy, mystery and suspense.

The Blue Lotus is the sequel to Cigars of the Pharaoh. Tintin is in India taking a well-earned rest when the mystery of the madness-inducing poison obliges him to make his way to Shanghai. Against the backdrop of the Sino-Japanese conflict, Tintin sets to work unravelling a nefarious web of opium traffickers. A key relationship is forged as Hergé reflects his real-life meeting with the sculptor and artist Chang Chong-chen, who taught the author of Tintin about Eastern philosophy and who would become a life-long friend. Together they composed a book – a veritable duet – in which China is portrayed accurately and poetically.

Tintin and Snowy happen to stumble across a police investigation getting underway in Brussels: a drowned man and a gang of opium smugglers send Tintin off on new adventures that lead him to the exotic country of Morocco. The adventure is the backdrop for the first meeting between Tintin and Captain Haddock, who turns up in the little reporter's life and never looks back!

Following the kidnapping of Professor Calculus in The Seven Crystal Balls, Tintin finds himself near Lima in Peru. Accompanied by his best friends once again, the little reporter passes through Andean villages and over snow-capped mountains, dodging the dangers of the Amazonian rainforest before managing to find the Temple of the Sun. Hérgé crafted a classic and mature adventure story full of archaeological discoveries. He was passionate about travelling and exotic locations, and derived immense pleasure from helping his readers to discover great civilisations and lost worlds.

Tintin decides to go in search of Chang, who has disappeared in an aeroplane crash in Nepal. Along with his faithful friends Captain Haddock and Snowy, the heroic reporter leads a gruelling mission through the peaks of the Himalayas. This adventure was written during a period of great change in Hergé's life and career. Twenty-five years after his meeting with Chang Chong-chen, Hergé was going through a difficult period in his life and often thought of his friend. During the troubled war years he had lost all trace of Chang and was desperate to make contact with him again. Although Hergé had no luck, Tintin eventually manages, against all the odds, to find his friend. Throughout the story there are no baddies, nor are there any car chases or madcap events: the narrative is kept bare and essential. This was Hergé's favourite book, and was probably the most personal adventure for the author.