TAC - 11 - The Seven Crystal Balls

The Seven Crystal Balls

So we've had detective stories, races against time, treasure hunts, and just general, boisterous romps-- but now Tintin finds himself in the middle of a somewhat unnerving countdown, as, one by one, seven explorers are struck down by a mysterious illness...or is it really an illness?

Once again, we have another two-part story, and Crystal Balls is an excellent first half. We know straight off that something bad is going to happen, thanks to the random stranger on the train next to Tintin ("This will lead to trouble... You see if it doesn't!"), and when things get bad, they get spooky-bad. Between Madame Yamilah's visions, the harried warnings to "stay away from the windows!", the ominous storm, the lightning strike at Tarragon's house, the chilling shared nightmare, the kidnapping of Calculus, and the simultaneous fits experienced by the explorers, this is some really grim stuff. And I love it. What a tone it sets!

Things settle down a bit during the search for Calculus in the final pages of the book, but it's great to see Haddock's return to form, as he's been desperate to act out of character for most of the story thus far (and failing, of course). He is naturally quite funny throughout the album (the cow head incident, anyone?), and the Thom(p)sons get an amusing scene whilst "guarding" the museum director. Crystal Balls, however, is less about the humour and more about the eerie atmosphere.

I could say more, but it would probably start to get redundant, so let me close off by saying that I actually may prefer this two-parter to the Unicorn/Rackham one-- thanks to a certain musical that I discovered back in high school. I'll touch more on Le Temple du Soleil tomorrow.

BTW, it's extremely hard to do this sort of line art without a Cintiq! I had to cheat a little on this one, but it's still not traced (just used VERY specific guidelines for the character positions, which were otherwise impossible to judge using my regular tablet). I do love this panel, though...hard to draw, but satisfyingly trippy.


_{"Calculus! CALCULUS!" "It's no good shouting for him!"}

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The Adventures of Tintin is © HERGE/MOULINSART S.A. estate; I will not be personally profiting from ANY of this art