Superb 277

Mythical, this album certainly is: The Crab At D'Or Tongs, ninth Tintin, is not only the first album to have been adapted to the screen (an animated film rag dolls, mostly unknown, in 1947) but it is also and above all, the album that revealed the famous Captain Haddock in the series, and it will never leave therefore any more. The album dates from 1941 in its version black & white, and 1,944 in its final colorized version is the first album of Tintin done (for the first version) in the 40's last album to have uine difference number of pages between B & W (105 pages) and color (62). Given the occupation of Belgium (and part of Europe) by Nazi Germany in view of the war, the subject matter is neutral: the opium trade in the Maghreb.

This album has a remarkable drawing Hergé believed to be one of the best sesdeux (which is the other, I do not know): page 38, second box, we see four Berabers (barbarians) in four different positions, but follows: lying kneeling, hesitating to escape and fleeing. All this can be read as one of those small films to scroll drawings, but one only. See above for the famous drawing. Otherwise, The Crab Pliers For D'Or, which was to be called Basic Red Crab (to make a link colors with the colors in the titles The Blue Lotus and The Black Island) but Hergé went about it too late for the title, this album, then, is more a success for the series. Mythical, with the first appearance of Captain Haddock, with, too, crossing the desert, rich in highlights (mirage, delusions of Haddock) and beautiful drawings, again. An album as grand as worship!