Tintin Volume XI

Just a little history if you wish ... When the adventure begins to look into little strips daily Le Soir June 11, 1942, Hergé always trying to move away from the events of the time as he did for The Shooting Star. Both albums are in the category of pure escape literature. With The Secret of the Unicorn and The Treasure of Rackham Le Rouge, Hergé tackles an old classic: the treasure hunt. Before you go treasure hunting, there is a period often overlooked by the authors, is the preparation of the trip. Hergé will devote the entire album Secret of the Unicorn and part of the treasure of Rackham Le Rouge at that time.

In the first album, Hergé gets to mingle several parallel stories but who meet in the end. There is research by Tintin different models of the Unicorn and its fight against Ivan Sakharine and especially the Bird Brothers. There is also the Thompsons of survey flights portfolios (it may be noted that the Thompsons arrive still moving forward in this investigation with assistance from Tintin less than usual). Finally, there is the history of Hadoque Knight told by Haddock. The captain is also the only character in the series to have ancestors mentioned.

The Flying Knight of Hadocque, La Licorne, does not seem to have been fully imagined. In fact, Hergé is much documented before designing the ship. This ship is actually a synthesis of all documents that the author had gathered, but it looks like the skeleton of this creation is The Shining, built in 1960 in Le Havre. The second album, The Treasure of Rackham Le Rouge is especially marked by the Sunflower entry in the series. Whenever he wants to accompany Tintin and Haddock, he faces a permanent refusal. But his deafness does not allow him to understand that it is undesirable. He was finally forced to slip clandestinely Sirius (That the first time we discover in The Shooting Star but it's not this boat that is used by shipping the FERS). At first glance, Sunflower is not intended to remain with Tintin. But it will bring a fairly substantial assistance to the heroes of the series with its underwater and above although it is not clear, by buying the castle of Moulinsart.

Moulinsart is also a new element in the series. Haddock of the historic mansion will make changes in the series. Characters will have therefore a fixed place to live quietly outside their adventures. Moulinsart to look like a place to live and rest. It owes its name to a small Belgian town: Sartmoulin. For the architecture of the castle, Hergé was inspired by Cheverny. But to make it more habitable castle Moulinsart Cheverny is without its two wings. In 2001 the castle Chevergny an exhibition devoted to the protagonists of Moulinsart.