Customer Reviews

The Crab with the Golden Claws (The Adventures of Tintin)

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The adventure every re-reader of Tintin waits impatiently for, Captain Haddock's debut. We first meet him on board the merchant ship Karaboudjan, his alcoholism being fuelled by a nefarious mate, the hatchet-faced Allan, who is smuggling opium in tins of crab meat. It is curious that such a weak, defeated, decadent figure should become such a beloved, even heroic character for generations of readers - in the context of the Nazi-Occupied Europe in which the book was written, the resonance of Haddock's spiritual progress - from manipulable weakling to tortured prisoner to victim of (collaborationist?) police brutality to ferocious resistant - is easier to fathom. Besides his inability to resist bottle-sized tipples, the captain is famous for a bellicosity unleashed in an inexhaustible gust of arbitrary, all-inclusive epithets ('Rats! Ectoplasms! Freshwater swabs! Bashi-bazouks! Cannibals! Caterpillars!'); his rage often sufficient to ward off enemies. Beneath these terrifying outbursts, however, and the tendency to Thom(p)son-like imbecilities (such as the drunken kindling of a fire on a longboat), Haddock is really a kind of human Snowy, someone whose essentially good instincts are led astray by appetite, someone who needs the affection, reassurance, security and stability offered by Tintin's tolerant friendship. He is a brave man of an earlier, more chivalrous age, stranded in a modernism blighted by criminals and the counterfeit.

This marvellously funny episode begins as a mystery story, with Thompson and Thomson investigating the death by drowning of a sailor whose remains include clues that prompt Tintin to investigate the Karaboudjan. In terms of incident and visuals, 'Crab' harks back to the earlier 'Cigars Of The Pharoah' (another introductory adventure, that time the Thom(p)sons), with its drug-smuggling plot, its misadventures at sea, its awesome African sandscapes and the delight offered by Thom(p)sonian buffoonery. The depiction of French Morocco, its eternal sunlight riven with omnipresent shadows, echoes the Metaphysical/Surrealist world of de Chirico, while there are many jokes inspired once again by silent cinema, especially two 'Gold Rush'-quoting hallucinations in which a thirst-crazed Haddock imagines Tintin as a bottle of champagne.

An added bonus are four full-page plates you will be sorely tempted to rip from the page and hang on your wall - a looming airplane terrorising our capsized heroes bobbing in a Hokusai sea; a panting Tintin and Haddock trekking an endless desert, happy Snowy chomping the massive bone of a dromedary skeleton and acknowledging the 'camera'; the trio in pursuit down a crowded Moroccan alley, amazingly detailed and coloured, and seemingly on the brink of collapse; and an archway-framed composition of the Thom(p)sons shadowing a suspect in one of their hapeless attempts at blending in with the locals, bournos failing to hide their ever-distinctive black suits, bowlers and moustaches. As ever, Tintin, like Sherlock Holmes, is much more successful with disguise, and learns something about the contempt directed at the poor in certain societies.

The Crab with the Golden Claws is great because it introduces us to one of our favorite characters: Captain Haddock! A "drunken wretch," he slowly evolves into the lovable, "upper class" mansion dwelling man in the later novels.

But the plot is really awesome! Drug smuggling rings in north Africa really present Tintin with a challenge, and sometimes I would ask myself, "How will you ever get out of this one!"

Some scenes are just incredibly well-drawn, and we get several big one picture pages that demonstrate Herge's talent...

Like all the rest, its truly great....

We are first introduced to Captain Haddock in this wonderful Tintin adventure. The Captain's introduction is hysterical, smart and witty. Herge's introduction of Haddock shows us how the Captian evolves from a pathetic drunk to a respectable man when we look at him in later adventures.

Not one of the best Tintin books, but still fairly entertaining, The Crab with the Golden Claws is best known for introducing Captain Haddock. While Haddock love for whisky is a running joke in all of Tintin books, here his character is quite different from future books, as he appears as a hopeless, pathetic drunk. This book is one the "apolitical" books Herge felt convenient to write during World War II. The plot itself is a bit lightweight, dealing with Tintin's fight against some drug smugglers, both in his native Belgium and in Northern Africa. There is not a hint of a world war going on here, as there was in the future Land of Black Gold.

After six comics Captain Haddok gets intruduced. And in this adventure Tintin fights drug smuggling. This book is interesting because Herge draws so well and so presise. This is truly a book for Tintin fans of all ages.

I read this when I was little and was completely confused by the opium smuggling theme. I love Tintin, but this book is for adults and for kids who are old enough to understand opium smuggling. (Hmm. The end of that last sentence didn't exactly sound right.) Also, much of the erratic behavior that Captain Haddock exhibits as a result of his alcoholism and hallucinations from delirium tremens (he thinks Tintin is a giant bottle of champagne and tries to pop the cork by pulling off his head) was intended to be humorous. As an adult I now see the humor, but as a child I just found it upsetting. On the positive side, rereading it as an adult, I had forgotten how great Haddock's insults were ("Iconoclasts! Rats! Ectoplasms! Fresh water swabs!...") and overall what a wonderful book this is.

We have been reading the TinTin books to my grandson since he was three (he is now five). He loves them. I do believe we have almost all of them. Amazon's prices on new paperbacks are better than Powell's.

In the ninth episode of the adventures of Tintin and Snowy, the duo get their snouts into an opium drug smuggling operation, which extends its claws all the way from Western Europe to Africa. Tintin is whisked away to Morocco where en route the Belgian reporter meets the hapless drunkard Captain Haddock whom he befriends.

Adventure ensues as the three are forced to jump overboard and a chase begins through the sea, desert and a Moroccan port city. The full-page illustration on page 21 is exemplary and representative of both the action-packed pace of the book and the expressive drawings of Herge who once again impresses with his beautiful work. It is as if captions and words are not even necessary. The drawings say it all. Nevertheless, the story is loads of fun and even Haddock's foolishness cannot deter us from wanting to flip page after page to find out what will happen next. Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock are joined by the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson - the two had introduced the case to Tintin in the first place - who end up abetting/hindering the investigative work.

Snowy is adorable both in his mischief and in his indispensable aid and rescue of the humans. Tintin just could not do without the affable terrier. The scene with the dog drunk from wine is classic. His quest for boney nourishment a constant delight.

The Crab With The Golden Claws is typical Tintin. It is fun, intricate, beautifully drawn and a gateway into a world both of fantasy and a real place far away.

Although not one of the best Tintin adventures, The Crab with the Golden Claws is at least notable for being the first to feature Captain Haddock. Haddock's fondness for whisky is his most immediately apparent characteristic and one that would be consistent throughout later adventures, but here on their first meeting, the Captain's alcohol dependency presents a very sad case indeed.

The Captain is in such a bad state here that the running of his ship The Karaboudjan has been taken over by First Mate Allan, leaving him to nurse a bottle in his cabin while the crew carry on their opium smuggling operation. He cuts such a pathetic figure that he is of no help to Tintin, held captive himself aboard the ship while investigating their haul of mysterious crab meat tins, and is in fact in such a dangerously aggressive and drunken state, prone to hallucinations, that he actively works against Tintin as they try to escape across the Saharan desert in Morocco. It's a long journey to redemption and drying-out for the Captain to become the loveable figure and hurler of inventive terms of abuse that we are more familiar with from later adventures.

Written and first published in 1940-41, in occupied Belgium, Hergé having been forced to temporarily abandon his serialisation of Land of Black Gold, moving from the now defunct Petit Vingtième to the funny pages of collaborationist newspaper Le Soir, The Crab with the Golden Claws perhaps suffers as a consequence. Hergé is careful not to make any overt political references and the story is not the most exciting or the best-drawn Tintin adventure - although there are a few beautiful full-size splash pages here that I don't think occur in any other Tintin book and the rendering of the desert and sea scenes is marvellous.

All my children enjoy the Tin Tin books, even the ones who can't yet read. The drawings and type are large enough to read--no squinting, straining eyes or guessing what's going on. I'm very pleased with the books I purchased and will probably buy more Tin Tin books in the future.