Customer Reviews

The Red Sea Sharks (The Adventures of Tintin)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
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Tintin is one of the most famous comic book characters in the world. Unfortunately he is not as well known in the U.S. Hopefully I can help change that. The Tintin albums were created by the Belgian comics writer and artist Georges Prosper Remi under the pen name Hergé. His first Tintin album "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" appeared in the pages of Le Petit Vingtième on January 10, 1929 and his last completed album was "Tintin and the Picaros" in 1975/1976. The Tintin albums are primarily for children but they are written so that adults also greatly enjoy them.

Tintin is a Belgian investigative journalist who gets drawn into all kinds of dangerous and eventful adventures around the world. Already in the very first album "Tintin in the Soviets" he is aided by his talking dog, a fox terrier called Snowy. In Swedish and in French Snowy is called Milou. In "The Crab with the Golden Claws" he meets the grumpy but hilarious Captain Haddock. A lot of the best comic situations arise from Captain Haddock's bad temper in combination with his bad luck and above all his creative use of words. As a sailor Captain Haddock is expected to swear a lot but all swear words have been replaced by expressions like "billions of blue blistering barnacles", "you Mameluke", "Macrocepahlic Baboon", "odd-toed ungulate", "and troglodyte "," Pithecantrophus", but never real swear words. Another source of many comic situations is the genial but hearing-impaired Professor Cuthbert Calculus (Kalkyl in Swedish, Tournesol in French). Other prominent supporting characters are the incompetent twin detectives Thomson and Thompson (Dupond and Dupont), and the constantly joking and laughing but irritating insurance salesman Jolyon Wagg.

In this album from 1958 Tintin and Captain Haddock unexpectedly meets an old friend of Tintin, the former dictator from South America, General Alcazar. It turns out that General Alcazar is trying to purchase weapons from a shady arms dealer who is also illegally selling arms to two fighting parties in the Middle East. The son of the emir Ben Khalish Ezab (one of the fighting parties) the rambunctious Abdullah is staying with Captain Haddock (and Tintin) and is playing all kinds of tricks on everyone. To get away from this Arab Dennis the Menace and all his pranks they go see the emir himself and end up getting deeply involved in an incredible adventure. They also stumble upon an organization that is selling African slaves (slavery still existed in the Middle East and Africa in 1958). A lot of old crooks and friends from other books show up here, including Captain Allan, Rastapopolous, and the lovely but highly irritating Prima Donna and opera singer Bianca Castafiore.

This album is fast paced, action packed and very exciting and quiet interesting. It is difficult to put the book down even for an adult. The humor is superb and there are laugh out loud moments on almost every page.

It is my experience that American kids will love the Tintin albums once they have been acquainted with them (an album is a hardback comic book with the pictures in series). My kids love them and their friends love them as well. As a child, I read all of the Tintin books in Swedish, and as an adult living in the U.S., I am reading them again to my children, but this time in English. This book is intensely exciting and full of action and therefore it is one of my favorites, and one of my children's favorite. I highly recommend this Tintin album to young and old.

After a strange encounter with General Alcazar of San Theodoros, and then getting home to see that Emir Ben Kalish Ezab, has sent his thoroughly obnoxious son, Prince Abdullah, to stay at Marlinspike, the Emir is deposed by the evil Revolutionary thug, Sheik Bab El Er.
Tintin and the Captain fly to Khemed, to try to get to the bottom of an illegal arms buying racket and if they can, to help their friend, the Emir.
There they take a boat to Mecca , where they must battle several enemies , in a high adventure on the Red Sea. Before the adventure is through , they will break a slave smuggling ring and ensure the defeat of several villains.
The issue of slave trade by Arabs , of Africans , was not only still going on when this book was written in 1958 , but is still endemic today , in places such as the Sudan.
These adventures are always full, of life and colour.

I love this book, it reminds me of going to sea with friends, a beautiful sea adventure. Since I read it, I just loved the artwork of Herge, he really did a great job of bringing the characters and scenery to life!

If you once looked at the water you'll see it really blue and there's waves crashing on shore, just like a real sea! Also, the characters drawn are humanlike.

Enough with the praise on artwork, let's head on to the comical features. I really loved Captain Haddock when he started dancing on the raft like a maniac, happy when he saw and felt that he's saved! He danced until the raft broke under him!

Simply, one of the most brilliantly created Tintin stories. This would delight children AND adults like me as well, for years to come!

The writing too is also in good english and I feel that Leslie Londsale Cooper and her companion translated it so well!

I simply give this 5 stars because it is an excellent book and would be one of my personal favourites of all time!

My two grandson's, ages 7 & 9, simply adore Tin Tin. It's rewarding to know that they have books they can read over and over and never tire of them. This was the last book they needed to finish their collection, and they were extremely pleased that "Santa" brought it this year.

This Tintin has many recurring places and characters, including Dawson, who has not been featured since The Blue Lotus. Full of adventure, plot, and humor, this is a must-read for all Tintin fans. Thompson and Thomson fulfill their roles as comic relief brilliantly in this one.

This is Herge in the 1950s, his art having reached a fully mature style. There's just something so open and exciting about this book -- the exotic locale, the breathless adventure and palpable danger, the complex political scenario. First-rate stuff, marred, alas, by a patronizing portrayal of black Muslims being sold into slavery. It's racist, but at any rate considerably less so than "Tintin in the Congo."

Belgian artist Herge wrote many adventures for his cartoon hero Tintin, a young journalist, of which "The Red Sea Sharks" may be one of the most thrilling. This story, originally published in 1958, includes Tintin's faithful dog Snowy, his seafaring friend Captain Haddock, and a variety of recurring characters from earlier adventures.

As the story opens, Captain Haddock and Tintin have a chance encounter with General Alcazar, once dictator of San Theodoros. The General leaves behind his wallet; in attempting to return it, Tintin becomes aware of a gun-running operation. At the same time, Captain Haddock's Marlinspike Mansion becomes a place of refuge for Abdullah, the impish son of Emir Ezab, deposed by a coup in the Arabian Emirate of Khemed. The threats of two mysteries seem to come together in Khemed, so Tintin and the Captain hit the road.

"The Red Sea Sharks" features one thrilling sequence after another, as Tintin and Captain Haddock face an aircraft fire, pursuit by rebel forces across the desert, and an aborted escape by dhow across the Red Sea. Along the way, the two will fall afoul of perpetual series villain Rastapopoulos. In a thrilling climax, Tintin and Captain Haddock end up in charge of an unarmed freighter filled with human cargo, facing a rogue submarine out to sink them all.

"The Red Sea Sharks" features Herge's simple but powerful artwork and a well-constructed storyline that seems remarkably fresh despite a considerable passage of time. This adventure is very highly recommended to Tintin fans of all ages.

This may not be the very best of Tintin books, but is among his most enjoyable. The plot deals with Tintin stumbling by accident into an organization dedicated to sell african slaves. The action starts in Tintin's native Belgium, but it soon moves to (fictional countries) in the Middle East. One of the peculiar features of this book is that almost all the villains of Tintin's previous books appear in cameo roles here (such as Dawson, Tintin's long forgotten nemesis in The Blue Lotus). Rastapopoulos also appear (though you know that only in the final pages), as well as Alcazar, Allan, Abdallah, his father the emir of Khemed, Doctor Muller of The Black Island, etc. Sharks also shows the first appearance of Estonian pilot Szut (also called Skut or Pst in some editions), who would later appear in a major role in Flight 714. Some of the portrayals of the african slaves could be considered racist today, but I hope most readers will understand this was written in a very different time (the book is almost 50 years old).

This installment in the series was superb. Political intrigue combined with a strong sense of uncertainty and action make it a very enjoyable read for adults and children. Herge leaves behind much of the miraculous coincidence that populates some of his other books and instead drafts a believable and complex (for Tintin) story that holds reader interest,

This my favourite Tintin book its funny because Abdullah does his tricks. They even go in a boat and to a ship. The muslims don't go to their pilgramige or their slaves !! Tintin in Tibet is my second favorite.