The Adventures of Tintin: The Shooting Star

I recently went to the Herge and Tintin exhibition at the Shanghai Power Station of Art. I bought a couple of books at their gift shop. This is the first of those.

Title: The Adventures of Tintin: The Shooting Star
Date: 2009
Publisher: Egmont (Official Tintin site is here)
Writer:Herge
Artist: Herge

When a giant meteor approaches the Earth, Tintin thinks that the world may be doomed, and a crazy prophet is blaming him for the impending cataclysm. But when the doomsday turns out to be a false alarm, Tintin joins an expedition to seek out a fragment of the meteor that did strike the Earth, landing in the Arctic and carrying an newly-discovered element.

Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock, and a crew of eccentric scientists (and thankfully, one actually-competent seaplane pilot) find themselves in a race with a powerful corporation determined to make a profit off of the new element, and willing to resort to sabotage to achieve their goals.

This was a really fun adventure, loaded with Herge's normal array of twists and turns, on every page. I'm always impressed by how rapidly Herge can introduce new problems, perils, and twists.

With the limited cast, this story doesn't get into some of the issues with stereotypes that I've encountered in other Tintin volumes. The characters are quirky, sometimes to the extreme, and a few of the jokes around Captain Haddock's relationship with whiskey are a bit heavyhanded, but there are some good witty bits as well. The dieselpunk feel of the story provides some fun flavoring, and Herge's artwork makes great use of the small-panel layouts.

Rating: 8/10