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The Seven Crystal Balls
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The Seven Crystal Balls is the thirteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero.
It was first published in the Le Soir newspaper from December 1943 to September 1944 but was postponed three-quarters of the way through when, following the liberation of Belgium at the end of World War II, Hergé and other members of the Le Soir were investigated for working for a collaborationist newspaper.
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Encyclopedia
The Seven Crystal Balls is the thirteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero.
It was first published in the Le Soir newspaper from December 1943 to September 1944 but was postponed three-quarters of the way through when, following the liberation of Belgium at the end of World War II, Hergé and other members of the Le Soir were investigated for working for a collaborationist newspaper. The story was resumed in Prisoners of the Sun in the newly-launched Tintin magazine in 1946.
Synopsis
A mysterious illness is afflicting members of an archaeological expedition recently returned from the Andes, where they had unearthed the tomb of the Inca, Rascar Capac.
5 days earlier:
One by one, the expedition members fall into a mysterious coma. The only clue is shards of crystal found near each victim, which are fragments of shattered crystal balls. Concerned, Tintin, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus go to stay with Calculus's old friend, and expedition member, the ebullient Professor Tarragon, who is keeping Rascar Capac's mummy in his house. But the mummy soon disappears when a lightning storm sends a ball of fire down the chimney, and, after each being visited in their nightmares by the mummy, the three wake to find Tarragon comatose, with the telltale shards of crystal by his bed.
Tarragon later wakes up but screams about mysterious figures attacking him. Tintin later visits a hospital where all the other stricken explorers go through the same horrors at a precise time of day.
The plot thickens even further, however, when Calculus, taking a stroll around Professor Tarragon's house, discovers a striking gold bracelet, puts it on (remarking on how nicely it goes with his coat), and then mysteriously disappears. The bracelet had previously been worn by the now-vanished mummy.
While looking for Calculus, Tintin and the Captain are fired upon by an unseen gunman who escapes in a black car, having kidnapped Calculus. The alarm is raised and the police set up road blocks, but the kidnappers switch cars and slip through the net.
Tintin and Haddock pursue the abductors to La Rochelle, where they discover that Calculus is on board a ship called the Pachacamac, which is bound for Peru, and resolve to meet his ship there.
The story is continued in Prisoners of the Sun.
Background
The Seven Crystal Balls was written during World War II. With Belgium under German occupation, Hergé decided to avoid the overt political content that he had included in previous Tintin stories, such as The Blue Lotus, The Broken Ear and King Ottokar's Sceptre.
As the opening sequence of the book indicates, The Seven Crystal Balls and its theme of an ancient curse, was inspired by the Curse of the Pharaohs, the speculation that members of the Howard Carter expedition, discoverers of the tomb of Tutankhamun, died in tragic and mysterious ways due to a curse.
Publication history
The original serial version began regular publication in the Belgian newspaper Le Soir on December 16, 1943. It was suspended on September 3, 1944, following the liberation of Brussels, when Hergé and many of his colleagues had to answer for working for the collaborationist newspaper.
The strip ended with Tintin leaving the hospital after witnessing the mass panic attack of the explorers. He then walks through the street reading a newspaper when he collides with General Alcazar. Alcazar tells him about the disappearance of his assistant Chiquito and how Chiquito is in fact a descendant of the Incas.
Publication resumed in the newly-launched Tintin Magazine in 1946, under the title Le Temple du Soleil (named Prisoners of the Sun in English). It begins with Tintin on his way to Marlinspike where Haddock is in a state of depression over Calculus' disappearance. This and his sudden leap into action is said to be reflecting Hergé's mood at the time: his uncertain future due to the accusations of collaboration and the subsequent offer to help launch Tintin Magazine. (The scene with Alcazar would be re-located to a city port with the General about to set off to South America himself).
Connections with other Tintin books
Tintin telephones Professor Paul Cantonneau to warn him about the danger only for Cantonneau to fall victim to a crystal ball at that very moment. He and Tintin had known each other in the course of the expedition to find the meteorite in The Shooting Star: Cantonneau had been on the receiving end of Tintin's suitcase, thrown down from the crow's nest by Philippulus the "prophet".
The nightmare of a South American native stalking a Westerner in his bedroom had been used before by Hergé in the original black-and-white publication of The Broken Ear (though it is not included in the present edition most commonly available today).
General Alcazar of The Broken Ear and Bianca Castafiore of King Ottokar's Sceptre also appear in the music-hall scenes. They were to guest-star in other adventures, including Tintin and the Picaros in which they both appear.
Spinoffs
A video game has been released based on this book and Prisoners of the Sun.
External links
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