Hergé: The Adventures of Tintin. crab with golden claws

Life throws Tintin a new puzzle. This time, his attention is drawn to an empty tin can and a piece of label with the word “Karabudzhan” scrawled on it somehow. Soon our hero finds out that this is the name of a dry cargo ship that is preparing to sail. Intrigued, Tintin boards the ship and ... finds himself in the hold, bound hand and foot. Fortunately, Milu manages to gnaw through the ropes. Freedom! Examining a ship sailing in an unknown direction, Tintin stumbles upon crates of canned crab. But something else is much more curious: Milu fished out exactly the same jar from the urn at the very beginning of the story! Tintin decides that it's time to eat: a moment more and it will become clear what secret the yellow label with the big red crab hides...

The Adventures of Tintin is a world-famous comic book series by the Belgian artist Georges Remy, who worked under the pseudonym Hergé. Risking his life, the brave reporter Tintin investigates mysterious incidents, but emerges victorious from all troubles. And no matter what happens next to him is always his faithful friend - the snow-white fox terrier Milu.

Hergé's ninth comic book, The Golden Claw Crab, created in 1941, was a turning point for both the series and its author. Firstly, the magazine versions of The Adventures of Tintin began to be published not in the children's supplement to the newspaper XX Century, which was closed due to the war, but in the main Belgian newspaper Le Soir, first in the weekly youth supplement Soir - Jeunesse, and then in main edition. Secondly, "Crab" was the last volume, the first version of which was released in black and white (then there was only color, right away). Thirdly, it was in the process of working on this album that the publisher Casterman decided to reduce all albums to the standard size: 62 comic strips (64 printed pages). Curiously, the decision was dictated by no means by artistic intent, but by an acute shortage and high cost of paper. The publisher wanted to lower the price of the album, making it more accessible to the general public (black and white versions of the albums included 100+ pages). This decision forced Hergé to seriously rework all previous stories, fitting them into a new format. Fourthly, the incredible success of the Crab album edition convinced everyone - both readers, and the publisher, and the author - that the future of BD (from the French bande dessinée) is not in magazine publications, but in albums. And finally, fifthly - and most importantly! Captain Haddock appeared in the episode.

Author: Erzhe

Translation: Mikhail Khachaturov

Pages: 64 (offset). Hard cover

Dimensions: 217x290 mm