The Shooting Star

Tintin #10

by Hergé

Hergé’s classic comic book creation Tintin is one of the most iconic characters in children’s books. These highly collectible editions of the original 24 adventures will delight Tintin fans old and new. Perfect for lovers of graphic novels, mysteries and historical adventures.
The world’s most famous travelling reporter voyages to the Arctic Ocean in search of the meteorite that has crash-landed in the north. A huge fireball comes hurtling towards Earth from space!
Tintin sets sail with Captain Haddock to find the meteorite in the stormy Arctic Ocean, but a valuable metal is contained in the meteorite and Tintin’s attempts to reach it are met with relentless sabotage!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Bande Dessinée, Adventure, Fiction, Childrens, Comic Book

62 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Georges Prosper Remi (22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist.
His best known and most substantial work is The Adventures of Tintin comic book series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, leaving the twenty-fourth Tintin adventure Tintin and Alph-Art unfinished. His work remains a strong influence on comics, particularly in Europe.

"Hergé" is the pseudonym of George Remí, making a game with the initials of his name inverted. Throughout the evolution of his star character, Tintin, we can see the progress of this author: from the first titles marked by the ultraconservative doctrine of the director of the newspaper Le Petit Vingtième, to the breaking of conventions embodied from The Blue Lotus , as well as the evolution of the society of his time. The research carried out by Hergé to historically contextualize his Adventures, as well as his implicit social criticism, have made Tintin a masterpiece of the 20th century.

Series on Goodreads:
* The Adventures of Tintin
* Quick & Flupke
* The adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko

Reviews

[Dream.M · Rating 4 out of 5]

تن‌تن و ستاره‌ اسرارآمیز یکی از دیوانه‌‌وارترین و سوررئال‌ترین ماجراهای تن‌تنه و شاید بشه گفت تنها کتاب سای‌فای تن‌تن!
همه‌چیز با سقوط یک شهاب‌سنگ شروع می‌شه و تن‌تن باید خودش رو آماده کنه برای رویارویی با موجودات عجیب و غریب، قارچ‌ها و عنکبوت‌های غول‌آسا، و این وسط رقابتی نفس‌گیر بین دانشمندان و سرمایه‌دارها و اروپا و آمریکا آغاز میشه.
داستان این جلد مثل یک کابوس علمی-تخیلی عه؛ نظم دنیا بهم ریخته، قوانین طبیعت دیگه کار نمیکنن و طبق معمول فقط تن‌تن می‌تونه حقیقت پشت این شهاب‌سنگ اسرارآمیز رو کشف کنه.
این جلد ترکیبیه از ماجراجویی، علم، وحشت و یک سفر سوررئال به دنیایی که هم واقعی به‌نظر میاد و هم شبیه یک کابوسه.
برخلاف جلدهای قبلی که داستان بیشتر پلیسی و ماجراجویی بود، این جلد بیشتر علمی‌تخیلی عه و فضای لاوکرفتی خیلی جذابی داره.
شاید جالب باشه بدونید خیلی از بچه های دهه ۴۰ و ۵۰ بعد از خوندن این جلد از تن‌تن دچار کابوس‌های شبانه‌ و وحشت از شهاب‌سنگ شده بودن :)

[Luís · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this Tintin adventure in which the threat of the end of the world is introduced in the album by setting the appropriate science fiction tone. Already, one more star in the Big Dipper is not trivial, and the scene of the tar melting to the point of sticking to the shoes completes this stifling nocturnal atmosphere.
And then, the sea, the boat (the Aurora), in search of the asteroid, Tintin, prey to explosive mushrooms and the spider, which becomes gigantic, like all this story that I appreciated as a child and remains timeless.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure if it’s because of the atmosphere aboard the ship, or just the general colour palette of this book… Either way, it has never been my favourite. That, however, doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot to explore within its pages.



Whoever picked the design for the final cover was a genius, because it paints a picture of mystery and magical oddity, something that you would expect from Roald Dahl. This is certainly not the case for The Shooting Star. Instead, it’s an “adventure” that is part political sabotage and part race to the treasure. This was, as Michael Farr mentions, the first Tintin book to be made directly in the new colour format. The glum mood in the story may also be a direct result of the fact that the story was being written during WWII.

It’s interesting to note that Hergé was doing some interesting work with the blending of dreams and reality. Quoting Farr (as always, in these reviews): “Merging dreams with reality, Hergé was stretching the boundaries of the strip cartoon much as a film director like Alfred Hitchcock was doing in the cinema. As already seen, Hergé was fascinated by cinema, well aware of the latest developments. He was a known admirer of Hitchcock whose thrillers with their psychological emphasis have similarities at least in approach, if not technique, with the Tintin adventures.”

The story struggles a bit, as there is only so much to be done when on board a ship that is going out to find a meteorite in the middle of the ocean. Hergé had to tinker with the formatting of the panels quite a bit, sometimes adding filler pictures and sometimes stretching whole panels out to make up the page count.

“As a result of the tinkering necessary for the book adaptation, the flow of the narrative is less accomplished than in other adventures; there are spurts and rushes followed by slower passages, upsetting the rhythm and pace.”

There is one gag, however, which makes me laugh almost every time. The Society of Sober Sailors is honoring their president, Captain Haddock, and sending him off as the leader of the expedition. As the speech is taking place, in comes the ship’s most prized cargo.



And with that, we have broken into absolute gold Tintin territory. From here on out until the passing of Hergé, we have banger after banger after banger. I cannot wait.

[Wulf Krueger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich muss gestehen, dass "Der geheimnisvolle Stern" für mich einer der langweiligeren Bände in Hergés Tim-und-Struppi-Reihe ist. Die Geschichte beginnt mit Tims Entdeckung eines neuen, bedrohlichen Sterns, der scheinbar die Zerstörung der Erde bedeutet. Diese Katastrophe bleibt jedoch aus, und das drohende Unheil reduziert sich auf ein großes Bruchstück, das ins Polarmeer stürzt.

Hergé versucht, mit einem Wettrennen zwischen einer von einer Bank finanzierten Expedition und Tim, der für die Europäische Forschungsgemeinschaft antritt, die Spannung aufrechtzuerhalten.



Leider bleibt die Handlung relativ flach und repetitiv. Der Lichtblick des Bandes ist jedoch der erste Auftritt des grundsätzlich (hier allerdings weniger) unterhaltsamen Kapitän Haddocks, der in zukünftigen Abenteuern eine wichtige Rolle spielen wird.



Auch für diesen Band ist es wichtig, die historischen Hintergründe zu kennen: Das Album erschien 1942 nach bereits zweijähriger Besetzung Belgiens durch Nazi-Deutschland. Hergé blieb davon nicht unbeeinflusst: Im Original heißt der dort amerikanische Bankier “Blumenstein” und ist unverkennbar antisemitisch dargestellt. In späteren Ausgaben wurde daraus "Bohlwinkel" aus dem fiktiven "Sao Rico" - die Darstellung blieb unverändert...



Alles in allem: Ein unterdurchschnittlicher Band, der aber zumindest mit einigen netten Ideen (z. B. explodierende Riesenpilze) aufwarten kann. Sollte der Verlag jemals eine Neuauflage in Betracht ziehen, würde ich mir ein erklärendes Vorwort wünschen, um jüngeren Lesern die nötige historische Einbettung zu geben.

Drei von fünf Sternen - trotz besonderer Sympathien mit Struppi...




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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam

[Forrest · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first Tintin adventure. I've seen the movie, been regaled with images of Tintin (the best of which are these Tintin meets Lovecraftian monsters mash-ups, and heard praise heaped upon Herge's head as a pioneer of the comic art. I'm not disappointed, but I'm not wowed either. Herge is no Winsor McCay, but his influence can be seen in Jean Giraud's work, which means that Herge was, at a minimum, influential on today's comic arts.

The Shooting Star is a strange mix: Surreal science fiction which, at the time, must have seemed outrageous, all built on a skeletal plot that is overly predictable and must have been hackneyed, even at the time it was first published. That's not to say that the book is not likeable, I liked it quite a bit, but the tissue-thin plot left me wanting even more strangeness than Herge provided. I'm not one to shy away from reading or writing plotless narrative, so long as there's enough excellent characterization, clever turns of phrase, beautiful sentences, or bizarre devices to keep my attention. I kept hoping for this while reading The Shooting Star, but it came up just a little short of my hopes. Still, a worthwhile read.

In the meantime, I'm waiting for someone to do more than mere covers of Tintin/Cthulhu matchups. Someone should do a kickstarter and do the whole thing as a series of graphic (and I do mean graphic) novels. I'd be first in line to buy in!

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before I read the final book in Charles Burns’ X’Ed Out Trilogy, I wanted to re-read Herge’s Tintin book, The Shooting Star, besides Burns’ first two books, to see if it would add anything to the overall experience. Having just finished The Shooting Star and from what I remember of Burns’ comics, there’s unfortunately no major connection besides the visual. It also turns out this Tintin book is pretty awful too - (not so) shockingly, my pre-teen self was wrong about this one (even though I didn’t remember a thing about it besides the cover)!

A piece of a giant meteorite, the size of a small island, crash-lands in the Arctic Ocean with no environmental impact besides making the water around its immediate vicinity boiling hot. Nobody on Earth besides two organisations - a good one and a bad one - are interested in this event and, with Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock leading the good guys’ ship, they race each other to the crash site to claim any potential cosmic treasures laying around.

For 50 pages of this 62-page book, it’s a very unremarkable adventure tale. As is his wont, Tintin stumbles across some scientists who instantly include him in their work and expedition, along with his talking dog and alcoholic sea captain (who should really be in jail, rather than appointed head of an expedition!).

The bad guys attempt some laughable Whacky Races-type schtick to throw Tintin and co. off, like lighting a giant stick of dynamite and leaving it in the open for anyone to spot. There’s the usual slapstick from Snowy and Haddock (yup, whiskey and loquacious insults again), and everything once more falls to our bizarrely-looking plucky journalist hero to save the day.

The only really interesting part of the book happens in the last dozen pages on the meteorite/island where Tintin and Snowy encounter what looks to be an egg which grows rapidly into an exploding mushroom. Some more surreal scenes follow before the book ends unsatisfactorily and much too conveniently with none of the questions surrounding the events on the meteorite answered.

Looking at this alongside Burns’ X’Ed Out books (at least the first two), I suppose the surreality is something he would riff on in his books, along with some of the visuals, but there’s not much here to connect the two. Maybe Burns’ comics will look into where the meteorite/alien eggs came from?

The Shooting Star is a generic Tintin adventure tale offering little originality besides some interesting space oddity at the end. But it’s a kid’s book that younger readers will probably find enjoyable enough so I can’t come down too harshly on the many poorly written, overly simplistic scenes that bored me as an adult.

Anyway, I’m sure there are some great Tintin books out there that’ll captivate readers of all-ages but, not having read any recently, I can only say that The Shooting Star definitely isn’t one of them.

[Ehsan'Shokraie' · Rating 4 out of 5]

سفری برای کشف رخدادی که میتوانست پایان جهان باشد:)

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the 1930's, another great Tintin adventure begins in Brussels
Tintin notices that there is an extra star in the Great Bear constellation, that keeps growing bigger. He heads to the Space Observatory where he makes acquaintance with Professor Phostle and also encounters a madman who calls himself Philippulus the prophet. Phostle's prediction of the destruction of the world being imminent turns out to be off the mark, but Tintin joins important expedition to Greenland, to find the new mineral on the asteroid that has crashed into the ocean there, headed by Phostle and under the auspices of the European Foundation for Scientific Research.
A rival expedition financed by Sao Rico businessman Bohlwinkel does all it can to sabotage Tintin and friends, as the good ship Aurora heads out north.
A surreal dreamlike Tintin album with, as usual, lots of exciting colourful detail. Exciting and a lot of fun.
The episode of the anti-semitic stereotype of the international banker Bohlwinkel, Herge insisted was a genuine error with no malicious intent.

[Yousra · Rating 3 out of 5]

الترجمة فُلة شمعة منورة 😀😀

[Esdaile · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think The Shooting Star was the third Tintin book which I read so I must have been about eight years old. Bruno Frappat wrote of Hergé in Le Monde in 1983, the year of his death “I don't know if I ever met a greater genius” and referred to his “perpetual quest for an impossible purity.” The Shooting Star is arguably one of Hergé's finest achievements. The adventure centres around a meteorite which has plunged into arctic waters. The idea of a threat from a shooting star which might bring about the end of the world has received impetus from the widespread belief that the great extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by a 125 mile wide meteorite landing in present day Mexico 66 million years ago. In addition to that the great increase in observation of space and the sophistication of techniques for observing space has increased awareness of the omnipresence of shooting stars. The end of the world atmosphere is strong at the beginning of this book, where a sense of the end of days is mixed in with the fantasy of dreams.

The meteorite causes no harm after all but lands in the Arctic Ocean. One charmingly eccentric Professor Phostle ("tell me young man, do you like bullseyes?") has identified a new metal in the meteorite and the remaining story is a tale of adventure as two ships race to the Arctic. The first to land a person on the island which the meteoroid in the Arctic ocean has become, will claim the metal. (It is doubtful that this accords with international law but the adventures of Tintin are not concerned with the niceties of international law). Tintin, Professor Phostle and Captain Haddock are in one ship. The rival ship is he property of Mr Bohlwinkel “a powerful Sao Rico financier” and he will stop at nothing to prevent Professor Phostle from claiming the meteorite. The new metal has strange other worldly qualities. It increases the size of living organisms (but not, illogically, of Tintin or Snowy) and a small spider morphs into a monster. So the end of the story with its monstrous spider recalls the early scene where Tintin mistakes a small spider for a monster spider as it crawls over the lens of Professor Phostle's telescope.

A first class children's book a nod at the panic of humans facing “the end of days”, an understanding of the machinations of big money, a superb adventure story, a science fiction fantasy, a humorous depiction of human foibles and weaknesses: The shooting Star is a masterpiece.

[Elessar · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

¡Qué portada! Es difícil no sentirse atraído por la colorida seta que en ella aparece, la auténtica protagonista de la imagen. Sin embargo, ésta no se deja ver hasta los momentos finales del cómic. Es aquí, en las últimas páginas de la historia, cuando más interesante se torna la trama. La caída de un meteorito —o aerolito, como se tradujo en el cómic—lleva a Tintín al Océano Ártico en su busca.
La estrella misteriosa no es de las historias más queridas por el público aficionado al mítico personaje de Hergé, pero visualmente a mí me ha parecido muy bella. Las escenas de las exploraciones de Tintín a bordo del hidroavión son preciosas, así como las que tienen lugar sobre el pedrusco procedente del espacio. Además, he notado una mejoría en la definición de la trama que estoy convencido que empezará a ser la regla predominante para el resto de álbumes. La confrontación entre el abstemio Tintín y el alcohólico Haddock da mucho juego. Milú, por su parte, vuelve a cobrar un protagonismo necesario.
Lo mejor de Tintín es que te garantiza que, cuando abras uno de sus cómics, sonreirás en menos de un minuto de su lectura.

[Siamak Rostamip · Rating 4 out of 5]

تن‌تن را یکبار در سال‌های نوجوانی خوانده بودم، حالا کتاب را با ترجمه‌ی تازه‌ای که نشر چشمه منتشر کرد خواندم. جز آنکه جلد زیباتری دارد، در ترجمه (رایحه‌اندیشه «میلو» را «برفی» ترجمه کرده است) و کیفیت تصاویر تفاوت چشمگیری با چاپ انتشارات رایحه‌اندیشه نداشت، اما قیمتش تقریبا دو برابر آن تمام شده.
ماجرای این قسمت آن است که شهاب‌سنگی به کره زمین برخورد می‌کند و تن‌تن به کمک کاپیتان هادوک برای پیدا کردن آن راهی قطب می‌شوند.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tintin stories for anyone who has read them and understands their history can't be viewed as anything other than groundbreaking. The beginnings of these stories have been around as long as the Lord of the Rings, the illustration and environments in the Tintin books are accurate and extremely detailed. Anyone who has spent even a little time exploring Herge (Georges Remi) can see the painstaking research and adversity he worked through to compose the world around Tintin. His ideas were ahead of his time (Exploring the moon, Industrialization, South American political conflict, modern slave trade, extraterrestrial life) and he made certain every detail for every object would be realistic (after the third book at least). Herge's work can certainly be cited as an influence for any modern day graphic novel or comic book.

[Hákon Gunnarsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tintin was one of the comic book heroes of my childhood. I'm going to read my way through the series again as I listen to a radio program about him, and his creator, Hergé. The tenth book is The Shooting Star, where Tintin notices a star in the sky that he doesn’t know. Obviously he goes to try to find out what is happening, and is told that the a meteor is about to hit the earth which will cause the end of life as we know it. This does not happen, but a fraction of the meteor lands on earth with a new, unknown metal. Tintin, Captain Haddock and a group of scientists are on the case, but so are others as well.

In a way this book should be among my favorite Tintin adventures, after all this is the book where Tintin, Snowy, and Captain Haddock come to Iceland. In fact, they come to Akureyri which is very close to where I used to live, but even so I can’t say I like this one very much. Mostly I just find it a little too silly. The science is a bit too far fetched for my taste, and it needs a little bit more humor to be honest, though some of it can be quite funny.

Germany was still occupying Belgium at the time, so perhaps that had its affect on the tone of the book. There is at least one thing that is certain, the author that was trying to write against racism in The Blue Lotus, is resorting to a bit of anti semitism in this volume, and I am reading the redrawn version where some of it had been written out again.

The adventure is okay, silly yes, but okay. I think the best thing I can say about this book is that Captain Haddock that first appeared in the previous volume, is in better form in this one. But for most parts I think this book falls into the middle of the road, neither one among the best, nor among the worst. Just an barely okay forgettable adventure romp.

[Jefi Sevilay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hergé ırkçılığının Tenten'den, hatta Milu'dan bile uzaklaşıp Kaptan Haddock'ta odaklandığı, yine çizimleri oldukça tatlı, bu sefer Amerikan güzellemesi veya Komunizm yergisinden ya da afyon kaçakçıları benzeri suç imparatorlarını alt etmekten çok garip ve yanlış bir bilimsellik içeren, önceki fasiküllere göre değişik bir kitaptı.

Yani öyle bilimsellikten uzaktı ki Tenten Antartika'ya düşen, anakarada depremler yaratan ve suyun ısınmasına neden olan göktaşının üzerinde neredeyse konaklayacaktı. Göktaşı da üzerinde çok hızlı büyüyen ve bomba etkisi yaratan mantarların yetiştiği enteresan bir kara parçasıydı.

Ve son olarak, 10. kitapta da bir tane bile kadın karakter yoktu.

Herkese keyifli okumalar!

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

#Read 1992-1996

The 1995 Durga Puja remains etched in my memory with the glow of pandals, the drumbeat of the dhak, and the scent of shiuli flowers drifting through the evenings of Kolkata.

I was in Class IX, caught between adolescent uncertainties and the heady joys of festival season, when I received The Shooting Star, Tintin’s tenth adventure, as a gift. It became my secret companion during those five days of ritual and revelry—an odd pairing, perhaps, of the sacred rhythms of Puja with Hergé’s thrilling tale of apocalypse, greed, and scientific ambition.

The Puja that year began on September 29, a Friday, with Bilva Nimantran, and concluded on October 3, a Tuesday, with the immersion of the goddess. Each day was structured by tradition: waking to the crackle of loudspeakers announcing the rituals, dressing in crisp new clothes, visiting relatives, feasting on luchi, alur dom, and mishti, and in between, slipping away with my book.

The Shooting Star came to embody that interlude between devotion and escape.

The story itself begins with a sense of cosmic foreboding: a giant star, a possible meteor, threatening to collide with Earth. For a young reader steeped in the drama of the goddess’s annual battle with Mahishasura, the parallels were impossible to miss.

Just as Durga embodies cosmic order facing chaos, Tintin races against time, confronting forces of destruction, human greed, and natural catastrophe. My teenage imagination saw Durga in the background of every frame, holding her trident as Tintin clutched Snowy and leapt toward the unknown.

Reading it during those evenings was magical. I remember sitting on the veranda, still in my kurta from the pandal-hopping expedition, and losing myself in the panels where the sea swells under Tintin’s boat, or the mushroom-shaped island looms out of nowhere. Outside, the air throbbed with the rhythm of dhaak and the smell of burning incense.

Inside the panels, Tintin navigated rival expeditions, corporate villainy, and eerie landscapes. Together they made a strange harmony: the Puja celebrating cyclical renewal, and Tintin’s tale warning of imminent destruction.

It was also the book where I first felt the deeper philosophical undertones of Hergé. Up until then, Tintin had been an adventure hero for me—chasing criminals, saving lives, solving mysteries. But The Shooting Star suggested larger anxieties: scientific competition tainted by nationalism, the fragility of human life before cosmic events, and the unsettling greed of those who exploit catastrophe for profit. Reading it during Puja made me aware of how myths and modernity intersect.

The goddess slaying the demon and Tintin racing against catastrophe were both, in their own ways, stories of survival against overwhelming odds.

And then there was the personal context. I was in Class IX, a transitional stage—too young to shoulder responsibilities, too old to remain carefree. Durga Puja that year carried a subtle melancholy: I sensed that childhood was receding, that exams and expectations were pressing closer.

The Shooting Star, with its apocalyptic imagery, somehow mirrored that inner turbulence. It suggested that endings and beginnings are always intertwined, that destruction carries seeds of renewal.

On Dashami, as the goddess was carried to the river for immersion, I had just closed the final page of the book. The two departures—the goddess returning to her celestial abode and Tintin sailing back from his perilous journey—merged in my mind. Both left behind a sense of completion, a circle closed.

I remember standing in the crowd by the riverbank, the sound of conch shells echoing, and feeling that odd bittersweet ache: that Puja was over, the book was finished, and life would return to its usual rhythm. Yet the memory would linger.

Looking back, The Shooting Star was less about the specific plot and more about the atmosphere in which I read it. It became inseparable from Durga Puja 1995: a tapestry woven of incense smoke, festive lights, cosmic dread, and adolescent reflection.

Even today, when I revisit the book, I hear the dhaak in the background, see the goddess’s serene face in the glow of the pandal, and feel again the wonder of being a teenager caught between myth and modernity, ritual and adventure.

[Roshini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captain Haddock shines in this one. You might be annoyed with the drunk Captain Haddock in 'Crab with the Golden Claws', but sober Captain Haddock is the man. Ain't nothing like insults such as “I'm going to tear those caterpillars into little pieces”. Now, that's original! On this adventure, Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock and others set sail to the Arctic to find a meteorite and discover a new metal. The story is interesting because it's different from the earlier ones that are invariably more on the nose with historical and political satire. But don't be fooled. This one is as much about conquest, competition,capitalism (yes, I alliterated) as any other of the books. It shows you how ownership is priority over discovery in our world (putting the flag on the meteorite is critical to the extent that Tintin forgets the reason for even going there, until the very last moment). All said and done, it was a welcome deviation from the other stories. Also, I think they should rename the Tintin series Snowy!

[Piyangie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of the weak installments of the series. The story was based on an interesting premise; a meteorite crashes into the Arctic Ocean and a scientific expedition is ventured by a team of European scientists to examine it, with Haddock as the Captain of the ship and Tintin in tow. The adventure begins when a rival company-funded expedition steps into the race and hinders the progress of their expedition.

It was all well in the beginning. But then in slow degrees, the adventure fell flat. There is nothing to excite or to keep the suspense, only a few senseless subterfuges. The excitement so promised at the beginning didn't build-up, and it ended with utter confusion.

Overall, this installment was a disappointment. It is a huge step back from the progress the series made in the preceding installments. The only plus point is that I enjoyed the comic relief provided at the expense of Captain Haddock.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

You could excuse Captain Haddock's irrational and often disastrous behavior in the previous volume, since he was supposed to be a one-shot character and the author didn't intend to bring him back. Fortunately, he quite clears up his act now that he turned out to be a recurring character, and is much more capable and helfpul here. It's a shame he fell back off the wagon after this, though.

[Jazzy Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A shooting star is hurtling towards earth at a tremendous rate -- is this the end of the world?
(There's a few more episodes so it's rather unlikely).

[Harun Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

great fun to read.

[Meike]

"Dass die Rauchsprache erst nach dem Verzehr von "Psylocibinen" erlernbar wird, von Pilzen, die "aus den Tiefen des Kosmos mit Hilfe von Asteroiden auf die Erde gebracht worden (sind)" (Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten, 126), führt uns wieder zurück in das Tim und Struppi-Land, zu Hergés Album Der geheimnisvolle Stern. Auch auf dem Meteoriten, dem geheimnisvollen Stern, der wie eine "Vergrößerungsmaschine" funktioniert, spielen Pilze eine Hauptrolle: Sie vergrößern sich und lösen sich nach der Explosion in nichts auf."
(Aus: Christian Kracht revisited: Irritation und Narration)

[Kavita · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Shooting Star is the tenth story of the Tintin series. I found it to be pretty different than the previous comics and not as interesting. The story revolves around a giant meteoroid that crashes into the earth. It falls into the sea but Professor Decimus Phostle realises that it has created a new metal, which he names phostlite. This, by the way, is one of the rare puns in this book, in a series which is usually filled with witty sayings.

The Professor, along with a bunch of scientists, Tintin, Captain Haddock, and a religious nutcase called Philippulus, set off to find the metal for the sake of research. But they are in competition with Mr. Bohlwinkel, who is out to profit from the crash. Of course, Bohlwinkel creates hurdles for the scientists, which Tintin helps overcome. This is a classic fight between greedy capitalists out for personal gain and people fighting for science and the greater good.

The highlight of The Shooting Star remains Philippulus, who used to be a scientist but has become a crazy religious fanatic. A lot of scenes revolving around his prophecies remain hilarious. But apart from this, I did not enjoy it too much. It lacked the usual adventure - mystery - politics feel of the comics and practically bordered on sci-fi (with atrocious scientific background). I think this has to be one of the weakest book of the series, with ordinary characters, and a piss-poor plot.

[Maria Carmo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The adventures with Captain Haddock continue - his drinking problem also continues, even though in this sea trip he is cheered as the leader of non alcoholic sailors (LOL). In the mean time, at the same time as he receives a garland of flowers for being the abstemious captain of the ship that is going to make a scientific expedition, full boxes of whiskey bottles are being crammed into his cabin !!! LOL

Well, I do not tell the story: you must go and read it yourself...

Maria Carmo,

Lisbon 11 January 2015.

[Harish Challapalli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book!! Perfect stuff for adventure and humor, which is the best part of tintin series!! Tintin and snowy are as awesome as ever!! This is also one of the most enjoyable of the series!! Liked it a lot!! Captain haddock's humor was very enjoyable!! Waiting for more adventures of the series!!

Do read the book if u get an opportunity! I bet ull def enjoy this part!! Awesome awesome awesome!!

[Mazzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

very odd, but great fun
—and first published in Belgium in 1941

[J.G. Keely · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with all the early Tintin books, we're getting roughly the same plot over and over: Tintin is visiting a foreign country where he runs afoul of a criminal organization doing something wacky. He tracks down various clues as a couple of crooks try to kill him. Each time, he miraculously survives by pure luck. Then he beats a whole roomful of large, armed men to a pulp and escapes in a stolen aeroplane.

All the plot points are convenient and interchangeable, built on haphazard coincidences and luck. So, while Tintin is always charging forward, he isn't always a particularly active character, since he's not as much planning and overcoming as much as blundering through.

I know it's old and I know it's juvenile, but comparing it to Winsor McCary or Carl Barks, it's pretty tame. The backgrounds are lovely, and the character design is getting stronger--I love the ligne claire look--but it's not standing out against the competition, yet.

The whole premise of this one with the giant floating meteor made of a 'new element' that somehow causes all living things to grow--except Tintin and Snowy--is so nonsensical it was hard for me to know what to make of it. Here's a story that, on one hand, is about multinational drug cartels, where the hero wanders the streets of European cities with a drawn pistol braving very real dangers. The contradiction between these two extremes makes the tone of the work rather difficult to make sense of.

If it were the Little Prince or something where the universe is surreal and dreamlike, it would be easy to accept, but the odd combination seems to be at odds with itself. Even in Barks' work, where the characters are cartoon animals, there is a greater sense of narrative unity in what we are meant to take seriously as plot and what is light fun.

Another odd entry as I wait for Herge to hit his stride.

My Suggested Reading In Comics

[isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

oil corporations...............

read in french (flex)

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this comic the earth will almost get hit by a meteorite and it almost happens while a piece of the meteorite does fall to earth. It becomes a race between the baddies and Tintin and the scientists to reach the remains first and claim them for science instead of profit. Haddock once again commandeers the ship involved which makes up for the fun. This scifi story with Tintin does not make any sense and it shows the shortcomings of Herge as a scriptwriter. This particular adventure is well drawn as always but always remains one of the weakest plots in the series.

[Huda Aweys · Rating 2 out of 5]

انا فاكرة الفكرة بتاعة المغامرة دى بالذات و الغلاف بيتهيألي ، كانت نجمة او جزء من نيزك على شكل عيش غراب
و تان تان أكل منه و بقى شرير او مجنون او حاجه حصلتله يعني ، بس موش فاكره ايه هي بالضبط هاهاهاهاهااهاهاه
:))))))