The mysterious star

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The mysterious star ( French original title: L'Étoile mystérieuse ) is the tenth Tintin album by the Franco-Belgian comic artist Hergé . It initially appeared from October 20, 1941 to May 21, 1942 in a black and white version as daily strips in the French-language daily Le Soir . The corresponding album was released immediately afterwards in 1942. It was the first Tintin album that was already printed in color in the first version.

action

Tim is on an evening walk with his dog Struppi . He wonders about an additional star in the Great Bear and about the unusual heat at night. When he calls the observatory, the phone is simply hung up again. He makes his way there and is harshly rejected. When he finally finds a professor in the observatory, he is quite nervous because a glowing star is moving towards Earth. Professor Phossyl (in the original: Calys) from the observatory determines the time of the impact and thus the end of the world. Tim goes home depressed. On the way he meets a "prophet" who walks through the streets with a gong and proclaims the nearby " judgment ", the "end of all times". Tim expects the end at home. This does not happen (the assistant to the professor had miscalculated), but a violent earthquake occurs because part of the meteorite hits the earth.

Using a spectroscopic image of the meteor, the professor finds out that the meteor contains a large amount of a mineral unknown on earth. Unfortunately, it hit the Arctic Sea and is therefore unreachable. As Tim goes home, he notices a brick sticking out of the water. He suspects that part of the meteor could also protrude from the sea. An expedition is immediately put together to search for the rock and then explore it. Participants in the expedition are: the named Professor Phossyl, the Swede Erik Björgenskjöld, the Spaniard Bolero y Calamares, the German Otto Schulze, the Swiss Paul Cantonneau, the Portuguese Pedro Joãs Dos Santos, Tim with his dog Struppi and Captain Haddock (see also section Miscellaneous ).

When Tim got on board the day before the trip, someone was already attempting an attack. The perpetrator escapes undetected. Immediately afterwards, more oddities occur and the crazy self-proclaimed "prophet", whom Tim has met before, prophesies misfortune - although he is happy to help himself. At the farewell ceremony, the captain is honored as the honorary president of the “Association of Seafaring Anti-Alcoholics”. It is embarrassing that a huge load of whiskey is to be brought into the captain's cabin at the same time ... The ceremony is interrupted when the message arrives that the Peary has also set sail from Saõ Rico to find the meteorite. The Aurora, under the command of Captain Haddock, sets sail immediately.

The Aurora sets course for Iceland , while the reader is shown how a certain Bohlwinkel is doing everything to ensure that the Peary expedition he finances reaches its destination before the Europeans. When the aurora crosses the 72nd parallel , it sends the seaplane that it has brought with it, which actually hits the meteorite, but also the Peary . The aurora is faster than the peary so can expect to be the first to reach the rock. While she was heading full steam ahead to her destination, she received an emergency call that forced her to turn back. Suspicious, Tim spent the night trying to find out more about the ship they are now on their way to rescue. The next morning it is clear that the distress call was faked to prevent them from discovering the meteorite. This news enrages the captain and brings the expedition to the brink of defeat.

Thanks to the seaplane and Tim's daring parachute jump over the meteorite, the aurora manages to hoist its own flag on the rock first. Tintin stays on the rock with Struppi and a box of snacks while the seaplane pilot is supposed to fetch groceries. Tim sleeps one night, and in the morning strange things happen on the rock: mushrooms shoot out of the ground at breakneck speed, reach man's height and then explode with a loud bang. Then a huge apple tree with huge apples grows from the discarded core of an apple in seconds.

When the seaplane returns, the island begins to sink after a seaquake. Tim, who was knocked unconscious by a falling apple, saves himself at the last moment in the dinghy. All he can bring back to the ship is a stone from the meteorite. The radio announces the return of the expedition to Europe and declares that Mr Bohlwinkel's sabotage will have legal consequences.

background

The album was released in 1942 during the German occupation of Belgium . In the first issue, the “opposing” expedition was clearly recognizable as an American-Jewish enterprise directed against Europe, financed by a banker with the recognizable Jewish name “Blumenstein”, who also outwardly shared the anti-Semitic clichés of Jewish appearance (raised lips, crooked nose, small and plump figure, black hair) is drawn. With the new edition of 1954 some of these references were blurred, Blumenstein was now called Bohlwinkel and came from the fictional state of Saõ Rico. The American flag on board the Peary has been retouched.

While Hergé had tried in the previous album The Crab with the Golden Scissors to omit any allusions to the war and the warring factions, here, especially at the beginning, he paints a very gloomy picture of desperation and possible end of the world. The world is finally being torn apart by a war on an unprecedented scale. The whole story, even if it becomes entertaining again later, is very disturbing, even the Haddock, who is usually always joking, is mostly serious and hardly ever drunk.

What is also unusual about this volume is that Hergé blurs reality and dream and is thus able to confuse the reader. For example, there is a prophet who announces the end of the world for real in the streets and who later suddenly appears in Tim's apartment. Only after Tim asks him how he got in does this part turn out to be a dream. Tim's adventure on the meteorite itself - with the giant mushrooms, apples and a giant spider - is real to Tim, but somehow seems unreal to the reader. This is also a tribute from Hergé to the director Alfred Hitchcock .

various

  • The mysterious star was the first Tintin album, which was already printed in color in the first issue.
  • On page 20, Stups and Steppke (French: Quick et Flupke) appear in a picture . The figures are also Hergé's work.
  • The Palomar observatory was the model for the observatory at the beginning of the book.
  • The participants in the expedition have (sometimes several) real role models: Erik Björgenskjöld is reminiscent of Auguste Piccard (who was also the role model for Professor Bienlein). His name is based on the polar explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld .
  • The aurora does not appear to be seaworthy for the Arctic. In contrast, the seaplane that takes off from it and was inspired by the Arado Ar 196 is reproduced exactly.

Film adaptations

The mysterious star appeared in the animated series of 1962 and 1992.

literature

  • Hergé : Les Aventures de Tintin. L'Étoile mystérieuse . Casterman, Paris / Tournai 1974, ISBN 2-203-00109-7 (French, first edition: 1943).
  • Hergé: The mysterious star (=  Tintin . Band 9 ). Carlsen Comics, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-551-73229-9 (first edition: 1947).
  • Michael Farr, Michael Groenewald (Hrsg.): In the footsteps of Tim & Struppi . Carlsen Comics, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-551-77110-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Didier Pasamonik: French comics. In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus . Volume 7: Literature, Film, Theater and Art. De Gruyter Saur, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-034088-4 , p. 122.
  2. ^ Tintin et la science . Retrieved March 21, 2016.
  3. ↑ Albert Algoud: Le Tournesol illustré. Casterman, Brussels 1994.
  4. ↑ Michael Farr: In the footsteps of Tintin and Struppi. Carlsen Comics, Hamburg 2006, p. 100.