My review, published in Tintin Books

My review:

This is it: Tintin's least formulaic adventure, and Herge's greatest stylistic experiment. That's not to say it's necessarily the best in the series, but "The Castafiore Emerald" completes a five-album cycle in which Herge perfected his craft. ([b:Explorers on the Moon|165556|Explorers on the Moon (The Adventures of Tintin)|Hergé|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172341878s/165556.jpg|159847] gave him his greatest artistic challenge; [b:The Calculus Affair|743454|The Calculus Affair (The Adventures of Tintin)|Hergé|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177938437s/743454.jpg|1992577] was the height of his skills as an artist; [b:The Red Sea Sharks|165526|The Red Sea Sharks (The Adventures of Tintin)|Hergé|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172341809s/165526.jpg|1462871] was a perfect story; and he capped all this off with the emotional study that is [b:Tintin in Tibet|87425|Tintin in Tibet (The Adventures of Tintin)|Hergé|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518VF5FKP0L._SL75_.jpg|885675])

The story is well-known by now: tiring, like Captain Haddock, of adventures, Herge decided to test his own skill by doing a story in which "nothing much happens". In this adventure, Bianca Castafiore is one of many unwanted visitors at Marlinspike, throwing Haddock's blissful life into disarray. Herge continually teases with the idea of an adventure - there are Roma people living on the land with suspicious motives; there are shady men pursuing Castafiore; the diva herself is in fear that her emeralds will be stolen, and the actions of her entourage indicate something malevolent. Instead, all but one of these proves to be a red herring. And even then, the one that does come true doesn't happen until three-quarters through the narrative!

The artist has great fun drawing a light farce, as most of this album is. Some pages are entirely filled with people talking in a room. He beautifully plays with depth and the art of the comedy of manners, and very much enjoys the slow burn of Haddock's halcyon days becoming but a distant memory. Some of the best moments include the gorgeous artwork of the gypsies by a late-night fire, Snowy's amusing asides to the reader ("I can't stand animals who talk!", that delightfully underplayed cover, and Calculus' invention (preceding the real world unveiling) of colour television. This sequence is clearly a labour of love for the artist, who spends many frames playing around with the tuning of Calculus' invention (while our characters sit, increasingly impatiently, often with their backs to us), and subsequently a frame of his own artwork into the fuzzy static of an old television set.

By its very nature, of course, nothing happens, and all rumblings of discontent reveal themselves to be either red herrings, or at the least unexpected trivialities. Certainly, for this reason, I can't imagine this work will be made into one of Spielberg's films any time soon! But that is, of course, its aim - and Herge succeeds in capturing our attention even without the aid of pirates, rockets, abominable snowmen or any of the other diversions which he had recently employed.

Of course, there is still plenty going on here to justify the album's existence. The plight of the Roma is deftly handled, with Haddock quicker these days to learn from his prejudices. Herge cleverly explores the prejudice on both sides of the issue - with characters on both 'our' side and that of the Roma who are bigoted, and those who aren't. Beyond this, the general sense of foreboding in the air makes the album's location come alive: Marlinspike genuinely feels well-populated, and it's truly a joy to see Tintin, Calculus, Haddock et al in their home environment.

And La Castafiore, a vibrant character in all her appearances, is put to great use here too. She may be the least dimensional person in the album (everyone begins life as a caricature in Herge's work, but despite the title, Castafiore doesn't really get to break her bonds until she joins everyone else in doing so in [b:Tintin and the Picaros|146160|Tintin and the Picaros (The Adventures of Tintin)|Hergé|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172178212s/146160.jpg|2257502]), but the diva is a force to be reckoned with, and never fails to steal the show.

In fact, when all is said and done I can't think of much to complain about. (Note the sly reference in the very first frame, which will ultimately explain the mystery.) As with "Tintin in Tibet", I'm certainly glad it was a one-time experiment: these albums must by design be langorously paced, and as such offer a little less on future readings. But this is an achievement which should be more appreciated amongst Tintin fans. ( )

The ebook edition that I read online was taken from a somewhat less than perfect print copy so that the artwork in it was much grainier than that in the other 2 issues of Tintin I have read. However, I found this entry in the series hilarious, not only the Captain with his temper and his magnificent way with cussing but also the detectives Thompson & Thomson (from "The Crab with the Golden Claw") with their malapropisms and woeful inability to actually detect anything, Bianca Castafiore who also has a tendency to malapropisms with regard to people's names and Professor Calculus who never properly hears what people say to him. I also liked the bit of social commentary regarding the Romany. ( )

3.6

The ebook edition that I read online was taken from a somewhat less than perfect print copy so that the artwork in it was much grainier than that in the other 2 issues of Tintin I have read. However, I found this entry in the series hilarious, not only the Captain with his temper and his magnificent way with cussing but also the detectives Thompson & Thomson (from "The Crab with the Golden Claw") with their malapropisms and woeful inability to actually detect anything, Bianca Castafiore who also has a tendency to malapropisms with regard to people's names and Professor Calculus who never properly hears what people say to him. I also liked the bit of social commentary regarding the Romany. ( )

This is a unique comic in all of Herge's repertoir in that it is probably the most absurd of his stories. Granted, Tintin and Alpha-Art (which is unfinished and I am unlikely to purchase it on those grounds) appears to move into a more post-modern setting (it is suggested that Alpha-Art was an adventure into the world of art, but Herge died before its completion) but in this story, basically nothing happens. In fact, the entire story seems to be one great red-herring.
The entire story is set in Marlinspike, and Captain Haddock is simply having a really bad day (or at least a month). It seems as if it is a comedy of errors for the poor captain. First he learns that Bianca Castafiore, the famous opera singer, is coming to stay so he wants to get out but he slips on the broken stairs and busts his pelvis and ends up being confined to a wheelchair. He gets his nose stung and his finger bitten, and near the end he has become a patchwork of bandages.
Throw in the red-herrings, as well as the running jokes (such as Cutts the Butcher and Joylon Wagg) and we have a very interesting story, which doesn't seem to really go anywhere. This is not necessarily a bad thing though, since it succeeded in Waiting for Godot and also in Seinfeld. Then there are the jokes running through the story, such as the broken step. Pretty much everybody in the story, with the exception of Bianca Castafiore, slips and falls on the step at one time or another. Herge does it brilliantly, and it is very clear that he had truly developed his style by this point. There is also the parrot that keeps on screaming 'Hello! I can hear you!' which we soon discover is how Bianca Castafiore answers the phone.
There is a little case of the missing emerald, and it is unexpected (too an extent, though there is a hint dropped in the first frame) where it turns up. However, it disappears nearer to the end, namely because through the story we hear Bianca Castafiore continually jumping at ghosts believing that her emerald has been stolen. We are also led to believe that it is likely that either the Gypsies or the Pianist Wagner, are the culprits, but it turns out that they are not (I am not going to reveal the culprit though, since it is a surprise).
Herge does not pull back on commentary here either, and in this particular story it involves the gypsies. It appears that Herge is very supportive and sympathetic towards them, which shows in the character of Haddock and Tintin. I have never had any interaction with the Romani until 2011 when I travelled to Europe, and you pretty quickly work out who they are. It is also very tempting to take a prejudice view of them, particularly with the multiple warnings you receive about them on the web and in other travel literature. While I am tempted to say that they brought it on themselves, I believe that there is a lot of prejudice in Europe towards these people. I know Romanians that wail in anger over suggestions that they are connected with the Romani. However, I believe it is very brave and noble of Herge to stand up for these people.
It seems that by this time Herge was winding down the Tintin comics, as he only produced another two and a half comics after this one. Earlier it appeared that he would produce at least one to two a year, but has now dropped down to about two a decade. Maybe Herge was simply getting tired of the endless adventures of Tintin and wanted to pull the plug. However, it appears he continued to experiment, and in doing so, explored new areas. In all seriousness, nothing that I have seen coming out of the US comic book scene even compares to the ingeniousness of Herge, and in a way, I do not feel that even Asterix comes anywhere near to Herge's brilliance. ( )