Cigars of the Pharaoh

Cigars of the Pharaoh (Les Cigares du pharaon)
Cover of the English edition
Publisher	Casterman
Date	1934
Series	The Adventures of Tintin (Les aventures de Tintin)
Creative team
Writer(s)	Hergé
Artist(s)	Hergé
Original publication
Published in	Le Petit Vingtième
Date(s) of publication	December 8, 1932 - February 8, 1934
Language	French
ISBN	2-203-00103-8
Translation
Publisher	Methuen
Date	1971
ISBN	1-4052-0615-2
Translator(s)	Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner
Chronology
Preceded by	Tintin in America, 1932
Followed by	The Blue Lotus, 1936

Cigars of the Pharaoh (French: Les Cigares du pharaon) is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. This was his fourth published adventure and is notable for the introduction of Rastapopoulos and Thomson and Thompson.

Storyline

Tintin and his dog Snowy are on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea when they meet Dr Sarcophagus, an Egyptologist who owns a papyrus that he believes will lead him to the undiscovered tomb of the Pharaoh Kih-Oskh (a pun on kiosk, a stand for the sale of petty merchandises such as newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, beverages and/or street foods). He invites Tintin to accompany him. Tintin also has an unpleasant encounter with Roberto Rastapopoulos, a wealthy businessman.

Later on the cruise, Tintin first meets Thomson and Thompson, who accuse him of smuggling opium and cocaine they have found in his cabin. Locked in the hold of the ship, Tintin craftily escapes and meets Sarcophagus in Port Said, Egypt.

Tintin and Sarcophagus set off and discover the tomb of Kih-Oskh. On a nearby sand dune, Tintin finds a cigar bearing the symbol of Kih-Oskh: a circle with a wavy line through it and two dots on it, rather like a yin-yang symbol. But when he returns to the tomb, Sarcophagus has disappeared.

Entering the tomb, Tintin and Snowy are startled several times by doors closing behind them. They come to a room where rows of Egyptologists are mummified. At the end of the row are empty sarcophagi with notices to indicate that they are intended for Tintin, Snowy (and Sarcophagus too in the later edition). Following items of Sarcophagus' clothing which have been left lying about, Tintin enters another room where opium vapor puts him to sleep.

That night drug smugglers embark some sarcophagi aboard a ship but they are later cast overboard. The sarcophagi contain Tintin and Snowy who therefore escape mummification. They are rescued from a gigantic wave by the crew of a sailing ship. On it they meet Senhor Oliveira de Figueira, a Portuguese salesman who travels the Middle East selling to local Arabs. He persuades Tintin to buy a top hat, ski equipment, a bow tie, an alarm clock, suspenders, a parrot, a water tin, a wooden golf club, a doghouse on wheels, and a lead for Snowy, and the overloaded Tintin walks away saying "Just as well I didn't fall for his patter; you can end up with all sorts of useless stuff if you're not careful".

Tintin then sets out across the desert and is captured by the men of Sheik Patrash Pasha. He hates Westerners but is then delighted to discover that his captive is Tintin, whose exploits he has read of for years, and even shows one of the Tintin books that he has read (the exact book is different depending on the version, but it is always the most recent to have been published; in the first black and white strip, it is Tintin in the Congo; in the second it is Tintin in America; and in the colour version, it is Destination Moon).

Resuming his journey Tintin sees a woman being beaten by two men and rushes to her aid. The woman turns out to be an actress filming a movie that Rastapopoulos is making. The director is furious but Rastapopoulos is much calmer. He and Tintin apologize to each other over the incidents on the cruise ship and the filming and become friends.

When Tintin returns to the boat, he discovers that it has been smuggling guns. There is a lengthy comic sequence involving the Thompson twins who accuse him of being the smuggler. They hurry off when they think a grenade is due to explode, allowing Tintin to get away.

In Arabia, Tintin is walking in the desert when his water bottle is shot at and pierced by an anonymous gunman. Desperate for water he sets off only to meet Thomson & Thompson who give chase. Later they hit an Arab on the head, mistaking him for Tintin. When Tintin reaches a local city he finds a procession of armed Arabs who claim that one of their sheiks was attacked by two members of a rival tribe, thus providing a pretext for war. Tintin is enlisted by force into the army.

While cleaning the local colonel's office, he finds a cigar label with Kih-Oskh's sign. He searches the office for a box of cigars hoping that they will provide a clue but is caught in the act by the colonel and charged with spying. He is shot by firing squad, but does not actually die: the firing squad's rifles had been loaded with blanks. Placed in a ventilated grave, Tintin is later dug up by a pair of mysterious allies dressed as veiled women. These 'allies' are actually Thomson & Thompson again, who were determined to capture him alive and arranged for his death to be faked.

Tintin flees the city in a military airplane pursued by others. To save himself he takes a dive and lands in India. There Tintin finds Sarcophagus who is painting the sign of Kih-Oskh on the trees. He has gone completely insane and thinks that he is another Pharaoh, Ramesses II.

Tintin and Sarcophagus are taken by an elephant to a local colonial outpost. Later, the mad Sarcophagus escapes and tries to kill Tintin with a knife. It is soon revealed that he was hypnotised by a local Fakir who wants Tintin dead. Some remarks by the Fakir lead Tintin to Zloty, a Hungarian writer, who explains that an international gang of drug smugglers is out to get rid of Tintin. At gunpoint, Tintin orders Zloty to give him the name of the gang's leader but, before he can, the Fakir, from outside the window, blows a dart tipped with Rajaijah juice at Zloty, causing Zloty to go mad.

Tintin takes Sarcophagus and Zloty to the asylum with a letter from a local doctor, but the Fakir has substituted the letter and through a misunderstanding Tintin ends up imprisoned. He escapes by jumping on an obese inmate and over the wall. Snowy is unable to keep up with Tintin and is almost sacrificed by angry Indians for frightening their holy cow. The little dog is saved by Thomson & Thompson, acting as Nataraja. They then use Snowy to track down his master, whom they are still determined to arrest.

Tintin's escape from the asylum is reported and he is recaptured at a train station. The ambulance taking him back to the asylum crashes into the car driven by Sarcophagus and Zloty. Tintin escapes and later meets the Maharajah of Gaipajama. Over dinner they hear music which the Maharajah believes is a warning that he will be driven insane like his father and brother were after the music was heard, due to their opposition to the drug cartel and its oppression of the local farmers.

Tintin arranges for a dummy to be put in the Maharajah's bed. That night the dummy is hit by a dart fired by the fakir. Tintin follows the fakir to the cartel's hideout which the Fakir enters using a hollow tree. The members within dress up in outfits that bear the symbol of Kih-Oskh and make them look rather like the Ku Klux Klan (as Tintin comments in the English edition). He manages to capture the gang which includes the Fakir, the Arab colonel and several others he met in the course of the adventure. He is later joined by the Maharajah, Snowy and the Thompson twins who tell Tintin that all charges have been dropped: the tomb of Kih-Oskh was found by the Egyptian police and contained evidence of Tintin's innocence and a map showing them to the hideout.

The Fakir manages to escape, however, and later he and the cartel's Grand Master kidnap the Maharajah's young son. Tintin chases them into the Himalayas, but they send their car of a cliff, hoping Tintin will climb down and they can steal his car. While the leader takes the bound and gagged crown prince, the Fakir tries to delay Tintin. However the leader accidentally knocks a rock loose which knocks out the Fakir. Tintin recovers the prince, ties up the Fakir, and drives back with them. But the cartel leader falls off a cliff when the cliff edge he is on breaks. His body is not found.

Later on, the Maharajah informs Tintin that one of the captured members of the cartel was a servant of his. In examining cigars found in his room, Tintin discovers that cigars bearing the "Kih-Oskh" label contain heroin, revealing the means by which the cartel smuggled drugs.

The story is continued in The Blue Lotus.

Publication history

Cigars of the Pharaoh was originally published under the name Tintin en Orient ("Tintin in the Orient"). It first appeared as a black and white comic strip serial between December 1932 and August 1934 in Le Petit Vingtième (the children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle). It was then published in a black and white album in 1934. It was then redrawn completely in colour for publication in 1955.

Differences between 1934 and 1955 versions

Between the 1940s and 60s many of the early Tintin adventures were redrawn and colourised in order to fit in with Hergé's developed ligne claire style. Most of them followed the original plots with only minor changes to the story and text. By contrast, the differences between the two editions of Cigars of the Pharaoh were considerable.

An example is in the opening pages when Tintin, on the cruise ship, pursues a loose piece of paper. A sailor thinks that it is he who is causing trouble and tries to stop him: in the 1930s edition, Tintin, unseen by the reader, punches the sailor to the ground, giving him a black eye; in 1955 they simply collide and there is no indication of a fight.

Still on the cruise ship, Tintin has an unpleasant encounter with Rastapopoulos the millionaire film producer. In the 1930s edition he returns to his cabin remarking, rather prophetically, that he has yet another enemy on his hands. In the 1950s, he simply refers to Rastapopoulos as not just any old passer-by (see Differences between French and English versions for more on this scene).

The 1930s version is more closely engaged with contemporary political issues. De Figueira claims to have left Europe due to the Great Depression, whereas in 1955 his reason for leaving is unspecified. In the 1934 edition, the drug cartel is involved in smuggling arms to Arabs, which a newspaper article states was a major issue at the time; Tintin finds the guns on the ship after Rastapopoulos claims to have been asked by people in high places to look out for smugglers providing arms to warring Arabs. In 1955, the guns are found by chance and their purpose is unspecified. Similarly, in 1934, one of the hooded villains at the meeting states that the captain of the sailing ship and his "Portuguese second-in-command" (de Figueira) were competing against them in arming the Arabs and have been disposed of. The 1955 version leaves all this unspecified.

Another change tones down the details of Tintin's location. In 1934, the Arab city in which Tintin is conscripted into the army is specified as the holy city of Mecca, which is barred to non-Muslims, so Tintin wears heavy make-up to conceal his white race. In 1955, the city is unnamed and Tintin does not bother with make-up.

Professor Sarcophagus is a more prominent character in the 1955 version. In the original he is an unnamed scholar, clean-shaven and wearing dark sunglasses. He disappears during the tomb sequence, not to be seen until Tintin meets him in India, now completely mad. In the 1955 version, his empty sarcophagus is shown waiting for him alongside Tintin's and Snowy's, and he is shown cast adrift and being recaptured by Allan on the ship. In addition, at the end of the 1934 version, Tintin wonders whether or not the unnamed scholar was a member of the gang; there is no such suggestion in 1955.

His fellow lunatic, a writer, features in both versions, though his name is changed and he is given a mustache in 1955. In the 1934 version the writer Zlotskwtz [sic.] admits under threat of Tintin's gun to being a member of the gang, of sending his boss a telegram telling of Tintin's presence in the area, of being told to dispose of him and of causing the chaotic night at the outpost. Renamed Zlotzky in 1955 he is not so forthcoming about his membership, only stating that members in the area have been arranging the attempts on Tintin's life.

When Tintin is locked up in the lunatic asylum in the 1934 version the Fakir tells his boss on the phone that he intends to bribe a member of staff to arrange Tintin's "suicide". The walls of the asylum are covered with broken glass and Tintin bounces over it using the stomach of the sleeping ex-Maharajah of Shuplalah. In 1955 the Fakir is simply telling his boss how he got Tintin incarcerated and the high walls are not covered with glass.

In 1934, there are eight hooded villains at the meeting, and the chairman utters the phrase "By Brahma!", indicating that he is one of the Indians, presumably the Fakir. Unhooded, the eighth one is shown wearing a fez. One of them (presumably the Arab colonel) claims to have disposed of the captain of the sailing ship and of "his Portuguese second-in-command" who were competing against them in arming the Arabs — but he also claims that Tintin is dead. When asked for the password, a hooded member of the group fails to remember it and is given to the count of three to come up with it or be killed. He frantically racks his brain to remember and give the password.

In 1955 there are only seven and there is no hint as to who the speakers are. There are no clues to the chairman's identity and the forgetful member appears more concerned at the chairman's ominous countdown and gun — lending weight to the possibility that it's Tintin.

The black-and-white edition also includes three major scenes that were not included in the 1955 version:

• Tintin explores the villains' underground lair, finding a room whose doors are activated by foot-panels. A swarm of cobras is released from a statue of Vishnu and he distracts them with a chocolate bar. He later comes across a pool filled with crocodiles.

• When the Fakir escapes he announces that he has planted explosives which will go off in three minutes. The detectives force the door open with one of their canes, and the Maharajah counts the passing minutes, but when they get out they find that Snowy has put out the fuse.

• Back at the palace Tintin sleeps with an upturned table between his bed and the window in order to avoid the Fakir's poisoned darts. However, the Fakir lets a cobra in through the window instead. Woken up, Snowy somehow puts on a gramophone record which charms the snake. The music also wakes up Tintin who shoots the reptile with his gun. It is then announced that the Maharajah's son has been kidnapped and Tintin and the twin detectives set off in pursuit in their pyjamas.

At the conclusion of the 1930s version, the detectives simply take their leave, telling Tintin that they are returning to Egypt to resume the investigation. In the 1955 version, they are shown falling down the palace steps — in accordance with their clumsy nature that was developed in subsequent adventures.

Differences between French and English versions

In the French version, Tintin, when parting from Rastapopoulos on the cruise ship, remarks that he is "not just any old passer-by". In the English version, he remarks that this is not the first time that they have met. According to Harry Thompson's book Tintin: Hergé and his Creation, the reason is that Cigars of the Pharaoh was not translated into English until after some other books in the series in which Tintin encounters Rastapopoulos — namely, The Red Sea Sharks and Flight 714 — even though in these books the two men are sworn enemies and Cigars of the Pharaoh was in fact an earlier adventure of Tintin's. In the chronology of the Tintin Universe, it could be taken as a reference to a scene in Tintin in America in which a man resembling Rastapopoulos is seen sitting next to Tintin at a banquet.

Similarly, in the English version, Snowy comments that he'd prefer Marlinspike Hall to the cruise, even though they will not meet Captain Haddock and his estate for several adventures yet. Again, this is because many of the adventures featuring Tintin and Haddock had been published in the UK between 1952 and 1968 before Cigars was published in 1971. See order of publication of Tintin in the UK.

Another continuity error is created in the redrawn edition in the scenes involving Tintin's encounter with Sheik Patrash Pasha. When Pasha produces the latest Tintin book that he has read, the strip includes the artwork for Destination Moon, a book from Tintin's future chronology.

For many years, the fifth block on the first page of the English edition contained a map of the ship's route depicting a route from Port-Said to Shanghai even Tintin says they are headed in the opposite direction. This was because in the original French version Tintin says the ship is going from Europe to Shanghai, China. This was corrected in the second edition of the English translation of Cigars of the Pharaoh.

Connections with other Tintin books

This is the first Tintin album in which Thomson and Thompson appear. In the original 1930s strip they call themselves X33 and X33b and were treated with more notable respect than in later adventures: showing a great deal of cunning and ingenuity when rescuing Tintin from execution and Snowy from sacrifice. When they dress up as veiled women it is the only time that they wear disguises that fool anybody (even Tintin).

At the end of the 1934 version, they simply take their leave, telling Tintin that they must return to Egypt to complete the investigation. The 1955 version has them falling down some steps.

When the Tintin colour albums are read in chronological order, Cigars is the first in which the villain Allan Thompson appears. However, Allan does not appear in the original 1934 black and white album; the first story that Hergé actually drew Allan in was The Crab with the Golden Claws.

(In the 1930s version of Cigars, the captain of the ship that takes on board the sarcophagi is unseen and contemptuously dismisses the boxes as antiques that can be thrown overboard. Alan, in contrast, believes them to contain drugs and has them thrown overboard when challenged by the coast guard.)

The Blue Lotus was a sequel to Cigars, starting with Tintin and Snowy still in India with the Maharajah. Tintin then proceeds to China to battle another branch of the same gang of smugglers, which also uses the poison of madness and meets the mysterious leader, who turns out to be Rastapopoulos. Before going mad, the poet Zloty warns Tintin: "The boss... film... don't trust..." Rastapopulos is the director of Cosmos Pictures.

Although Cigars precedes Lotus, the backs of one edition of the English-language books show Lotus preceding Tintin in America, after which the books continue in their correct order.

References to real people

In the Egyptian tomb, one of the mummified Egyptologists is called 'E. P. Jacobini'; this is a reference to Hergé's fellow artist E. P. Jacobs whose Mystery of the Great Pyramid is another classic comic-strip adventure revolving around an Egyptian tomb. In the original 1932 strip, the Egyptologist is called Sauerkraut.

In the 1934 version, the mummified scholar who is so tall that the top of his sarcophagus has had to be cut away is labelled Lord Carnaval, a reference to Lord Carnarvon who financed Howard Carter's search for the tomb of Tutankhamun.

When Tintin and Snowy are cast adrift in sarcophagi in the Red Sea, they are picked up by a passing sailing ship captained by a man who turns out to be an arms smuggler. The captain was based on the adventurer Henry de Monfreid who was also into such activities.^[1]

References

Footnotes

1. ^ Michael Farr, Tintin: The Complete Companion, John Murray, 2001.

Bibliography

• Farr, Michael (2001). Tintin: The Complete Companion. London: John Murray. ISBN 9780719555220. 
• Lofficier, Jean-Marc and Lofficier, Randy (2002). The Pocket Essential Tintin. Harpenden, Hertfordshire: Pocket Essentials. ISBN 9781904048176. 
• Peeters, Benoît (1989). Tintin and the World of Hergé. London: Methuen Children's Books. ISBN 9780416148824. 
• Thompson, Harry (1991). Tintin: Hergé and his Creation. London: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 9780340523933. 

External links

• Cigars of the Pharaoh at Tintinologist.org