My first contact with Tintin was way back in primary school. I was what, perhaps in Standard 4 or 5 when i happened to pick up a crumpled, dog eared comic with colorful pictures. It probably wasn’t in as bad condition as i remembered because you know how memory tends to exaggerate. However it was missing a pages or two and a vintage, made of the old school newsprint instead of the type of glossy paper used in comics today; that i am sure.
At that time my school was having a reading program where a certain time slot is placed before the school assembly started. Everyone must sit on the hall’s floor with a book to read. Well, most of us just opened the text book on our lap and stared into space waiting for the 30 minutes to pass. For those looking for a more creative outlet, in front of the hall next to the piano there was a battered wooden book case that actually flips open like a book. In it were books that had seen better days. That’s where i found my treasure.
I might have mindlessly stashed it in my school bag after the bell rang or i might have stolen it (come on the books in there ends up in the trash sooner or later anyways) but i only recall finding it again back at home. I have faint memories of Egyptian mummies and balls of fire so i’m pretty sure it was Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Seven Crystal Balls. I read and re-read the thin comic and enjoyed every minute of it even though at that age i didn’t understand the themed political propaganda of Tintin stories.
But soon i found other exciting things to do and i hid it in the back of the drawer and forgot all about it. That’s when i lost my treasure; i never found it again.
That will make it to the “Most regrettable things i’ve done” list because the battered Tintin would be worth a lot now but mostly because it’s one of my favorite comics. Instead i have to settle for the new hardcover collection like everyone else. The story of Tintin with his sidekick, Snowy is the same but somehow the feeling is muted without the newsprint material. Like what the hiking guide keep saying to us in Chiang Mai “Same, same but different”.
Just the same it’s hard not to be excited knowing the movie is screening soon in Malaysia. Watching Tintin and Snowy running around the globe getting into trouble and kicking some bad villain’s arse and Captain Haddock’s totally unorthodox cursing especially “Blue Blistering Barnacles!” is just too fun. It’s like being a kid again.
Trailer: The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.
