TINTIN THE CIGARS OF THE PHARAOH PART-1 & 2 Vol 9

As for "Cigars of the Pharaoh," if your understanding of human history leads you to believe that the Pharaohs did not smoke cigars, then you already have a leg up on the fact that this adventure of Tintin is not what it seems. Our hero is sailing the Mediterranean with Snowy when he encounters a strange academic type named Sophocles Sarcophagus whom he dismisses as a clumsy nitwit. Tintin also has a runin with Rastapopoulos, the film tycoon who owns Cosmos Pictures. The next thing we know we have the first appearance of the Thom(p)soms, who arrest Tintin for having heroin in his cabin. Obviously, our hero is getting to close to something, but what could it be? From an Egyptian tomb filled with cigars, to floating in an coffin on the Mediterranean, to wandering the Arabian desert, to being lost in the jungles of India, Tintin does some major traveling to solve this particular mystery. Herge certainly shows more of an understanding for various cultures than he did in the previous Tintin adventure, but the overall improvement of "Cigars of the Pharaoh" over "Tintin in America" is pretty noticeable and quite impressive when you think of the state of comic books stories in the early 1930s.