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The content of this book is darn great if you ask me! Sure; you aren’t asking me, but I’m telling you! Herge writes these comics perfect! In this thrilling adventure, Tintin and Captain Haddock travel through the remote wilderness of Tibet. Catain Haddock’s remarks and mishaps are hilarious! Tintin on the other hand, is quite serious looking for his friend Chang who was supposed dead.(Chang appears in an earlier comic called The Blue Lotus, which also should be perchased by the loyal Tintin fan.) All in all, I think it would be wise to buy this book.

Synopsis

Whilst on holiday in Vargèse with Captain Haddock, Tintin reads about a plane crash in the Gosain Than massif in the Himalayas. That evening at the hotel, Tintin dozes off while playing chess with the Captain, who is having trouble deciding on his next move. Tintin has a vivid dream that his young Chinese friend Chang Chong-Chen (see The Blue Lotus for back story) survived a plane crash, and awakes with a violent start, yelling “Tchang!” and throwing the whole recreation room into chaos. The next morning, he reads in the paper that it was Tchang’s plane that crashed in Tibet. Believing that his dream was a telepathic vision, Tintin travels to Kathmandu, followed by a skeptical Captain Haddock. They meet with a sherpa named Tharkey, and accompanied by some porters, they head to the crash site.

Following a number of events, they discover footprints in the snow that Tharkey claims belong to the yeti. The porters abandon the group, and Tintin, Haddock and Tharkey go on, taking the porters’ loads as well. They reach the crash site, where Tintin finds a teddy bear half-buried in the snow, which he believes belonged to Chang. Tintin sets off with Snowy to try and trace Chang’s steps, and find a cave where Chang carved his name on a rock. Following a snowstorm in which Tintin falls down a crevasse, he rejoins Haddock and Tharkey, who had sheltered in the plane.

Tharkey decides not to go on any further, believing Chang to be dead, and Tintin, Snowy and Haddock head after a scarf that Tintin spotted on a cliff face. Haddock loses his grip and hangs perilously over a cliff edge. He wants Tintin to cut the rope to save himself, but Tintin refuses, saying that either they’re both saved or they die together. Tharkey, moved by Tintin’s selflessness, returns just in time to save them. They pitch their tent in a storm, but it blows away, into the face of the yeti. They head on through the night, and eventually see the monastery of Khor-Biyong. An avalanche occurs, and the three are buried in the snow.

Blessed Lightning, a monk at the monastery, ’sees’ Tintin, Snowy, Haddock and Tharkey in the snow, in a vision. Up in the mountains, Tintin regains consciousness and, unable to reach the monastery himself, writes a note and gives it to Snowy to deliver. Snowy lets go of the message when he finds a bone, but then realises what he’s done, and runs to the monastery to make someone follow him. The monks head after him.

Captain Haddock awakes to find himself in the monastery. He finds Tintin and Tharkey again. After Tintin tells the Grand Abbot why they are there, the Abbot tells him to abandon his quest and return to his country. Blessed Lightning has another vision, through which Tintin learns Chang is still alive, in a mountain cave, but the “migou”, or yeti, is there. Haddock doesn’t believe the monk is genuine, but the Abbot explains to him that many things that occur in Tibet seem unbelievable to Westerners. Tintin heads to Charabang, a village near the mountain where Blessed Lightning said Chang was. Haddock initially gives up and refuses to follow Tintin anymore, but eventually arrives in Charabang, and the two of them, and Snowy, head to the Horn of the Yak – the mountain where Chang is said to be – on the final lap.

They wait outside until they see the yeti leave the cave. Tintin heads in with the camera, under orders from the Captain to take a photograph of the yeti if he can. Inside the cave, Tintin finally finds Chang, who is feverish and shaking. Haddock fails to warn Tintin that the yeti returns, and he reaches toward Tintin, who sets off the flash bulb of the camera. The yeti, frightened by the light, runs out of the cave, bowling over the Captain, who has come to save Tintin. Chang is carried out by the two of them, and he tells the story of how he survived, and how the yeti took care of him. Chang calls the yeti “Poor Snowman”, and Tintin comments that he didn’t call him “abominable”. “Of course I don’t, Tintin,” says Chang, “he took care of me. Without him I’d have died of cold and hunger.” They are met by the Grand Abbot and an envoy of monks, who presents Tintin with a silk scarf in honour of the bravery he has shown, and the strength of his friendship to Chang. They are taken back to the monastery, and after a week, when Chang has recovered, they head back to Nepal on horseback. Chang muses that the yeti is no wild animal, but instead has a human soul.

About the Author
Georges Prosper Remi (May 22, 1907 – March 3, 1983), better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. “Hergé” (IPA: [ɛʀʒe]) is the French pronunciation of “R.G.”, the reverse of his initials. His best-known and most substantial work is The Adventures of Tintin, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, which left the twenty-fourth Tintin adventure, Tintin and Alph-art, unfinished. His work remains a strong influence on comics, particularly in Europe. He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2003.

The Calculus Affair” may not be immediately entertaining, as in Explorers on the Moon or the Shooting Star, but it slowly develops the plot, with just enough suspense to put the reader at the edge of his seat at the last panel. And it starts with a boom, too. The mysterious phenomenon of breaking glass and china, including the Captain’s whisky glass, is only fully explained on page 51, and the later pages expose many other plot details which contributed to the overall controlled confusion in the beginning and middle of the book. In some adventures, an answer is readily available to the various people and clues which meet up with Tintin and his friends, but in this book you feel just like a character, not knowing what will happen next. For Tintin and the Captain’s dash through Switzerland, every little detail–the Hotel Cornavin, Professor Topolino’s villa in Nyon, even the positioning of signposts and billboards–was mapped out by Hergé, with his usual extreme attention to detail. And for Tintin and Haddock’s unexpected visit to Szohod, Hergé based most of the city on bits and pieces from the USSR–after all, it began in TINTIN magazine in 1954, the height of the Cold War. The Bordurians’ habit of constantly reproducing their laughable leader Kurvi-Tasch’s whiskers, even in their alphabet, was another Soviet touch, and their phrase “By the whiskers of Kurvi-Tasch” was probably taken from chants used at 1930s Stalinistic rallies. Read More »