“The Seven Crystal Balls” is one of the better Tintin adventures. It could also have become Hergé's last comic, since he was arrested as a suspected Nazi collaborator by the Belgian resistance after World War II, right in the middle of producing it! Eventually, the Belgian authorities decided to “de-Nazify” Hergé rather than having him imprisoned (or worse), thereby giving the world the benefit of more Tintin comics. If this was good or bad is best left for another time.
“The Seven Crystal Balls” is the only Tintin story with genuine horror elements, based on the old tall tale of Tutankhamon's curse or the Mummy's revenge. In Hergé's version, the curse is Incan rather than Egyptian, and affects seven archaeologists who discover a mysterious Incan mummy in Peru. Interestingly, the occult or magical elements in the story are supposed to be taken at face value. They are not illusions, but a real part of the story's universe. Normally, “The Adventures of Tintin” strike me as very rationalist and modern. Here, by contrast, we are faced with synchronous dreams, a disappearing mummy, occult hypnosis and torture, and even ball lightning! When the distracted professor Calculus (who has no connection to the archeologists) is kidnapped by mysterious Peruvians, Tintin and his sidekick Haddock are forced to take on the darker side of the Force…
The story arc began in “The Seven Crystal Balls” is concluded in “Prisoners of the Sun”, where Tintin and Haddock discover a hidden and menacing Inca civilization in the Andes. Stay tuned for further magickal embroilments!
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