The Shooting Star

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The Shooting Star (L'Étoile mystérieuse) is the tenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It depicts Tintin travelling to the Arctic Ocean to recover a meteor that is composed of Phostlite, an unknown metal. (Although actually, this should be a mineral or ore rather than a metal, since the suffix "-ite" is applied to minerals; metals take the suffix "-ium".) It was first published in the newspaper Le Soir in black and white in 1941, but was the first Tintin adventure to be published directly in a coloured album a year later. It was also the first Tintin story that was immediately restricted to the later classic fixed length of 62 pages, while all older stories had about 110 pages.

[edit] Synopsis

Tintin is out walking with his dog Snowy one night, and notices an extra star in the Great Bear. When he reaches home, he dials the Observatory. They say that they have the phenomenon under observation and hang up.

Tintin wonders why it is so hot, and opens the window. He sees that the star is getting bigger every minute. He walks to the Observatory, and, after some trouble, gets inside. He meets someone leaving who proclaims himself to be a prophet and tells him that "It is a Judgement! Woe!". Puzzled, he knocks. Receiving no answer, he enters the telescope room and sees two men seated at a small table. He asks for the Director of the Observatory.

It turns out that the heat was emanated from a burning rock of an unknown mineral composition and its impact on Earth was no more than an earthquake lasting a mere few seconds, and not the end of the world as prophesied by the first stranger that Tintin met when he enters the Observatory. After an analysis of a spectroscopic photo of the meteor, the Director (Professor Decimus Phostle) deduces that it is composed of an entirely new metal. Professor Phostle names this metal "Phostlite", but is dismayed to discover that the meteor has landed in the sea and therefore, presumably, is lost. Tintin, however, realises that the meteor could be protruding above the surface of the water, and the Professor is persuaded to organise an expedition led by himself to find the metal and to retrieve a sample of it for further research. The expedition consists of leading scientists, as well as Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock (ironically serving as president of the Society for Sober Sailors), aboard the trawler Aurora.

However, unknown to the Aurora expedition, another team has already set out, backed by a financier from São Rico by the name of Bohlwinkel aboard the polar expedition ship Peary. The expedition becomes a race to be the first to land on the meteor.

The Aurora expedition runs into its first setback in the Icelandic port of Akureyri, when Captain Haddock is informed that there is no fuel available. Despondent, he and Tintin have a drink in a local bar, where the Captain bumps into an old friend, Captain Chester. Chester reveals that there is plenty of fuel, and Tintin realises that the Golden Oil Company (which has a fuel monopoly) is owned by Bohlwinkel. The three of them devise a plan to run a hose from Chester's ship, Sirius, to the Aurora and thus trick Golden Oil into selling them the fuel they need.

When underway, they receive an indistinct distress call from a ship identified as Cithara. Tintin explains that it is a trick, a fact confirmed by the discovery that there is no such ship, and so they continue on their course.

Eventually, they spot the meteor up ahead - and the Peary expedition, which has arrived there first but not actually landed on the meteor. Tintin uses the ship's seaplane to parachute on to the meteor and plant the expedition flag. The Aurora expedition has won the race, and Tintin makes camp while the ship's over-exerted engines are repaired.

While camping, Tintin discovers the remarkable properties of Phostlite. His apple core instantly grows into an enormous tree full of oversized apples, and a maggot turns into a massive butterfly. Tintin is menaced by a giant spider and huge, exploding mushrooms before rescue arrives. The young reporter and Snowy retrieve a rock sample and jump to safety as the rock sinks into the sea.

The triumphant expedition's return is reported on the radio, along with the news that law enforcement agencies are closing on Bohlwinkel. As they prepare to dock, the Captain announces that they are short on one vital commodity - whisky.

One of the politically loaded features of the original album: the antagonists of the original album were explicitly Americans (top), while recent editions feature the flag of the fictitious country of São Rico (bottom).

[edit] Alternative versions

Originally the villain was named Blumenstein, and was an American financier. Since Blumenstein is a Jewish name, some accused Hergé of anti-Semitism, prompting him to change it. In later editions the financier was named Bohlwinkel (a slight alteration of a term in Brussels dialect for "Sweet Shop", although the name was still, unfortunately, deemed to sound Jewish), and was based in the fictitious South American city of São Rico.

A number of other details were also removed (like two Jews rejoicing at the idea that the apocalypse would free them from repaying their creditors, the American flag of the landing party of the Peary), while a number of other, more obscure, hints remained (the names Peary and Kentucky Star for the ships of the antagonists, the "European Research Society" in the context of Nazi-occupied Europe, the seaplane used by Tintin is a World War II Nazi Germany reconnaissance aircraft Arado 196).

[edit] Trivia

This is one of the very few albums where Tintin makes Haddock drink alcohol in order to make him more co-operative (he uses the same tactic in The Red Sea Sharks and Tintin in Tibet).

In most of the Tintin books involving sea travel, Hergé was careful to obtain as much data concerning the ships involved in the adventure as possible. However, the Aurora was an entirely fictional vessel, and Hergé admitted later that it was probably unseaworthy.

This book features a brief appearance of the Sirius, which is later used as the expedition vessel in Red Rackham's Treasure. The version of Sirius shown here looks somewhat different to ita depiction in the later album.

The tall gentleman seen on the right of the frame as the expedition is seen off is a real person - Augustus Piccard, who was Hergé's inspiration for Professor Calculus.

v • d • e

Comic books in the Adventures of Tintin series

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets • Tintin in the Congo • Tintin in America • Cigars of the Pharaoh • The Blue Lotus • The Broken Ear • The Black Island • King Ottokar's Sceptre • The Crab with the Golden Claws • The Shooting Star • The Secret of the Unicorn • Red Rackham's Treasure • The Seven Crystal Balls • Prisoners of the Sun • Land of Black Gold • Destination Moon • Explorers on the Moon • The Calculus Affair • The Red Sea Sharks • Tintin in Tibet • The Castafiore Emerald • Flight 714 • Tintin and the Picaros • Tintin and Alph-Art