52_52 Challenge: 1/52
In case you haven't noticed, igrab poked the flist about doing the 52_52 challenge (read 52 books in the 52 weeks in 2012, and then partay the last few days~ or catch up reading I guess) a while back, and I was like I'M ON THAT SHIT. So, until I get lazy and fail to do this, I'll do a post after I finish each week, both to flail about books, and to kind of keep myself honest about it.
Also here is my masterlist, for those who want to be organized about stalking my reading habits.
So!
This week I decided to read a bunch of The Adventures of Tintin as my book, because the library really is quite sad about having to declare them lost. Since I have collections of three adventures each, and each collection is just under 200 (comic) pages long, I decided to call it a week once I finished three of the four collections I currently have out.
General Feelings
God, Tintin. I love Tintin SO. DAMN. MUCH. It's so full of that wonderful tiny!Anne joy, and I keep realizing just how much Tintin shaped me and the kind of person I subconsciously think you're supposed to be. Tintin's incredibly smart. He's not afraid to use violence, but he doesn't leap to it. He doesn't think too highly of himself-- except for those times when he's taken a prisoner and he's gotta be like LOL MY GUN WASN'T LOADED and then the villain's like LOL MINE ISN'T EITHER and Tintin's like AHHH OH NOES and I'm just like SIGHFACE, OH TINTIN. But we'll set that aside. Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, and the Thom(p)sons were really kind of like a family that I could be part of when I was teeny. Part of learning to read involved stumbling through words like "counterfeiters" and "billions of blistering blue barnacles" and trying to figure out what was going on in the pictures when there was no dictionary around. Another part of growing up was figuring out that those weird-looking people were what is known as "blackface", and undergoing a bit of a crisis over that one. But now that I'm older, I realize that that was just kind of an unfortunate side-effect of the times, so that particular crisis is done with. And still I adore Tintin. The new movie, the 90s cartoon, the comics... I can keep coming back, and I keep understanding different things as I grow up. I could seriously go on all day, but I hear my laundry needing to be moved to the dryer, so I'll move on to the individual stories.
Tintin in America
God, good fuckin' times. If you don't know, this is the third adventure written, and um. I could tell you that it was made before Hergé started doing proper research into his settings, but ah. Just read it, and I really doubt I'll have to tell you that. It's so awesome. Chicago is run by the mob, and the West is still filled with cowboys and Indians. This leads to some awkward facepalms (the panel where Tintin holds up his camera and tells Snowy, "Look, Snowy! A real Redskin!" comes to mind), but it's still tons of fun.
Cigars of the Pharaoh
Ahhhh! I LOVE THIS ONE. This is the one that introduces the Thom(p)sons! It's also the one where Tintin derps about in Egypt, and then ends up in a coffin at sea, and then meets Oliveira de Figueira, whom I also adore, and then he's like LOL FLIES PLAN TO INDIA and becomes BFFs with an elephant, and then he keeps running into Rastapopoulos, but he never notices that this is in any way odd, and then the big bad falls over a cliff and WHO COULD IT EVEN BEEEEE?
The Blue Lotus
And then he goes to China, which is when Hergé actually started researching, but that's okay, because the Japanese still look more than a bit awkwardly racist. And then CHANG SHOWS UP, AND AWWWWW, BFFS WITH TINTIN, and then drugs, and then OH NOES, WHO COULD THE LEADER OF THIS OPIUM-SMUGGLING RING THAT WAS ALSO IN CIGARS OF THE PHARAOH BE? WHAT'S THAT? WHY... IT'S RASTAPOPOULOS! I FOR ONE DID NOT SEE THAT COMING! Ahhhh, I love Rastapopoulos. He's like my favorite Tintin villain ever, and that is saying so damn much.
The Broken Ear
But then suddenly Ramon and Alonso show up, vying for the position! And briefly there's a parrot that's a plot device, who keeps screeching "GRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEAT GREEEEEEEDY GUTS" all the damn time, and Tintin's in blackface briefly and all of the faces are palmed, and I know that calling the little wooden idol a fetish doesn't mean that, but it's still awkward, and the Arumbayas are awesome, and RAMON AND ALONSO ARE ADORABLE OKAY like. Like one time Ramon goes out like OKAY BYE HONEY I'M OFF TO KILL TINTIN, and Alonso's like OKAY DON'T FORGET TO PICK UP MILK, and then Ramon gets shot in the ass (it's a little complicated) and comes home in pain and Alonso's like OH NO ARE YOU OKAY? and I'm like DAWWWWW. And then Alcazar gets introduced, and oh I love him so much, but I don't love him quite as much in the comics, because I've always adored his voice from the cartoon, so it's a little lonely without his big crazy awesome voice there. BUT WHATEVER I LOVE THIS ONE TOO OKAY.
The Black Island
AH BUT I LOVE THIS ONE TOO. This is the awesome one where Tintin goes to England and Scotland, and when I was little that was probably where I got my love of Scottish accents, because okay YES, and also this is the one where Tintin's in a kilt, which okay YES. And then this is when another fantastic (recurring) villain got introduced-- Dr. Müller! Ahhh! He's German, and he's like LOL I'MA SEND YOU TO MY MENTAL HOSPITAL WHERE YOU'LL GO CRAZY, but then Tintin busts out because Snowy tells the fire fighters the house isn't empty and then Müller and his boyfriend I mean driver Ivan get away but then Tintin catches them on the Black Island in the old castle and makes friends with Ranko the gorilla that was supposed to kill him and this whole time the Thom(p)sons are on-and-off chasing Tintin because SHENANIGANS OKAY and GAH. I LOVE THIS ONE TOO.
King Ottokar's Sceptre
BECAUSE I LOVE ALL OF THEM, OKAY. This one I probably love among the least, but I still love it to bits. I think the only real reason I don't love it as much is because there isn't a very good, solid villain. There's the evil Professor Alembick (standing in for his twin), but his main presence is just carrying out the plot. There isn't much to him. Boris gets introduced, and of course he'll return with a lot of impact in the moon arc, but he's barely here in this one. Still, this one introduces Biana Castafiore, whom I adore-- but she's so much better when she has the Captain to interact with, I think. I think the biggest plus I'd have for Sceptre is that is introduces the countries of Syldavia and Borduria, both of which are fabulously well developed, and keep showing up time and again in the series.
The Crab with Golden Claws
AHHHH CAPTAIN HADDOCK! HE'S HERE! AHHHHH! I love him so muuuuuuch. I've always loved him so. Damn. Much. He's. GAAAAAAH! <3 He's funny and he's the humor that wasn't quite there when it was just Tintin and Snowy, and he's also just such a good friend that it makes my heart hurt with feelings. BUT THAT ISN'T EVEN ALL THERE IS TO LOVE IN THIS ONE. The story itself is damn good, and it introduces Captain Haddock's treacherous first mate Allan, who is just wonderful every time he turns up. He got put into the redrawn Cigars of the Pharaoh, but it was basically just an extended cameo. This is the one where he really gets established, and he's awesome. He isn't just a stupid thug, but he isn't a scheming supervillain either. He's comfortable being the dragon, and he'd be awesome at his evil, evil job if it weren't for Tintin turning up. And again. CAPTAIN HADDOCK.
The Shooting Star
This is another that isn't my favorite, but I still enjoy it. Captain Haddock's here now, and he's in his element on a ship. It starts out a little weird, though, with a switch to a dream sequence at one point that's way more obvious now, but the confusion it caused me as a tiny child still lingers a bit. Professor Phostle is a poor substitute for the soon-to-be-introduced Professor Calculus, but he's still awesome. I dunno. I really enjoy this one, but I just don't seem to have the usual amount of flail for it.
The Secret of the Unicorn
AHHHHHHHHHH THIS ONE THOUGH. THIS ONE. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I LOVE THIS ONE SO MUCH! PIRATES. PIRATES! AHHHHHHHHHH! AND THE BIRD BROTHERS HOLY FUCK THEY'RE GOOD VILLAINS, AND THE SUBPLOT WITH ARISTIDES SILK, THE PICKPOCKET! I LOVE IT! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AND SIR FRANCIS HADDOCK, AND CAPTAIN HADDOCK ALL AWESOME, AND NESTOR TURNS UP, AND MARLINSPIKE OH MARLINSPIKE HALL I LOVE IT SO MUCH, AND I KNOW THE WHOLE TIME THAT RED RACKHAM'S TREASURE COMES NEXT AND PROFESSOR CALCULUS WILL BE TURNING UP AND JUST. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!
And there you have it. Nine adventures, and with that it's one down, fifty-one to go.
And I have no idea when I'll finish my Christmas fics at this point. I lost all interest, so I might just post the ones I finished on their own.
Also here is my masterlist, for those who want to be organized about stalking my reading habits.
So!
This week I decided to read a bunch of The Adventures of Tintin as my book, because the library really is quite sad about having to declare them lost. Since I have collections of three adventures each, and each collection is just under 200 (comic) pages long, I decided to call it a week once I finished three of the four collections I currently have out.
General Feelings
God, Tintin. I love Tintin SO. DAMN. MUCH. It's so full of that wonderful tiny!Anne joy, and I keep realizing just how much Tintin shaped me and the kind of person I subconsciously think you're supposed to be. Tintin's incredibly smart. He's not afraid to use violence, but he doesn't leap to it. He doesn't think too highly of himself-- except for those times when he's taken a prisoner and he's gotta be like LOL MY GUN WASN'T LOADED and then the villain's like LOL MINE ISN'T EITHER and Tintin's like AHHH OH NOES and I'm just like SIGHFACE, OH TINTIN. But we'll set that aside. Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, and the Thom(p)sons were really kind of like a family that I could be part of when I was teeny. Part of learning to read involved stumbling through words like "counterfeiters" and "billions of blistering blue barnacles" and trying to figure out what was going on in the pictures when there was no dictionary around. Another part of growing up was figuring out that those weird-looking people were what is known as "blackface", and undergoing a bit of a crisis over that one. But now that I'm older, I realize that that was just kind of an unfortunate side-effect of the times, so that particular crisis is done with. And still I adore Tintin. The new movie, the 90s cartoon, the comics... I can keep coming back, and I keep understanding different things as I grow up. I could seriously go on all day, but I hear my laundry needing to be moved to the dryer, so I'll move on to the individual stories.
Tintin in America
God, good fuckin' times. If you don't know, this is the third adventure written, and um. I could tell you that it was made before Hergé started doing proper research into his settings, but ah. Just read it, and I really doubt I'll have to tell you that. It's so awesome. Chicago is run by the mob, and the West is still filled with cowboys and Indians. This leads to some awkward facepalms (the panel where Tintin holds up his camera and tells Snowy, "Look, Snowy! A real Redskin!" comes to mind), but it's still tons of fun.
Cigars of the Pharaoh
Ahhhh! I LOVE THIS ONE. This is the one that introduces the Thom(p)sons! It's also the one where Tintin derps about in Egypt, and then ends up in a coffin at sea, and then meets Oliveira de Figueira, whom I also adore, and then he's like LOL FLIES PLAN TO INDIA and becomes BFFs with an elephant, and then he keeps running into Rastapopoulos, but he never notices that this is in any way odd, and then the big bad falls over a cliff and WHO COULD IT EVEN BEEEEE?
The Blue Lotus
And then he goes to China, which is when Hergé actually started researching, but that's okay, because the Japanese still look more than a bit awkwardly racist. And then CHANG SHOWS UP, AND AWWWWW, BFFS WITH TINTIN, and then drugs, and then OH NOES, WHO COULD THE LEADER OF THIS OPIUM-SMUGGLING RING THAT WAS ALSO IN CIGARS OF THE PHARAOH BE? WHAT'S THAT? WHY... IT'S RASTAPOPOULOS! I FOR ONE DID NOT SEE THAT COMING! Ahhhh, I love Rastapopoulos. He's like my favorite Tintin villain ever, and that is saying so damn much.
The Broken Ear
But then suddenly Ramon and Alonso show up, vying for the position! And briefly there's a parrot that's a plot device, who keeps screeching "GRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEAT GREEEEEEEDY GUTS" all the damn time, and Tintin's in blackface briefly and all of the faces are palmed, and I know that calling the little wooden idol a fetish doesn't mean that, but it's still awkward, and the Arumbayas are awesome, and RAMON AND ALONSO ARE ADORABLE OKAY like. Like one time Ramon goes out like OKAY BYE HONEY I'M OFF TO KILL TINTIN, and Alonso's like OKAY DON'T FORGET TO PICK UP MILK, and then Ramon gets shot in the ass (it's a little complicated) and comes home in pain and Alonso's like OH NO ARE YOU OKAY? and I'm like DAWWWWW. And then Alcazar gets introduced, and oh I love him so much, but I don't love him quite as much in the comics, because I've always adored his voice from the cartoon, so it's a little lonely without his big crazy awesome voice there. BUT WHATEVER I LOVE THIS ONE TOO OKAY.
The Black Island
AH BUT I LOVE THIS ONE TOO. This is the awesome one where Tintin goes to England and Scotland, and when I was little that was probably where I got my love of Scottish accents, because okay YES, and also this is the one where Tintin's in a kilt, which okay YES. And then this is when another fantastic (recurring) villain got introduced-- Dr. Müller! Ahhh! He's German, and he's like LOL I'MA SEND YOU TO MY MENTAL HOSPITAL WHERE YOU'LL GO CRAZY, but then Tintin busts out because Snowy tells the fire fighters the house isn't empty and then Müller and his boyfriend I mean driver Ivan get away but then Tintin catches them on the Black Island in the old castle and makes friends with Ranko the gorilla that was supposed to kill him and this whole time the Thom(p)sons are on-and-off chasing Tintin because SHENANIGANS OKAY and GAH. I LOVE THIS ONE TOO.
King Ottokar's Sceptre
BECAUSE I LOVE ALL OF THEM, OKAY. This one I probably love among the least, but I still love it to bits. I think the only real reason I don't love it as much is because there isn't a very good, solid villain. There's the evil Professor Alembick (standing in for his twin), but his main presence is just carrying out the plot. There isn't much to him. Boris gets introduced, and of course he'll return with a lot of impact in the moon arc, but he's barely here in this one. Still, this one introduces Biana Castafiore, whom I adore-- but she's so much better when she has the Captain to interact with, I think. I think the biggest plus I'd have for Sceptre is that is introduces the countries of Syldavia and Borduria, both of which are fabulously well developed, and keep showing up time and again in the series.
The Crab with Golden Claws
AHHHH CAPTAIN HADDOCK! HE'S HERE! AHHHHH! I love him so muuuuuuch. I've always loved him so. Damn. Much. He's. GAAAAAAH! <3 He's funny and he's the humor that wasn't quite there when it was just Tintin and Snowy, and he's also just such a good friend that it makes my heart hurt with feelings. BUT THAT ISN'T EVEN ALL THERE IS TO LOVE IN THIS ONE. The story itself is damn good, and it introduces Captain Haddock's treacherous first mate Allan, who is just wonderful every time he turns up. He got put into the redrawn Cigars of the Pharaoh, but it was basically just an extended cameo. This is the one where he really gets established, and he's awesome. He isn't just a stupid thug, but he isn't a scheming supervillain either. He's comfortable being the dragon, and he'd be awesome at his evil, evil job if it weren't for Tintin turning up. And again. CAPTAIN HADDOCK.
The Shooting Star
This is another that isn't my favorite, but I still enjoy it. Captain Haddock's here now, and he's in his element on a ship. It starts out a little weird, though, with a switch to a dream sequence at one point that's way more obvious now, but the confusion it caused me as a tiny child still lingers a bit. Professor Phostle is a poor substitute for the soon-to-be-introduced Professor Calculus, but he's still awesome. I dunno. I really enjoy this one, but I just don't seem to have the usual amount of flail for it.
The Secret of the Unicorn
AHHHHHHHHHH THIS ONE THOUGH. THIS ONE. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I LOVE THIS ONE SO MUCH! PIRATES. PIRATES! AHHHHHHHHHH! AND THE BIRD BROTHERS HOLY FUCK THEY'RE GOOD VILLAINS, AND THE SUBPLOT WITH ARISTIDES SILK, THE PICKPOCKET! I LOVE IT! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AND SIR FRANCIS HADDOCK, AND CAPTAIN HADDOCK ALL AWESOME, AND NESTOR TURNS UP, AND MARLINSPIKE OH MARLINSPIKE HALL I LOVE IT SO MUCH, AND I KNOW THE WHOLE TIME THAT RED RACKHAM'S TREASURE COMES NEXT AND PROFESSOR CALCULUS WILL BE TURNING UP AND JUST. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!
And there you have it. Nine adventures, and with that it's one down, fifty-one to go.
And I have no idea when I'll finish my Christmas fics at this point. I lost all interest, so I might just post the ones I finished on their own.