The Adventures of Tintin: Red Rackham's Treasure (2023 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Many of the intrepid boy reporter Tintin's adventures have colorful names. The Blue Lotus. The Black Island. The Crab with the Golden Claws. In Red Rackham's Treasure, Tintin and his sea faring friend, Captain Haddock search for the missing treasure of the notorious pirate, Red Rackham.

Spinning off of Tintin's previous adventure, The Secret of the Unicorn, Tintin finds the treasure map of Sir Francis Haddock. An ancestor of Captain Haddock, Sir Francis was responsible for ending the career of Red Rackham, after the raider plundered his stores of treasure. However, Sir Francis' ship, the Unicorn was sunk during the battle with Rackham, sending the booty down to Davy Jones' locker. Consequently the nobleman was the Unicorn's only survivor, marooned for about two years on a nearby island.

Tintin, his faithful dog Snowy and Captain Haddock are assisted in their search for buried or sunken treasure by those bumbling but brave detective twins, Thomson and Thompson, as well as the hard of hearing scientist, Professor Cuthbert Calculus. 

Many readers mistakenly believe that Thompson and Thomson are twin brothers. This mostly due to how nearly identical the two detectives look and their strange way of repeating each other's sentences. Having an 80's British pop band be named Thompson Twins after the duo probably didn't help confusion matters any either. Tintin creator Herge, based the two on his real life father and uncle, who were identical twins that wore matching bowlers and walking canes throughout adulthood. In the original French translation of Tintin, the pair are known as Dupont and Dupond.

Red Rackham's Treasure marks the first appearance of Professor Cuthbert Calculus. Based on the Swiss scientist Auguste Picard, Calculus is as brilliant a developer but a lot more prone to accidents. Picard made record breaking hydrogen balloon flights in an experimental bathyscaphe. Professor Calculus' prototype underwater shark sub gets stuck in a field of seaweed. Calculus' hearing troubles are points of levity in the Tintin series, much to the annoyance of Captain Haddock. But thanks to the relentless persistence of Calculus, events of this graphic novel benefit Haddock greatly in the end.

As for Red Rackham, why was he given that nickname? The pirates real first name was John. He did not have red hair nor a ruddy complexion. Rackham earned his nickname from the dashing red cape that enrobed his neck and the massive scarlet plume atop his cavalier headwear.

Completing this review completes Task #21 (Has a Color in the Title) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.