. HERGE Tintin in Tibet Graphite on paper for the preparatory pencil sketch for plate 16 from this album published in 1960 by Casterman. Pre-published in the newspaper Tintin no. 53, 31 December 1958: "On the roads of Nepal, Haddock has a little liquid comfort... " 53.5 × 36.5 cm. Captain Haddock dreams. From at least he's not delirious, which is which is a clear improvement on The Crab with the Golden Claws, where he burned the oars of the canoe to in which he and Tintin had left Karaboudjan, or by the end of the 7 Balls of when, saddened, he raised his hand his glass in front of the portrait of the portrait of Professor Tournesol, and saw his friend step out of the frame. What an idea to abuse his tonic before tackling the Himalayas. He's a sailor a courageous sailor frightens him, always ready to help Tintin, but sometimes slightly unreasonable. A remarkable sequence in an album featuring images where we escape, for a time from reality: Tintin who, at the beginning, makes a terrible nightmare, and thinks he hears his friend Chiang calling for help; Snowy, who chooses not to listen the advice of his guardian angel, who stumbles dangerously and falls water; the monk Blessed Lightning, who who levitates and has visions - Tintin in the Tibet is an adventure in which certain things can't be explained, where the most personal beliefs prevail over the rational and the dejection. Haddock and Sunflower are dressed costumes and are holding incoherent statements, all in a surreal setting - a billboard a one-way sign, umbrellas as if it were raining, a chessboard with a knight who looks like a sacred cow. We don't know what where we are, we don't know where we are where we're going, and we have absolutely no idea what's going on. "Your umbrella... But I've got a whole load of them". said Haddock. "Naughty liar! Here's my umbrella" replied replies the scientist. They look like two children bickering. Then Sunflower, who has grown up, knocks Haddock out, who has shrunk. In three squares, Hergé throws the reader off balance - a a passage worthy of Lewis Carroll and Alice. Fortunately, the line is wiser and more reassuring than the Haddock's drunken reveries. The cartoonist, unlike his character, hesitates very little and trembles. Everything is already in place. in place: the captain who begins the extravagant dialogue dialogue with Tournesol, the awakening after bumping into a after hitting a tree, Tintin worrying about his friend and puts his hand on his shoulder to comfort him. We must insist on the last panel, with those faces and those question marks question marks: even at the other end of the world, they have to deal with the the voice of the Castafiore - an ordeal more terrifying than coming face to face with the Yeti. . HERGE