Red Rackham’s Treasure (1943)
Red Rackham’s Treasure Review
Red Rackham’s Treasure is the 12th volume of The Adventures of Tintin comics series by Belgian cartoonist Herge. It was published in 1943 and it is a terrific installment.
Tintin and his friend Captain Haddock launch an expedition to the Caribbean to locate the treasure of the pirate Red Rackham. This volume was the continuation of the story from the last volume, but it’s a better installment as it felt more like a standalone story. My only issue here is that this story was somewhat confined in terms of number of characters, ambition and/or scope. The ending was also a bit disappointing as they found the treasure, but not underwater.
But everything else here worked. Tintin and Haddock got some wonderful moments to shine with the latter being absolutely hilarious in his obsession with rum and trying to find it underwater. The ending saw the two move to Haddock estate, which will spell big fortune for the two and lead to them not having to do any jobs going forward. Snowy was a bit sidelined in this volume, but at least the friendship between all three characters was emphasized quite well.
Red Rackham’s Treasure is also important for introducing the character of Professor Cuthbert Calculus to us for the first time. A nerd who is so awkward and odd that he would continually answer questions with a line that comes out of nowhere and isn’t connected to anything else, he made for an instantly iconic addition to the Tintin roster.
There is also the illustration work here that was absolutely splendid. The underwater scenes were brimming with aquatic life and memorable shipwreck imagery. The larger panels were stunning to behold. The story served as this incredible homage to the adventure tales from the 19th century with Jules Verne immediately springing to mind. This simpler, less political storytelling was the right way to go for this series.
