The Red Sea Sharks (1958)
The Red Sea Sharks Review
The Red Sea Sharks is the 19th volume of The Adventures of Tintin comics series by Belgian cartoonist Herge. It was published in 1958 and it is one of the weaker installments in the series.
It follows the young reporter Tintin, his dog Snowy and his friend Captain Haddock as they travel to the fictional Middle Eastern kingdom of Khemed with the intention of aiding the Emir Ben Kalish Ezab in regaining control after a coup d’état by his enemies, who are financed by slave traders led by Tintin’s old nemesis Rastapopoulos. This volume was similar in quality to the previous comic, but it functions more along the line of ‘Land of Black Gold’ in its adventurous elements.
My main issue with this entry is the overall story that was quite weak and the insistence to include so many villains all at once. This backfired as it led to a ridiculously convoluted and haphazard narrative where I could not care for either the plot or said villains as there were way too many of them. It served those James Bond thrills, but I prefer Tintin to operate more as a Jules Verne story.
With that being said, there are some aspects here that were outstanding. One is the illustration work. Herge continues to excel in this area, delivering once again in sheer level of detail, artistry and memorable imagery. Another strong element is the humor. Captain Haddock was hilarious in this volume. His drinking issue is well mined for laughs per usual while his dynamic with an Estonian side character was also very amusing.
I didn’t quite care for the plot, though I did find Herge’s depiction of modern slavery interesting. He at least tried to depict black people in a more positive light, though he only half-succeeded at that given that their admiration of white people was cringe-worthy. The whole Emir subplot was quite fun in and of itself, though it was silly and inconsequential at the end of the day.
