7. billions of blue blistering barnacles

ten thousand thundering typhoons!

these are the two most common tongue-twisting phrases that captain archibald haddock is prone to spit out, during most of the twenty or so "the adventures of tintin" comic strip volumes that were created by the celebrated belgian artist herge, or georges prosper remi in real life.

gruff and pathetically weak against alcohol, captain haddock is particularly known for his array of creative insults usually hurled with the spit force equivalent of a cannonball.

i am writing this now after having just gone through the last of the tintin stories (tintin and the picaros), reading being a typical way of prepping me to sleep.

instead of sleeping, i choose to commemorate the sadness i feel at this particular goodbye, more poignant because i remember that i was hesitant to start reading the stories at first because i had presumptuously judged them as too cartoon-y after one glance.

in the end, allison prevailed and little by little was able to share with me these books he had first loved as a child. i initially read two of them grudgingly, until one day i realized to my dismay that too late, i was already hopelessly smitten by the straightforward (chapterless) pages, had come to love snowy the dog and enshrine him in my heart as the embodiment of loyalty at its simplest and most meaningful, had come to smile over cuthbert calculus' genius only trumped by his waterloo of deafness, and had come to be part of the adventures that tintin seemed to find (and act on) all the time.

i say act on because that is how tintin, essentially, is. he has a way of making enemies similar to how dogs accumulate fleas (or to how i accumulate shopping bags), because he is never one to let any injustice win (and i am never one to let any promo go). and he always does win in the end, no matter how much he is ironically surrounded by blundering lovable fools say, in the form of twin detectives who can never be seen without their canes and hats.

herge is to be commended for writing down stories and historical and scientific facts as though he knew more than what he probably really did, for owning them completely. he is to be commended for his clean and soft lines, and the amazing detail and wit of his art.

mostly, i also thank him, and bless his memory, for having created one of the most one-dimensional but also one of the most endearing heroes i am proud to have in my book.

oh, to be with you on an adventure again, tintin! this little girl misses you already.. :_(