Comments on: Tintin in Shambhala

By: Suzanne Duarte

Suzanne Duarte — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:44:14 +0000

Jeezus! While we’ve been sitting here practicing all these years, KOS has been turned into SHAMALOT!

By: ash

ash — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:57:23 +0000

One day at a time, one day at a time, Captain.
So what was it this time?

By: Sherab Gyatso

Sherab Gyatso — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:54:14 +0000

Where did that path suddenly come from?

By: Dan Taylor

Dan Taylor — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:31:25 +0000

Hey Nick and Gabrielle,

This is my attempt at goosing a response from you to my letters from late December posing my questions to your own letters re. the TinTin cartoon. Has anything been solved that I don’t know about. I’m in Oregon.

I used to have pretty good sources in the Halifax sangha, but don’t now, when somebody there (or where) produces this altogether engaging allegory saying what? Or asking what? Surely the author or authors of the thing have been sleuthed out by now and the riddle busted. What have I missed?

Meanwhile, my letters to you still await an answer, unless somehow you never got them. If so, I hope this corrects whatever glitch happened, and I’ll hope for your responses.

By: John Castlebury

John Castlebury — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:11:30 +0000

No one-upmanship of the cartoonist intended, at all; on the contrary. Anyway it’s doubtful it’s even a mistake, but rather an instance of artistic license, for aesthetic reasons.

Think of the picture as a transparency like a negative – if we turn the picture over, we see the opposite image, what was on the left is now on the right and what was on the right is now on the left…

Chances are that orientation better suited the artist’s sense, that’s all, and let consistency be damned. Still, if someone notices the trick, it piques curiousity and raises funny conundrums…sort of like POP

By: John Tischer

John Tischer — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 01:05:42 +0000

Haddock’s old….he’s haddock…
Tin Tin is Maitreya…”Always look on the bright side of life”.
…different aspects of the same mind…?

By: John Castlebury

John Castlebury — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 20:42:25 +0000

More mystery for the mind of dear tsering the beholder:

How can the procession at one moment be approaching from the left, and in the next moment be approaching from the right?

I mean, how does that vast procession switch over to the other side and re-assemble itself – in the blink of an eye? Gasp!

And because of that huge switcheroo, maybe Haddock is experiencing motion sickness! Or else maybe he thinks he is having a flashback of delerium tremens!

Or maybe he curls up in a fetal position out of exasperation with Tintin’s jumpiness, always jumping to a conclusion?

If that is the case, then tsering’s admonishment would fit in Tintin’s mouth:

“Hey, [would you] give the creator a break?”

By: tsering

tsering — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 05:24:42 +0000

John, give the creator a break! “mystery”somewhat in the mind of the beholder, no?

By: John Castlebury

John Castlebury — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:13:20 +0000

Okay, but what is the mystery of this…

In the first two frames, Tintin sits to Captain Haddock’s left, and they turn to their LEFT to see the approaching procession…

In the 3rd, 4th and 5th frames, Tintin now sits to Captain Haddock’s right and they are looking to their RIGHT to see the approaching procession…

And, by the 6th and final frame, Tintin is once again seated to Captain Haddock’s left.

Why has Tintin leapt up [off-screen] and sat down on the other side of Haddock while the procession is passing?

And why has Tintin then leapt up again [off-screen] after the procession has passed and sat back down in his original place?

By: Mark Szpakowski

Mark Szpakowski — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:51:05 +0000

We can only speculate. In “Tintin in Tibet” he does get a (refuge?) name, “Noble Heart”. The extension to him and Haddock sitting by the side of the road with a begging bowl (Snowy’s bowl originally?) is quirky and humorous, but not outlandish, and doesn’t do violence to the existing story line.