My review, as published in Tintin Books:


"The Seven Crystal Balls" is a wonderfully atmospheric album, in which fears of the supernatural meld perfectly with the scientific discoveries of the time. Anyone who grew up with the animated TV series will probably recall this one in great detail, as there is so much good material here: particularly notable is the agonising wait in Tarragon's manor, and the marvelous frame of the seven victims waking up on cue in their hospital beds, and screaming.

Although Herge was remaining stoically apolitical, his series had acquired a wealth of recurring characters to enrich the story, and many of them - Thompson & Thomson, Bianca Castafiore, Nestor, General Alcazar, as well as the newcomer Cuthbert Calculus - appear here. There's some very good character work for a wide variety of the cast - including a welcome return for General Alcazar - and it's pleasant how quickly we care for Calculus. His disappearance, and Haddock's subsequent concern, are affecting even though we only met him in the last album! Among other evolutions in the series, Tintin appears to have left his Brussels flat in favour of living with Haddock at Marlinspike Hall. Their relationship with Calculus has also quickly deepened, as evidenced by Haddock's severe depression when the professor goes missing. Like Haddock before him, Calculus' popularity was a surprise for the artist - but a surprise he took in his stride.

At the same time, it is worth mentioning that a lot of time is spent on set-up. Very little actually happens for most of this album. This is partly a result of Herge's required output in the era, and partly because he himself was so fascinated by creating realism in his settings, characters and costumes, that he devoted himself to every scene and every supporting character. It's very clearly only the start of the story (which is why most adaptations take us to South America and the plot of [book:Prisoners of the Sun|96428 quite quickly).

However, what we have here is both creepy and amusing, and clearly demonstrate the mastery of his form which would soon lead Herge to start playing around with the established formula. I'd probably give it a high three-and-a-half stars, but I'm upgrading it to four for the sake of this review. ( )

Une adaptation agréable de cet opus des aventures de Tintin. Il ne se passe pas grand-chose, mais Tryphon Tournesol et les deux Dunpond/t sont là pour donner un peu de légèreté à l’ensemble.

A tee-up story for Prisoner's of the Sun, which is great. Nothing really happens in this one, but it's adequate enough. ( )

Pas facile d’adapter une BD à l’oral, mais c’est plutôt réussi ici. Les 7 boules de cristal n’est pas le Tintin que je préfère, mais on sent bien dans cette adaptation toute la tension qu’il peut y avoir dans cette série de catastrophes annoncées. Un coup de chapeau à l’équipe chargée de l’adaptation !

Las 7 bolas de cristal (Les 7 boules de cristal), es un cómic realizado por el belga Hergé para su serie de Las aventuras de Tintín. La historieta se publicó entre 1943 y 1944 en el periódico Le Soir, pero sería en 1948 cuando vería la luz, ya que la obra de Hergé fue cancelada.

Los arqueólogos de la expedición Sanders-Hardmuth regresan a Europa tras dos años en Perú y Bolivia, en donde han hallado el sepulcro del rey inca Rascar Capac. No tardarán en comenzar a padecer una extraña enfermedad que les sumerge en un profundo letargo, despertando todos a la misma hora del día, tremendamente sobresaltados, como si los torturaran para volver a caer en su sueño. Todo apunta a que se trate del castigo profetizado en la propia tumba de Rascar Capac. Junto a todos los enfermos se encuentran los restos de unas bolas esféricas de cristal con algún veneno en su interior.

Tintín, el capitán Haddock y el profesor Tornasol visitan a uno de los miembros de la expedición: el profesor Hipólito Bergamotte. Cuando éste cae enfermo y el profesor Tornasol es secuestrado, Tintín y el capitán siguen la pista de su amigo que les llevará a Perú.

Un punto cómico de la historia es cuando el capitán Haddock muestra su afán por lograr convertir el agua en vino, al igual que Bruno, el prestidigitador del Music-Hall Palace. Precisamente en ese mismo espectáculo hará aparición el general Alcázar, que ya se pudo conocer en La oreja rota y ahora es lanzador de cuchillos; también aparece Bianca Castafiore, "el ruiseñor de Milán".