The Seven Crystal Balls - Publication History

Publication History

For Professor Tarragon's residence, Hergé's collaborator Edgar P. Jacobs suggested a house he knew in Boitsfort. The two artists went there and made sketches of the house which appeared to be empty. It was only when they were leaving that they realised that the place was actually being used by the local SS and was full of soldiers. However, they were able to slip away without any trouble.

The original serial version began regular publication in the Belgian newspaper Le Soir on 16 December 1943. It was suspended on 3 September 1944, following the liberation of Brussels, when Hergé and many of his colleagues had to answer for working for the collaborationist newspaper.

The strip ended with Tintin walking through the street reading a newspaper when he collides with General Alcazar. Alcazar tells him that he is now unemployed since the disappearance of his assistant Chiquito and how Chiquito is in fact a descendant of the Incas. Tintin then describes to him the man who was driving the car in which Calculus is believed to have been transferred to during the kidnapping. Alcazar identifies him as Fernando Ramirez, a major exporter of guano whom Chiquito knew well. Tintin then rushes him to the police station in order to make a statement.

Publication resumed in the newly-launched Tintin Magazine in 1946, under the title Le Temple du Soleil (French for "Temple of the Sun" but renamed Prisoners of the Sun in English). It begins with Tintin on his way to Marlinspike Hall where Haddock is in a state of depression over Calculus' disappearance. This and his sudden leap into action is said to be reflecting Hergé's mood at the time: his uncertain future due to the accusations of collaboration and the subsequent offer to help launch Tintin Magazine. (The scene with Alcazar would be re-located to a city port with the General about to set off to South America himself in order to lead an uprising and denying all knowledge of the driver in the car).