Books like Land of Black Gold

Rather a dilatory and loosely-plotted entry in the series, which to its credit the book wryly jokes about. Captain haddock turns up out of the blue at one point to rescue Tintin, but each attempt on his part to explain the strange circumstances that brought him there in the nick of time is cut off; finally, he storms off in the penultimate panel, huffing that at any rate, the story is not going to be told by HIM now. We end with Abdullah painting the words "The End" on a wall, a simultaneous act of graffiti and a meta moment of conclusion. This book also introduces Abdullah, the extremely irritating son of a sheik, who is some plot importance but arguably the most unlikable figure in the recurring Tintin cast. Fortunately, he has very few appearances overall in the series. Somewhat noteworthy, perhaps, for its focus on oil as the potential cause of global conflict, but nevertheless politically pretty naive about the subject. There are many typical instances of slapstick humour, and of course the whole thing is lovely to look at, but is nevertheless not a highlight of the series.