The Crab with the Golden Claws
- Colour / 1943 re-drawn version
- Tintin © Hergé/Moulinsart.
Original French title
Le Crabe au Pinces d'Or
Publication history
First published in Le Soir, three strips weekly between 17 October 1940 and 3 September 1941. One strip daily between 23 September 1941 and 19 October 1941.
Appeared in book form in 1941 (black and white, 104 pages).
The book was re-drawn in 1943.
English edition
1972 - Methuen Children's (London). Translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner. 62p. 30cm. ISBN: 041624050X.
Related link
First publication dates of The Adventures of Tintin
Plot
A series of mysterious clues put Tintin and Snowy on the trail of a dangerous gang of opium-smugglers. Tintin is kidnapped, but in a daring escape at sea he meets Captain Haddock, and together they track down the gang in a chase which takes them from the scorching Sahara Desert to the alleys of a Moroccan port. [AR]
Trivia
- Inconsistencies:
- Page 16, frame 10: Haddock pushes away a glass of "Old Whisky", which presumably rolls off the table or at least falls over; however on page 18, frame 3, two glasses are on the table.
- Page 32, frame 2: Tintin and Haddock wander about the desert. Tintin has taken his coat off and Haddock has taken his blue turtle-neck pullover off. At some point in the desert they pass out and are later rescued by Lieutenant Delcourt's men. On page 33, frame 13, Haddock has again put on his blue turtle-neck.
- Page 48, between frames 1 and 2, the shop owner's clothes turn from blue to purple.
- Page 51, frame 6: in the 1943 version of the album, Tintin's blue top turns green in frame 6 and then back to blue again later. [Peter Dam]
- Tintin and Archibald Haddock meet for the first time aboard the "Karaboudjan".
- The original title for "The Crab with the Golden Claws" was going to be "Le Crabe Rouge" ("The Red Crab"), in-keeping with the previous titles of "The Blue Lotus" and "The Black Island". [PA]
- "The Crab with the Golden Claws" is the shortest story in the Tintin series. This story was so short that Hergé had to add several full page panels to make it long enough to fit the 62-page format.
- Page 3: The Thompson each have a glass of beer of which clearly some has been drunk, then one fills all by itself, and then the other.
- Page 40, frame 1: The fruit-seller is heading towards the foreground. He is past the archway when when Haddocks crashes into him from behind [frame 1 on pages 40, and frame 1 on page 41]. Instead of being pushed more to the foreground, the fruit-seller is pulled back into the the background. [frame 2, page 41].
- On page 38, frame 9, Captain Haddock's top is green, not the usual blue. Hergé may have first painted the shirt yellow by mistake (while colouring the sand around it?) and then painted blue over the mistake (yellow and blue produce a yellowy green).
Title in other languages
- Basque - Urrezko hagindun karramarroa
- Bengali - Kankra Rahasya
- Bernese German - Täntän u d Guldchrabbe
- Brazilian Portuguese - O Caranguejo das Tenazes de Ouro (Record edition, 1970s-90s.) / O Caranguejo das Pinças de Ouro (Companhia das Letras edition, 2006-2007.)
- Breton - Krank e veudoù aour
- Catalan - El cranc de les pinces d'or
- Chinese - China: 金钳螃蟹贩毒集团 (Jinqian pangxie fandu jituan) / Hong Kong and Taiwan: 金螯蟹 (jin aoxie)
- Czech - Krab se slatymi klepety
- Danish - Krabben med de gyldne kløer
- Dutch - De krab met de gulden scharen
- Esperanto - La krabo kun oraj pinciloj
- Farsi/Persian - Khargangi changal talayi
- Finnish - Kultasaksinen rapu
- Frisian - De krab mei de gouden skjirren
- Galician - O caraguexo das tences de ouro
- German - Die Krabbe mit den goldenen Scheren
- Greek - O Kávouras me tis chrisés dagkánes
- Hebrew - Ha'sartan im tsvatot Ha'Zahav
- Hungarian - Az aranyollós Rák
- Icelandic - Krabbinn með gyltu klærnar
- Indonesian - Kepiting bercapit emas
- Italian - Il granchio d'oro
- Japanese - 金のはさみのカニ Kin no hasami no kani
- Norwegian - Krabben med de gyldne klør
- Polish - Krab o zlotych szczypcach
- Portuguese - O caranguejo das tenazes de ouro
- Rhaeto-Romansch - Il giomberet cun las forschs d'aur
- Russian - Krab s zolotymi kleshnyami
- Slovak - Krab sp zlatymi klepetami
- Slovenian - Zlati Rakci
- Spanish - El cangrejo de las pinzas de oro
- Swedish - Krabban med guldklorna
- Tahitian - Te Pa'apa'a ävae pirù
- Turkish - Altin kiskaçli yengeç
- Vietnamese - Câng cua vâng
- Welsh - Y cranc â'r crafangau aur