Yet my brother and I still quote lines from it, especially the prison camp ('I thought you liked hot chocolate.' 'There will be a slight change in the menu tonight.' 'I am a patient man-but this is too much!'). I got the distinct impression the adapters knew what it was about very well indeed.

IT IS NOT the version I'd recently found on all-region DVD, dubbed into English and Hindi and paired with 'The Broken Ear.' When broadcast Stateside the English-dubbed 'Affair' from the original Belgian animated series differed in its voice characterizations from the other episodes in that series, with a hard-edged, straight-on, and dryly humorous style. 'The Calculus Affair' remains the adaptation that I'd remembered most vividly. The Belgian animated series was reportedly disavowed by the artist-creator, but understand that to many in my generation Stateside the Belgian animated series dubbed into American English and broadcast in the mid-1960s was in fact the true introduction to Tintin and Snowy, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, Thomson and Thompson, and many other memorable characters as well as their predicaments. I know of but have seen only one episode of the Franco-Canadian animated adaptation of the graphic images, but even so I cringe at the news of feature-length live-action film adaptations. Even animation has its limits trying to capture what the young reader's mind is readily inspired to supply. I readily concede The Adventures of Tintin by Herge in book form ('graphic novels,' now?) remain peerless.

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