The Seven Crystal Balls (French: Les Sept Boules de Cristal) is the thirteenth volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the series of comic albums by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. The strange Incan mummy Rascar Capac seems to be at the centre of a mysterious illness, and an intriguing clue is discovered near each victim: shards of crystal balls. Tintin and his friend Captain Haddock set off to rescue the kidnapped Professor Calculus. The story was first serialized in Le Soir Jeunesse, children's supplement to Belgium's leading newspaper Le Soir, from 16 December 1943 to 3 Sept 1944 but was postponed three-quarters through its serialization. World War II had ended, Belgium had been liberated, and Hergé and other members of the Le Soir were being investigated for working for a collaborationist newspaper. Four years later, in 1948, it was published in book form. The Seven Crystal Balls is the first volume in a two-part adventure concluded in Prisoners of the Sun (1949). On board a train, Tintin .. …