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''The Calculus Affair'' () is the eighteenth volume of ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. The story was initially serialised weekly in Belgium's ''Tintin'' magazine from December 1954 to February 1956 before being published in a collected volume by Casterman in 1956. The narrative follows the attempts of the young reporter Tintin, his dog Snowy, and his friend Captain Haddock to rescue Professor Calculus, a scientist who has developed a machine capable of destroying objects with sound waves, after the latter is the subject of kidnapping attempts from the competing European countries of Borduria and Syldavia. Following on from the previous volume, ''Explorers on the Moon'', ''The Calculus Affair'' was created with the aid of the Hergé's team of artists at Studios Hergé. The story reflected the Cold War tensions that Europe was experiencing during the 1950s, and introduced three recurring characters into the series: Jolyon Wagg, Cutts the Butcher, and Colonel Sponz. Hergé continued ''The Adventures of Tintin'' with ''The Red Sea Sharks'', and the series as a whole became a defining part of the Franco-Belgian comics tradition. ''The Calculus Affair'' was critically well-received, with various commentators having described it as one of the best Tintin adventures. The story was adapted for both the 1957 Belvision animated series ''Hergé's Adventures of Tintin'', and for the 1991 animated series ''The Adventures of Tintin'' by Ellipse and Nelvana. == Synopsis == During a thunderstorm, glass and porcelain items at Marlinspike Hall shatter unexplainably. Insurance salesman Jolyon Wagg arrives at the house, annoying Captain Haddock. Gunshots are heard in the Hall's grounds, and Tintin and Haddock discover a wounded man speaking in a foreign accent who soon disappears. The next morning, Professor Calculus leaves for Geneva to attend a conference on nuclear physics. Tintin and Haddock use the opportunity to investigate Calculus' laboratory, there discovering that his experiments were responsible for the glass-shattering of the previous night. While exploring, they are attacked by a stranger, who then escapes; fearing that Calculus is in danger, Tintin, Haddock, and Snowy head for Geneva. In Geneva, they learn that Calculus has gone to Nyon to meet Professor Topolino, an expert in ultrasonics. The group travel there in a taxi, but their car is attacked by two men in another car, who force the taxi into Lake Geneva. Surviving the attack, Tintin, Haddock and Snowy continue to Nyon, where they find Topolino bound and gagged in his cellar. As Tintin questions the professor, the house blows up, but they all survive. Tintin and Haddock meet the detectives Thomson and Thompson, who reveal that the wounded man at Marlinspike was Syldavian. Tintin surmises that Calculus had invented an ultrasonic device capable of being used as a weapon of mass destruction, which both Syldavian and Bordurian intelligence agents are now seeking to obtain. Discovering that Bordurian spies have kidnapped Calculus and are holding him hostage in their Rolle embassy, Tintin and Haddock seek to rescue him, but during the attempt he is captured by Syldavian agents, who are able to escape by plane to their home country. The next morning, Tintin and Haddock learn that Bordurian fighters shot down the Syldavian plane and captured Calculus, who is now being held in Borduria. They travel to Borduria's capital, Szohôd, intent on rescuing him. In the city, they are escorted to their hotel by agents of the Bordurian secret police, who have been ordered to monitor the duo by police chief Colonel Sponz. Aware that they are being monitored, Tintin and Haddock escape the hotel and hide in the opera house, where Bianca Castafiore is performing. When police come searching for them, they hide in Castafiore's closet; after Sponz comes to visit Castafiore in her dressing room, Tintin is able to steal papers that will secure Calculus' release from the fortress of Bakhine from his coat pocket. After disguising themselves as officials from the Red Cross, Tintin and Haddock are able to get Calculus released from prison and with him escape from Borduria aboard a tank. Back at Marlinspike Hall, Calculus reveals that he forgot to take his plans for the ultrasonic device with him to Geneva, and that he had left it at home all along; he destroys the plans so that they could not be used to create a weapon. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Calculus Affair」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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