Editing Cigars of the Pharaoh (section)

===Background===
{| style="float:right; width:170px; border:solid #ccc 1px; margin:5px;"
|- align="center"
| [[File:Yin yang.svg|75px]] [[File:Kih-Oskh symbol.svg|75px]]
|-
| style="padding:0 5px 0 5px; font-size:85%; line-height:14px;"|The [[Taijitu]] symbol and the Kih-Oskh symbol.
|}
Georges Remi—best known under the pen name [[Hergé]]—was employed as editor and illustrator of {{lang|fr|[[Le Petit Vingtième]]}} ("''The Little Twentieth''"),{{sfnm|1a1=Peeters|1y=1989|1pp=31–32|2a1=Thompson|2y=1991|2pp=24–25}} a children's supplement to {{lang|fr|[[Le Vingtième Siècle]]}} ("''The Twentieth Century''"), a staunchly Roman Catholic, [[social conservatism|conservative]] Belgian newspaper based in Hergé's native Brussels which was run by the [[Abbé]] [[Norbert Wallez]].  In 1929, Hergé began ''[[The Adventures of Tintin]]'' comic for {{lang|fr|Le Petit Vingtième}}, revolving around the exploits of fictional Belgian reporter [[Tintin (character)|Tintin]].  Wallez ordered Hergé to set his first adventure in the [[Soviet Union]] to act as [[anti-socialism|anti-socialist]] propaganda for children (''[[Tintin in the Land of the Soviets]]''),{{sfnm|1a1=Assouline|1y=2009|1pp=22–23|2a1=Peeters|2y=2012|2pp=34–37}} to set his second adventure in the [[Belgian Congo]] to encourage colonial sentiment (''[[Tintin in the Congo]]''),{{sfnm|1a1=Assouline|1y=2009|1pp=26–29|2a1=Peeters|2y=2012|2pp=45–47}} and to set his third adventure in the United States to use the story as a denunciation of American capitalism (''[[Tintin in America]]'').{{sfn|Thompson|1991|p=46}}

[[File:Egypt.KV62.01.jpg|thumb|left|Howard Carter's 1922 [[Discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun|discovery]] of [[KV62|Tutankhamun's tomb]] (pictured) influenced ''Cigars''.]]

For his fourth ''Adventure'', Hergé was eager to write a mystery story.{{sfn|Peeters|1989|p=39}} The 1930s saw mystery novels flourish across Western Europe with the success of authors like [[Agatha Christie]] and [[Ellery Queen]].{{sfn|Peeters|2012|p=64}} The decision to create a scenario around the tomb of Kih-Oskh was influenced by [[Discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun|the 1922 discovery]] of Pharaoh [[Tutankhamun]]'s tomb by [[Howard Carter]] and the surrounding tabloid claims regarding a [[Curse of the Pharaohs]].{{sfnm|1a1=Thompson|1y=1991|1p=56|2a1=Farr|2y=2001|2p=42|3a1=Lofficier|3a2=Lofficier|3y=2002|3p=31}} Hergé returned to this theme for ''[[The Seven Crystal Balls]]'' (1948).{{sfnm|1a1=Thompson|1y=1991|1p=56|2a1=Lofficier|2a2=Lofficier|2y=2002|2p=31}} The name Kih-Oskh was an allusion to the [[kiosk]]s where {{lang|fr|Le Petit Vingtième}} was sold.{{sfn|Peeters|2012|p=63}} The Kih-Oskh symbol was described by Hergé as a distortion of the [[Taoism|Taoist]] symbol of the [[Taijitu]],{{sfn|Peeters|2012|p=64}} with biographer [[Benoît Peeters]] thinking that it foreshadowed the "Yellow Mark" that featured in the ''[[Blake and Mortimer]]'' comic ''[[The Yellow "M"]]'' (1952–54) authored by Hergé's later collaborator [[Edgar P. Jacobs]].{{sfn|Peeters|2012|p=64}} Hergé was aided in the production of ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' by his assistant Paul "Jam" Jamin, who was heavily influenced by British magazines ''The Humorist'' and ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]''.{{sfn|Thompson|1991|pp=54–55}}

Hergé took influence from the published works of French adventurer and gunrunner [[Henry de Monfreid]], particularly his books ''Secrets of the Red Sea'' and ''The Hashish Cruise''. Having lived through the [[First World War]], Hergé disliked arms dealers, and used Monfreid as the basis for the gunrunner character in ''Cigars''.{{sfnm|1a1=Thompson|1y=1991|1p=54|2a1=Farr|2y=2001|2p=45|3a1=Peeters|3y=2012|3p=63}}
The idea of mummified bodies being lined up along a wall was adopted from [[Pierre Benoît (novelist)|Pierre Benoît]]'s 1919 book ''[[Atlantida (novel)|L'Atlantide]]'' (''Atlantis''), which had recently been made into [[L'Atlantide (1932 film)|a 1932 film]] by [[Georg Wilhelm Pabst]].{{sfn|Goddin|2008|p=118}} The wall paintings depicted on a cover of {{lang|fr|Le Petit Vingtième}} was based on a bas-relief of [[Hathor]] and [[Seti I]] housed in the [[Louvre]], Paris, while the throne featured in Tintin's dream was adopted from that found in the tomb of Tutankhamun.{{sfn|Goddin|2008|p=118}} The inclusion of the secret society operating the smuggling ring was influenced by right-wing conspiracy theories about [[Freemasonry]],{{sfnm|1a1=McCarthy|1y=2006|1p=37|2a1=Apostolidès|2y=2010|2p=20}} with Hergé likely gaining information on the brotherhood from a 1932 article by Lucien Farnoux-Reynaud in the radical magazine ''Le Crapouillot'' (''The Mortar Shell'').{{sfn|Apostolidès|2010|p=23}}