 Hergé biographer Benoît Peeters thought that that with Cigars , Hergé was engaging in the " novelesque " , and that the opening scene had echoes of Rodolphe Töpffer 's Mr Pencil . He also thought it the first of the Adventures to have a " semblance " or " narrative unity . " Fellow biographer Pierre Assouline thought that the story was difficult for the reader to follow , because the exoticism of the backdrop faded amid the fast pace of the narrative . Literary critic Tom McCarthy highlighted the prominent role of tobacco in the story , drawing on the ideas of French philosopher Jacques Derrida to suggest the potential symbolism of this . He also suggested that the inclusion of mummified Egyptologists in the story warns readers of the " dangers of mummification through interpretation . " 
