 For his fourth Adventure , Hergé was eager to write a mystery story . The 1930s saw mystery novels flourish across Western Europe with the success of authors like Agatha Christie and Ellery Queen . The decision to create a scenario around the tomb of Kih @-@ Oskh was influenced by the 1922 discovery of Pharaoh Tutankhamun 's tomb by Howard Carter and the surrounding tabloid claims regarding a Curse of the Pharaohs . Hergé returned to this theme for The Seven Crystal Balls ( 1948 ) . The name Kih @-@ Oskh was an allusion to the kiosks where Le Petit Vingtième was sold . The Kih @-@ Oskh symbol was described by Hergé as a distortion of the Taoist symbol of the <unk> , 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 . 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 . 
