121-486: This is the list of fictional characters in The Adventures of Tintin , the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé . The characters are listed alphabetically, grouped by the main characters, the antagonists, and the supporting characters. Before the list, there is an index of characters for each of the 24 albums. The supporting characters Hergé created for his series have been described as far more developed than
242-570: A Brabantian dialect word for "sweet shop": bollewinkel , also modifying the spelling of the new name. After the edition was published, Hergé subsequently learnt that Bohlwinkel is a Jewish surname. Al Capone is a Chicago crime boss and the main villain in Tintin in the Congo and Tintin in America . In Tintin in the Congo , he runs a criminal diamond smuggling operation, trying to gain control of
363-466: A big-game hunter , accidentally killing fifteen antelope as opposed to the one needed for the evening meal. However, concerns over the number of dead animals led Tintin ' s Scandinavian publishers to request changes. A page of Tintin killing a rhinoceros by drilling a hole in its back and inserting a stick of dynamite was deemed excessive; Hergé replaced the page with one in which the rhino accidentally discharges Tintin's rifle while he sleeps under
484-509: A coca -derived drug that plunges them into a deep sleep. One night, at the home of Calculus's friend Professor Tarragon , Chiquito breaks the final crystal ball in Tarragon's room after climbing down his chimney. He also seizes the jewellery of Rascar Capac , the Inca mummy whose tomb was violated by the expedition members. As he escapes, he is shot and wounded by a police officer and hides in
605-461: A telegram from the police announcing the fakir had been recaptured. Mr. W.R. Gibbons is an American steel trader in The Blue Lotus . Gibbons is portrayed as an overweight, loud-mouthed, racist bigot. He is rude and abusive to a Chinese rickshaw driver, prompting Tintin to intercede. Gibbons also physically assaults a Chinese waiter at the "Occidental Private Club". He reports Tintin to
726-607: A 1:100 scale followed by an extremely precise model. Hergé consulted the archives at the National Museum of Natural History and the then recently published L'Art et le Mer (" Art and the Sea ") by Alexandre Berqueman. He also studied other vessels from the period, such as the Le Soleil Royal , La Couronne , La Royale and Le Reale de France to better understand 17th-century ship design. It
847-512: A 24th unfinished album was released, the studios were disbanded, and the assets were transferred to the Hergé Foundation . Tintin is a young Belgian reporter and adventurer who becomes involved in dangerous cases in which he takes heroic action to save the day. The Adventures may feature Tintin hard at work in his investigative journalism, but seldom is he seen actually turning in a story. Readers and critics have described Tintin as
968-532: A Chinese man sent to warn Tintin against Mitsuhirato , another leader of the drug smugglers. In that title's original black-and-white version, the fakir can be seen escaping through the forest with his blowpipe after shooting the dart at the Chinese man. Not taking any chances, Tintin tells the Maharaja of Gaipajama he will not leave until he knows the fakir is unable to do him any harm. The next day they receive
1089-401: A Dutch merchant ship and a French ship of the line . As Hergé preferred the ship of the line, Liger-Belair continued to research and discovered a historic document titled Architectura Navalis , which contained detailed drawings of French ships of the line. One in particular was from 1690, in the navy of Louis XIV of France , the 64-gun, Brillant . Liger-Belair soon completed a plan on
1210-534: A Golden Oil depot (only to have Haddock's old friend Captain Chester fuel the Aurora by siphoning oil being pumped into his tanks), and sending a fake S.O.S. to throw the Aurora off course (Tintin contacting multiple shipping agencies to determine that the ship and company that sent the distress call do not exist). The Shooting Star ends with a dismayed Bohlwinkel listening to a radio announcement that reveals that
1331-612: A branch of the Western Publishing Company in the 1950s. The albums were translated from French into American English with some artwork panels blanked except for the speech balloons. This was done to remove content considered to be inappropriate for children, such as drunkenness and free mixing of races. The albums were not popular and only six were published in mixed order. The edited albums later had their blanked areas redrawn by Hergé to be more acceptable, and they currently appear this way in published editions around
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#17328010783421452-604: A classic Franco-Belgian strip". Syldavia in particular is described in considerable detail, Hergé creating a history, customs, and a language, which is actually a Slavic-looking transcript of Marols , a working-class Brussels dialect. He set the country in the Balkans , and it is, by his own admission, modelled after Albania . The country finds itself threatened by neighbouring Borduria, with an attempted annexation appearing in King Ottokar's Sceptre . This situation parallels
1573-661: A crime he did not commit. However, Hergé dismissed the idea. The Bird brothers have not been seen since, though they were depicted in sketches for the unfinished Tintin and Alph-Art , in which they are at the inauguration of Ramó Nash's art exposition. The Bird brothers appear in The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of The Unicorn (Video Game Console Version) . In the game, they are appear only in Marlinspike. Hans Boehm, who appears briefly in Flight 714 to Sydney ,
1694-421: A criminal case was initiated, although the matter was transferred to a civil court. Belgium's Centre for Equal Opportunities warned against "over-reaction and hyper political correctness ". Unicorn (Tintin) The Unicorn ( French : La Licorne ) is a fictional 17th-century French Navy warship featured in The Adventures of Tintin , a comic book series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé . It plays
1815-417: A guerrilla war against Ben Kalish Ezab, the emir. Bab El Ehr's men mistake Tintin for a weapons smuggler working for the sheikh, and rescue him from Ben Kalish Ezab's soldiers. After discovering the mistake, Bab El Ehr accuses Tintin of being a spy for the emir and makes him a prisoner. Tintin collapses from thirst after a long march on foot through the desert, and is left behind by Bab El Ehr. Bab El Ehr plays
1936-516: A large nose, long hair, beard, moustache, and large spectacles, Endaddine Akass holds a conference on "health and magnetism" for crowds of followers including Bianca Castafiore . Tintin recognises his voice. He could be Dr. Müller or Max Bird, but more than likely he is Rastapopoulos in disguise. His name, like many in the series, is based upon the Brussels patois marols . In the two completed versions of Tintin and Alph-Art by Yves Rodier and
2057-630: A leading role in both The Secret of the Unicorn (1943) and Red Rackham's Treasure (1944). The Unicorn also appears in the 2011 film adaptation The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn . In the Tintin series, the Unicorn attacked by pirates followed by a duel between its captain, Sir Francis Haddock (an ancestor of Captain Haddock ) and the pirate Red Rackham . The Unicorn
2178-534: A lesson in mathematics. Hergé later admitted the flaws in the original story, excusing it saying: "I portrayed these Africans according to ... this purely paternalistic spirit of the time". Sue Buswell, who was the editor of Tintin at Methuen, summarised the perceived problems with the book in 1988 as "all to do with rubbery lips and heaps of dead animals", although Thompson noted her quote may have been "taken out of context". Drawing on André Maurois ' Les Silences du colonel Bramble , Hergé presents Tintin as
2299-530: A major behind-the-scenes role in The Red Sea Sharks , having used Mosquito fighter planes provided by Mr. Dawson to carry out a successful coup d'état and overthrow the Emir. After Dawson discovers Tintin spying on his arms dealership, he warns Bab El Ehr, who puts out a reward for the capture of Tintin and Haddock. At the close of The Red Sea Sharks , Bab El Ehr's regime is declared over. His name
2420-645: A number of guests, including Mr. Gibbons; "He's in import-export", Castafiore says. Not to be confused with another Gibbons, who is an American criminal worker affiliated with Al Capone and appears only in Tintin in the Congo . The gunrunner, who appears in Cigars of the Pharaoh , is an arms trafficker who rescues Tintin from a storm at sea, then turns him over to his enemies when Tintin discovers his weapons of contraband. After he and his men learn that Thomson and Thompson are about to board his ship, he escapes. He
2541-534: A pseudonymous writer called Ramó Nash, Endaddine is indeed revealed to be Rastapopoulos. "You will never take me alive!" he says in the dramatic conclusion. Colonel Alvarez is the polite aide-de-camp to General Tapioca who appears in Tintin and the Picaros . He is the one who receives Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus when they arrive in San Theodoros and takes them to their apartment. When he
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#17328010783422662-571: A result, the colourful supporting cast was developed during this period. Thomson and Thompson ( Dupont et Dupond in Hergé's original version) are two incompetent detectives who look like identical twins, their only discernible difference being the shape of their moustaches. First introduced in Cigars of the Pharaoh , they provide much of the comic relief throughout the series, being afflicted with chronic spoonerisms . They are extremely clumsy, thoroughly incompetent, and usually bent on arresting
2783-485: A rock that had been intended for Tintin. When the Blue Lotus was originally published in black-and-white, the fakir tells his boss on the phone how he intends to bribe an asylum guard into arranging Tintin's "suicide". It is also later hinted that he is the chairman of the meeting of the hooded leaders of the drug cartel. In the sequel The Blue Lotus , the fakir escapes from prison and again uses his darts to poison
2904-476: A sense of responsibility to my readers". Hergé's use of research and photographic reference allowed him to build a realised universe for Tintin, going so far as to create fictionalised countries, dressing them with specific political cultures. These were heavily informed by the cultures evident in Hergé's lifetime. Pierre Skilling has asserted that Hergé saw monarchy as "the legitimate form of government", noting that democratic "values seem underrepresented in [such]
3025-596: A strange riddle hidden in three model ships of the Unicorn . Reaching the coordinates, they discover the island and, upon diving, they find the wreck of the Unicorn . Although they recover various artefacts from it, they do not find the treasure. Back in Belgium, Tintin realises that Sir Francis' message referred, not to the location of the Unicorn , but to a globe mounted on a statue in Sir Francis' former country home. Understanding now that Francis would never have left
3146-578: A strip about a Boy Scout patrol leader titled Les Aventures de Totor C.P. des Hannetons ( The Adventures of Totor, Scout Leader of the Cockchafers ) for the Scouting newspaper Le Boy Scout Belge ( The Belgian Boy Scout ). Totor was a strong influence on Tintin , with Hergé describing the latter as being like Totor's younger brother. Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier stated that graphically, Totor and Tintin were "virtually identical" except for
3267-662: A strong protagonist. Tintin's iconic representation enhances this aspect, with Scott McCloud noting that it "allows readers to mask themselves in a character and safely enter a sensually stimulating world". Snowy ( Milou in Hergé's original version), a white Wire Fox Terrier dog, is Tintin's loyal companion. Like Captain Haddock, Snowy is fond of Loch Lomond brand Scotch whisky , and his occasional bouts of drinking tend to get him into unintentional trouble, as does his only fear: arachnids. Captain Archibald Haddock ( Capitaine Haddock in Hergé's original version)
3388-517: A tree. In 2007, the UK's Commission for Racial Equality called for the book to be pulled from shelves after a complaint, stating: "It beggars belief that in this day and age Borders would think it acceptable to sell and display Tintin in the Congo." In August 2007, a Congolese student filed a complaint in Brussels that the book was an insult to the Congolese people. Public prosecutors investigated, and
3509-633: A tree. In the morning, Calculus finds a bracelet that belonged to Rascar Capac and puts it on. He is promptly kidnapped by Chiquito and his men for sacrilege. To get past a roadblock, he and his accomplices switch cars. Chiquito takes the professor to Peru and Tintin and Captain Haddock go after them. He reappears in Prisoners of the Sun on the Pachacamac and catches Tintin who has swum aboard and found Calculus. When Chiquito calls for assistance, Tintin takes
3630-655: A unicorn figurehead, had ever actually existed. The Secret of the Unicorn is partially set in 1676. In the English translation, the Unicorn sails under the Union Jack during the reign of Charles II of England and is commanded by Sir Francis Haddock , an ancestor of Captain Haddock . In Hergé's original French version, however, la Licorne flies the French flag for the French Navy under King Louis XIV and
3751-411: A well-rounded yet open-ended, intelligent, and creative character, noting that his lack of backstory and neutral personality permits a reflection of the evil, folly, and foolhardiness which surrounds him. The character never compromises his Boy Scout ideals, which represent Hergé's own, and his status allows the reader to assume his position within the story, rather than merely following the adventures of
List of The Adventures of Tintin characters - Misplaced Pages Continue
3872-610: A work given to him by Wallez and authored by Joseph Douillet , the former Belgian consul in Russia, that is highly critical of the Soviet regime, although Hergé contextualised this by noting that in Belgium, at the time a devout Catholic nation, "anything Bolshevik was atheist ". In the story, Bolshevik leaders are motivated by personal greed and a desire to deceive the world. Tintin discovers, buried, "the hideout where Lenin , Trotsky , and Stalin have collected together wealth stolen from
3993-430: A work whose idioms and jokes would be meritorious in their own right. Despite the free hand Hergé afforded the two, they worked closely with the original text, asking for regular assistance to understand Hergé's intentions. The British translations were also Anglicised to appeal to British customs and values. Milou, for example, was renamed Snowy at the translators' discretion. Captain Haddock's Le château de Moulinsart
4114-460: A youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle ( The Twentieth Century ). The success of the series led to serialised strips published in Belgium's leading newspaper Le Soir ( The Evening ) and spun into a successful Tintin magazine . In 1950, Hergé created Studios Hergé , which produced the canonical versions of ten Tintin albums. Following Hergé's death in 1983,
4235-451: Is scuttled and sinks, only to be discovered years later by Tintin and his friends in an attempt to locate Red Rackham's treasure. The Unicorn was inspired by the 64-gun Brillant , built in 1690 at Le Havre , France by the shipwright Salicon and then decorated by the designer Jean Bérain the Elder . In 1942, Hergé had decided that his latest Tintin adventure, The Secret of
4356-569: Is a Merchant Marine sea captain and Tintin's best friend. Introduced in The Crab with the Golden Claws , Haddock is initially depicted as a weak and alcoholic character, but later evolves to become genuinely heroic and even a socialite after he finds a treasure from his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock ( Chevalier François de Hadoque ). The Captain's coarse humanity and sarcasm act as a counterpoint to Tintin's often-implausible heroism; he
4477-500: Is a German arms dealer who appears in The Broken Ear . He sells weapons to both sides of the conflict between San Theodoros and neighbouring Nuevo-Rico. He also works with his associate Mr. Trickler in an attempt to bring an end to their mutual enemy Tintin. Hergé's Basil Bazarov was "characterised in every detail" by the real life Greek Vickers arms dealer Basil Zaharoff , who profited by selling weapons to both sides of
4598-422: Is always quick with a dry comment whenever the boy reporter seems too idealistic. The hot-tempered Haddock uses a range of colourful insults and curses to express his feelings, such as "billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles!" ( Mille milliards de mille sabords! ) or "ten thousand thundering typhoons!" Professor Cuthbert Calculus ( Professeur Tryphon Tournesol in Hergé's original version; tournesol
4719-399: Is an opera singer of whom Haddock is terrified. She was first introduced in King Ottokar's Sceptre and seems to appear wherever the protagonists travel, along with her maid Irma and pianist Igor Wagner . Although amiable and strong-willed, she is also comically foolish, whimsical, absent-minded, talkative, and seemingly unaware that her voice is shrill and appallingly loud. Her speciality
4840-507: Is based on the real life French gunrunner Henry de Monfreid , a writer and adventurer whom Hergé initially admired. When Hergé learnt that Monfreid was providing guns for war, his attitude about him changed. The Adventures of Tintin The Adventures of Tintin ( French : Les Aventures de Tintin ; [lez‿avɑ̃tyʁ də tɛ̃tɛ̃] ) is a series of 24 comic albums created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under
4961-402: Is being patronised by Rastapopoulos . He has Tintin and Captain Haddock denied entry to Khemed and plants a bomb on their return plane. Dawson's plan ultimately fails. Although he does not reappear after this, Dawson is depicted in some sketches of the unfinished Tintin and Alph-Art , in which he is at the inauguration of Ramó Nash 's art exposition. In the animated series, Dawson's role
List of The Adventures of Tintin characters - Misplaced Pages Continue
5082-541: Is commanded by Chevalier François de Hadoque. No ship named the Unicorn was listed in the annals of the French Navy during the 17th century. However, from 1634 to 1688 the English Royal Navy had a ship of the line named HMS Unicorn which was, coincidentally, commanded by a Captain Haddock . Red Rackham's Treasure (1944) tells of the adventure Tintin and his friends undertake to recover
5203-666: Is derived from the Brussels dialect word babbelaar or "tattler". See Alonso Pérez and Ramón Bada , (French: Barnabé ) Barnaby is the man hired by the antique dealers, the Bird brothers , to acquire the three parchments from the three model ships of the Unicorn —the first of which he finds in the Brussels Place du Jeu de Balle old market in The Secret of the Unicorn . When he failed his employers and Tintin purchased
5324-517: Is especially noticeable in the seascapes, which are reminiscent of works by Hokusai and Hiroshige . Hergé also declared Mark Twain an influence, although this admiration may have led him astray when depicting Incas as having no knowledge of an upcoming solar eclipse in Prisoners of the Sun , an error T. F. Mills attributed to an attempt to portray "Incas in awe of a latter-day ' Connecticut Yankee '". Tintin first appeared in English in
5445-580: Is first introduced in the adventure, he seems to be friendly and good-natured, which impresses the Captain. However, it is then revealed that Alvarez is a part of the plot orchestrated by Colonel Sponsz to eliminate Tintin, the Captain, and the Professor, and Alvarez is enraged when his men fail. When General Tapioca is overthrown, Alvarez shifts over to Alcazar's side, even expressing disappointment that Tapioca will not be executed. He then assists Tintin and
5566-422: Is frequently replaced by malapropisms such as " Paddock ", " Stopcock ", or " Hopscotch ", while Nestor, Haddock's butler, is confused with "Chestor" and "Hector". Her own name means "white and chaste flower": a meaning to which Professor Calculus once refers when he breeds a white rose and names it for the singer. She was based upon opera divas in general (according to Hergé's perception), Hergé's Aunt Ninie (who
5687-441: Is highly reduced. He speaks only briefly with first Mitsuhirato (by phone), and then Thomson and Thompson (in person). He does not appear to have anything more than an informal alliance with Mitsuhirato, as he only agrees to help arrest Tintin on trumped-up charges. (French: Caporal Diaz ) Corporal Diaz was a colonel for General Alcazar until Alcazar demoted him to corporal, replacing him with Tintin, after Diaz complained to
5808-470: Is one of the pilots and hijackers of that flight. Rastapopoulos planned to eliminate him and the other conspirators. Mr. Bohlwinkel is a financier from the fictitious South American country São Rico , who appears in The Shooting Star . As the owner of a major banking concern and a petroleum firm called Golden Oil, he uses his wealth and resources to attempt to beat Tintin and his friends in
5929-714: Is the French word for 'sunflower') is an absent-minded and partially deaf physicist and a regular character alongside Tintin, Snowy, and Captain Haddock. He was introduced in Red Rackham's Treasure , and based partially on Auguste Piccard , a Swiss physicist. "Everybody wants to be Tintin: generation after generation. In a world of Rastapopouloses , Tricklers and Carreidases —or, more prosaically, Jolyon Waggs and Bolt-the-builders —Tintin represents an unattainable ideal of goodness, cleanness, authenticity". —Literary critic Tom McCarthy , 2006 Hergé's supporting characters have been cited as far more developed than
6050-459: Is the Jewel Song ( Ah! Je ris de me voir si belle en ce miroir / Ah! My beauty past compare, these jewels bright I wear ) from Gounod 's opera Faust , which she sings at the least provocation. She is often maternal toward Haddock, of whose dislike she remains ignorant. She often confuses words, especially names, with other words that rhyme with them or of which they remind her; "Haddock"
6171-458: Is the attempted murder of their helper, Barnaby , just before he can tell Tintin of their plot. The Bird brothers are eventually captured by Thomson and Thompson . Max escapes, but is later caught while trying to flee the country. In Red Rackham's Treasure , Max Bird is said to have escaped again and is spotted near the Sirius , a ship about to set sail with Tintin and Haddock in their search for
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#17328010783426292-483: Is the loincloth-wearing ascetic appearing in Cigars of the Pharaoh as a high-ranking member of an opium smuggling ring. He shoots darts soaked in the dangerous Rajaijah juice that drives people mad. Among his talents are hypnosis, the Indian rope trick, and escapology (to the point where he is offended by Tintin thinking he could tie him up). He is eventually captured when the leader accidentally knocks him out with
6413-607: Is ultimately seen as a leading member of the Incas in Prisoners of the Sun . He assists General Alcazar in his knife-throwing act, but this serves as a cover since Chiquito, unknown to the General, is out to punish the Sanders-Hardiman expedition members who violated the tomb of his ancestors. He does so by breaking into the homes or offices of the explorers and breaking crystal balls in their presence. The balls contain
6534-529: The Adventures of Tintin from a more "adult" perspective as Les Métamorphoses de Tintin , published in English as The Metamorphoses of Tintin, or Tintin for Adults in 2010. In reviewing Apostolidès' book, Nathan Perl-Rosenthal of The New Republic thought that it was "not for the faint of heart: it is densely-packed with close textual analysis and laden with psychological jargon". Following Apostolidès's work, French psychoanalyst Serge Tisseron examined
6655-473: The Allies entered Brussels and Hergé's German employers fled. Le Soir was shut down and The Adventures of Tintin was put on hold. Then in 1946, Hergé accepted an invitation from Belgian comic publisher Raymond Leblanc and his new publishing company Le Lombard to continue The Adventures of Tintin in the new Le journal de Tintin ( Tintin magazine). Hergé quickly learned that he no longer had
6776-611: The Art Deco designer, also affected early Tintin adventures: "His influence can be detected at the beginning of the Soviets , where my drawings are designed along a decorative line, like an 'S'". Hergé also readily adopted the image of round noses from George McManus , feeling they were "so much fun that I used them, without scruples!" During the extensive research Hergé carried out for The Blue Lotus , he became influenced by Chinese and Japanese illustrative styles and woodcuts . This
6897-626: The Italian conquest of Albania , and that of Czechoslovakia and Austria by expansionist Nazi Germany prior to World War II. Hergé's use of research would include months of preparation for Tintin's voyage to the Moon in the two-part storyline spread across Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon . His research for the storyline was noted in New Scientist : "The considerable research undertaken by Hergé enabled him to come very close to
7018-596: The Paris Gare du Nord railway station, following which he organised the publication of the story in book form. The story's popularity led to an increase in sales, so Wallez granted Hergé two assistants. At Wallez's direction, in June he began serialisation of the second story, Tintin in the Congo , designed to encourage colonial sentiment towards the Belgian Congo . Authored in a paternalistic style that depicted
7139-532: The Unicorn 's gunpowder stores. Whilst there, he encounters Rackham for the final time, killing him in a sword fight. Before escaping in the ship's jolly boat, he is able to set fire to the gunpowder by means of a slow-burning fuse, causing the Unicorn (with Rackham's drunken crew and presumably Red Rackham's treasure still aboard) to explode and sink. In the present day, Tintin, his dog Snowy , and his friends Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus follow coordinates that Sir Francis had left his three sons in
7260-903: The United Kingdom . He also sent Tintin to fictional countries of his own devising, such as the Latin American republic of San Theodoros , the East European kingdom of Syldavia , or the fascist state of Borduria —whose leader's name, Müsstler, was a portmanteau of the names of the Nazi German Führer Adolf Hitler and the Italian Fascist Prime Minister Benito Mussolini . In May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded Belgium as World War II spread further across Europe. Although Hergé briefly fled to France and
7381-471: The motion capture film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn , Barnaby is an Interpol agent investigating Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine . It was implied that he did not survive after being shot by Sakharine's accomplices. (French: Basil Bazaroff ) Basil Bazarov (formerly Mazarov in an early edition) of the Korrupt Arms Company (Vicking Arms Company in the French edition)
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#17328010783427502-538: The African diamond production. He orders thugs to face Tintin in Tintin in America . Capone's main rival in Chicago is Bobby Smiles . Tintin arrests 355 members of Capone's Central Syndicate of Chicago Gangsters. Capone himself is tied up by Tintin and arrested, but he escapes. The character is based on the real-life Al Capone of Chicago. Al Capone was alive in 1931 when Hergé depicted him in his comics. He would be
7623-702: The Arab emir, and Abdullah his mischievous son, Dr. Müller the evil German psychiatrist, Oliveira da Figueira the friendly Portuguese salesman, Cutts the butcher whose phone number is repeatedly confused with Haddock's, and Allan the henchman of Rastapopoulos and formerly Haddock's first mate. The settings within Tintin have also added depth to the strips. Hergé mixes real and fictional lands into his stories. In King Ottokar's Sceptre (revisited once more in The Calculus Affair ) Hergé creates two fictional countries, Syldavia and Borduria , and invites
7744-687: The British countryside would be acceptable to British readers. The resulting 1966 album is the dramatically updated and redrawn version most commonly available today. As of the early 21st century, Egmont publishes Tintin books in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. The Tintin books have had relatively limited popularity in the United States. The works were first adapted for the American English market by Golden Books ,
7865-418: The Captain in rescuing Thomson and Thompson and also freeing Bianca Castafiore and her entourage. Sheikh Bab El Ehr is an Arab insurgent who fights Emir Ben Kalish Ezab , ruler of the fictional Arabian state of Khemed ; though overall he comes across as a villain rather than a noble fighter. In Land of Black Gold , he is shown allied with Dr. Müller and his Skoil Petroleum Company and fighting
7986-430: The Congolese as childlike idiots, in later decades it was accused of racism, but at the time was uncontroversial and popular, and further publicity stunts were held to increase sales. For the third adventure, Tintin in America , serialised from September 1931 to October 1932, Hergé finally got to deal with a scenario of his own choice, and used the work to push an anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist agenda in keeping with
8107-570: The Golden Claws was the first to be published with Hyslop's lettering. Hyslop was given versions of Hergé's artwork with blank panels. Hyslop would write his English script on a clear cellophane -like material, aiming to fit within the original speech bubble. Occasionally the size of the bubbles would need to be adjusted if the translated text would not fit. In the early 2000s, Tintin's English publishers Egmont discontinued publishing books featuring Hyslop's handwritten lettering, instead publishing books with text created with digital fonts. This change
8228-743: The Hergé Foundation has presented such criticism as naïveté and scholars of Hergé such as Harry Thompson have said that "Hergé did what he was told by the Abbé Wallez", Hergé himself felt that his background made it impossible to avoid prejudice, stating: "I was fed the prejudices of the bourgeois society that surrounded me". In Tintin in the Land of the Soviets , the Bolsheviks were presented as villains. Hergé drew on Moscow Unveiled ,
8349-612: The Hergé Foundation, Hergé's widow Fanny Rodwell said: "We never thought that this story of friendship would have a resonance more than 40 years later". The study of Tintin, sometimes referred to as "Tintinology", has become the life work of some literary critics in Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. Belgian author Philippe Goddin has written Hergé et Tintin reporters: Du Petit Vingtième au Journal Tintin (1986, later republished in English as Hergé and Tintin Reporters: From "Le Petit Vingtième" to "Tintin" Magazine in 1987) and Hergé et les Bigotudos (1993) amongst other books on
8470-426: The Japanese authorities in retaliation only to be arrested as a liar when his information is found inaccurate. He is a friend of the Shanghai police chief Dawson who arranges for Gibbons to be released in return for expelling Tintin from the International Settlement into Japanese hands. In the unfinished adventure Tintin and Alph-Art , Haddock and Tintin visit Bianca Castafiore at an island villa. There they meet
8591-448: The Japanese, who have put a price on his head, calmly dismissing Tintin's protest that he is on neutral ground, as he did not have a passport to enter the Settlement to begin with. Dawson is ultimately forced to attend the ceremony in honour of Tintin. Appearing in a more sinister role in The Red Sea Sharks , Dawson sells weapons to both General Alcazar and General Tapioca using the pseudonym Mr. Debrett (French: M. Dubreuil ), and
8712-532: The Scout uniform, also noting many similarities between their respective adventures, particularly in the illustration style, the fast pace of the story, and the use of humour. He was fascinated by new techniques in the medium such as the systematic use of speech bubbles—found in such American comics as George McManus ' Bringing up Father , George Herriman 's Krazy Kat , and Rudolph Dirks 's Katzenjammer Kids , copies of which had been sent to him from Mexico by
8833-591: The Soviet Union, Belgian Congo, Peru, India, Egypt, Morocco, Indonesia, Iceland, Nepal, Tibet, and China. Other actual locales used were the Sahara Desert, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Moon. Hergé's extensive research began with The Blue Lotus ; Hergé said that "it was from that time that I undertook research and really interested myself in the people and countries to which I sent Tintin, out of
8954-581: The Sun . Paolo Colombani, is Skut's co-pilot and hijacker of that flight. Rastapopoulos planned to eliminate him and the other conspirators. Mr. J.M. Dawson is the corrupt British chief of police of the Shanghai International Settlement in The Blue Lotus . In revenge for Tintin's rebuking of his American friend, businessman Mr. Gibbons , Dawson has Sikh prison guards assault Tintin, but Tintin outwits them. Dawson then plots with Mr. Mitsuhirato and turns Tintin over to
9075-454: The Unicorn (1943), should depict images of his fictional Unicorn as detailed precision drawings. He used the services of his friend and local model ship maker Gérard Liger-Belair, son of a former naval officer and who owned a shop in Brussels that specialised in model ships, to find an appropriate historical vessel that he could customize to meet his historical needs. Liger-Belair's research produced three possibilities: A British frigate ,
9196-521: The Unicorn directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson was released in October–December 2011. While sailing in the West Indies in 1676, the Unicorn , commanded by Sir Francis Haddock, is seized and captured by a group of pirates led by Red Rackham. The pirates hoist a red pennant—no life would be spared. During the battle, Sir Francis is hit and loses consciousness. Later,
9317-485: The book, the Unicorn is a ship of the third rank, a vessel with three-masts and 50 guns, more than 40 metres long and 11 metres wide. After publication of The Secret of the Unicorn , Hergé's German publisher Carlsen Verlag gave him an antique model of a 17th-century Danish ship called the Enhjørningen ( The Unicorn ). Until that moment, Hergé had no idea that a ship with that name, complete with
9438-476: The central character, each imbued with a strength of character and depth of personality that has been compared with that of the characters of Charles Dickens . Hergé used the supporting characters to create a realistic world in which to set his protagonists' adventures. To further the realism and continuity, characters recur throughout the series. During the German occupation of Belgium during World War II , and
9559-523: The central character, each imbued with strength of character and depth of personality, which has been compared with that of the characters of Charles Dickens . Hergé used the supporting characters to create a realistic world in which to set his protagonists' adventures. To further the realism and continuity, characters would recur throughout the series. The occupation of Belgium and the restrictions imposed upon Hergé forced him to focus on characterisation to avoid depicting troublesome political situations. As
9680-402: The character of Tintin and the sort of adventures that would befall him came to me, I believe, in five minutes, the moment I first made a sketch of the figure of this hero: that is to say, he had not haunted my youth nor even my dreams. Although it's possible that as a child I imagined myself in the role of a sort of Tintin". —Hergé, 15 November 1966. Georges Prosper Remi, best known under
9801-803: The conflict between Bolivia and neighbouring Paraguay during the War of the Gran Chaco (in The Broken Ear , Bazarov fuels the "War of the Gran Chapo"). Sir Basil Zaharoff enjoyed a good reputation at the time The Broken Ear appeared; he was made a Grand-officier de la Légion d'honneur and made member of the Order of the British Empire . (French: Les frères Loiseau ) The Bird brothers, Max and G. Bird (French: Maxime et G. Loiseau ) are
9922-700: The early 21st century, Little, Brown and Company (owned by the Hachette Book Group USA ) continues to publish Tintin books in the United States. Moulinsart 's official Tintin app in Apple 's App Store , launched with the release of the digital version of Tintin in the Congo on 5 June 2015, features brand new English language translations by journalist, writer and Tintin expert Michael Farr . The English-language Adventures of Tintin books were originally published with handwritten lettering created by cartographer Neil Hyslop. 1958's The Crab with
10043-475: The executive director of ICT Europe Tsering Jampa noted was "for many ... their introduction to the awe-inspiring landscape and culture of Tibet". In 2001, the Hergé Foundation demanded the recall of the Chinese translation of the work, which had been released with the title Tintin in Chinese Tibet . The work was subsequently published with the correct translation of the title. Accepting on behalf of
10164-546: The final instalment of the series, Tintin and Alph-Art , was released posthumously. The series is set during a largely realistic 20th century. Its protagonist is Tintin , a courageous young Belgian reporter and adventurer aided by his faithful dog Snowy ( Milou in the original French edition). Other allies include the brash and cynical Captain Haddock , the intelligent but hearing-impaired Professor Calculus (French: Professeur Tournesol ), incompetent detectives Thomson and Thompson (French: Dupont et Dupond ), and
10285-414: The general that San Theodoros had too many colonels and too few corporals ( The Broken Ear ). In revenge, Diaz engaged in repeated, unsuccessful assassination attempts against Alcazar. Diaz expired in the last attempt when the bomb he planted exploded prematurely. Alcazar had just arrested and sentenced Tintin to death due to faked evidence, and had just promoted Corporal Diaz back to colonel. The fakir
10406-427: The independence he preferred; he was required to produce two coloured pages a week for Leblanc's magazine, a tall order. In 1950, Hergé began to poach the better members of the Tintin magazine staff to work in the large house on Avenue Louise that contained the fledgling Studios Hergé . Bob De Moor (who imitated Hergé's style and did half the work), Guy Dessicy (colourist), and Marcel DeHaye ( secretary ) were
10527-536: The last real-life individual to appear as a character in the Adventures under their real name. Pietro is an Italian-American gangster in Tintin in America and one of Al Capone's fellow gangsters. Chiquito, or Rupac Inca Huaco, is a full-blooded Peruvian Quechua and one of the last descendants of the Incas . He is first seen as the sidekick to General Alcazar in The Seven Crystal Balls and
10648-440: The lost treasure of the pirate Red Rackham , believed by Tintin to be aboard the shipwrecked Unicorn . Sir Francis had built three models of the Unicorn and had hidden a treasure map inside each one. The adventure, told across both books, leads Tintin to the Unicorn and to the lost treasure. A 2011 feature film adaptation of both Tintin books retells the story of the Unicorn . The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of
10769-497: The main adversaries in The Secret of the Unicorn . They are antique dealers who learn about a treasure left by the pirate Red Rackham , and are willing to kill in order to possess it. In the original French, their names are Loiseau (French for "the bird"). Maxime is renamed Max in the English version. In the Golden Books edition (American English), their name is spelled Byrd. The Bird brothers, like Tintin, are looking for
10890-399: The members of the Unicorn crew still alive are killed or thrown overboard. Sir Francis regains consciousness, finding himself tied to the mainmast . The pirate ship is damaged and sinking, so Red Rackham moves his treasure on board the Unicorn . The ship then sails to an uninhabited island. When anchored near the shore of the island, Sir Francis manages to free himself and goes below deck to
11011-837: The nucleus. To this, Hergé added Jacques Martin (imitated Hergé's style), Roger Leloup (detailed, realistic drawings), Eugène Evany (later chief of the Studios), Michel Demaret ( letterer ), and Baudouin Van Den Branden (secretary). As Harry Thompson observed, the idea was to turn the process of creating The Adventures of Tintin into a "veritable production line, the artwork passing from person to person, everyone knowing their part, like an artistic orchestra with Hergé conducting". The studios produced eight new Tintin albums for Tintin magazine, and coloured and reformatted two old Tintin albums. Studios Hergé continued to release additional publications until Hergé's death in 1983. In 1986,
11132-433: The opera diva Bianca Castafiore . The series has been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in Hergé's signature ligne claire ("clear line") style. Its well-researched plots straddle a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy, mysteries, political thrillers, and science fiction. The stories feature slapstick humour, offset by dashes of political or cultural commentary. "The idea for
11253-584: The opportunity to jump back into the water, swimming back to safety as Chiquito shoots at him. Their next meeting is at the Temple of the Sun, high in the mountains, where he and the Incas perform the ceremony of burning Tintin and his friends at the stake , only to be interrupted by a solar eclipse . He eventually releases his control over the Sanders-Hardiman expedition members by order of the Prince of
11374-603: The paper's reporter Léon Degrelle . Although Hergé wanted to send Tintin to the United States, Wallez ordered him to set his adventure in the Soviet Union , acting as antisocialist propaganda for children. The result, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets , was serialised in Le Petit Vingtième from January 1929 to May 1930. Popular in Francophone Belgium, Wallez organised a publicity stunt at
11495-499: The paper's ultraconservative ideology. The Adventures of Tintin had been syndicated to a Catholic magazine named Cœurs Vaillants ( Brave Hearts ) since 1930, and Hergé was soon receiving syndication requests from Swiss and Portuguese newspapers, too. Hergé wrote a string of Adventures of Tintin , sending his character to real locations such as the Belgian Congo, United States, Egypt , India , Tibet , China , and
11616-717: The pen name Hergé , was employed as an illustrator at Le Vingtième Siècle ( The Twentieth Century ), a staunchly Roman Catholic, conservative Belgian newspaper based in Hergé's native Brussels . Run by the Abbé Norbert Wallez , the paper described itself as a "Catholic Newspaper for Doctrine and Information" and disseminated a fascist viewpoint. Wallez appointed Hergé editor of a new Thursday youth supplement, titled Le Petit Vingtième (" The Little Twentieth "). Propagating Wallez's sociopolitical views to its young readership, it contained explicitly pro-fascist and antisemitic sentiment. In addition to editing
11737-487: The pen name Hergé . The series was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. By 2007, a century after Hergé's birth in 1907, Tintin had been published in more than 70 languages with sales of more than 200 million copies, and had been adapted for radio, television, theatre, and film. The series first appeared in French on 10 January 1929 in Le Petit Vingtième ( The Little Twentieth ),
11858-578: The people". In 1999, the issue of Tintin's politics was the subject of a debate in the French parliament; this event prompted the British weekly newspaper The Economist to publish an editorial on the matter. Tintin in the Congo has been criticised as presenting the Africans as naïve and primitive. In the original work, Tintin is shown at a blackboard addressing a class of African children: "My dear friends. I am going to talk to you today about your fatherland: Belgium". Hergé redrew this in 1946 to show
11979-537: The police are onto him. Bohlwinkel has physical traits reflecting a stereotypical Jew in Nazi propaganda . In the original edition of The Shooting Star published during World War II , he was named Blumenstein, an American Jew from a bank in New York. For the later edition of the book, Hergé altered the financier's antecedents by relocating him to the fictitious South American country São Rico and changing his name to
12100-409: The race to find a recently fallen meteorite . Apart from financing the exploratory vessel Peary , he unsuccessfully attempts to sabotage the competing expedition's ship Aurora , helmed by Captain Haddock. This includes depositing lit dynamite onto its deck (which Snowy puts out), instructing another ship under his control to ram the Aurora during a storm, refusing to allow the Aurora to refuel at
12221-589: The reader to tour them in text through the insertion of a travel brochure into the storyline. Other fictional lands include Khemed on the Arabian Peninsula and San Theodoros , São Rico , and Nuevo Rico in South America, as well as the kingdom of Gaipajama in India. Apart from these fictitious locations, Tintin also visits real places such as Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States,
12342-438: The series contains the key to understanding literature itself. McCarthy considered the Adventures of Tintin to be "stupendously rich", containing "a mastery of plot and symbol, theme and sub-text" which, influenced by Tisseron's psychoanalytical readings of the work, he believed could be deciphered to reveal a series of recurring themes, ranging from bartering to implicit sexual intercourse that Hergé had featured throughout
12463-642: The series in his books Tintin et les Secrets de Famille ("Tintin and the Family Secrets"), which was published in 1990, and Tintin et le Secret d'Hergé ("Tintin and Hergé's Secret"), published in 1993. The first English-language work of literary criticism devoted to the series was Tintin and the Secret of Literature , written by the novelist Tom McCarthy and published in 2006. McCarthy compares Hergé's work with that of Aeschylus , Honoré de Balzac , Joseph Conrad , and Henry James and argues that
12584-762: The series. In 1983, French author Benoît Peeters released Le Monde d'Hergé , subsequently published in English as Tintin and the World of Hergé in 1988. English reporter Michael Farr has written works such as Tintin, 60 Years of Adventure (1989), Tintin: The Complete Companion (2001), Tintin & Co. (2007) and The Adventures of Hergé (2007), while English television producer Harry Thompson authored Tintin: Hergé and his Creation (1991). Literary critics , primarily in French-speaking Europe, have also examined The Adventures of Tintin . In 1984, Jean-Marie Apostolidès published his study of
12705-625: The series. Reviewing the book in The Telegraph , Toby Clements argued that McCarthy's work, and literary criticism of Hergé's comic strips in general, cut "perilously close" to simply feeding "the appetite of those willing to cross the line between enthusiast and obsessive" in the Tintinological community. The earliest stories in The Adventures of Tintin have been criticised for animal cruelty; colonialism ; violence; and ethnocentric , caricatured portrayals of non-Europeans. While
12826-590: The ship instead, first he stole Tintin's Unicorn , then ransacked Tintin's flat after he broke the mast and did not find the parchment. Later, he chloroforms Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine and breaks the mast of his ship, acquiring a parchment. When he brings it to the Bird brothers and then asks them for more money to get the other two, then threatens to expose them when they refuse, he is shot and wounded outside Tintin's flat. He turns from his employers and tries to warn Tintin of them but could only point to feeding birds. In
12947-466: The subsequent restrictions this imposed, Hergé was forced to focus on characterisation to avoid depicting troublesome political situations. The public responded positively. Colourful main characters, villainous antagonists, and heroic supporting cast were all introduced during this period. Endaddine Akass is a guru and main antagonist of the unfinished book Tintin and Alph-Art , the last of The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé . An odd-looking man with
13068-409: The supplement, Hergé illustrated L'extraordinaire aventure de Flup, Nénesse, Poussette et Cochonnet ( The Extraordinary Adventure of Flup, Nénesse, Poussette and Cochonnet ), a comic strip authored by a member of the newspaper's sport staff. Dissatisfied with this, Hergé wanted to write and draw his own cartoon strip. He already had experience creating comic strips. From July 1926, he had written
13189-429: The three parchments from Sir Francis Haddock that hold the secret of Red Rackham's Treasure . They operate from their manor, Marlinspike Hall , where at one point they hold Tintin prisoner to force him to surrender the parchments. Furthermore, they threaten him with torture while refusing to accept Tintin's explanation that a pickpocket had earlier stolen his wallet containing the parchments. Amongst their other crimes
13310-461: The treasure. Thomson and Thompson are thus sent as part of the expedition in order to look out for him, but he never appears. The detectives conclude at the end of the adventure that he was discouraged because of their presence. At one point of the early development of what became Tintin in Tibet , Hergé originally considered bringing back the Bird brothers in a story in which they frame Nestor for
13431-544: The type of space suit that would be used in future Moon exploration , although his portrayal of the type of rocket that was actually used was a long way off the mark". The Moon rocket is based on the German V-2 rockets. In his youth, Hergé admired Benjamin Rabier and suggested that a number of images within Tintin in the Land of the Soviets reflected his influence, particularly the pictures of animals. René Vincent ,
13552-402: The weekly British children's comic Eagle in 1951 with the story King Ottokar's Sceptre . It was translated in conjunction with Casterman , Tintin's publishers, and starts by describing Tintin as "a French boy". Snowy was called by his French name Milou . The process of translating Tintin into British English was then commissioned in 1958 by Methuen , Hergé's British publishers. It
13673-538: The world. From 1966 to 1979, Children's Digest included monthly instalments of The Adventures of Tintin . These serialisations served to increase Tintin's popularity, introducing him to many thousands of new readers in the United States. Atlantic Monthly Press , in cooperation with Little, Brown and Company beginning in the 1970s, republished the albums based on the British translations. Alterations were made to vocabulary not well known to an American audience (such as gaol , tyre , saloon , and spanner ). As of
13794-510: The wrong character. The detectives usually wear bowler hats and carry walking sticks except when sent abroad; during those missions they attempt the national costume of the locality they are visiting, but instead dress in conspicuously stereotypical folkloric attire which makes them stand apart. The detectives were based partly on Hergé's father Alexis and uncle Léon, identical twins who often took walks together, wearing matching bowler hats while carrying matching walking sticks. Bianca Castafiore
13915-430: Was a joint operation, headed by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner, who worked closely with Hergé to attain a translation as true as possible to the original work. Due in part to the large amount of language-specific word play (such as punning) in the series, especially the jokes which played on Professor Calculus ' partial deafness, it was never the intention to translate literally; instead they strove to fashion
14036-466: Was considered a self-imposed exile, he ultimately decided to return to his occupied homeland. For political reasons, the Nazi authorities closed down Le Vingtième Siècle , leaving Hergé unemployed. In search of employment, he got a job as an illustrator at Belgium's leading newspaper, Le Soir ( The Evening ), which was allowed to continue publication under German management. On 17 October 1940, he
14157-506: Was from the Le Reale de France that he gained a basis for his design of the Unicorn 's jolly boat . He adopted the fictional ship's unicorn figurehead from a British frigate which had been built in 1745. When Liger-Belair's model was complete, Hergé realised it into the panels of his comics, regularly showing his renditions to Liger-Belair to ensure he was depicting the vessel with no technical errors. In its finished appearance in
14278-621: Was instigated by publisher Casterman and Hergé's estate managers Moulinsart , who decided to replace localised hand-lettering with a single computerised font for all Tintin titles worldwide. On 1 June 2006, the Dalai Lama bestowed the International Campaign for Tibet 's Light of Truth Award upon the Hergé Foundation, along with South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu . The award was in recognition of Hergé's book Tintin in Tibet , Hergé's most personal adventure, which
14399-497: Was known for her "shrill" singing of opera), and, in the post-war comics, on Maria Callas . Other recurring characters include Nestor the butler, Chang (or Chang-Chong-Chen) the loyal Chinese boy, Rastapopoulos the criminal mastermind, Jolyon Wagg the infuriating (to Haddock) insurance salesman, General Alcazar the South American freedom fighter and (on and off) President of San Theodoros, Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab
14520-495: Was made editor of the children's supplement, Le Soir Jeunesse , in which he set about producing new Tintin adventures. In this new, more repressive political climate of German-occupied Belgium , Hergé could no longer politicize The Adventures of Tintin lest he be arrested by the Gestapo . As Harry Thompson noted, Tintin's role as a reporter came to an end, to be replaced by his new role as an explorer. In September 1944,
14641-475: Was renamed Marlinspike Hall. When it came time to translate The Black Island , which is set in Great Britain , the opportunity was taken to redraw the entire book. Methuen had decided that the book did not portray Great Britain accurately enough and had compiled a list of 131 errors of detail which needed to be put right, such as ensuring that the British police were unarmed and ensuring that scenes of
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