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The Adventures of Tintin

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File:Tintin-and-Snowy.png
Tintin and Snowy (Tintin et Milou) are world travelers and inseparable friends in The Adventures of Tintin.

The Adventures of Tintin is a well-known series of comic books drawn and written by the Belgian writer-artist; Hergé, with over 200 million issues published, and translations into 40 languages. The hero of the series is a young reporter named Tintin, who travels all around the world landing himself in a variety of adventures. The comic book series has been admired for its stylish drawings, its exceptional direction and, in later stories, the painstaking research that went into the background story. It fits in with other comics in the great 20th century tradition of the European humouristic adventure strip (such as Spirou under Franquin and Goscinny's Asterix). The series was an inspiration to famous movie directors such as Steven Spielberg and to painters such as Andy Warhol.

The stories' narratives are diverse: some stories are swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy, some are mysteries or science fiction, others have political or cultural commentary. The most notable stories take place in well-researched early-20th century historical settings. All include plenty of slapstick humor, offset in later albums by dashes of sophisticated satire.

Characters

See also: Minor characters in Tintin.

Tintin

The character of Tintin was created on January 10, 1929, and his 75th birthday was widely celebrated in 2004. Tintin was largely based on Hergé's earlier character Totor, a boy-scout with a striking resemblance to Tintin. The comics starring Totor, Les aventures de Totor, chef de patrouille des Hannetons, appeared in the magazine Le Boy-Scout Belge between 1926 and 1929. In the later comic book series; Tintin is a young Belgian reporter who becomes involved in dangerous cases in which he takes heroic action to save the day, and always travels with his dog, Snowy. Interestingly, although almost every adventure features Tintin hard at work at his investigative reporting, only once in the entire series does he actually turn in a story. He is a young man of more or less neutral attitudes and is less colourful than the supporting cast around him. His actions never result in mishap or misfortune, as the other characters' actions frequently result in and as such he is a real classical hero.

Most of the time Tintin is seen dressed in brown plus-fours, a white shirt, and a blue pullover (see Tintin et Milou image). The only time this deviated was in the last published album, Tintin and the Picaros, he changes his daily garment, wearing brown jeans and loafers. Tintin lives in a boarding house on 16 Labrador Road in "the city", but often stays over at the opulent estate of his friend, Captain Haddock. Before Picaros, very little is learnt about Tintin, and any characteristics he has in those stories are squarely in service of the story. In Picaros, however, Tintin's hobbies are shown: he drives a moped, and practices yoga in his spare time. Some fans consider this album therefore a betrayal of the image they had of Tintin, which could be built easily on the neutral view Hergé originally provided.

Is Tintin a Belgian?

File:Tintin in tibet address.jpg
Chang's letter to Tintin, addressed to "Brussels, Belgium"

In Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Tintin is introduced as a Belgian reporter who works for a Brussels newspaper. In the original edition of Tintin in Africa (Tintin in the Congo?) he returns to Belgium at the end of the story, and in the first black-and-white version of The Black Island he boards a Sabena plane to return home.

In the post-war colour albums, however, Hergé has removed all references to Tintin's nationality, probably in order to give his hero a more universal appeal. In these later albums, there are only a few subtle clues hinting at Tintin's nationality. For instance, the cryptic languages of the Picaros and the Syldavians are partially based on Marols or Marollien, the Brussels Flemish dialect spoken by Hergé's grandmother. The names of some characters and places are also often puns on words or expressions from this dialect. Also, in Tintin in Tibet, Tintin receives a letter from Chang, which is seen to be addressed in Chinese to Tintin's address in Belgium.

Captain Haddock

Main article: Captain Haddock

Captain Haddock is Tintin's best friend. A seafaring captain was introduced in The Crab with the Golden Claws. Often badmouthed while never actually using swearwords1, Haddock is usually the target of the slapstick-like scenes of the comic. Haddock was a hard drinker, especially of whisky, and his bouts of alcoholism were often used for comic effect, for they usually resulted in some minor unpleasantness for him: occasionally, they could have ended with more tragic consequence. The Captain's coarse humanity acts as a counterpoint to Tintin's often implausible heroism; he is always quick with a wry comment whenever the boy reporter gets too idealistic. Haddock is also good-hearted, loyal and brave, however. For instance, he acts unswervingly to rescue Cuthbert Calculus from the Incas.

Physically, he is probably based on Bob de Moor, a longtime collaborator of Hergé's. After Le Tresor de Rackham Le Rouge, Haddock lives in the Chateau de Moulinsart (Marlinspike in the English translations), which is modeled on the central section of the real Chateau Cheverny.

In later stories, Hergé increasingly identified with Haddock rather than Tintin.

See also: list of exclamations used by Captain Haddock

Professor Cuthbert Calculus - Professeur Tryphon Tournesol

NOTE: In some albums the name is translated Tryphonius Sunflower instead.

Professor Cuthbert Calculus, is a distracted, hard-of-hearing professor. Calculus invented many objects used in the series, such as the Moon rocket, a one-person submarine and an ultrasound weapon. He is an idealist and seeks to benefit mankind by inventions such as a pill that cures alcoholism by making alcohol taste horrible to the patient. His inventions are usually disliked by Haddock, although Calculus usually interprets this the other way round.

His deafness is a frequent source of humour, as he repeats back what he thinks he has heard, usually in the most unlikely words possible: "attachez votre ceinture" (fasten your belt) is repeated as "une tache de peinture?" (a paint stain). He does not admit to being near-deaf and insists on having just poor hearing. This contrasts with the Duponds' spoonerisms.

On only one occasion did his hearing improve, and that was in the "Moon" books. Here, he has a hearing aid inserted, and this made him a more serious character (that is, as long as the word "goat" is not uttered in his presence). At the conclusion of that adventure, however, he lost his hearing aid and went back to his old deaf self.

Somewhat conflicting with his apparently scientific prowess, Calculus often uses a pendulum for dowsing, and highly believes in the method.

The Calculus character was most likely inspired by Auguste Piccard. Calculus first appeared in Red Rackham's Treasure, and was the end result of Hergés long quest to find the archetypal mad scientist (For instance, Dr. Sarcophogus in Cigars of the Pharaoh, Prof. Alembick in King Ottokar's Sceptre).

Snowy - Milou

Snowy is Tintin's world-traveling dog who always travels all around the world with his master. For many reasons, Snowy can't talk because he is only being a dog. However, he communicates well with Tintin in spite of any of these biological facts. Like Captain Haddock, Snowy is also a drinker who has a predilection for whiskey and bouts of alcoholism which tends to get him into problems.

Milou was named for Hergé's first girlfriend.

Thomson and Thompson - Dupont et Dupond

Thomson and Thompson are the two clumsy detectives who look like twins, they provide much of the comic relief throughout the series, as they are afflicted with spoonerism. They usually wear bowler hats and carry walking sticks. They are thoroughly incompetent and always bent on arresting the wrong character. In spite of this, they somehow get entrusted with delicate missions — for instance the Syldavian space project.

When sent on missions abroad, they insist on wearing the local "costume" of the country they are visiting so as to blend into the local population, but in general only manage to find some ridiculous attire that actually makes them stand apart.

Ironically, their characters were based on Hergé's actual father and brother, both of which wore matching bowlers.

The detectives also provided the name for 1980s synthesizer band The Thompson Twins — who had three members.

Humour

Humour is an important ingredient of all Tintin albums. Tintin himself is a real hero and thus a very serious character, so it's the secondary and minor characters who have to provide comic relief. Captain Haddock's temper, Bianca Castafiore's singing, and professor Calculus' deafness provide endless material for gags. Thomson and Thompson are real slapstick characters. There are also numerous examples of national stereotyping.

Less obvious sources of humour are the frequent use of puns for names of characters and places, as well as the use of Marols (see above).

The Tintin Trivia Quiz, in its Notable Names section, is one web site that contains a list of the humorous names in (the English translations of) Tintin.

Race and Colonialism

The earliest stories in The Adventures of Tintin have been criticized for racist and colonialist leanings, including caricatured portrayals of non-Europeans. However, Hergé changed his views sometime between these early works and The Blue Lotus. This story, set in China during the then-current Sino-Japanese War, was the first for which he did extensive background research. It criticized Japanese and Western colonial meddlings in China and helped to dispel popular myths about the Chinese people (though it does contain flagrant stereotyping of Japanese people). From then on, meticulous research would be one of Hergé's trademarks.

Some of the early albums were altered by Hergé in subsequent edition, usually at the demand of publishers. For example, at the instigation of his American publishers, many of the black characters in Tintin in America were re-colored to make their race white or ambiguous. The Shooting Star originally had an American villain with a Jewish name, who was changed to a South American with a less ethnically-specific name in later editions.

For a further discussion, see The ideology of Tintin.

Fictional Countries

Hergé devised several fictional countries later in the series. Syldavia in particular is described in considerable detail (history, customs, language etc).

  • Syldavia in the Balkans, and neighbouring Borduria, which is set to invade the country in King Ottokar's Sceptre — this situation parallels respectively Czechoslovakia or Austria and expansionist Nazi Germany prior to World War II. In The Calculus Affair, Borduria is used as a metaphor of a communist country.
  • Khemed, in Arabia.
  • San Theodoros in South America.
  • Nuevo Rico, bordering San Theodoros. The two countries go to war over oil in The Broken Ear. Nuevo Rico was also added as a reference in a later versions of The Shooting Star. The original version had the bad guy masterminds as stereotypical Jewish puppet-masters — the later version darkens their skin tone and inserts Nuevo Rico as a hasty reference..
  • El Chapo, after the South American Chaco region. The Broken Ear is set in a war inspired by the Chaco War.

List of Books and Films

(Also see the legend below)

Books

  1. Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (Tintin au Pays des Soviets); Black and white, only published much later in book form.
  2. Tintin in the Congo - (Tintin au Congo)
  3. Tintin in America - (Tintin en Amérique)
  4. Cigars of the Pharaoh - (Les Cigares du Pharaon), part 1
  5. The Blue Lotus - (Le Lotus Bleu), part 2
  6. The Broken Ear - (L'Oreille Cassée)
  7. The Black Island - (L'Ile Noire)
  8. King Ottokar's Sceptre - (Le Sceptre d'Ottokar)
  9. The Crab with the Golden Claws - (Le Crabe aux Pinces d'Or)
  10. The Shooting Star - (L'étoile Mysterieuse)
  11. The Secret of the Unicorn - (Le Secret de la Licorne); part 1
  12. Red Rackham's Treasure - (Le Trésor de Rackam le Rouge); part 2
  13. The Seven Crystal Balls - (Les Sept Boules de Cristal); part 1
  14. Prisoners of the Sun - (Le Temple du Soleil); part 2
  15. Land of Black Gold - (Tintin au Pays de l'Or Noir)
  16. Destination Moon - (Objectif Lune); part 1
  17. Explorers on the Moon - (On a marché sur la Lune); part 2
  18. The Calculus Affair - (L'affaire Tournesol)
  19. The Red Sea Sharks - (Coke en stock)
  20. Tintin in Tibet - (Tintin au Tibet)
  21. The Castafiore Emerald - (Les Bijoux de la Castafiore)
  22. Flight 714 - (Vol 714 pour Sydney)
  23. Tintin and the Picaros - (Tintin et les Picaros)
  24. Tintin and the Lake of Sharks - (Tintin et le Lac aux Requins); Film adaptation. Hergé did not write it
  25. Tintin and Alph-Art - (Tintin et l'Alph-Art); Unfinished work, pub. posthumously

Films

The books are listed in the order in which the stories first appeared in newspapers or magazines. Land of Black Gold was started in 1939, but was put on hold when World War II broke out. (Sceptre and Gold actually deal with the rising threat of a second big war.) Gold was not finished before 1971.

These fall in to three rough groups (rough outline follows. There are books on this...):

  1. Tintin as a young Belgian reporter and world-traveler exploring real countries (Soviets - Crab);
  2. Fantasy adventures: treasure hunts (Unicorn), ghost stories (Crystal Balls). These were written during the buildup to World War II and the occupation, when Hergé had to steer clear of anything that could be construed as political. Science Fiction (Moon and Flight 714) in Moon, Tintin lands on the moon, and in 714 he flies away in a UFO only to be dumped on a raft. Tintin is joined by a crew of secondary characters: Haddock and Tournesol.
  3. Coming of age: Hergé returns to political intrigue seen in Ottokar, the odysseys seen in Ear, but with a much broader stroke. Most are set in, or involve, fictional countries. Characters from old adventures make reappearances, e.g. Dawson from Lotus.

In 1993, after the death of Hergé, his friend Frederic Tuten published Tintin in the New World: A Romance (ISBN 0-7493-9610-5). In this story Tintin loses his boyish innocence and lives fully, even to excess.

Television Series

The Adventures of Tintin is HBO's hit TV show that came out in 1991, and ran with 39 half-hour episodes directed by Stephane Bernasconi, and based on the Adventures of Tintin books by Hergé. In behalf of La Foundation Hergé, The series was produced by the dual company; Ellipse (France), and Nelvana (Canada).

Voice Actors & Their Characters

Episodes

Season 1

  1. The Crab with the Golden Claws - 1 of 2
  2. The Crab with the Golden Claws - 2 of 2
  3. The Secret of the Unicorn - 1 of 2
  4. The Secret of the Unicorn - 2 of 2
  5. Red Rackham's Treasure
  6. Cigars of the Pharaoh - 1 of 2
  7. Cigars of the Pharaoh - 2 of 2
  8. The Blue Lotus - 1 of 2
  9. The Blue Lotus - 2 of 2
  10. The Black Island - 1 of 2
  11. The Black Island - 2 of 2
  12. The Calculus Affair - 1 of 2
  13. The Calculus Affair - 2 of 2

Season 2

  1. The Shooting Star
  2. The Broken Ear - 1 of 2
  3. The Broken Ear - 2 of 2
  4. King Ottokar's Sceptre - 1 of 2
  5. King Ottokar's Sceptre - 2 of 2
  6. Tintin in Tibet - 1 of 2
  7. Tintin in Tibet - 2 of 2
  8. Tintin and the Picaros - 1 of 2
  9. Tintin and the Picaros - 2 of 2
  10. Land of Black Gold - 1 of 2
  11. Land of Black Gold - 2 of 2
  12. Flight 714 - 1 of 2
  13. Flight 714 - 2 of 2

Season 3

  1. The Red Sea Sharks - 1 of 2
  2. The Red Sea Sharks - 2 of 2
  3. The Seven Crystal Balls - 1 of 2
  4. The Seven Crystal Balls - 2 of 2
  5. Prisoners of the Sun - 1 of 2
  6. Prisoners of the Sun - 2 of 2
  7. The Castafiore Emerald - 1 of 2
  8. The Castafiore Emerald - 2 of 2
  9. Destination Moon - 1 of 2
  10. Destination Moon - 2 of 2
  11. Explorers on the Moon - 1 of 2
  12. Explorers on the Moon - 2 of 2
  13. Tintin in America

Total Episodes: 39

See also

Belgium minted a limited-edition (50,000) silver 10-euro commemorative coin to celebrate the 75th birthday of Tintin in January 2004.