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For the musical group, see Tin Tin.

The Adventures of Tintin (originally Les Aventures de Tintin), drawn and written by the Belgian writer-artist Georges Remi a.k.a. Hergé, is one of the most popular 20th century European comics. Over 200 million books have been produced to date, with translations into over 50 languages.

The hero of the series is a young reporter and traveller named Tintin, aided by his faithful dog Snowy (Milou in the original French-language version), Captain Haddock and a variety of colourful supporting characters.

The comic book series has long been admired for its clean but expressive drawings (executed in Hergé's signature ligne claire style), engaging plots, and the painstaking research of the later stories.

The series straddles a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy, mysteries, political thrillers, and science fiction. All the titles in the Tintin series include plenty of slapstick humour, offset in later albums by dashes of sophisticated satire and political/cultural commentary.

Although it is rarely explicitly stated in the books, Tintin resides in Belgium. This is evidenced in certain books taking place in Tintin's homeland, where Hergé drew some easily recognisable Belgian locations, and more explicitly in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets where it is said that Tintin arrives in Brussels as he comes back home.

Characters

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 (as well as an accomplished fighter and pilot) who becomes involved in dangerous cases in which he takes heroic action to save the day. Interestingly, although almost every adventure features Tintin hard at work at his investigative reporting, rarely 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. Tintin's character changes in the last albums, starting with The Castafiore Emerald. Tintin no longer actively seeks out adventure but rather gets taken along with what happens around him: this is especially evident in Flight 714 and Picaros. Some fans consider this final complete album a betrayal of the Tintin image.

Shortly before his death, former Belgian Nazi collaborator Léon Degrelle created controversy by stating that the Tintin character was originally based on himself. Degrelle had indeed known Hergé during his early career as a journalist, but this allegation is generally considered a fabrication of the notorious self-booster Degrelle. The earlier version of Tintin was apparently inspired, at least in part, by Hergé's youngest brother. Interestingly, Hergé later became estranged with his brother and depicted him as the villainous Colonel Sponsz in The Calculus Affair. Tintin and Sponsz, although physically very different, have actually quite similar hair spikes.

Captain Archibald Haddock (Capitaine Archibald Haddock)

Captain Haddock is Tintin's best friend, a seafaring captain who was introduced in The Crab with the Golden Claws. Haddock was initially depicted as a weak and alcoholic character, but in later albums he became more respectable and genuinely heroic (notably in the seminal Tintin in Tibet, where he soberly volunteers his life to save his friend). The Captain's coarse humanity and sarcasm acts as a counterpoint to Tintin's often implausible heroism; he is always quick with a dry comment whenever the boy reporter gets too idealistic.

Haddock uses all sorts of words as insults and curses to express his feelings, such as "blistering barnacles", "thundering typhoons", "bashi-bazouk", "kleptomaniac", "anacoluthon", and "pockmark", but no words that are actually considered swear words (see list of exclamations used by Captain Haddock). Haddock is a hard drinker, especially of whisky of the Loch Lomond brand, and his bouts of drunkenness are often used for comic effect.

Haddock's surname was derived from a conversation that Hergé had with his wife, in which she mentioned that the haddock was a "sad English fish". Hergé chose this name accordingly. Haddock remained without a first name until the last completed story, Tintin and the Picaros (1976), when the name Archibald was suggested. At the conclusion of Rackham's Treasure, Haddock purchases his ancestral seat, the castle Marlinspike (Moulinsart), where he, Tintin and Calculus live.

Also, in the French adaptation of Leiji Matsumoto's anime Captain Harlock, the main character (Harlock) and the anime's title was renamed Albator due to the resemblance between Captain Haddock's and Captain Harlock's names.

Professor Cuthbert Calculus (Professeur Tryphon Tournesol)

NOTE: A literal translation of his French name would be Tryphonius Sunflower.

Professor Cuthbert Calculus is a distracted, hard-of-hearing professor, who invented many objects used in the series, such as a one-person shark-shaped submarine, the Moon rocket and an ultrasound weapon. Calculus seeks to benefit mankind by inventions such as a pill that cures alcoholism by making alcohol taste horrible to the patient. These inventions are usually disliked by Haddock, although Calculus usually interprets this the other way round: his deafness often prevents him from hearing Haddock's real opinion. But if he ever hears the Captain (or anyone else) call him a "goat", he flies into a rage: "Goat, am I?"

Calculus's 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 poor hearing in only one ear. Notably in the "Moon" books, Calculus has a hearing aid inserted, and for the duration of the album has near-perfect hearing: this made him a more serious character (that is, as long as the word "goat" is not uttered in his presence). However, in later adventures Calculus once again lost his hearing aid, and went back to his old deaf self. Calculus is a fervent believer in dowsing, and carries a pendulum for that purpose. It is possible that this trait, along with Calculus' deafness were based on French physicist Yves Rocard. He is a former practitioner of the French martial art savate.

Calculus first appeared in Red Rackham's Treasure, and was the end result of Hergé's long quest to find the archetypal mad scientist or absent-minded professor: for instance, Dr. Sarcophagus in Cigars of the Pharaoh, and Prof. Alembick in King Ottokar's Sceptre.

The Calculus character was most likely inspired by Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard. In The Castafiore Emerald, Bianca Castafiore mistakes Calculus for Piccard in claiming that Calculus is "famous for his balloon ascensions".

Snowy (Milou)

Snowy, an exceptionally white fox terrier, is Tintin's four-legged companion, who travels everywhere with him. The bond between the dog and Tintin is deeper than life, and they have saved each other from perilous situations many times.

With a few exceptions (including Tintin in the Land of the Soviets), Snowy never speaks (although he is regularly seen thinking in human words), since he is only a dog. However, he always manages to communicate well with Tintin despite this. Snowy often adds to the story in many interesting ways. For instance, he is the only character in Flight 714 to remember that he was abducted by aliens.

Like Captain Haddock, Snowy is fond of whisky of the Loch Lomond brand, and his occasional bouts of drinking tend to get him into trouble, as does his raging arachnophobia.

Milou was named after Hergé's first girlfriend, a contraction of the name Marie-Louise, although Snowy is referred to as male throughout the books.

Thomson and Thompson (Dupont et Dupond)

Thomson and Thompson are two clumsy detectives who, although unrelated, look like twins with the only discernible difference being the shape of their moustaches. They provide much of the comic relief throughout the series, as they are afflicted with spoonerism. They are thoroughly incompetent, and always bent on arresting the wrong character, but in spite of this they somehow get entrusted with delicate missions, such as ensuring security for the Syldavian space project.

The detective with the flared mustache is Thomson (without a "P"), who often describes himself as "Thomson, without a "P", as in Venezuela!". The detective with the flat mustache has described himself as "Thompson with a "P", as in..." and then used words such as Philadelphia, psychology and so on.

The detectives usually wear bowler hats and carry walking sticks, except when abroad: during those missions they insist on wearing the "costume" of the country they are visiting so as to blend into the local population, but in general only manage to find some ridiculous folkloric attire that actually makes them stand apart. Thomson and Thompson were originally only side characters, but later became more important. In the redrawings of the earlier albums, especially The Black Island, the detectives gained their now traditional mannerisms.

The detectives were based on Hergé's father and brother, both of whom wore matching bowlers.

Translators of the series have tried to find names that are similar or identical in pronunciation for this pair. Dupond and Dupont thus become Thomson and Thompson in English, Schultze and Schulze in German, Jansen and Janssen in Dutch, Hernández and Fernández in Spanish and 杜本 and 杜朋 (Dùběn, Dùpéng) in Chinese, Johnson and Ronson in Bengali and Skapti and Skafti in Icelandic. Other versions may keep the original names or slightly alter them, for instance Dupont and Duvont in Japanese (デュポン and デュボン).

On a side note, the characters were the inspiration to the name of the British 1980s pop band, the Thompson Twins.

Minor characters

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 is by Hergé's own admission modelled on Albania, and is threatened by neighbouring Borduria — an attempted annexation appears 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 state.
• Khemed, in Arabia.
• San Theodoros in South America, a prototypical banana republic where US-based companies and Borduria (meant as an allusion to the USSR) vie for power, with "advisors" of local generals.
• São Rico in South America
• Nuevo Rico, bordering San Theodoros. The two countries go to war over oil in The Broken Ear, which is parallel to the 1930s Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia. 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 American puppet-masters — the later version darkens their skin tone and inserts Nuevo Rico as a reference.
• El Chapo, after the South American Chaco region. The Broken Ear is set in a war inspired by the Chaco War.
• Sondonesia, a country in South East Asia. Said to be undergoing a civil war, with rebels for hire. Rastapopoulos's hired gun, Allan, recruits Sondonesians as gun-toting muscle in Flight 714. They appear to be thinly disguised Khmer Rouge, and Hergé's insistence that Sondonesia is in a state of civil war shows amazing clarity of vision as to the true state of the conflict in Cambodia at that period.
• Pilchardania and Poldavia are both mentioned in The Blue Lotus. Pilchardania is mentioned on a newsreel that Tintin views while hiding in a cinema from the police. The Poldavian consul gets mistaken for Tintin in a beard and wig in the Blue Lotus opium den.

Race and colonialism

The earliest stories in The Adventures of Tintin have been criticised 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, published in 1936. This story, set in China during the then-current Sino-Japanese War, was the first for which he did extensive background research. It criticised Japanese and Western colonial meddling 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 editions, 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-coloured to make their race white or ambiguous. The Shooting Star originally had an American villain with a Jewish name, who was changed to an American with a less ethnically specific name in later editions, and subsequently to a South American of a fictional country.

Stage adaptations

A musical based on The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun premièred on 15 September 2001 at the Stadsschouwburg (city theatre) in Antwerp, Belgium. It was entitled Kuifje - De Zonnetempel (De Musical) and was broadcast on Canal Plus, before moving on to Charleroi in 2002 as Tintin - Le Temple du Soleil.

The Young Vic theatre company is currently (as of December 2005) staging a musical version of Tintin in Tibet at the Barbican Arts Centre in London.

Memorabilia

The Belgian Post issued a Tintin stamp in 1979 to celebrate the day of youth philately. This was the first in a series of stamps with the images of Belgian comic heroes to be issued in later years, and was the first stamp in the world to feature a comic hero. The Royal Dutch Post released a set of Tintin stamps on October 8, 1999 which sold out within hours of release. Belgium minted a limited edition (50,000) silver 10-euro commemorative coin to celebrate the 75th birthday of Tintin in January 2004.

Merchandise

Universal Studios has licensed the rights to Adventures of Tintin merchandise in North America.

In the future

• A video game, The Many Adventures of Tintin is being developed by Vivendi Universal, and is scheduled to be released for the Nintendo Revolution, Sony PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Xbox 360 in North America and Europe around 2006.
• A collection of twenty-one Adventures of Tintin coloring books based on the original stories is scheduled for release by Dalmatian Press in the United States around 2006.
• The Many Adventures of Tintin in Universal Orlando Resort, as well as The Tintin Shop and Captain's Kitchen in the CityWalk complex, are scheduled to be opened around 2006.
• A limited edition of Ellipse-Nelvana's The Adventures of Tintin TV cartoon series is scheduled for release on DVD in the United States by Universal Studios Home Video around 2006.
• American director Steven Spielberg has long been rumoured to be considering making a movie based on Tintin with Tom Hanks as Haddock.

In popular culture

• Charles de Gaulle once said "My only international rival is Tintin. We are both little people who are not afraid of big ones".
• In the 1979 film Kramer vs. Kramer, Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) is seen reading to his son the part of Red Rackham's Treasure where Tintin descends into the ocean.
• Indian movie director Satyajit Ray was a Tintin fan, and had shots of Tintin comics in some of his movies.
• The American comic strip Get Fuzzy has had several references to Tintin over the years.
• Thomson and Thompson appear in Asterix comic "Asterix in Belgium".
• A British 1980s "technopop" band named The Thompson Twins made some hit records in the 1980s. A former member of Duran Duran, Stephen Duffy, performed a minor hit single "Kiss Me" under the name "Tintin" around the same time, but had to drop the name under pressure of a copyright infringement suit.
• The Australian psychedelic rock band Tin Tin was named after Tintin.

See also

• Tintin books, films, and media
• Franco-Belgian comics
• Ligne claire
• Creation of a Tintin album

External links

• Tintin official site
• The Cult of Tintin at Tintinologist.org
• The Unknown TINTIN
• TINTIN Online.tk
• Unofficial Tintin Movie News
• The Tintin Trivia Quiz
• Spielberg's Tintin - Comics2Film
• Tintin in different languages
• Fictional flags in the Tintin stories
• Tintin in Italy Web site by Gianfranco Goria
• BBC news story about translation of Tintin into Hindi
• BBC news story about the history of Tintin

Reference

1. Letter from Hergé to Charles Lesne, 12 June 1939, cit. Assouline, Pierre (1996) Hergé, Folio (p218)

• Anders Høgsbro Østergaard, Tintin and I (2003)
• Peeters, Benoît (1983) Le Monde d’Hergé, Casterman.
• Peeters, Benoît (1984) Les Bijoux ravis, une lecture moderne de Tintin. Magic-Strip.

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• Tintin