< Tintin >

Background
Tintin debuted on January 10, 1929, and his 75th birthday was widely celebrated in 2004.[1] Tintin was largely based on Hergé's earlier character, a chubby boy-scout named Totor. 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 reporter who is drawn to dangerous international intrigues in which his quick thinking and bravery save the day. Almost every adventure features Tintin engaging in some kind of sleuthing or investigation, but rarely does he actually turn in a story.[2] Although the strip was Belgian, Hergé was inconsistent or vague about assigning Tintin a nationality, depicting him instead as broadly European. In some of the earliest books, like Tintin in the Congo, a Belgian identity is fairly explicit. In later adventures, as with other aspects of his character's history and family, Tintin's nationality is simply never brought up.
Tintin's age is never accurately revealed, with the character described as an 'adolescent' in the character description within the special DVD features, and referred to as 'kid' several times within the television shows. In the cartoon series based on the books, a frame in the episode The Secret of the Unicorn showing Tintin's passport states his birth year as 1929. Various newspaper articles on the series have recounted his age as being 15[2], Time refers to him as a teenager,[3] whilst the official site Tintin.com lists his age as somewhere between 16 and 18. The comics however treat him more as a worldly young adult, as shown by the absence of concerns like parents or school, as well as by his wide solo travels all over the globe. Tintin's age is static, even though he's been through the Japanese invasion of China (The Blue Lotus, 1931) and has flown in a Boeing 707 (Flight 714, 1962).


Character
Readers and critics have described Tintin as a well-rounded, yet open-ended character, noting that his rather neutral personality -- sometimes labeled as bland -- permits a balanced reflection of the evil, folly and foolhardiness which surrounds him. His boy-scout ideals, which represent Hergé's own, are never compromised by the character, and his status allows the reader to assume his position within the story, rather than merely following the adventures of a strong protagonist.[4] 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".[5] Tintin is remarkable in that he is apparently devoid of sexual or romantic feeling, a feature he shares to a certain degree with most of the other characters in the books.
Tintin's character changes in later books, starting with The Castafiore Emerald. In his final episodes, Tintin no longer actively seeks out adventure but is rather pulled along by events that happen around him, similar to the way Captain Haddock gets drawn in to an adventure by Tintin or another character in earlier stories. This is especially evident in Flight 714 and Tintin and the Picaros. Readers and critics have had varying, and often negative, responses to these final adventures, arguing that they represent either a late period of eccentricity, or puzzling disappointments. Hergé commented on this change in the later works: "Tintin has lost control, he is not on top of events anymore, he is subjected to them."[6]
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.[2]
The earlier version of Tintin was apparently inspired, at least in part, by Hergé's brother, Paul Remi, a career soldier. Tired of being referred to as "Major Tintin" by his colleagues, Paul later shaved his hair and adopted a more Erich von Stroheim look. Hergé subsequently used Paul as the villainous Colonel Sponsz in The Calculus Affair. Tintin and Sponsz, although physically very different, have actually quite similar hair spikes.[7] However, the inspiration for the clothing Hergé dressed Tintin in lay elsewhere. A fellow student of Hergé's from St Boniface, named Charles, had adopted a similar style of plus fours and Argyll socks, which caused him to be the subject of no little ridicule. Harry Thompson notes the inspiration may be tinged slightly, suggesting that if "Hergé had been one of the laughers, an element of guilt was involved."[8]
Hergé himself has noted that Tintin existed as his personal expression, and although he recorded in 1947 that that he knew "Tintin is no longer me, that, if he is to go on living, it will be by a sort of artificial respiration that I will have to practice constantly and which exhausts me, and will exhaust me more and more"[9], he was also fond of stating "Tintin, c'est moi!" ("Tintin, that's me!").[10]



A severely inebriated Snowy (Milou) (Kuttus)




Snowy (Milou)
Snowy, an exceptionally white wire 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, 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, Snowy is the only character in Flight 714 to remember that he was abducted by aliens. Snowy has rescued Tintin (often by gnawing through restraints or seeking help), or gotten him out of a tight spot by biting or distracting a villain, many times throughout the series.
Like Captain Haddock, Snowy is fond of of Loch Lomond brand scotch whisky, and his occasional bouts of drinking tend to get him into trouble, as does his acute arachnophobia.
The character of Snowy evolved through the course of the Tintin series, and was most dramatically affected by the introduction of Captain Haddock in The Crab with the Golden Claws. Before Haddock's appearance, Snowy was the source of dry and cynical side-commentary, which balanced out Tintin's constantly positive, optimistic perspective. When Haddock entered the series, the Captain took over the role of the cynic, and Snowy gradually shifted into a more light-hearted role, serving to create comic relief by chasing the Marlinspike cat (they both become friends in the end of The Calculus Affair), drinking the Captain's whisky, etc.
Milou was named after Hergé's first girlfriend, a contraction of the name Marie-Louise ("Malou"), although the character is referred to as male throughout the books.

Captain Archibald Haddock, a seafaring captain of disputed ancestry (he may be of English, French or Belgian origin), is Tintin's best friend, and was introduced in The Crab with the Golden Claws. Haddock was initially depicted as a weak and alcoholic character, but later became more respectable. He evolves to become genuinely heroic and even a socialite after he finds a treasure from his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock (François de Hadoque in French), in the episode Red Rackham's Treasure. The Captain's coarse humanity and sarcasm act as a counterpoint to Tintin's often implausible heroism; he is always quick with a dry comment whenever the boy reporter seems too idealistic. Captain Haddock lives in his luxurious mansion called Marlinspike Hall ("Moulinsart" in the original French).
Haddock uses a range of colourful insults and curses to express his feelings, such as "billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles", "ten thousand thundering typhoons", "troglodytes", "bashi-bazouk", "kleptomaniac", "anacoluthon", and "pockmark", but nothing that is actually considered a swear word. Haddock is a hard drinker, particularly fond of Loch Lomond whisky, and his bouts of drunkenness are often used for comic effect.
Hergé stated that Haddock's surname was derived from a "sad English fish that drinks a lot".[1] Haddock remained without a first name until the last completed story, Tintin and the Picaros (1976), when the name Archibald was suggested.


Supporting characters
Main article: Secondary characters and settings in The Adventures of Tintin


Hergé's supporting characters have been cited as far more developed than the central character, each imbued with a strength of character and depth of personality which has been compared with that of the characters of Charles Dickens.[15] 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. It has been speculated that the occupation of Belgium and the restrictions imposed upon Hergé forced him to focus on characterisation to avoid depicting troublesome political situations. The major supporting cast was developed during this period.[16]
Professor Cuthbert Calculus (Professeur Tryphon Tournesol {Prof. Sunflower} in French), an absent-minded and half-deaf physicist, is a minor but regular character alongside Tintin, Snowy, and Captain Haddock. Introduced in Red Rackham's Treasure, and based partially on Auguste Piccard,[17] his appearance was initially not welcomed by the leading characters, but through his generous nature and his scientific ability he develops a lasting bond with them.

Thomson and Thompson (Dupont et Dupond) are two bumbling detectives who, although unrelated,[18] look like twins with the only discernible difference being the shape of their moustaches.[19] They provide much of the comic relief throughout the series, being afflicted with chronic spoonerism and shown to be thoroughly incompetent. The detectives were in part based on Hergé's father and uncle, identical twins who wore matching bowlers.

Bianca Castafiore is an opera singer whom Haddock absolutely despises. However, she seems to constantly be popping up wherever they go, along with her maid, Irma, and pianist, Igor Wagner. Her name means "white and chaste flower", something Prof. Calculus understands when he offers a white rose to the singer he's secretly in love with in The Castafiore Emerald. She was based upon opera divas in general (according to Hergé's perception), Hergé's Aunt Ninie, and in the post-war comics on Maria Callas.[9]

Other recurring characters include Nestor the butler, General Alcazar the South American dictator, Kalish Ezab the emir, Abdullah the emir's son, Chang the Chinese boy, Müller the evil German doctor, and Rastapopoulos the criminal mastermind. Strangely, no young women feature as any main or side characters, and in fact only occasionally feature in the background.



The settings within Tintin have also added depth to the strips. Hergé mingles real and fictional lands into his stories, along with a base in Belgium from where the heroes set off. This is originally 26 Labrador Road, but later Marlinspike Hall. This is best demonstrated in King Ottokar's Sceptre, in which Hergé creates two fictional countries (Syldavia and Borduria) and invites the reader to tour them in text through the insertion of a travel brochure into the storyline.[6] Other fictional lands include San Theodoros, San Paolo and Nuevo Rico in South America, the kingdom or administrative region of Gaipajama in India, Sondonesia in Australasia (note: the sondonesians were a nationalist group and were fighting for independence, the original possessor and outcome of the revolution is unclear) and Khemed in the Middle East. Along with these fictional countries, he also included real countries and places; the United States, Soviet Union, Congo, Japan, Belgium, Egypt, India, Sahara Desert, Germany, Switzerland, Scotland, England, Peru, Tibet and China. Another setting was the Moon, and in the first edition of Land of Black Gold, Palestine, though this was later replaced by the fictional Khemed.

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< Tintin >

Background
Tintin debuted on January 10, 1929, and his 75th birthday was widely celebrated in 2004.[1] Tintin was largely based on Hergé's earlier character, a chubby boy-scout named Totor. 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 reporter who is drawn to dangerous international intrigues in which his quick thinking and... (read more)