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The Adventures of Tintin

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The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin (Les Aventures de Tintin), (Bande dessinée) drawn and written by the Belgian writer-artist Georges Remi a.k.a. Hergé, is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. According to BBC magazine, over 200 million copies of the comic books have been sold to date, with translations into over 58 languages.

The hero of the series is a young reporter and traveller named Tintin, aided by his faithful dog Snowy (originally named "Milou" in French which does not mean Snowy in English), Captain Haddock and a variety of colourful supporting characters.

The comic book series has long been admired for its clean yet expressive drawings executed in Hergé's signature ligne claire style, their engaging plots and the painstaking research done while creating the later stories. They straddle 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.

Tintin lives in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium and the birthplace of Hergé. This is evidenced most notably in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets where the text states that Tintin arrives in Brussels as he returns home after his adventure, and in Tintin in Tibet, where the letter sent to Tintin by his friend Chang is addressed to Brussels. There are other more subtle hints in some of the other books, such as recognisable locations, car numberplates, etc. However, after Red Rackham's Treasure, Tintin moves into Marlinspike Hall, whose geographical location is debatable. It is to be noted though that Marlinspike's original name is Moulinsart, the -sart ending being typical of the Walloon Brabant region - we are still probably in Belgium.

A perennial question concerning Tintin is his age: it is far from clear whether he is a teenage rookie reporter, or a senior journalist in his thirties. While his manner of dress suggests the former, the high-profile stories he covers (not to mention his apparently bottomless expense account) strongly imply the latter. The matter has never been resolved.

Contents

Characters

Tintin

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. Almost every adventure features Tintin hard at work at his investigative reporting, but he is rarely seen actually turning in a story. He is a young man of more or less neutral attitudes and is less colourful than the supporting cast.

The unusual physical appearance of Tintin was apparently inspired, at least in part, by Hergé's youngest brother Paul Remi, a career soldier.[link] Hergé later became estranged from his brother and depicted him as the villainous Colonel Sponsz in The Calculus Affair. Tintin and Sponsz, although physically very different, have quite similar hair spikes.

Captain Archibald Haddock (Capitaine Archibald Haddock)

Captain Haddock (Capitaine Haddock)
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Captain Haddock (Capitaine Haddock)

Captain Haddock, a seafaring captain of disputed ancestry (he may have 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 he became more respectable, genuinely heroic and socialite when he finds a treasure from his ancester Sir Francis Haddock in the episode named The Secret of the Unicorn . 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 gets too idealistic. Captain Haddock lives in his luxurious mansion called Marlinspike Hall.

Haddock uses a range of colourful insults and curses to express his feelings, such as "blistering barnacles", "thundering typhoons", "troglodytes", "bashi-bazouk", "kleptomaniac", "anacoluthon", and "pockmark", but no words that are actually considered swear words. Haddock is a hard drinker, especially of whisky of the fictitious Loch Lomond brand, and his bouts of drunkenness are often used for comic effect. See also: List of exclamations used by Captain Haddock

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.

Professor Cuthbert Calculus (Professeur Tryphon Tournesol)

Professor Calculus (Professeur Tournesol)
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Professor Calculus (Professeur Tournesol)

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.

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 (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.

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.

NOTE: A literal translation of his French name would be Tryphonius Sunflower or Tryphonius Litmus Paper

Snowy (Milou)

A severely inebriated Snowy (Milou).
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A severely inebriated Snowy (Milou).

Snowy, an exceptionally white 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.

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.

Thomson and Thompson (Dupond et Dupont)

Thomson and Thompson are two clumsy detectives who, although unrelated, look like twins with the only discernible difference being the shape of their moustaches.[Visual guide to Thomson and Thompson] 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. When they get into a terrible mess (like falling over) they come up with lazy excuses such as 'Well I was following you' to make themselves seem less buffoonish.

The detectives usually wear bowler hats and carry walking sticks, except when abroad, when they insist on wearing the "national 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 makes them stand out even more.

The detectives were in part based on Hergé's father and uncle, identical twins who wore matching bowlers.

Minor characters

See: List of The Adventures of Tintin characters and Minor characters in Tintin
Rastapopoulos, the most heavily featured antagonist throughout the series.
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Rastapopoulos, the most heavily featured antagonist throughout the series.

Bianca Castafiore, the only female main character.
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Bianca Castafiore, the only female main character.

Some of the notable characters are:

Fictional countries

Hergé devised several fictional countries later in the series.[The Flags of the Tintin Fictional Countries] Syldavia in particular is described in considerable detail (history, customs, language etc.).
Ben Kalish Ezab, emir of Khemed.
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Ben Kalish Ezab, emir of Khemed.

Tintin and General Alcazar, the on-and-off dictator of San Theodoros. From the Swedish edition of Tintin and the Picaros.
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Tintin and General Alcazar, the on-and-off dictator of San Theodoros. From the Swedish edition of Tintin and the Picaros.

Race and colonialism

Chang Chong-Chen
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Chang Chong-Chen

The earliest stories in The Adventures of Tintin have been criticised for racist and colonialist leanings, including caricatured portrayals of non-Europeans. However, Hergé by his own admission was rather naive at the time and was largely informed by the then conventional views of his editor. The alleged racism in the earliest stories is more absurd than anything else. In Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, the Bolsheviks were seen as evil, and in Tintin in the Congo, the Africans were shown as naive and primitive. The adventure which is largely seen as the first "serious" Tintin adventure is 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. His research was aided by Zhang Chongren, a Chinese student in Belgium, who would become a character in the Tintin comics under the name of Chang Chong-Chen. The Blue Lotus 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, who are portrayed as sinister and cruel). From then on, meticulous research would be one of Hergé's trademarks.

Mr. Bohlwinkel
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Mr. Bohlwinkel

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 album originally had an American villain with the Jewish surname of Mr. Blumenstein. This proved to be controversial, as the character looked very stereotypically Jewish. He was changed to an American with a less ethnically specific name, Mr. Bohlwinkel, in later editions and subsequently to a South American of a fictional country. Hergé later discovered that 'Bohlwinkel' was also a Jewish name.

The next book to have any controversy over race was The Red Sea Sharks, in which Africans were seen as being naive and simple. Herge later re-did some of it to rectify this, though it remained controversial. However, in some of his other albums, such as Tintin in Tibet, there is not a trace of any racial stereotyping.

Stage adaptations

Hergé himself helped to create two Tintin stage plays: Tintin in India: The mystery of the blue diamond and The disappearance of Mr. Boullock.

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 ran a musical version of Tintin in Tibet at the Barbican Arts Centre in London from December 2005 to January 2006.[link]

Memorabilia

Dutch Tintin and Snowy (Kuifje en Bobbie) stamp from 1999.
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Dutch Tintin and Snowy (Kuifje en Bobbie) stamp from 1999.

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 of 2004.

Merchandise

Universal Studios has licensed the rights to Adventures of Tintin merchandise in North America.
The Tintin Shop in Covent Garden.
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The Tintin Shop in Covent Garden.

In the future

In popular culture

[Spielberg's Tintin - Comics2Film]

Translation into English

The process of translating Tintin into the English language was a complex and painstaking affair, commissioned in 1958 by Methuen & Co. Ltd. of London. It was a joint-operation, headed by the highly enthusiastic Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner, who worked extremely closely with Hergé to attain an accurate translation as true as possible to the original work. The works were also sold in the American market without any alteration to the originally translated text in British English.

Due in part to the large amount of highly language-specific wordplay (such as punning) in the series, especially the jokes which played on Professor Calculus’ partial deafness, it was always the intention not to translate literally, instead striving to sculpt a work whose idioms and jokes would be meritorious in their own right; however, in spite of the free hand Hergé afforded the two, they worked closely to the original text, reportedly asking for regular assistance to understand Hergé's intentions.

More than simply translating, however, the English versions were significantly anglicised to appeal to British customs and values. Milou, for example, was renamed to Snowy at the translators’ discretion. Moreover, the translation process served to colour the imagery within the book; the opportunity was taken to make scenes set in Britain more true-to-life, such as ensuring that the British police were free from firearms, and ensuring scenes of the British countryside were more accurate for discerning British readers.

Because the translated text was placed into the original speech balloons without alteration to their original dimensions, the linguistic differences between the two languages (meaning that certain phrases were either significantly shorter or longer in the English language) led to the unexpectedly empty or full balloons which can often be seen in the English versions of the book.

See also

References

Footnotes

External links

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