List of The Adventures of Tintin characters
Encyclopedia
The supporting characters Hergé
created for his series The Adventures of Tintin
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
. 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.
residing in Nyon
, Switzerland, who appears in The Calculus Affair
. An acquaintance of Professor Calculus
, he survives first an assault on his doorstep then the destruction of his house by Borduria
n agents interested in Calculus's work. His manservant Boris works for the secret service of that country.
's first mate, Allan Thompson is often involved in smuggling and other criminal activities, most notably as one of Rastapopoulos
' henchmen, except inThe Crab with the Golden Claws
where he takes orders from Omar Ben Salaad instead. He is the treacherous first mate of Captain Haddock, keeping him drunk and running the ship to smuggle opium. At the end of the story he steals a motorboat to try and escape, but Tintin uses another boat to capture him, and he is arrested. His name was Allan Thompson in the original French, but English translations leave out his surname to avoid confusion with Tintin's friends Thomson and Thompson
. He reappears in Red Sea Sharks in league with Rastapopulos, and is captured by the end of the book. In Flight 714, he was shown savagely beaten by escaping Sondonesians, causing him to suffer severe injuries and loss of all his teeth, resulting in babyish speech. In the same book, he, along with Rastapopoulos and company were hypnotized by Mik Krankitoff then captured by aliens and taken away to an unknown destination. While Rastapopoulos was apparently slated to return in the unfinished album Tintin and Alph-Art
, Allan's ultimate fate remains unrevealed.
Allan is portrayed by Daniel Mays
in the motion-capture film The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn which merges plots from several books.
. They work solely for themselves in obtaining a diamond
concealed in a fetish
. Peres, an engineer
, is the leader of the two. Bada, the follower, is a knife thrower, and uses more Spanish
in his speech than Perez. While engaged with Tintin in a hand-to-hand combat for the diamond, Ramon and Alonso fall into the sea and drown, and are shown being taken away to Hell
by little smiling winged demons. However it is speculated this might be an imaginary sequence or a hallucination.
who appears in The Secret of the Unicorn
. Silk claims he is not a thief, but admits he is a kleptomaniac
. He explains he adores wallets and displays his large collection, none of which have been emptied of their contents. He is first seen in the market near the start of the story, moving away from the Thompsons just before their walllets are stolen. Later he is seen at the end of Red Rackham's Treasure in the Maritime Gallery.
Aristides Silk is portrayed by Toby Jones
in the motion-capture film The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn which merges plots from several books.
driver in The Calculus Affair
who eagerly helped Tintin and Captain Haddock go after the Syldavia
n agents who kidnapped Professor Calculus. While chasing the kidnappers, they sped through a built-up area in a village in the French Haute Savoie on market day, which caused great destruction and chaos. However, when they were finally stopped by a gendarme who wanted to record their names, they escaped because of Arturo flabbergasting the gendarme with his overly long name, which caused the bewildered gendarme to meekly let them off with "Don't do it again ..." When they finally stopped the Syldavian car, however, they didn't find Calculus inside because he was hidden in a secret compartment. This greatly upset Arturo, who then accused Tintin and the Captain of making up the story up in order to get a free ride. He has great pride in Italian cars because of being an Italian driver, which he claims are number one in the world.
insurgent
who fights the power governing his country, though overall he comes across as a villain rather than a noble fighter. He appeared in Land of Black Gold
and played a major behind-the-scenes role in The Red Sea Sharks
, having forced the Emir to abdicate, resulting in Abdullah being sent to Marlinspike for protection. At the close of The Red Sea Sharks
, he is overthrown and presumably executed.
boss of the rival gang fighting Al Capone
. Smiles makes an appearance in Tintin in America
and he and the reporter go after each other throughout much of the story. Smiles even manages to turn the American Indians against Tintin. He is eventually captured and sent to the police by Tintin.
In the animated series, Smiles works for Capone
, rather than against him.
, Captain Chester is a gruff merchant skipper with red hair and a bushy red moustache. He first appears in The Shooting Star
in Iceland
, where he bumps into Captain Haddock at the docks and launches into a bizarre greeting ritual with Haddock which Tintin at first interprets as the build-up to a fight. However, Haddock and Chester warmly clasp hands and take Tintin to a local bar to reminisce over a bottle of whisky
. Chester is captain of the Sirius, a merchant trawler, and uses it to secretly refuel Haddock's research vessel in Iceland when their competitors block the supply, allowing the captain's ship to siphon fuel from his tanks while it is pumped in.
Chester later lends the Sirius to Haddock when he and Tintin set off to find Red Rackham's Treasure
. Chester is briefly mentioned in The Seven Crystal Balls
— Tintin and Haddock attempt to visit him while he is docked at a port, but he departs before they arrive — and is one of the people that sends Haddock telegrams in The Castafiore Emerald
.
vian Quechua
, appears as the sidekick of General Alcazar in The Seven Crystal Balls
. He assists Alcazar in his knife-throwing act but this serves as a cover since Chiquito, unknown to the General, is out to punish the European explorers 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 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 the chimmney and seizes the jewelry of Rascar Capac, the Inca whose tomb was violated. As he escapes he is shot and wounded by a police officer and hides in 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 later appears in Prisoners of the Sun
on the Pachacamac and catches Tintin who has found Calculus. When Chiquito calls for his companion Alonzo, Tintin takes the opportunity to escape and jumps into the water and swims to Haddock's boat as Chiquito shoots at him. Their next meeting is at the Temple of the Sun, high in the mountains, where Chiquito and Huascar perform the ceremony of burning Tintin and his friends at the stake, only to be interrupted by an eclipse.
Chiquito is often confused with Huascar who bears a close resemblance to him.
Chiquito is known to be a practitioner of black magic
. He casts a spell on all seven members of the Sanders-Hardiman expedition, and holds them in a drug-induced trance. He is also able to torture them remotely from his temple. His real name is Rupac Inca Huaco and he is one of the few remaining descendants of the Incas.
, where — to the fury of Captain Haddock
and the amusement of Bianca Castafiore
— they write a sensational article for their magazine announcing that the captain and the diva are engaged. They later appear in Tintin and the Picaros
. In the redrawn version of The Black Island
, Willoughby-Drupe is shown interviewing the old man in the pub while Rizotto is in the crowd of reporters welcoming Tintin at the docks.
Hergé created the pair after being interviewed for Paris Match
and finding the resulting piece dubious.
. They first met in King Ottokar's Sceptre
, where he was known simply as "Boris" and was a relatively minor character, supposedly in service of King Muskar, but in fact a double agent for the neighboring republic of Borduria. To all intents and purposes he is a Syldavia
n, but a traitor who is always out to betray his country one way or the other. His fate at the end of the novel was not shown, but he was apparently arrested or discredited after the Bordurian plot was foiled.
He made a cameo appearance
in Destination Moon
and confronted Tintin again in Explorers on the Moon
, having stowed away on the moon rocket that Tintin and his friends were piloting. Wolff was told he would be a journalist, he only revealed his objective when on the Moon. He plans to get the rocket to the country for which he works. When most of the group left on the Moon-Tank, Jorgen knocked Tintin out from behind, tied him up, and left him below. He and his accomplice, Frank Wolff
attempted to maroon the rocket's crew on the moon, but were prevented from doing so by Tintin, who severed the wires and held Jorgen at gunpoint. Jorgen escaped custody during the return flight when Thomson and Thompson thought handcuffs would be more secure then rope, and attempted to kill the rocket crew, but Wolff turned on him, and Jorgen inadvertently shot himself through the heart in the ensuing struggle, dying instantly. His body was subsequently ejected into space.
-wearing Sponsz is a native of the nation of Borduria
, where he became the Chief of Police of the capital Szohôd, and the head of the Secret Police or ZEP, which operates on behalf of the country's dictator Marshal Kurvi-Tasch. He is a calculating and ruthless figure, and bears strong grudges against those who upset his political machinations (such as Tintin). At the end of Tintin and the Picaros, Sponsz is sent back to Borduria, where he supposedly faces incarceration or another fate.
, Corporal Diaz was demoted from Colonel by General Alcazar who replaced him with Tintin after Diaz complained that San Theodoros had too many colonels and too few corporals. In revenge, he engaged in repeated, unsuccessful assassination attempts against Alcazar, the last of which killed Diaz himself when he assumed that the bomb was due to go off an hour later than it was. Ironically, Alcazar had arrested and sentenced Tintin to death due to faked evidence against him and promoted Diaz back to colonel just before he died.
. As a result the mansion's inhabitants are endlessly plagued by orders for lamb chops and sausages.
The irony is that when making calls himself Captain Haddock
usually ends up getting put through to Cutts' shop, rather than the place he was actually calling.
The unseen delivery man from the butcher's plays a vital role in The Calculus Affair
by offering Professor Calculus
a lift to the village just in time to save him from a Borduria
n kidnapping attempt.
It would appear that Cutts is also the local Mayor
, since he can be seen dressed very formally along with the local municipal band congratulating Haddock
and Castafiore
on their "engagement" in The Castafiore Emerald
.
He had one last reference at the start of Tintin and Alph-Art
, where a call for him was made. Later, Captain Haddock mistakes the name "Fourcart" for Cutts, and is embarrassed to find out it wasn't Cutts.
He also appeared in a TV ad for cooking oil with Professor Calculus
in 1979 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xw5g3_1979-fruit-dor-professeur-tournesol.
In French the name of the butcher's shop Boucherie Sanzot is a pun. Sanzot sounds like sans os, which means without bones. The English translation uses Cutts to make a different pun.
whose position and qualifications serve as a cover for more villainous activities, including that of criminal
, Nazi secret agent
and mercenary
. Müller's first appearance was in The Black Island
, which was first published in 1937, colourised in 1943 and redrawn completely in 1966.
He also appeared in Land of Black Gold
and The Red Sea Sharks
. In both, he helped the rebel Bab El Ehr in his attempts to overthrow the Emir, Ben Kalish Ezab. He designed Formula Fourteen, which increased the explosive properties of petrol, and sabotaged the pipelines of Arabex, the Emir's preferred petrol company. In "The Red Sea Sharks," he had changed his name to Mull Pasha (shown in the pile of newspaper clippings near the end). In The Black Island, he has a goatee and mustache, but in the latter two books, he has a full-grown beard that enables him to disguise as an Arab.
Once Bab el Ehr is overthrown at the end of The Red Sea Sharks
, he is also captured and presumably executed or incarcerated.
. He is an associate of Tintin's enemy Rastapopoulos
, but he later changes sides when it is in his interest to get away from his employer.
It's been suggested that Krollspell is an ex-Nazi
scientist, probably based on Josef Mengele
, the infamous "Angel of Death", or Adolf Hitler
's quack doctor, Theodor Morell
. In an interview, Hergé himself suggested that Krollspell had worked in a concentration camp
—Flight 714 to Sydney having been published some 20 years after the war
.
"Kroll" is also part of the name of the Krolloper Berlin Opera House
, where the Nazi-dominated German parliament
met following the Reichstag fire of 1933
. However, "Krolspel" is simply Brussels dialect for "krulspeld", which means "hair curler".
Krollspell was the head of a psychiatric clinic in New Delhi
(Cairo
in the English version of the story). He developed a truth serum
that Rastapopoulos intended to use on kidnapped millionaire Laszlo Carreidas in order to find out the account number of a Swiss bank, where Carreidas had left a large part of his personal fortune under a false name and signature, presumably for taxation purposes.
The corrupt doctor injected the millionaire with the serum. Carreidas proved more than willing to tell the truth—but about everything except the Swiss bank account. To Rastapopoulos's fury, Carreidas launched into long disquisitions about his greedy, unscrupulous nature, boasting how he first stole a pear at the age of four; framed the family maid after robbing from his sister's handbag; shamed his great-aunt to death; and had generally led a life of perfidy. Realizing the serum was defective, a furious Rastapopoulos lashed out at Krollspell, who was still holding the truth-drug syringe, and was accidentally injected with it, becoming intoxicated as well. Rastapopoulos now also recounted his hideous deeds in a boasting manner, calling himself the devil incarnate. He even revealed that he intended to double-cross and murder all his associates, including Krollspell, and not pay him the $40,000 he had promised him.
Unnerved by these revelations, Krollspell was about to escape when he was captured by Tintin and Haddock, who had come to rescue Carreidas. He and the two drug-induced men were then tied up and gagged. However, when the serum wore off, Rastapopoulos made an attempt to escape, and Krollspell was quick to warn Tintin and Haddock. Rastapopoulos got away, but the doctor was released and continued to accompany Tintin and Haddock, watching over the still-irritable Carreidas. Haddock only grudgingly went along with Tintin's release of Krollspell; the good captain had a tendency of treating even reformed enemies, such as Frank Wolff
or Piotr Skut, with suspicion, although Tintin pointed out that the news of Rastapopoulos's treachery gave Krollspell every reason to help them escape.
Krollspell, along with Tintin and his other companions, was later picked up by a flying saucer
. A treatment by the aliens caused him to lose his memory of the events completely. In a news program later in the story, it is announced that Krollspell was found in Cairo with no memory of how he got there.
(whose model skeleton
is arrested by Thompson and Thomson) and Explorers on the Moon
, where he attends to an unconscious Captain Haddock
after his arrival back on Earth. He also sent a congratulatory telegram to Captain Haddock
when (incorrect) news of his engagement to Bianca Castafiore was announced in The Castafiore Emerald
.
In 2000, on one episode of the French-language version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
73 percent of the voting audience correctly identified Doctor Patella (or Doctor Rotule, as he is known in the French-language version) as the doctor who treated Captain Haddock in Explorers on the Moon
. This led to allegations that the show was rigged: one Tintin fan questioned how could such a large portion of the audience could pick out of four options the correct answer, especially given Doctor Patella's very minor role in the series. A psychoanalyst postulated that children remember proper names much better than adults, hence its retention by members of the audience who read Tintin in their youth.
. His voice sounds familiar to Tintin, but as the book was unfinished, we do not know if his true identity is Rastapopoulos.
(1950–52) and Explorers on the Moon
(1952–53). In an interview, Herge
described him as clever, (stating he had a Phd in Mathematics with Mechanics and a BEng in chemical engineering), but feeble and quiet. He is the rocket engineer who assists Tintin
's friend Professor Calculus
before and during the Syldavia
n expedition to the moon
. However, Wolff is ultimately exposed as a spy
who was coerced into helping an unnamed foreign power to hijack the moon rockets he had helped to build. Later, he sacrifices himself for the survival of the group by throwing himself into space.
, Alcazar is involved in a never-ending struggle for power with his arch-rival General Tapioca, both men claiming leadership of the country and renaming its capital after themselves when they arrive in power. Alcazar runs the city of 'San Theodoros' in The Broken Ear
, but has lost power and become a cabaret act in Europe by the time of The Seven Crystal Balls
. In The Red Sea Sharks
, Alcazar seems to have returned to "politics" as he is discovered to be buying weapons from a dealer. In Tintin and the Picaros
, Alcazar has returned to his country and is running an unsuccessful guerilla operation in the tropical forest. He is also now married to a harridan who bullies him. Tintin, though uninterested in his cause, devises a stratagem to return him to power so as to rescue his own friends. As the book ends, Alcazar is once again in charge of the country but it is suggested that he and Tapioca are interchangeable.
's friend General Alcazar. He and Alcazar are both generals in the army of the fictional South America
n Republic
of San Theodoros
. He assumes dictatorial leadership of the country with comedic frequency. In Tintin and the Picaros
, General Tapioca was exiled to Borduria after General Alcazar took control.
Huascar is a leading member of the Incas, which maintain the cult of the worship of the Sun in a hidden city in the mountains. Huascar keeps tabs on Tintin and Captain Haddock when they arrive in Peru
in order to rescue their friend Cuthbert Calculus. He listens in on their conversation with the chief of police and follows them through the streets of Callao
.
At Santa-Clara, he arranges a train "accident" that nearly gets them killed by threatening a guard with the consequences of disobeying the orders of the Inca.
At Jauga, however, he sees Tintin defending a young orange seller named Zorrino from two other white men. Surprised that a white foreigner such as Tintin should do such a selfless act, he advises him to stop searching for Calculus since he will be risking his life. Tintin states he will continue anyway, so Huascar gives him a talisman
that he claims can keep danger away. Later captured by the Incas, Tintin gives the talisman to Zorrino and the Incas, who intend to kill him for treachery, are forced to spare the younger boy's life. Present at the scene, Huascar is revealed to be a High Priest of the Sun who later uses a large magnifying glass
to set fire to the stake
used to burn the Westerners but is thwarted by an eclipse
, which leads to their release.
(Prisoners of the Sun was originally published in Tintin Magazine
in 1946 and had many scenes that were not included when it was published in book form. In the magazine version, Tintin and Haddock are at the bridge waiting for an unknown guide when they meet Huascar, who tells them that their guide has gotten sick. He smiles at Haddock's insults and walks away. Zorrino then calls them over to the bridge. He claims that Huascar took him prisoner but that he escaped.)
Huascar is sometimes confused with Chiquito because of his resemblance to Chiquito when wearing a hat and poncho.
working for Bianca Castafiore
. In The Castafiore Emerald
he is discovered to be a gambler who bets by telephone on races in secret. He has a small moustache and dresses formally in black with black shoes. After the thievery of Castafiore's emeralds, his attempts to help more often than not incriminated himself, as his footprints were found near Castafiore's window, he was suspiciously rummaging in the attic, and later broke a step on the staircase. He also tries to sneak out of his hour-long training sessions (dictated by Castafiore). Being the long-time accompanist for Castafiore, his name is made up of a humorous reference to two very well known composers: Igor Stravinsky
, and Richard Wagner
. He was imprisoned along with Irma and Castafiore in Tintin and the Picaros, only to be freed by Tintin and company.
, she first appeared in The Calculus Affair
. In The Castafiore Emerald
, she went with Bianca and her pianist
Igor Wagner to Marlinspike Hall
. Castafiore describes her as a faithful, loyal and honest servant. Despite giving a meek impression, she has a strong sense of personal pride: when Thompson and Thomson accuse Irma of stealing Castafiore's emerald, in the titular album, she becomes very angry and assaults them with a walking stick.
, Mr. Sakharine is a collector of models of ships, among which is one of those of the Unicorn. Noticing another model of the Unicorn in a market place, he and another man called Barnaby try to buy it only to find that it has already been claimed by Tintin. Tintin declines all the offers made by Barnaby and Sakharine to buy the model off him.
Tintin's Unicorn is later stolen and he suspects Sakharine of the theft. Visiting Sakharine he discovers the other Unicorn model. Sakharine is later attacked by Barnaby who steals the parchment from the second Unicorn. It is one of three parchments which lead to a treasure. The Bird Brothers are later arrested and claim that the parchments they obtained have since been stolen. Tintin thinks Mr. Sakharine stole the two parchments, but he soon discovers that it was a third party and recovers them.
At the end of Red Rackham's Treasure
, Mr. Sakharine can be seen attending the exhibition held at Marlinspike Hall, showing off the various items recovered from the actual ship itself. He himself has apparently offered Captain Haddock his Unicorn model, which is shown in the display with the other two.
Hergé died while in the planning stages of another Tintin adventure Tintin and Alph-Art
which, at his request, remains unfinished. Surviving drafts of the story suggest that Haddock and Tintin notice Sakharine at a meeting hosted by mystic
Endaddine Akass.
In the film adaptation The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, he is reimagined as the main antagonist. The film portrays him as the descendant of the pirate Red Rackham, seeking revenge on behalf of his ancestor against Captain Haddock
, descendant of Sir Francis Haddock, who killed Rackham.
of Shanghai in The Blue Lotus
. Although his nationality is not specified by Herge, the holder of this position was always British throughout the history of the International Settlement. In revenge for Tintin's rebuking of his American friend the businessman Gibbons, Dawson attempts to have Indian prison guards beat up Tintin. Dawson subsequently turns him over to the Japanese who have a price on Tintin's head, calmly dismissing Tintin's protest that he is on neutral ground by pointing out that since Tintin does not have papers allowing him to be in the settlement, Dawson has every right to throw him out. Appearing in a more sinister role in The Red Sea Sharks
, Dawson sells weapons to both Generals Alcazar and Tapioca using the pseudonym Mr. Debrett , and is being patronized by Rastapopoulos. He has Tintin and Captain Haddock denied entry to Khemed and plants a bomb on the return plane. His plan ultimately fails, and his fate is unknown.
of Syldavia
. He appears in King Ottokar's Sceptre
, first published in 1938. He is a keen motorist who drives his own car and even has his own gun for protection. He is married to an unnamed Queen
.
A previous King, Ottokar IV, mounted the throne in 1360. When an enemy, Baron Staszrvitch, claimed the Crown and attacked him with his sword, Ottokar struck him to the ground with his sceptre. Acknowledging that the sceptre had saved his life, the King then decreed that the ruler of Syldavia must keep possession of the sceptre, otherwise he would lose his authority. Every year, on Saint Vladimir's Day, the King must show the people that he has the sceptre otherwise he will be forced to abdicate.
Tintin discovered a plot to steal the sceptre and warned King Muskar, though traitorous elements in Muskar's entourage, led by his aide-de-camp
Colonel Boris, tried to stop him. Tintin got to see the King after punching Boris out of his way and the monarch was fair-minded enough to check up his claims, which turned out to be true.
The sceptre had been stolen in order to provoke a constitutional crisis which would lead to the King's abdication, plunge Syldavia into political turmoil and pave the way for an invasion by its long-term enemy Borduria
. The plot included members of the Syldavian police force and others in high places — including a political party called the Iron Guard (which may have been inspired by the Fascist paramilitary
groups that were widespread in Europe between the wars
).
Tintin recovered the sceptre and the invasion was foiled. (The situation was very similar to that of the Anschluss
in Austria
in 1938 though the conclusion was not the same.) For his services, Muskar made Tintin the first foreigner to become a Knight of the Golden Pelican.
In contrast to many modern monarchs, Muskar takes an active role in government, ordering his ministers and generals to prevent the coup and the invasion.
Muskar and his country do not appear to have been based on definitive models — both apparently having been inspired by various Eastern Europe
an and Balkan states. Many of these states were monarchies ruled by Carol II of Romania
, Zog I of Albania
, Alexander I of Yugoslavia
, and Boris III of Bulgaria
. The kings' costumes may have been inspired by the portrait of Spanish king Alfonso XIII (by Philip Alexius de Laszlo
) and the Rumanian prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza. He bears a striking resemblance to Zog of Albania
, a man who also carried a gun and confronted numerous violent conspiracies. Many of these states became communist republic
s after World War II
.
Muskar is also a military officer. He is sometimes shown wearing a military uniform. He holds the rank of Colonel of the Royal Guards. Muskar's military service is similar to members of other real European royal families, who have members that have served in their nation's militaries.
Muskar is noticeably absent from the other post-war stories set in Syldavia: he does not appear at the launching of the moon rocket in Destination Moon
, and Tintin does not call on him for help when his friend Professor Calculus
is kidnapped by Bordurian and later Syldavian secret agent
s in The Calculus Affair
.
n secret service agents ostensibly assigned by Colonel Sponsz to ensure Tintin and Captain Haddock's safety and well-being during their visit to the Bordurian capital Szohôd. Like the KGB
agents (but more in a fascist ideology) on whom they are presumably based, their real objective is to prevent the visitors from making indiscreet inquiries in their hunt for Professor Calculus
. Tintin and Haddock neutralize the agents by plying them with drinks at dinner and then locking them in their respective hotel rooms. Their names are undoubtedly puns on chronic and clumsy. They appear to be the Bordurian equivalents of Thompson and Thomson.
. Although he never appears as a character in the series, he is mentioned by name, and glimpsed in statues and portraits in King Ottokar's Sceptre
, The Calculus Affair
, and Tintin and the Picaros
. His name is an allusion to his curved moustache, which also appears as diacritical mark in the language of Borduria. An example of this can be seen in his own name. He, along with the Bordurian government setup, closely resemble the Nazi Third Reich. (i.e. The stating of the word Amaih, which is Marshal Kurvi-Tasch's title/given name, and the usage of the country's national insignia, a symbol that resembles the marshal's moustache, on badges and armbands. These are used similarly to the swastika and the saying "Heil Hitler!")
in Flight 714
. His unassuming figure notwithstanding, Carreidas is revealed to be a cunning individual with a long history of unscrupulous behavior not limited to the business world; he is not above cheating Captain Haddock at a game of Battleships
with the help of a closed-circuit television. A large part of his personal fortune, over ten million dollars, is in a Swiss bank account under a false name and signature, presumably for taxation purposes.
Carreidas is the owner of a brand of soft drink
called "Sani-Cola" (a pun on the French pronunciation of "Saint Nicolas"), which apparently contains chlorophyll
. The healthfulness of this beverage is brought into question when the whisky-loving Captain Haddock discreetly empties a cup forced upon him by Carreidas into a potted plant that wilts dramatically immediately thereafter.
Despite the caution he appears to take with his money, refusing to pay any ransom and with the multiple efforts he has gone to in order to keep his accounts secret, Carreidas generally appears to have a random attitude about his finances, ordering the purchase of multiple paintings simply because a rival is after them when he originally rejected the idea of purchasing them and appearing more concerned about the loss of a rare hat at the conclusion of the novel than the loss of his prototype airplane.
Carreidas' name is a pun: carré d'as means 'four aces' in French. Accordingly, the logo on the tail of his Carreidas 160 supersonic business jet consists of four aces.
This aircraft is a private plane of the sort owned by wealthy businessmen, with the added particularity that it has swing-wing
capabilities. It is possibly the purest — and most practical — example of the concept to-date. It was designed by Roger Leloup
, an artist working in the Studios Hergé
.
It seems that Hergé based Carreidas on Marcel Dassault
, who possessed a similar combination of wealth, aeronautics engineering genius, and quaint notions of fashion (Dassault's wardrobe remained frozen in the mid 1930s).
n writer for the magazine Space Week. He appeared in Flight 714
and helped Tintin, Captain Haddock and their friends escape from the island after Rastapopoulos and his cohorts set off a plastic explosive charge that stirred up the island's volcano. Kanrokitoff wears a small antenna and transmitter on the side of his head which enables him to communicate telepathically
with other people and even subject them to mass-hypnotism
. He maintains close touch with an unseen race of space aliens and it is their spaceship that enables Tintin and co. to escape the island.
'Ezdanitoff' in the original version is another 'Bruxellois' word play, 'is dat niet tof' in Dutch, meaning 'isn't that nice'.
He was inspired by the Russian-born writer and journalist Jacques Bergier
.
from an unnamed power who masterminds the plot to hijack the Syldavia
n rocket programme in Destination Moon
and Explorers on the Moon
. He was probably the man who offered to help Frank Wolff
out of his gambling debts in exchange for secrets when Wolff was working in the United States
: Miller is shown in one scene checking a list of personnel at the Centre where the Syldavian rockets are being built and presumably finds Wolff's name among them.
Miller is first seen on the plane to Syldavia in Destination Moon. He was seated in the row ahead of Tintin
and Haddock
and was astonished to hear the Captain mention the name "Calculus
". This shows that he was already planning to take over the moon programme which Calculus was working on. He discreetly followed Tintin and Haddock through Klow
airport but pulled back when he realised that they were being escorted by the local secret police or Zepo.
Miller contacted Calculus's assistant Frank Wolff and blackmailed him into supplying him with the plans for the rockets which were being built at the Sprodj Atomic Research Centre.
With an associate known as the Baron, he then set about parachuting agents into the area of the Centre and obtaining the plans for the experimental unmanned rocket X-FLR6. When X-FLR6 was launched, Miller's technicians were able to intercept it and divert the rocket to their own territory. However, Tintin and Calculus had expected this and destroyed the rocket before it could land.
Miller threatened to kill Wolff whom he suspected of double-crossing him, but refrained when it was announced that a manned rocket was to go to the moon. Miller arranged for Colonel Jorgen, an old enemy of Tintin's, to be smuggled aboard. He himself stayed up-to-date with events by listening into radio broadcasts between Earth and the rocket. Ultimately though the attempt to get hold of the rocket failed, with Jorgen and Wolff both perishing in the process. The last appearance of Miller had him cursing the rocket's crew and his agents' bungling, wishing that they would all perish in the last stage of the return journey.
Like any good spymaster, Miller designated various codenames to his targets and operations: the Centre was referred to as the "Main Workshop"; Calculus and Haddock were codenamed "Mammoth
" and "Whale
" respectively; and the operation to hijack the manned rocket to the moon was called "Ulysses
", after the Greek hero who also goes on an epic journey and is himself a master of intrigue and deception (Homer
refers to him as such in the Odyssey
).
who appears in The Blue Lotus
. He owns a women's clothing shop in Tai P'ing Lu in Shanghai
, but is also involved in a drug trafficking cabal with Rastapopoulos
and is also working for the Japanese government. Mitsuhirato is, along with the other Japanese principal characters, characterized as an evil, scheming person, exploiting political turmoil in China to his and his country's advantage. After his subsequent capture at the end of The Blue Lotus, he committed suicide by hara-kiri, or seppuku
.
of the fictional Arab state of Khemed, and Abdullah is his extremely spoiled, mischievous, hyperactive son. After first appearing in Land of Black Gold
, the Emir and his son reappear in The Red Sea Sharks
, when Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab has been temporarily overthrown by his rival Sheikh
Bab El Ehr and entrusts his son to Tintin's care. Abdullah is a serial practical joker whose favourite victim is the short-tempered Captain Haddock
.
At the end of The Red Sea Sharks
, father and son are presumably reunited.
. 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 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. This includes depositing lit dynamite
on its deck — which Snowy puts out — instructing another ship under his control — the S.S. Kentucky Star — to ram the Aurora during a storm, refusing to allow the Aurora to refuel at a Golden Oil depot — only for Haddock's old friend Captain Chester to help them by having the oil that the depot is pumping into his tanks be siphoned off by the Sirius — 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 don't exist. The Shooting Star ends with a dismayed Bohlwinkel listening to a radio announcement which reveals that the police
are onto him.
It is conspicuous that Bohlwinkel has the exact physiognomy of the stereotypical Jew in Nazi propaganda
. In the original edition of The Shooting Star (published during World War II
) he was referred to as Blumenstein, and his bank was explicitly stated as being located in New York.
In later editions of the book, Hergé attempted to alter the financer's antecedents by relocating him to a fictitious South America
n country, São Rico, and changing his name to a Brabantian
dialect word for a sweet shop, bollewinkel. He also modified the spelling of the new name. Hergé however subsequently learned that Bohlwinkel is also a Jewish surname. Several other changes were made in later editions of The Shooting Star.
who appears in The Castafiore Emerald
, he is hired by Captain Haddock
to fix the broken step in Marlinspike Hall. However, Mr Bolt repeatedly fails to turn up, offering a never-ending stream of excuses. Mr. Bolt is one of the people who send the Captain a telegram when his engagement to marry Bianca Castafiore
is erroneously announced, and is also a member of the band that plays outside Marlinspike Hall as part of the "celebrations". At the end of the book, Mr. Bolt finally comes and fixes the broken step. However, the Captain trips up on the step, instantly undoing Mr. Bolt's work. By the time of Tintin and the Picaros, Mr. Bolt seems to have finally fixed the step.
, Oliveira de Figueira is a friendly salesman who can sell even the most trivial of items, from umbrella
s to roller skate
s, to Arab
patrons. He and Tintin first meet in Cigars of the Pharaoh
(1932). Tintin and Snowy
have been cast adrift in the Red Sea
when they are picked up by a dhow
. De Figueira is a passenger, and quickly talks Tintin into buying a variety of superfluous objects. He later appears in Land of Black Gold
, where he plays a more obviously valuable role in helping Tintin infiltrate Doctor Muller's headquarters, taking Tintin there disguised as his nephew while making deliveries and keeping the guards distracted with an elaborate story while Tintin searches. In The Red Sea Sharks
, he hides Tintin and Captain Haddock at his house so they can speak to the Emir. He gets a very brief mention in The Castafiore Emerald
, where he sends good wishes to Captain Haddock following a news report claiming that he and Signora Castafiore are engaged.
Oliveira de Figueira is the form used by Hergé in the later appearances of this character. He is named Oliveira da Figueira (lit. "Olive-tree of the Fig-tree") in his initial appearances. For The Red Sea Sharks
Hergé changed his name to Oliveira de Figueira. (Both spellings are correct in Portuguese
: "de" means "of", while "da" means "of the".)
merchant
who appears in The Crab with the Golden Claws
. "Omar" is a common Arabic name, but Omar also sounds like "homard" which is the French for lobster
while Salaad sounds like "salade" in French (salad in English).
He is a wealthy businessman based in the port city of Bagghar in Morocco
, then a French
possession. (Bagghar sounds like "bagarre", the French for "fight"). A shopkeeper claims he is the wealthiest man in Bagghar. Ben Salaad is one of the most respected men in the city and owns a palace with servants, horses, cars, huge amounts of land and a plane.
Tintin however discovers him to be behind an opium
trafficking ring which uses tins of crab to smuggle the drug. The base where the opium is stored is in Salaad's cellar, with an entrance behind a bookcase. Ben Salaad tries to shoot Tintin but is knocked out when Snowy bites him, causing him to shoot a chandelier onto himself, and is arrested. It is later revealed that his activities went all the way to the Far East
.
Ben Salaad wired the initial order to have Tintin thrown overboard, but Tintin's escape prevented it.
It is theorized that Salaad may have been the villain in Tintin and Alph-Art in disguise, his nose is the right shape for example.
Omar Ben Salaad is portrayed by Gad Elmaleh
in the motion-capture film The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn which merges plots from several books.
and lives in the capital Los Dopicos. His first appearance was in The Broken Ear
, which was first serialised in 1935. In this version, Pablo's full name was given as Juan Paolino, the Terror of Los Dopicos, and the best shooter
in the entire country.
He returned in Tintin and the Picaros
, where he appeared to help Tintin and his friends escape their current captivity, but really putting them in a position where they could be shot while trying to escape. Despite his treachery, Tintin allowed him to go free, as Pablo once saved his life.
aviator
who appears in the adventure Flight 714
. Colombani is the private jet co-pilot for millionaire Laszlo Carreidas and is one of the hijackers
of that flight along with Spalding and Hans Boehm.
who appears in only one adventure, The Shooting Star
. After observing a ball of fire making its way towards Earth, Philippulus goes insane, dresses himself in white sheets and goes around town beating a gong and claiming to be a prophet
tasked with announcing the end of the world. The madman also decides that Tintin is a spawn of the Devil
after the reporter advises him to go home, and takes to harassing him at his home.
Philippulus later escapes a mental asylum where he has been sectioned, and tries to stop the expedition looking for a fragment of the shooting star in the ocean. He makes it to the expedition's ship, the Aurora, and causes a great deal of trouble, eventually taking refuge up the main mast and nearly setting off a stick of dynamite in the belief that it is a firework.
Tintin tricks him into climbing down by using a megaphone
to shout supposedly heavenly instructions at him, and Philippulus is taken back to the asylum.
-wearing Estonia
n pilot, he appears in two albums: The Red Sea Sharks
and Flight 714
.
Neither Piotr, Skut nor Szut is a plausible Estonian name, but Skut was rather an excuse for a gag, as when they first meet Captain Haddock believes he is telling him to "scoot" rather than introducing himself. (In the original French, the Captain mistakes the name "Szut" for "zut", the French exclamation of frustration. In other international versions the last name is likewise often changed by the choice of language, to entail a rudely dismissive or slightly offensive term.)
In The Red Sea Sharks, Skut flies one of the DeHavilland Mosquitoes used by Sheik Bab El Ehr to seize power in Khemed, and his squad strafes the boat Tintin and Haddock are crossing the Red Sea on. Tintin shoots down his plane with an assault rifle
in self defence, but later rescues him from the waters and Skut ends up marooned with the pair on a hastily-assembled life raft. Grateful for this treatment, Skut becomes a faithful friend and later refuses to betray Tintin and Haddock, instead sharing the rest of the adventure with them. He repairs the sabotaged radio of the S.S. Ramona and calls for help, which arrives just in time to save the boat from a submarine
's attacks.
In Flight 714
, Skut has become a private jet pilot for millionaire Laszlo Carreidas and gets hijacked
by his own crew, who were under the pay of the criminal mastermind Rastapopoulos
. He aids Tintin and Haddock, who had been invited by Carreidas for company, in rescuing the other captured passengers and, after a wild adventure involving alien
s, returns with them to civilization.
as the director of an observatory
whom Tintin consults about a large bright star he saw in Ursa Major
. Phostle claims that it is a ball of fire which will hit the Earth and cause the end of the world the following morning, and actually looks forward to this, thinking that predicting the end of mankind would make him famous. Initially disappointed that the meteor
has missed the Earth, Phostle consoles himself by naming an unknown metal fallen from the asteroid after himself.
Phostle was to return in Destination Moon
and Explorers on the Moon
as a villain, but that early draft by Bernard Heuvelmans
was abandoned by Hergé.
which are used to officiate state documents — who appears in King Ottokar's Sceptre
. Tintin
meets him when returning a briefcase which the professor had forgotten on a park bench. Professor Alembick — a bespectacled, chain-smoking academic — tells Tintin of his desire to visit Syldavia
to research an ancient seal belonging to the Syldavian monarch King Ottokar IV that he had discovered recently. Tintin then discovers that he and the professor are under surveillance by some strange men and warnings are issued to him to mind his own business. He thus offers to act as Alembick's secretary on his journey. On the day before the trip, Alembick calls Tintin by telephone; in the midst of the conversation, Tintin hears a struggle and a cry for help before the connection is cut short. When Tintin rushes to the professor's apartment to investigate, he is startled to find the professor calmly packing his bags. Although Alembick's appearance seems unchanged, subtle changes in his behavior lead Tintin to suspect that something is amiss. At the end of the adventure, Tintin discovers that Hector Alembick had indeed been kidnapped and impersonated by his twin brother Alfred (who has unimpaired vision and does not smoke). Their name is a pun on Alembic
.
. He is a cunning and deceptive figure, tricking Tintin and the authorities several times: framing Tintin for the assault on the train and, upon seeing Tintin "return from the dead", falling on his knees and begging the "ghost" for mercy, only to trip him over in order to acquire Tintin's gun.
He is also the master of Ranko, a gorilla
inhabiting the gang's hideout on the Black Island whose nightly screams inspired legends of the island being occupied by a murderous creature.
. Trickler attempts to engineer a war in order for San Theodoros to seize total control of the supposedly oil-rich Gran Chapo region from neighbouring Nuevo Rico and hand it over to his company. He further seeks to profit even more through the sale of arms by his associate Basil Bazarov to both countries.
Trickler tries unsuccessfully to bribe Tintin into convincing Alcazar to start a war against Nuevo Rico. When that fails he tries to have Tintin assassinated, and bribes Alcazar in person, then has Tintin framed as a spy and nearly executed. In the end, it turns out the Gran Chapo region has no trace of oil
Hergé died while in the planning stages of another adventure, Tintin and Alph-Art
, which, at his request, remains unfinished. Surviving drafts of the story show Haddock and Tintin visiting Bianca Castafiore
at an island villa. There they meet a number of guests, including a Mister "Chicklett", a misspelling of "Chicklet", Trickler's name in the original French.
in The Seven Crystal Balls
. He is an ancient Incan priest dug up by the Sanders-Harriman expedition. Professor Tarragon displays the mummy in his house. When lightning
strikes into the chimney
, it sends a fireball hurling through the living room, and the fireball crashes into Capac, apparently vaporizing him. That night, Tintin, Captain Haddock, and Professor Calculus all have the same dream: Rascar Capac climbs into the room carrying a crystal
ball and smashes it onto the floor. What happens to the apparently resurrected mummy afterward is unclear.
, the ship captained by Sir Francis Haddock (Captain Haddock
's ancestor). In the story, Rackham engages Haddock in battle, resulting in the almost total destruction of Rackham's ship. As his ship is sinking, Rackham and his men board The Unicorn and manage to gain control of the vessel. Haddock is captured and tied to the ship's mast and the crew are cast overboard. Rackham intends to have Haddock tortured by his men the following day, but before he can, Sir Francis frees himself and engages in single combat with him using cutlasses. Rackham is killed in the duel and Sir Francis manages to blow up the Unicorn and get away safely.
Red Rackham is portrayed by Daniel Craig
in the motion-capture film The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn which merges plots from several books.
and later in Tintin and the Picaros
.
He was a British
explorer who traveled into the South American rainforest
occupied by the Arumbaya Native South American nation. Ridgewell settled down with the Arumbayas and decided to stay, not caring if the outside world knew if he was dead or alive. When Tintin ventured into Arumbaya territory, Ridgewell initially fired darts at him in order to scare him away but later agreed to take him to the Arumbaya village for information.
Ridgewell did bring some of Western civilization to the Native South Americans, such as introducing them to the game of golf
. However, the players do not appear to have mastered it well—on one occasion hitting Tintin's ear hole (another Broken Ear) rather than the hole in the ground.
Ridgewell's influence on the Arumbayas resulted in him gaining an enemy in the local witch doctor
. When Ridgewell was captured by an enemy nation called the Rumbabas (bibaros in the original French), the witch doctor kept this from the other Arumbayas, hoping to be rid of his rival. When one Arumbaya expressed concern for Ridgewell the witch doctor threatened to turn him and his family into frogs. But Ridgewell got away and fired a dart into the witch doctor's bottom as punishment. Fortunately, unlike the Arumbayas, the British man did not use poisoned darts.
Ridgewell was also a ventriloquist and had a sense of humour, shown on occasions such as when, in Tintin and the Picaros
, he fired a dart into the cigar of General Alcazar, with whom he was acquainted. In that adventure he reestablished ties with Tintin, and was shown to lament changes in the behavior of the Arumbayas, namely the spread of alcoholism
.
named Rascar Capac back to Europe in The Seven Crystal Balls
. The members of the expedition are: Peter Clarkson , Professor Sanders-Hardiman , Professor Reedbuck , Mark Falconer , Professor Paul Cantonneau (who made an appearance in The Shooting Star
), Doctor Midge ' onMouseout='HidePop("2479")' href="/topics/Charles_Darwin">Darwin
Museum), and Professor Hercules Tarragon , who has the Rascar Capac mummy in his possession. They were cursed by the Incas as punishment for the theft of the mummy. They were put into comas and made to suffer nightmares by Chiquito. Tintin visited the Incas' hidden temple in order to save Professor Calculus, who had been kidnapped by them. He persuaded the Inca leader to lift the curse, assuring the Incas that the expedition's purpose was not to steal from their people but simply to teach others about them.
. He is a knight and a Ship-of-the-Line Captain
in the French Royal Navy under King Louis XIV
, and was awarded by the king with the ownership of Marlinspike Hall
in 1695. Sir Francis was the commander of three-masted armed navy vessel The Unicorn
, which he was forced to destroy when it was taken by pirate captain Red Rackham. Sir Francis lived among the natives of a tropical island near where the Unicorn sank for two years before returning home. While returning home, Sir Francis concealed a treasure stolen from Rackham in the cellars of Marlinspike Hall.
Sir Francis Haddock is portrayed by Andy Serkis
(who also portrays Captain Haddock) in the motion-capture film The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn which merges plots from several books.
Egyptologist in search of the tomb of the Pharaoh
Kih-Oskh whom Tintin meets on a cruise ship at the beginning of Cigars of the Pharaoh
. At this stage he is already a bit of an eccentric: rowing a boat, unaware that it is not even in the water; saying goodbye to Snowy the dog as if he was a little boy; and bumping into things and people.
He leads Tintin to the tomb hidden under the sand, but disappears soon after finding it. He, Tintin and Snowy end up in sarcophagi in the middle of the Red Sea
. Sophocles is then picked up with a ship captained by Allan Thompson, a drug smuggler whose gang uses the tomb of Kih-Oskh as a base. With Sophocles as a prisoner the ship sets off for India
.
(When Cigars of the Pharaoh was first published in the 1930s, he was an unnamed and beardless scholar who wore sunglasses. When Tintin explored the tomb he found sarcophagi for himself and Snowy but not for the scholar, who does not even turn up in the Red Sea incident — thus, how he ends up in India is left unresolved. In fact, Tintin even speculated that the scholar was a member of the gang of drug smugglers that he found himself pitted against.)
Tintin later finds Sophocles in the Indian jungle painting the symbol of Kih-Oskh on palm trees. He is now completely mad and imagines himself to be the Pharaoh
Ramesses II
. He is eventually committed to a sanatorium in India for treatment.
He does not appear in any other Tintin stories, but is the first of a number of eccentric scientists and scholars which would culminate in Professor Calculus
.
. He is the secretary
for millionaire Laszlo Carreidas and is one of the hijackers
of that flight along with Paolo Colombani and Hans Boehm.
In an interview with the Sunday Times in 1968, Herge is quoted as saying that Spalding was "an English public school man, obviously the black sheep of his family". Spalding has a formal manner, stiff upper lip, and fashionable clothes. Captain Haddock mistakes him for Carreidas when they first meet.
guide who helps Tintin locate the ill-fated Patna-Kathmandu flight carrying Chang Chong-Chen
in Tintin in Tibet
.
Although reluctant to risk the perilous attempt to find Chang, whom he believes to be dead, Tharkey leads Tintin
and the Captain
to the crash site of the aircraft. After initially leaving the site to return to his village, he feels guilty for leaving them alone and returns just in time to help Tintin and Haddock out of a dangerous situation. However, he subsequently breaks his arm and must return to the plains after partly convalescing at a Buddhist monastery while Tintin and the Captain continue their search for Chang.
He may have been based on Tenzing Norgay
, one of the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest
on 29 May 1953.
where, investigating the theft of an Arumbaya fetish with a broken ear, Tintin and Snowy venture into the San Theodoros jungle. Despite having a reputation for being vicious savages, the Arumbayas prove to be relatively civil when Tintin encounters them (their bad reputation may in fact be down to the actions of their near-neighbors, the Rumbabas, who behead anyone who passes their way, shrink the heads down and put them on display). The Arumbayas return in Tintin and the Picaros
, where they cooperate with Gen. Alcazar's forces.
. They are identified both as "gangsters" and as "antique dealers" in the book.
In the original French their names are Loiseau (L'oiseau, French for "the bird"). One of them, Maxime, is renamed Max in the English version — "bird" being English slang for time spent in prison, i.e., Max Bird meaning a long sentence and G suggesting Gaol (jail bird).
The brothers, like Tintin, are looking for three scrolls to unlock the secret of Red Rackham's treasure. They operate from their manor, Marlinspike Hall
, where at one point they hold Tintin prisoner and threaten him with torture. Amongst their other crimes is the attempted murder of their helper, Barnaby, just before he can tell Tintin of their plot. The Bird Brothers are captured by Thompson and Thomson. Max escapes, but is later caught by the police while trying to leave the country.
In Red Rackham's Treasure
, Max Bird has escaped again and is spotted near the Sirius, a ship used by Tintin and Haddock in their search of Red Rackham's treasure. Thompson and Thomson are thus sent as part of the expedition in order to look out for him, but he never appears, the detectives concluding at the end of the book that he was discouraged to take action due to their presence.
The Bird brothers have not been seen since, though they were depicted in sketches for the never finished Tintin and Alph-Art
.
, named "The Eyes" appears in Cigars of the Pharaoh
where he is a high-ranking member of an opium
smuggling ring. He uses the dangerous Rajaijah juice which drives people literally mad and 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 a rock that had been intended to knock Tintin out instead.
(In the original black-and-white version published in 1932-1934, 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 drugs cartel.)
In the sequel, The Blue Lotus
, the Fakir escapes from prison and again uses his darts to poison a Chinaman sent to warn Tintin against Mitsuhirato, another leader of the drug smugglers.
(When the Blue Lotus was originally published in black-and-white in 1934 the Fakir can be seen escaping through the forest with his blowpipe
after shooting the dart at the Chinaman. Not taking any chances, Tintin tells the Maharajah that he will not leave until he knows that the Fakir is unable to do the Maharajah any harm. The next day they receive a telegram announcing his recapture by the police.)
. The name sounds similar to "Indonesian", and the main characters had earlier switched planes in Jakarta
, Indonesia
. Sondonesians have typically brown skin, black hair and speaks simple Malay language.
Rastapopoulos hires the Sondonesians to collaborate in his scheme to steal Laszlo Carreidas's wealth, explaining that he will help them assist them in their war for independence. They assist in capturing the plane of Lazlo Carreidas and its crew and passengers and keep their prisoners on the island of Pulau-pulau Bompa (Bompa Islands). However, when Dr. Krollspell accidentally jabs Rastapopoulos with a truth-serum-filled syringe, Rastapopoulos then unwittingly reveals that he has planned to dispose of all his accomplices: He has mined the Sondonesians' junks
, so that they will all get blown up.
When Allan corners Tintin and his entourage in a cave, the Sondonesians refuse to enter the cave, claiming that the gods have put signs in front of the cave threatening punishment for anyone who enters (in fact, these "gods" are extraterresrials, and a landing of theirs had occurred just the previous night, as signified by some strange lights in the sky that had frightened the Sondonesians). When the main characters later meet Mik Kanrokitoff, he explains that he has freed the Sondonesian guards (whom Tintin and Capt. Haddock had bound and gagged) and let them spread fear among their compatriots. When an earthquake occurs shortly afterwards, the Sondonesians' nerves are finally stressed beyond their breaking point, and they flee the island despite a frantic Allan's attempt to stop them.
The double appeared in the early editions of Land of Black Gold
when they were published in newspapers in 1939-1940. He also appeared when the story was redrawn, colourised and completed in Tintin magazine and in book form in the late-1940s, early-1950s. In these early versions, the action was set in the British Mandate of Palestine.
The double was a member of the Irgun
, a Jewish Zionist terrorist group seeking to expel the British and the Arabs from Palestine and set up a Jewish state. He was given a number of names, depending on the time and the publisher.
His first appearance was in Le Petit Vingtième
when Land of Black Gold was published in 1939-1940. Upon arriving in the Middle East
, Tintin was arrested by the British authorities when compromising documents were found in his cabin, of which he knew nothing. A member of the Irgun
saw him being taken into custody and mistook him for an associate, Finkelstein, whom they were expecting. The leader of the group (Menachem Begin
in history, though this name is not given in the story), who dressed as a Rabbi
(as did the real Begin during this period), ordered his subordinates to engineer his escape. With a bomb of sleeping gas, three members of the Irgun knocked out Tintin and his escort and fled out of Haifa
in a car with the unconscious Tintin.
At that moment the leader of the group received in his office a visitor whom he recognised as the real Finkelstein. He bore an uncanny physical resemblance to Tintin, though he had a nasty and unpleasant smirk on his face. Meanwhile, the escaping Zionists in the car had also realised that Tintin was not the man they wanted. Before they could decide what to do with him, their car was stopped by a roadblock of rocks and barrels. As they cleared it, Arab
gunmen emerged from a nearby wheat field and took Tintin, whom they too believed was Finkelstein, into the desert where he met Sheikh Bab El Ehr, the Arab insurgent who was also fighting the British and the Jews. Meanwhile the Zionist militants were arrested and interrogated by British officials.
Almost like the books in the Tintin series themselves, various changes were made to the episode of the double in different publications:
. He is rude and insensitive to a Chinese youngster, for which Tintin has a fight with him and gets the better of him. He reports Tintin to the Japanese authorities in retaliation only to get himself arrested as a liar when his information is found inaccurate.
He reappears in The Red Sea Sharks
as Dawson's business partner.
leader of the Sons of the Dragon brotherhood who features in The Blue Lotus
. He serves as Tintin's host during his stay in China, and later adopts Chang Chong-Chen
.
. He was an indigenous Indian Peru
vian boy who made a living by selling oranges in the mountain town of Jauga. He led Tintin and Captain Haddock on the trail of their kidnapped friend Professor Calculus to the Inca civilisation in the mountains. At the end of the book, Zorrino is invited to stay in the Inca city and follow their way of life, an invitation which he accepts.
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
created for his series The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
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
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
. Hergé used the supporting characters to create a realistic
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
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.
Alfredo Topolino
Alfredo Topolino is a Swiss expert in ultrasonicsUltrasound
Ultrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is thus not separated from "normal" sound based on differences in physical properties, only the fact that humans cannot hear it. Although this limit varies from person to person, it is...
residing in Nyon
Nyon
Nyon is a municipality in the district of Nyon in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Geneva metropolitan area. It lies on the shores of Lake Geneva, and is the seat of the district of...
, Switzerland, who appears in The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair is the eighteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
. An acquaintance of Professor Calculus
Professor Calculus
Professor Cuthbert Calculus is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
, he survives first an assault on his doorstep then the destruction of his house by Borduria
Borduria
Borduria is a fictional country in the comic strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. It is located in the Balkans and has a rivalry with the fictional neighbouring country of Syldavia. Borduria is depicted in King Ottokar's Sceptre and The Calculus Affair, and is referred to in Tintin and...
n agents interested in Calculus's work. His manservant Boris works for the secret service of that country.
Allan Thompson
Originally Captain HaddockCaptain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
's first mate, Allan Thompson is often involved in smuggling and other criminal activities, most notably as one of Rastapopoulos
Rastapopoulos
Roberto Rastapopoulos is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. He is the antagonist in many of Tintin's adventures....
' henchmen, except inThe Crab with the Golden Claws
The Crab with the Golden Claws
The Crab with the Golden Claws is the ninth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
where he takes orders from Omar Ben Salaad instead. He is the treacherous first mate of Captain Haddock, keeping him drunk and running the ship to smuggle opium. At the end of the story he steals a motorboat to try and escape, but Tintin uses another boat to capture him, and he is arrested. His name was Allan Thompson in the original French, but English translations leave out his surname to avoid confusion with Tintin's friends Thomson and Thompson
Thomson and Thompson
Thomson and Thompson are fictional characters in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. Thomson and Thompson are detectives of Scotland Yard, and are as incompetent as they are necessary comic relief...
. He reappears in Red Sea Sharks in league with Rastapopulos, and is captured by the end of the book. In Flight 714, he was shown savagely beaten by escaping Sondonesians, causing him to suffer severe injuries and loss of all his teeth, resulting in babyish speech. In the same book, he, along with Rastapopoulos and company were hypnotized by Mik Krankitoff then captured by aliens and taken away to an unknown destination. While Rastapopoulos was apparently slated to return in the unfinished album Tintin and Alph-Art
Tintin and Alph-Art
Tintin and Alph-Art was the intended twenty-fourth and final book in the Tintin series, created by Belgian comics artist Hergé. It is a striking departure from the earlier books in tone and subject, as well as in some parts of the style; rather than being set in a usual exotic and action-packed...
, Allan's ultimate fate remains unrevealed.
Allan is portrayed by Daniel Mays
Daniel Mays
-Early life:One of four boys, Mays was raised in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, by his electrician father and bank cashier mother. He attended the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts before going on to win a place at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.-Career:...
in the motion-capture film The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn which merges plots from several books.
Alonso Perez and Ramon Bada
Alonso Perez and Ramon Bada are the chief antagonists in The Broken EarThe Broken Ear
The Broken Ear is the sixth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
. They work solely for themselves in obtaining a diamond
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
concealed in a fetish
Fetish
Fetish may refer to:* Fetishism, the attribution of religious or mystical qualities to inanimate objects* Sexual fetishism, sexual attraction to objects, body parts, or situations not conventionally viewed as being sexual in nature....
. Peres, an engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
, is the leader of the two. Bada, the follower, is a knife thrower, and uses more Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
in his speech than Perez. While engaged with Tintin in a hand-to-hand combat for the diamond, Ramon and Alonso fall into the sea and drown, and are shown being taken away to Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
by little smiling winged demons. However it is speculated this might be an imaginary sequence or a hallucination.
Aristides Silk
Aristides Silk is a pickpocketPickpocketing
Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person of a victim without their noticing the theft at the time. It requires considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection...
who appears in The Secret of the Unicorn
The Secret of the Unicorn
The Secret of the Unicorn is the eleventh title in the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin, written and illustrated by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Designed to be the first volume in a two-part story, the plot of The Secret of the Unicorn was continued in the twelfth Tintin adventure, Red...
. Silk claims he is not a thief, but admits he is a kleptomaniac
Kleptomania
Kleptomania is an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value. People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or no significant value, such as pens, paper clips, paper and tape...
. He explains he adores wallets and displays his large collection, none of which have been emptied of their contents. He is first seen in the market near the start of the story, moving away from the Thompsons just before their walllets are stolen. Later he is seen at the end of Red Rackham's Treasure in the Maritime Gallery.
Aristides Silk is portrayed by Toby Jones
Toby Jones
Toby Edward Heslewood Jones is an English actor.-Early life:Jones was born in Hammersmith, London, the son of actors Jennifer and Freddie Jones...
in the motion-capture film The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn which merges plots from several books.
Arturo Benedetto Giovanni Giuseppe Pietro Arcangelo Alfredo Cartoffoli da Milano
The mad/expert ItalianItalian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
driver in The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair is the eighteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
who eagerly helped Tintin and Captain Haddock go after the Syldavia
Syldavia
Syldavia is a fictional Balkan kingdom featured in The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. The name was derived from TranSYLvania and MolDAVIA.-Overview:...
n agents who kidnapped Professor Calculus. While chasing the kidnappers, they sped through a built-up area in a village in the French Haute Savoie on market day, which caused great destruction and chaos. However, when they were finally stopped by a gendarme who wanted to record their names, they escaped because of Arturo flabbergasting the gendarme with his overly long name, which caused the bewildered gendarme to meekly let them off with "Don't do it again ..." When they finally stopped the Syldavian car, however, they didn't find Calculus inside because he was hidden in a secret compartment. This greatly upset Arturo, who then accused Tintin and the Captain of making up the story up in order to get a free ride. He has great pride in Italian cars because of being an Italian driver, which he claims are number one in the world.
Bab El Ehr
Bab El Ehr is an ArabArab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
insurgent
Insurgent
Insurgent, insurgents or insurgency can refer to:* The act of insurgency-Specific insurgencies:* Iraqi insurgency, uprising in Iraq* Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, uprising in India* Insurgency in North-East India...
who fights the power governing his country, though overall he comes across as a villain rather than a noble fighter. He appeared in Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold is the fifteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
and played a major behind-the-scenes role in The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
, having forced the Emir to abdicate, resulting in Abdullah being sent to Marlinspike for protection. At the close of The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
, he is overthrown and presumably executed.
Balthazar's Parrot
A parrot belonging to a scupltor Balthazar. When Balthazar apparently dies from a gas leak Tintin sees the parrot is still alive and realises Balthazar was murdered and the gas turned on to make it look like an accident. The parrot is very annoying, having a habit of biting people and calling them great greedy guts. Tintin realises the parrot must have seen the murderer, and could say who it is. When he gets free he evantually returns to Balthazar's flat. He is brought by the two crooks Ramon and Alonzo, and reveals the murderer is Tortilla, who embarked as "Lopez" on a ship to South America. It is unknown what happens to the parrot after that. He could have been killed by the two for his annoyance to them. However if he was released he may have gone back to Balthazar's room.Bobby Smiles
ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
boss of the rival gang fighting Al Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
. Smiles makes an appearance in Tintin in America
Tintin in America
Tintin in America is the third title in the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin, written and drawn by Belgian cartoonist Hergé...
and he and the reporter go after each other throughout much of the story. Smiles even manages to turn the American Indians against Tintin. He is eventually captured and sent to the police by Tintin.
In the animated series, Smiles works for Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
, rather than against him.
Captain Chester
An old friend of Captain HaddockCaptain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
, Captain Chester is a gruff merchant skipper with red hair and a bushy red moustache. He first appears in The Shooting Star
The Shooting Star
The Shooting Star is the tenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip books that were written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
in Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, where he bumps into Captain Haddock at the docks and launches into a bizarre greeting ritual with Haddock which Tintin at first interprets as the build-up to a fight. However, Haddock and Chester warmly clasp hands and take Tintin to a local bar to reminisce over a bottle of whisky
Whisky
Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and corn...
. Chester is captain of the Sirius, a merchant trawler, and uses it to secretly refuel Haddock's research vessel in Iceland when their competitors block the supply, allowing the captain's ship to siphon fuel from his tanks while it is pumped in.
Chester later lends the Sirius to Haddock when he and Tintin set off to find Red Rackham's Treasure
Red Rackham's Treasure
Red Rackham's Treasure is the twelfth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a continuation of The Secret of the Unicorn, and is one of very few Tintin...
. Chester is briefly mentioned in The Seven Crystal Balls
The Seven Crystal Balls
The Seven Crystal Balls is the thirteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
— Tintin and Haddock attempt to visit him while he is docked at a port, but he departs before they arrive — and is one of the people that sends Haddock telegrams in The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald is an album in the classic comic-strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
.
Chiquito
Chiquito, a full-blooded PeruPeru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian Quechua
Quechuas
Quechuas is the collective term for several indigenous ethnic groups in South America who speak a Quechua language , belonging to several ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Argentina.The Quechuas of Ecuador call themselves as well as their...
, appears as the sidekick of General Alcazar in The Seven Crystal Balls
The Seven Crystal Balls
The Seven Crystal Balls is the thirteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
. He assists Alcazar in his knife-throwing act but this serves as a cover since Chiquito, unknown to the General, is out to punish the European explorers 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 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 the chimmney and seizes the jewelry of Rascar Capac, the Inca whose tomb was violated. As he escapes he is shot and wounded by a police officer and hides in 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 later appears in Prisoners of the Sun
Prisoners of the Sun
Prisoners of the Sun is the fourteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a continuation of The Seven Crystal Balls, and is one of very few Tintin...
on the Pachacamac and catches Tintin who has found Calculus. When Chiquito calls for his companion Alonzo, Tintin takes the opportunity to escape and jumps into the water and swims to Haddock's boat as Chiquito shoots at him. Their next meeting is at the Temple of the Sun, high in the mountains, where Chiquito and Huascar perform the ceremony of burning Tintin and his friends at the stake, only to be interrupted by an eclipse.
Chiquito is often confused with Huascar who bears a close resemblance to him.
Chiquito is known to be a practitioner of black magic
Black magic
Black magic is the type of magic that draws on assumed malevolent powers or is used with the intention to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences. As a term, "black magic" is normally used by those that do not approve of its...
. He casts a spell on all seven members of the Sanders-Hardiman expedition, and holds them in a drug-induced trance. He is also able to torture them remotely from his temple. His real name is Rupac Inca Huaco and he is one of the few remaining descendants of the Incas.
Christopher Willoughby-Drupe and Marco Rizotto
A writer and photographer working for the magazine Paris Flash, they first appear in The Castafiore EmeraldThe Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald is an album in the classic comic-strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
, where — to the fury of Captain Haddock
Captain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
and the amusement of Bianca Castafiore
Bianca Castafiore
Bianca Castafiore, the "Milanese Nightingale", is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
— they write a sensational article for their magazine announcing that the captain and the diva are engaged. They later appear in Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip graphic novels, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
. In the redrawn version of The Black Island
The Black Island
The Black Island is the seventh of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as the hero. It was first published in the newspaper supplement Le Petit Vingtième in the late 1930s...
, Willoughby-Drupe is shown interviewing the old man in the pub while Rizotto is in the crowd of reporters welcoming Tintin at the docks.
Hergé created the pair after being interviewed for Paris Match
Paris Match
Paris Match is a French weekly magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. It was founded in 1949 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost....
and finding the resulting piece dubious.
Colonel Jorgen
Colonel Jorgen is a sworn enemy of TintinTintin (character)
Tintin is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. Tintin is the protagonist of the series, a reporter and adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy....
. They first met in King Ottokar's Sceptre
King Ottokar's Sceptre
King Ottokar's Sceptre is the eighth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring the young reporter Tintin. It was first serialized as a black-and-white comic strip in Le Petit Vingtième on 4 August...
, where he was known simply as "Boris" and was a relatively minor character, supposedly in service of King Muskar, but in fact a double agent for the neighboring republic of Borduria. To all intents and purposes he is a Syldavia
Syldavia
Syldavia is a fictional Balkan kingdom featured in The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. The name was derived from TranSYLvania and MolDAVIA.-Overview:...
n, but a traitor who is always out to betray his country one way or the other. His fate at the end of the novel was not shown, but he was apparently arrested or discredited after the Bordurian plot was foiled.
He made a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
in Destination Moon
Destination Moon (Tintin)
Destination Moon is the sixteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
and confronted Tintin again in Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon, published in 1954, is the seventeenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is On a marché sur la Lune...
, having stowed away on the moon rocket that Tintin and his friends were piloting. Wolff was told he would be a journalist, he only revealed his objective when on the Moon. He plans to get the rocket to the country for which he works. When most of the group left on the Moon-Tank, Jorgen knocked Tintin out from behind, tied him up, and left him below. He and his accomplice, Frank Wolff
Frank Wolff
Frank Wolff may refer to:*Frank Wolff , American actor who appeared in five Roger Corman productions and nearly fifty European-made films-Fictional characters:...
attempted to maroon the rocket's crew on the moon, but were prevented from doing so by Tintin, who severed the wires and held Jorgen at gunpoint. Jorgen escaped custody during the return flight when Thomson and Thompson thought handcuffs would be more secure then rope, and attempted to kill the rocket crew, but Wolff turned on him, and Jorgen inadvertently shot himself through the heart in the ensuing struggle, dying instantly. His body was subsequently ejected into space.
Colonel Sponsz
The monocleMonocle
A monocle is a type of corrective lens used to correct or enhance the vision in only one eye. It consists of a circular lens, generally with a wire ring around the circumference that can be attached to a string. The other end of the string is then connected to the wearer's clothing to avoid losing...
-wearing Sponsz is a native of the nation of Borduria
Borduria
Borduria is a fictional country in the comic strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. It is located in the Balkans and has a rivalry with the fictional neighbouring country of Syldavia. Borduria is depicted in King Ottokar's Sceptre and The Calculus Affair, and is referred to in Tintin and...
, where he became the Chief of Police of the capital Szohôd, and the head of the Secret Police or ZEP, which operates on behalf of the country's dictator Marshal Kurvi-Tasch. He is a calculating and ruthless figure, and bears strong grudges against those who upset his political machinations (such as Tintin). At the end of Tintin and the Picaros, Sponsz is sent back to Borduria, where he supposedly faces incarceration or another fate.
Corporal Diaz
In The Broken EarThe Broken Ear
The Broken Ear is the sixth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
, Corporal Diaz was demoted from Colonel by General Alcazar who replaced him with Tintin after Diaz complained that San Theodoros had too many colonels and too few corporals. In revenge, he engaged in repeated, unsuccessful assassination attempts against Alcazar, the last of which killed Diaz himself when he assumed that the bomb was due to go off an hour later than it was. Ironically, Alcazar had arrested and sentenced Tintin to death due to faked evidence against him and promoted Diaz back to colonel just before he died.
Cutts the Butcher
The local butcher's shop whose phone number of 431 is frequently mistaken for 421 to Marlinspike HallMarlinspike Hall
Marlinspike Hall is Captain Haddock's country house in Hergé's comic book series The Adventures of Tintin.The hall is modeled after the central section of the Château de Cheverny...
. As a result the mansion's inhabitants are endlessly plagued by orders for lamb chops and sausages.
The irony is that when making calls himself Captain Haddock
Captain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
usually ends up getting put through to Cutts' shop, rather than the place he was actually calling.
The unseen delivery man from the butcher's plays a vital role in The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair is the eighteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
by offering Professor Calculus
Professor Calculus
Professor Cuthbert Calculus is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
a lift to the village just in time to save him from a Borduria
Borduria
Borduria is a fictional country in the comic strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. It is located in the Balkans and has a rivalry with the fictional neighbouring country of Syldavia. Borduria is depicted in King Ottokar's Sceptre and The Calculus Affair, and is referred to in Tintin and...
n kidnapping attempt.
It would appear that Cutts is also the local Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
, since he can be seen dressed very formally along with the local municipal band congratulating Haddock
Captain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
and Castafiore
Bianca Castafiore
Bianca Castafiore, the "Milanese Nightingale", is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
on their "engagement" in The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald is an album in the classic comic-strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
.
He had one last reference at the start of Tintin and Alph-Art
Tintin and Alph-Art
Tintin and Alph-Art was the intended twenty-fourth and final book in the Tintin series, created by Belgian comics artist Hergé. It is a striking departure from the earlier books in tone and subject, as well as in some parts of the style; rather than being set in a usual exotic and action-packed...
, where a call for him was made. Later, Captain Haddock mistakes the name "Fourcart" for Cutts, and is embarrassed to find out it wasn't Cutts.
He also appeared in a TV ad for cooking oil with Professor Calculus
Professor Calculus
Professor Cuthbert Calculus is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
in 1979 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xw5g3_1979-fruit-dor-professeur-tournesol.
In French the name of the butcher's shop Boucherie Sanzot is a pun. Sanzot sounds like sans os, which means without bones. The English translation uses Cutts to make a different pun.
Doctor J. W. Müller
Doctor J. W. Müller is a doctorPhysician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
whose position and qualifications serve as a cover for more villainous activities, including that of criminal
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
, Nazi secret agent
Secret Agent
Secret Agent is a British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young...
and mercenary
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
. Müller's first appearance was in The Black Island
The Black Island
The Black Island is the seventh of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as the hero. It was first published in the newspaper supplement Le Petit Vingtième in the late 1930s...
, which was first published in 1937, colourised in 1943 and redrawn completely in 1966.
He also appeared in Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold is the fifteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
and The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
. In both, he helped the rebel Bab El Ehr in his attempts to overthrow the Emir, Ben Kalish Ezab. He designed Formula Fourteen, which increased the explosive properties of petrol, and sabotaged the pipelines of Arabex, the Emir's preferred petrol company. In "The Red Sea Sharks," he had changed his name to Mull Pasha (shown in the pile of newspaper clippings near the end). In The Black Island, he has a goatee and mustache, but in the latter two books, he has a full-grown beard that enables him to disguise as an Arab.
Once Bab el Ehr is overthrown at the end of The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
, he is also captured and presumably executed or incarcerated.
Doctor Krollspell
Doctor Krollspell appears in Flight 714Flight 714
Flight 714, first published in 1968, is the 22nd and penultimate complete volume of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums by the Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is Vol 714 pour Sydney...
. He is an associate of Tintin's enemy Rastapopoulos
Rastapopoulos
Roberto Rastapopoulos is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. He is the antagonist in many of Tintin's adventures....
, but he later changes sides when it is in his interest to get away from his employer.
It's been suggested that Krollspell is an ex-Nazi
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
scientist, probably based on Josef Mengele
Josef Mengele
Josef Rudolf Mengele , also known as the Angel of Death was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. He earned doctorates in anthropology from Munich University and in medicine from Frankfurt University...
, the infamous "Angel of Death", or Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's quack doctor, Theodor Morell
Theodor Morell
Theodor Gilbert Morell was German Führer Adolf Hitler's personal physician. Morell was well known in Germany for his unconventional treatments....
. In an interview, Hergé himself suggested that Krollspell had worked in a concentration camp
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
—Flight 714 to Sydney having been published some 20 years after the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
"Kroll" is also part of the name of the Krolloper Berlin Opera House
Krolloper
The Kroll Opera House was an opera building in Berlin, Germany, located in the central Tiergarten district on the western edge of the Königsplatz square , facing the Reichstag building. It was built in 1844 as an entertainment venue for the restaurant owner Joseph Kroll...
, where the Nazi-dominated German parliament
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
met following the Reichstag fire of 1933
Reichstag fire
The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin on 27 February 1933. The event is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany....
. However, "Krolspel" is simply Brussels dialect for "krulspeld", which means "hair curler".
Krollspell was the head of a psychiatric clinic in New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
(Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
in the English version of the story). He developed a truth serum
Truth Serum
Truth Serum is an independent comic book series created, written and drawn by author Jon Adams.-Overview:Originally published as a mini comic in 2001 and given away for free, it appeared as a three-issue mini series published by Slave Labor Graphics in 2002...
that Rastapopoulos intended to use on kidnapped millionaire Laszlo Carreidas in order to find out the account number of a Swiss bank, where Carreidas had left a large part of his personal fortune under a false name and signature, presumably for taxation purposes.
The corrupt doctor injected the millionaire with the serum. Carreidas proved more than willing to tell the truth—but about everything except the Swiss bank account. To Rastapopoulos's fury, Carreidas launched into long disquisitions about his greedy, unscrupulous nature, boasting how he first stole a pear at the age of four; framed the family maid after robbing from his sister's handbag; shamed his great-aunt to death; and had generally led a life of perfidy. Realizing the serum was defective, a furious Rastapopoulos lashed out at Krollspell, who was still holding the truth-drug syringe, and was accidentally injected with it, becoming intoxicated as well. Rastapopoulos now also recounted his hideous deeds in a boasting manner, calling himself the devil incarnate. He even revealed that he intended to double-cross and murder all his associates, including Krollspell, and not pay him the $40,000 he had promised him.
Unnerved by these revelations, Krollspell was about to escape when he was captured by Tintin and Haddock, who had come to rescue Carreidas. He and the two drug-induced men were then tied up and gagged. However, when the serum wore off, Rastapopoulos made an attempt to escape, and Krollspell was quick to warn Tintin and Haddock. Rastapopoulos got away, but the doctor was released and continued to accompany Tintin and Haddock, watching over the still-irritable Carreidas. Haddock only grudgingly went along with Tintin's release of Krollspell; the good captain had a tendency of treating even reformed enemies, such as Frank Wolff
Frank Wolff
Frank Wolff may refer to:*Frank Wolff , American actor who appeared in five Roger Corman productions and nearly fifty European-made films-Fictional characters:...
or Piotr Skut, with suspicion, although Tintin pointed out that the news of Rastapopoulos's treachery gave Krollspell every reason to help them escape.
Krollspell, along with Tintin and his other companions, was later picked up by a flying saucer
Flying saucer
A flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object sometimes believed to be of alien origin with a disc or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either...
. A treatment by the aliens caused him to lose his memory of the events completely. In a news program later in the story, it is announced that Krollspell was found in Cairo with no memory of how he got there.
Doctor Patella
A ginger bearded osteopathic doctor who appears briefly in Destination MoonDestination Moon (Tintin)
Destination Moon is the sixteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
(whose model skeleton
Skeleton
The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
is arrested by Thompson and Thomson) and Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon, published in 1954, is the seventeenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is On a marché sur la Lune...
, where he attends to an unconscious Captain Haddock
Captain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
after his arrival back on Earth. He also sent a congratulatory telegram to Captain Haddock
Captain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
when (incorrect) news of his engagement to Bianca Castafiore was announced in The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald is an album in the classic comic-strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
.
In 2000, on one episode of the French-language version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a television game show which offers large cash prizes for correctly answering a series of multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty. The format is owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television International. The maximum cash prize is one million pounds...
73 percent of the voting audience correctly identified Doctor Patella (or Doctor Rotule, as he is known in the French-language version) as the doctor who treated Captain Haddock in Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon, published in 1954, is the seventeenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is On a marché sur la Lune...
. This led to allegations that the show was rigged: one Tintin fan questioned how could such a large portion of the audience could pick out of four options the correct answer, especially given Doctor Patella's very minor role in the series. A psychoanalyst postulated that children remember proper names much better than adults, hence its retention by members of the audience who read Tintin in their youth.
Endaddine Akass
Akass is a villainous guru who appears in Tintin and Alph-ArtTintin and Alph-Art
Tintin and Alph-Art was the intended twenty-fourth and final book in the Tintin series, created by Belgian comics artist Hergé. It is a striking departure from the earlier books in tone and subject, as well as in some parts of the style; rather than being set in a usual exotic and action-packed...
. His voice sounds familiar to Tintin, but as the book was unfinished, we do not know if his true identity is Rastapopoulos.
Frank Wolff
Wolff appears in Destination MoonDestination Moon (Tintin)
Destination Moon is the sixteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
(1950–52) and Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon, published in 1954, is the seventeenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is On a marché sur la Lune...
(1952–53). In an interview, Herge
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
described him as clever, (stating he had a Phd in Mathematics with Mechanics and a BEng in chemical engineering), but feeble and quiet. He is the rocket engineer who assists Tintin
Tintin (character)
Tintin is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. Tintin is the protagonist of the series, a reporter and adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy....
's friend Professor Calculus
Professor Calculus
Professor Cuthbert Calculus is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
before and during the Syldavia
Syldavia
Syldavia is a fictional Balkan kingdom featured in The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. The name was derived from TranSYLvania and MolDAVIA.-Overview:...
n expedition to the moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
. However, Wolff is ultimately exposed as a spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
who was coerced into helping an unnamed foreign power to hijack the moon rockets he had helped to build. Later, he sacrifices himself for the survival of the group by throwing himself into space.
General Alcazar
A general in the army of San TheodorosSan Theodoros
San Theodoros is a fictional Central American country in The Adventures of Tintin. It is a satirical version of a Latin American banana republic country under the yoke of military government.-History:...
, Alcazar is involved in a never-ending struggle for power with his arch-rival General Tapioca, both men claiming leadership of the country and renaming its capital after themselves when they arrive in power. Alcazar runs the city of 'San Theodoros' in The Broken Ear
The Broken Ear
The Broken Ear is the sixth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
, but has lost power and become a cabaret act in Europe by the time of The Seven Crystal Balls
The Seven Crystal Balls
The Seven Crystal Balls is the thirteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
. In The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
, Alcazar seems to have returned to "politics" as he is discovered to be buying weapons from a dealer. In Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip graphic novels, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
, Alcazar has returned to his country and is running an unsuccessful guerilla operation in the tropical forest. He is also now married to a harridan who bullies him. Tintin, though uninterested in his cause, devises a stratagem to return him to power so as to rescue his own friends. As the book ends, Alcazar is once again in charge of the country but it is suggested that he and Tapioca are interchangeable.
General Tapioca
General Tapioca is the arch-enemy of TintinTintin (character)
Tintin is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. Tintin is the protagonist of the series, a reporter and adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy....
's friend General Alcazar. He and Alcazar are both generals in the army of the fictional South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n Republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
of San Theodoros
San Theodoros
San Theodoros is a fictional Central American country in The Adventures of Tintin. It is a satirical version of a Latin American banana republic country under the yoke of military government.-History:...
. He assumes dictatorial leadership of the country with comedic frequency. In Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip graphic novels, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
, General Tapioca was exiled to Borduria after General Alcazar took control.
Huascar
In Prisoners of the SunPrisoners of the Sun
Prisoners of the Sun is the fourteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a continuation of The Seven Crystal Balls, and is one of very few Tintin...
Huascar is a leading member of the Incas, which maintain the cult of the worship of the Sun in a hidden city in the mountains. Huascar keeps tabs on Tintin and Captain Haddock when they arrive in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
in order to rescue their friend Cuthbert Calculus. He listens in on their conversation with the chief of police and follows them through the streets of Callao
Callao
Callao is the largest and most important port in Peru. The city is coterminous with the Constitutional Province of Callao, the only province of the Callao Region. Callao is located west of Lima, the country's capital, and is part of the Lima Metropolitan Area, a large metropolis that holds almost...
.
At Santa-Clara, he arranges a train "accident" that nearly gets them killed by threatening a guard with the consequences of disobeying the orders of the Inca.
At Jauga, however, he sees Tintin defending a young orange seller named Zorrino from two other white men. Surprised that a white foreigner such as Tintin should do such a selfless act, he advises him to stop searching for Calculus since he will be risking his life. Tintin states he will continue anyway, so Huascar gives him a talisman
Amulet
An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...
that he claims can keep danger away. Later captured by the Incas, Tintin gives the talisman to Zorrino and the Incas, who intend to kill him for treachery, are forced to spare the younger boy's life. Present at the scene, Huascar is revealed to be a High Priest of the Sun who later uses a large magnifying glass
Magnifying glass
A magnifying glass is a convex lens that is used to produce a magnified image of an object. The lens is usually mounted in a frame with a handle ....
to set fire to the stake
Execution by burning
Death by burning is death brought about by combustion. As a form of capital punishment, burning has a long history as a method in crimes such as treason, heresy, and witchcraft....
used to burn the Westerners but is thwarted by an eclipse
Eclipse
An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object is temporarily obscured, either by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer...
, which leads to their release.
(Prisoners of the Sun was originally published in Tintin Magazine
Tintin (magazine)
Le journal de Tintin or Kuifje , was a weekly Belgian comics magazine of the second half of the 20th century...
in 1946 and had many scenes that were not included when it was published in book form. In the magazine version, Tintin and Haddock are at the bridge waiting for an unknown guide when they meet Huascar, who tells them that their guide has gotten sick. He smiles at Haddock's insults and walks away. Zorrino then calls them over to the bridge. He claims that Huascar took him prisoner but that he escaped.)
Huascar is sometimes confused with Chiquito because of his resemblance to Chiquito when wearing a hat and poncho.
Igor Wagner
The quiet pianistPianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
working for Bianca Castafiore
Bianca Castafiore
Bianca Castafiore, the "Milanese Nightingale", is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
. In The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald is an album in the classic comic-strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
he is discovered to be a gambler who bets by telephone on races in secret. He has a small moustache and dresses formally in black with black shoes. After the thievery of Castafiore's emeralds, his attempts to help more often than not incriminated himself, as his footprints were found near Castafiore's window, he was suspiciously rummaging in the attic, and later broke a step on the staircase. He also tries to sneak out of his hour-long training sessions (dictated by Castafiore). Being the long-time accompanist for Castafiore, his name is made up of a humorous reference to two very well known composers: Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, and Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
. He was imprisoned along with Irma and Castafiore in Tintin and the Picaros, only to be freed by Tintin and company.
Irma
The maid of Bianca CastafioreBianca Castafiore
Bianca Castafiore, the "Milanese Nightingale", is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
, she first appeared in The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair is the eighteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
. In The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald is an album in the classic comic-strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
, she went with Bianca and her pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
Igor Wagner to Marlinspike Hall
Marlinspike Hall
Marlinspike Hall is Captain Haddock's country house in Hergé's comic book series The Adventures of Tintin.The hall is modeled after the central section of the Château de Cheverny...
. Castafiore describes her as a faithful, loyal and honest servant. Despite giving a meek impression, she has a strong sense of personal pride: when Thompson and Thomson accuse Irma of stealing Castafiore's emerald, in the titular album, she becomes very angry and assaults them with a walking stick.
Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine
Appearing in The Secret of the UnicornThe Secret of the Unicorn
The Secret of the Unicorn is the eleventh title in the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin, written and illustrated by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Designed to be the first volume in a two-part story, the plot of The Secret of the Unicorn was continued in the twelfth Tintin adventure, Red...
, Mr. Sakharine is a collector of models of ships, among which is one of those of the Unicorn. Noticing another model of the Unicorn in a market place, he and another man called Barnaby try to buy it only to find that it has already been claimed by Tintin. Tintin declines all the offers made by Barnaby and Sakharine to buy the model off him.
Tintin's Unicorn is later stolen and he suspects Sakharine of the theft. Visiting Sakharine he discovers the other Unicorn model. Sakharine is later attacked by Barnaby who steals the parchment from the second Unicorn. It is one of three parchments which lead to a treasure. The Bird Brothers are later arrested and claim that the parchments they obtained have since been stolen. Tintin thinks Mr. Sakharine stole the two parchments, but he soon discovers that it was a third party and recovers them.
At the end of Red Rackham's Treasure
Red Rackham's Treasure
Red Rackham's Treasure is the twelfth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a continuation of The Secret of the Unicorn, and is one of very few Tintin...
, Mr. Sakharine can be seen attending the exhibition held at Marlinspike Hall, showing off the various items recovered from the actual ship itself. He himself has apparently offered Captain Haddock his Unicorn model, which is shown in the display with the other two.
Hergé died while in the planning stages of another Tintin adventure Tintin and Alph-Art
Tintin and Alph-Art
Tintin and Alph-Art was the intended twenty-fourth and final book in the Tintin series, created by Belgian comics artist Hergé. It is a striking departure from the earlier books in tone and subject, as well as in some parts of the style; rather than being set in a usual exotic and action-packed...
which, at his request, remains unfinished. Surviving drafts of the story suggest that Haddock and Tintin notice Sakharine at a meeting hosted by mystic
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
Endaddine Akass.
In the film adaptation The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, he is reimagined as the main antagonist. The film portrays him as the descendant of the pirate Red Rackham, seeking revenge on behalf of his ancestor against Captain Haddock
Captain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
, descendant of Sir Francis Haddock, who killed Rackham.
J. M. Dawson
J. M. Dawson is the Chief of Police of the International SettlementInternational Settlement
International Settlement may refer to:* International Settlement , a red light district in San Francisco* Shanghai International Settlement, territory in Shanghai leased to Britain and the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries...
of Shanghai in The Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus , first published in 1936, is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a sequel to Cigars of the Pharaoh, with Tintin continuing his struggle against a major gang of drug...
. Although his nationality is not specified by Herge, the holder of this position was always British throughout the history of the International Settlement. In revenge for Tintin's rebuking of his American friend the businessman Gibbons, Dawson attempts to have Indian prison guards beat up Tintin. Dawson subsequently turns him over to the Japanese who have a price on Tintin's head, calmly dismissing Tintin's protest that he is on neutral ground by pointing out that since Tintin does not have papers allowing him to be in the settlement, Dawson has every right to throw him out. Appearing in a more sinister role in The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
, Dawson sells weapons to both Generals Alcazar and Tapioca using the pseudonym Mr. Debrett , and is being patronized by Rastapopoulos. He has Tintin and Captain Haddock denied entry to Khemed and plants a bomb on the return plane. His plan ultimately fails, and his fate is unknown.
King Muskar XII
Muskar XII is the KingMonarch
A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
of Syldavia
Syldavia
Syldavia is a fictional Balkan kingdom featured in The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. The name was derived from TranSYLvania and MolDAVIA.-Overview:...
. He appears in King Ottokar's Sceptre
King Ottokar's Sceptre
King Ottokar's Sceptre is the eighth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring the young reporter Tintin. It was first serialized as a black-and-white comic strip in Le Petit Vingtième on 4 August...
, first published in 1938. He is a keen motorist who drives his own car and even has his own gun for protection. He is married to an unnamed Queen
Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
.
A previous King, Ottokar IV, mounted the throne in 1360. When an enemy, Baron Staszrvitch, claimed the Crown and attacked him with his sword, Ottokar struck him to the ground with his sceptre. Acknowledging that the sceptre had saved his life, the King then decreed that the ruler of Syldavia must keep possession of the sceptre, otherwise he would lose his authority. Every year, on Saint Vladimir's Day, the King must show the people that he has the sceptre otherwise he will be forced to abdicate.
Tintin discovered a plot to steal the sceptre and warned King Muskar, though traitorous elements in Muskar's entourage, led by his aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
Colonel Boris, tried to stop him. Tintin got to see the King after punching Boris out of his way and the monarch was fair-minded enough to check up his claims, which turned out to be true.
The sceptre had been stolen in order to provoke a constitutional crisis which would lead to the King's abdication, plunge Syldavia into political turmoil and pave the way for an invasion by its long-term enemy Borduria
Borduria
Borduria is a fictional country in the comic strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. It is located in the Balkans and has a rivalry with the fictional neighbouring country of Syldavia. Borduria is depicted in King Ottokar's Sceptre and The Calculus Affair, and is referred to in Tintin and...
. The plot included members of the Syldavian police force and others in high places — including a political party called the Iron Guard (which may have been inspired by the Fascist paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
groups that were widespread in Europe between the wars
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
).
Tintin recovered the sceptre and the invasion was foiled. (The situation was very similar to that of the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
in 1938 though the conclusion was not the same.) For his services, Muskar made Tintin the first foreigner to become a Knight of the Golden Pelican.
In contrast to many modern monarchs, Muskar takes an active role in government, ordering his ministers and generals to prevent the coup and the invasion.
Muskar and his country do not appear to have been based on definitive models — both apparently having been inspired by various Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an and Balkan states. Many of these states were monarchies ruled by Carol II of Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Zog I of Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, Alexander I of Yugoslavia
Alexander I of Yugoslavia
Alexander I , also known as Alexander the Unifier was the first king of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as well as the last king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes .-Childhood:...
, and Boris III of Bulgaria
Boris III of Bulgaria
Boris III the Unifier, Tsar of Bulgaria , originally Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver , son of Ferdinand I, came to the throne in 1918 upon the abdication of his father, following the defeat of the Kingdom of Bulgaria during World War I...
. The kings' costumes may have been inspired by the portrait of Spanish king Alfonso XIII (by Philip Alexius de Laszlo
Philip Alexius de Laszlo
Philip Alexius de László, MVO was a Hungarian painter known particularly for his portraits of royal and aristocratic personages.-Early life:...
) and the Rumanian prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza. He bears a striking resemblance to Zog of Albania
Zog of Albania
Zog I, Skanderbeg III of the Albanians , born Ahmet Muhtar Bey Zogolli, was King of the Albanians from 1928 to 1939. He was previously Prime Minister of Albania and President of Albania .-Background and early political career:...
, a man who also carried a gun and confronted numerous violent conspiracies. Many of these states became communist republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
s after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Muskar is also a military officer. He is sometimes shown wearing a military uniform. He holds the rank of Colonel of the Royal Guards. Muskar's military service is similar to members of other real European royal families, who have members that have served in their nation's militaries.
Muskar is noticeably absent from the other post-war stories set in Syldavia: he does not appear at the launching of the moon rocket in Destination Moon
Destination Moon (Tintin)
Destination Moon is the sixteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
, and Tintin does not call on him for help when his friend Professor Calculus
Professor Calculus
Professor Cuthbert Calculus is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
is kidnapped by Bordurian and later Syldavian secret agent
Secret Agent
Secret Agent is a British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young...
s in The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair is the eighteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
.
Krônik and Klûmsi
Krônik and Klûmsi are inept BorduriaBorduria
Borduria is a fictional country in the comic strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. It is located in the Balkans and has a rivalry with the fictional neighbouring country of Syldavia. Borduria is depicted in King Ottokar's Sceptre and The Calculus Affair, and is referred to in Tintin and...
n secret service agents ostensibly assigned by Colonel Sponsz to ensure Tintin and Captain Haddock's safety and well-being during their visit to the Bordurian capital Szohôd. Like the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
agents (but more in a fascist ideology) on whom they are presumably based, their real objective is to prevent the visitors from making indiscreet inquiries in their hunt for Professor Calculus
Professor Calculus
Professor Cuthbert Calculus is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
. Tintin and Haddock neutralize the agents by plying them with drinks at dinner and then locking them in their respective hotel rooms. Their names are undoubtedly puns on chronic and clumsy. They appear to be the Bordurian equivalents of Thompson and Thomson.
Kûrvi-Tasch
Marshal Kûrvi-Tasch is the fascist dictator of the fictional regime of BorduriaBorduria
Borduria is a fictional country in the comic strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. It is located in the Balkans and has a rivalry with the fictional neighbouring country of Syldavia. Borduria is depicted in King Ottokar's Sceptre and The Calculus Affair, and is referred to in Tintin and...
. Although he never appears as a character in the series, he is mentioned by name, and glimpsed in statues and portraits in King Ottokar's Sceptre
King Ottokar's Sceptre
King Ottokar's Sceptre is the eighth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring the young reporter Tintin. It was first serialized as a black-and-white comic strip in Le Petit Vingtième on 4 August...
, The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair
The Calculus Affair is the eighteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
, and Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip graphic novels, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
. His name is an allusion to his curved moustache, which also appears as diacritical mark in the language of Borduria. An example of this can be seen in his own name. He, along with the Bordurian government setup, closely resemble the Nazi Third Reich. (i.e. The stating of the word Amaih, which is Marshal Kurvi-Tasch's title/given name, and the usage of the country's national insignia, a symbol that resembles the marshal's moustache, on badges and armbands. These are used similarly to the swastika and the saying "Heil Hitler!")
Laszlo Carreidas
A wealthy aircraft construction tycoon, Laszlo Carreidas is kidnapped (along with his new jet) by RastapopoulosRastapopoulos
Roberto Rastapopoulos is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. He is the antagonist in many of Tintin's adventures....
in Flight 714
Flight 714
Flight 714, first published in 1968, is the 22nd and penultimate complete volume of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums by the Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is Vol 714 pour Sydney...
. His unassuming figure notwithstanding, Carreidas is revealed to be a cunning individual with a long history of unscrupulous behavior not limited to the business world; he is not above cheating Captain Haddock at a game of Battleships
Battleship (game)
The game Battleship is a guessing game played by two people. It is known throughout the world as a pencil and paper game which predates World War I. It was published by Milton Bradley Company in 1931 as the pad-and-pencil game "Broadsides, the Game of Naval Strategy".-Description:The game is...
with the help of a closed-circuit television. A large part of his personal fortune, over ten million dollars, is in a Swiss bank account under a false name and signature, presumably for taxation purposes.
Carreidas is the owner of a brand of soft drink
Soft drink
A soft drink is a non-alcoholic beverage that typically contains water , a sweetener, and a flavoring agent...
called "Sani-Cola" (a pun on the French pronunciation of "Saint Nicolas"), which apparently contains chlorophyll
Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is a green pigment found in almost all plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Its name is derived from the Greek words χλωρος, chloros and φύλλον, phyllon . Chlorophyll is an extremely important biomolecule, critical in photosynthesis, which allows plants to obtain energy from light...
. The healthfulness of this beverage is brought into question when the whisky-loving Captain Haddock discreetly empties a cup forced upon him by Carreidas into a potted plant that wilts dramatically immediately thereafter.
Despite the caution he appears to take with his money, refusing to pay any ransom and with the multiple efforts he has gone to in order to keep his accounts secret, Carreidas generally appears to have a random attitude about his finances, ordering the purchase of multiple paintings simply because a rival is after them when he originally rejected the idea of purchasing them and appearing more concerned about the loss of a rare hat at the conclusion of the novel than the loss of his prototype airplane.
Carreidas' name is a pun: carré d'as means 'four aces' in French. Accordingly, the logo on the tail of his Carreidas 160 supersonic business jet consists of four aces.
This aircraft is a private plane of the sort owned by wealthy businessmen, with the added particularity that it has swing-wing
Swing-wing
A variable-sweep wing is an aeroplane wing that may be swept back and then returned to its original position during flight. It allows the aircraft's planform to be modified in flight, and is therefore an example of a variable-geometry aircraft....
capabilities. It is possibly the purest — and most practical — example of the concept to-date. It was designed by Roger Leloup
Roger Leloup
Roger Leloup is a Belgian comic strip artist, novelist, and a former collaborator of Hergé. He is most famous for the Yoko Tsuno comic series.- Biography :...
, an artist working in the Studios Hergé
Studios Hergé
The Studios Hergé were, between 1950 and 1986, a SARL grouping comics author Hergé and his collaborators, who assisted him with the creation of The Adventures of Tintin and derived products...
.
It seems that Hergé based Carreidas on Marcel Dassault
Marcel Dassault
Marcel Dassault, born Marcel Bloch was a French aircraft industrialist.-Biography:Dassault was born in Paris. After graduating from the lycée Condorcet, Breguet School and Supaero, he invented a type of aircraft propeller used by the French army during World War I and founded the Société des...
, who possessed a similar combination of wealth, aeronautics engineering genius, and quaint notions of fashion (Dassault's wardrobe remained frozen in the mid 1930s).
Mik Kanrokitoff
Seemingly RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n writer for the magazine Space Week. He appeared in Flight 714
Flight 714
Flight 714, first published in 1968, is the 22nd and penultimate complete volume of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums by the Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is Vol 714 pour Sydney...
and helped Tintin, Captain Haddock and their friends escape from the island after Rastapopoulos and his cohorts set off a plastic explosive charge that stirred up the island's volcano. Kanrokitoff wears a small antenna and transmitter on the side of his head which enables him to communicate telepathically
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
with other people and even subject them to mass-hypnotism
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
. He maintains close touch with an unseen race of space aliens and it is their spaceship that enables Tintin and co. to escape the island.
'Ezdanitoff' in the original version is another 'Bruxellois' word play, 'is dat niet tof' in Dutch, meaning 'isn't that nice'.
He was inspired by the Russian-born writer and journalist Jacques Bergier
Jacques Bergier
Jacques Bergier , was a chemical engineer, member of the French-resistance, spy, journalist and writer...
.
Miller
Miller is the calculating spymasterSpymaster
A spymaster is a ring leader of a spy ring, run by a secret service.-Historical spymasters:*Dai Li *Francis Walsingham *James Jesus Angleton *Joseph Peters...
from an unnamed power who masterminds the plot to hijack the Syldavia
Syldavia
Syldavia is a fictional Balkan kingdom featured in The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. The name was derived from TranSYLvania and MolDAVIA.-Overview:...
n rocket programme in Destination Moon
Destination Moon (Tintin)
Destination Moon is the sixteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
and Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon, published in 1954, is the seventeenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is On a marché sur la Lune...
. He was probably the man who offered to help Frank Wolff
Frank Wolff
Frank Wolff may refer to:*Frank Wolff , American actor who appeared in five Roger Corman productions and nearly fifty European-made films-Fictional characters:...
out of his gambling debts in exchange for secrets when Wolff was working in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
: Miller is shown in one scene checking a list of personnel at the Centre where the Syldavian rockets are being built and presumably finds Wolff's name among them.
Miller is first seen on the plane to Syldavia in Destination Moon. He was seated in the row ahead of Tintin
Tintin (character)
Tintin is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. Tintin is the protagonist of the series, a reporter and adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy....
and Haddock
Captain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
and was astonished to hear the Captain mention the name "Calculus
Professor Calculus
Professor Cuthbert Calculus is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
". This shows that he was already planning to take over the moon programme which Calculus was working on. He discreetly followed Tintin and Haddock through Klow
KLOW
KLOW is a radio station currently under construction. Licensed to Reno, Texas, USA, the station will serve the Paris area. The station is currently owned by Tower Investment Trust, Inc.....
airport but pulled back when he realised that they were being escorted by the local secret police or Zepo.
Miller contacted Calculus's assistant Frank Wolff and blackmailed him into supplying him with the plans for the rockets which were being built at the Sprodj Atomic Research Centre.
With an associate known as the Baron, he then set about parachuting agents into the area of the Centre and obtaining the plans for the experimental unmanned rocket X-FLR6. When X-FLR6 was launched, Miller's technicians were able to intercept it and divert the rocket to their own territory. However, Tintin and Calculus had expected this and destroyed the rocket before it could land.
Miller threatened to kill Wolff whom he suspected of double-crossing him, but refrained when it was announced that a manned rocket was to go to the moon. Miller arranged for Colonel Jorgen, an old enemy of Tintin's, to be smuggled aboard. He himself stayed up-to-date with events by listening into radio broadcasts between Earth and the rocket. Ultimately though the attempt to get hold of the rocket failed, with Jorgen and Wolff both perishing in the process. The last appearance of Miller had him cursing the rocket's crew and his agents' bungling, wishing that they would all perish in the last stage of the return journey.
Like any good spymaster, Miller designated various codenames to his targets and operations: the Centre was referred to as the "Main Workshop"; Calculus and Haddock were codenamed "Mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
" and "Whale
Whale
Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
" respectively; and the operation to hijack the manned rocket to the moon was called "Ulysses
Odysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
", after the Greek hero who also goes on an epic journey and is himself a master of intrigue and deception (Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
refers to him as such in the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
).
Mitsuhirato
Mitsuhirato is a sadistic Japanese double agentDouble agent
A double agent, commonly abbreviated referral of double secret agent, is a counterintelligence term used to designate an employee of a secret service or organization, whose primary aim is to spy on the target organization, but who in fact is a member of that same target organization oneself. They...
who appears in The Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus , first published in 1936, is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a sequel to Cigars of the Pharaoh, with Tintin continuing his struggle against a major gang of drug...
. He owns a women's clothing shop in Tai P'ing Lu in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, but is also involved in a drug trafficking cabal with Rastapopoulos
Rastapopoulos
Roberto Rastapopoulos is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. He is the antagonist in many of Tintin's adventures....
and is also working for the Japanese government. Mitsuhirato is, along with the other Japanese principal characters, characterized as an evil, scheming person, exploiting political turmoil in China to his and his country's advantage. After his subsequent capture at the end of The Blue Lotus, he committed suicide by hara-kiri, or seppuku
Seppuku
is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai. Part of the samurai bushido honor code, seppuku was either used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies , or as a form of capital punishment...
.
Mohammed ben Kalish Ezab and Abdullah
Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab is the EmirEmir
Emir , meaning "commander", "general", or "prince"; also transliterated as Amir, Aamir or Ameer) is a title of high office, used throughout the Muslim world...
of the fictional Arab state of Khemed, and Abdullah is his extremely spoiled, mischievous, hyperactive son. After first appearing in Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold is the fifteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
, the Emir and his son reappear in The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
, when Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab has been temporarily overthrown by his rival Sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
Bab El Ehr and entrusts his son to Tintin's care. Abdullah is a serial practical joker whose favourite victim is the short-tempered Captain Haddock
Captain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
.
At the end of The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
, father and son are presumably reunited.
Mr. Bohlwinkel
Mr. Bohlwinkel is a financier who appears in The Shooting StarThe Shooting Star
The Shooting Star is the tenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip books that were written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
. As the owner of a major banking concern and a petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
firm called Golden Oil, he uses his wealth and resources to attempt to beat Tintin and his friends in the race to find a recently fallen meteorite
Meteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
. Apart from financing the exploratory vessel Peary, he (unsuccessfully) attempts to sabotage the competing expedition's ship Aurora. This includes depositing lit dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
on its deck — which Snowy puts out — instructing another ship under his control — the S.S. Kentucky Star — to ram the Aurora during a storm, refusing to allow the Aurora to refuel at a Golden Oil depot — only for Haddock's old friend Captain Chester to help them by having the oil that the depot is pumping into his tanks be siphoned off by the Sirius — 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 don't exist. The Shooting Star ends with a dismayed Bohlwinkel listening to a radio announcement which reveals that the police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
are onto him.
It is conspicuous that Bohlwinkel has the exact physiognomy of the stereotypical Jew in Nazi propaganda
Nazi propaganda
Propaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
. In the original edition of The Shooting Star (published during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
) he was referred to as Blumenstein, and his bank was explicitly stated as being located in New York.
In later editions of the book, Hergé attempted to alter the financer's antecedents by relocating him to a fictitious South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n country, São Rico, and changing his name to a Brabantian
Brabantian
Brabantian or Brabantish, also Brabantic , is a dialect group of the Dutch language. It is named after the historical Duchy of Brabant which corresponded mainly to the Dutch province of North Brabant, the Belgian provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant, as well as the institutional Region of...
dialect word for a sweet shop, bollewinkel. He also modified the spelling of the new name. Hergé however subsequently learned that Bohlwinkel is also a Jewish surname. Several other changes were made in later editions of The Shooting Star.
Mr. Bolt
A joinerJoiner
A joiner differs from a carpenter in that joiners cut and fit joints in wood that do not use nails. Joiners usually work in a workshop since the formation of various joints generally requires non-portable machinery. A carpenter normally works on site...
who appears in The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald is an album in the classic comic-strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
, he is hired by Captain Haddock
Captain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
to fix the broken step in Marlinspike Hall. However, Mr Bolt repeatedly fails to turn up, offering a never-ending stream of excuses. Mr. Bolt is one of the people who send the Captain a telegram when his engagement to marry Bianca Castafiore
Bianca Castafiore
Bianca Castafiore, the "Milanese Nightingale", is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
is erroneously announced, and is also a member of the band that plays outside Marlinspike Hall as part of the "celebrations". At the end of the book, Mr. Bolt finally comes and fixes the broken step. However, the Captain trips up on the step, instantly undoing Mr. Bolt's work. By the time of Tintin and the Picaros, Mr. Bolt seems to have finally fixed the step.
Oliveira de Figueira
A native of PortugalPortugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Oliveira de Figueira is a friendly salesman who can sell even the most trivial of items, from umbrella
Umbrella
An umbrella or parasol is a canopy designed to protect against rain or sunlight. The term parasol usually refers to an item designed to protect from the sun; umbrella refers to a device more suited to protect from rain...
s to roller skate
Quad skates
The four-wheeled turning roller skate, or quad skate, with four wheels set in two side-by-side pairs, was first designed in 1863 in New York City by James Leonard Plimpton in an attempt to improve upon previous designs. The skate contained a pivoting action using a rubber cushion, and this allowed...
s, to Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
patrons. He and Tintin first meet in Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
(1932). Tintin and Snowy
Snowy (character)
Snowy is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. He is a white Wire Fox Terrier and Tintin's four-legged companion who travels everywhere with him...
have been cast adrift in the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
when they are picked up by a dhow
Dhow
Dhow is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with lateen sails used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Some historians believe the dhow was invented by Arabs but this is disputed by some others. Dhows typically weigh 300 to 500 tons, and have a...
. De Figueira is a passenger, and quickly talks Tintin into buying a variety of superfluous objects. He later appears in Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold is the fifteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
, where he plays a more obviously valuable role in helping Tintin infiltrate Doctor Muller's headquarters, taking Tintin there disguised as his nephew while making deliveries and keeping the guards distracted with an elaborate story while Tintin searches. In The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
, he hides Tintin and Captain Haddock at his house so they can speak to the Emir. He gets a very brief mention in The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald
The Castafiore Emerald is an album in the classic comic-strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
, where he sends good wishes to Captain Haddock following a news report claiming that he and Signora Castafiore are engaged.
Oliveira de Figueira is the form used by Hergé in the later appearances of this character. He is named Oliveira da Figueira (lit. "Olive-tree of the Fig-tree") in his initial appearances. For The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
Hergé changed his name to Oliveira de Figueira. (Both spellings are correct in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
: "de" means "of", while "da" means "of the".)
Omar Ben Salaad
Omar Ben Salaad is an ArabArab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
who appears in The Crab with the Golden Claws
The Crab with the Golden Claws
The Crab with the Golden Claws is the ninth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
. "Omar" is a common Arabic name, but Omar also sounds like "homard" which is the French for lobster
Lobster
Clawed lobsters comprise a family of large marine crustaceans. Highly prized as seafood, lobsters are economically important, and are often one of the most profitable commodities in coastal areas they populate.Though several groups of crustaceans are known as lobsters, the clawed lobsters are most...
while Salaad sounds like "salade" in French (salad in English).
He is a wealthy businessman based in the port city of Bagghar in Morocco
French Morocco
French Protectorate of Morocco was a French protectorate in Morocco, established by the Treaty of Fez. French Morocco did not include the north of the country, which was a Spanish protectorate...
, then a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
possession. (Bagghar sounds like "bagarre", the French for "fight"). A shopkeeper claims he is the wealthiest man in Bagghar. Ben Salaad is one of the most respected men in the city and owns a palace with servants, horses, cars, huge amounts of land and a plane.
Tintin however discovers him to be behind an opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
trafficking ring which uses tins of crab to smuggle the drug. The base where the opium is stored is in Salaad's cellar, with an entrance behind a bookcase. Ben Salaad tries to shoot Tintin but is knocked out when Snowy bites him, causing him to shoot a chandelier onto himself, and is arrested. It is later revealed that his activities went all the way to the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
.
Ben Salaad wired the initial order to have Tintin thrown overboard, but Tintin's escape prevented it.
It is theorized that Salaad may have been the villain in Tintin and Alph-Art in disguise, his nose is the right shape for example.
Omar Ben Salaad is portrayed by Gad Elmaleh
Gad Elmaleh
Gad Elmaleh is a French-Moroccan stand-up comedian and actor. His latest show is called Papa est en haut . He has starred in several feature films, including Coco, Hors de prix, La Doublure and Midnight in Paris.- Early years :Elmaleh was born in Casablanca, Morocco...
in the motion-capture film The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn which merges plots from several books.
Pablo
He is a native of the fictional country of San TheodorosSan Theodoros
San Theodoros is a fictional Central American country in The Adventures of Tintin. It is a satirical version of a Latin American banana republic country under the yoke of military government.-History:...
and lives in the capital Los Dopicos. His first appearance was in The Broken Ear
The Broken Ear
The Broken Ear is the sixth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
, which was first serialised in 1935. In this version, Pablo's full name was given as Juan Paolino, the Terror of Los Dopicos, and the best shooter
Shooting
Shooting is the act or process of firing rifles, shotguns or other projectile weapons such as bows or crossbows. Even the firing of artillery, rockets and missiles can be called shooting. A person who specializes in shooting is a marksman...
in the entire country.
He returned in Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip graphic novels, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
, where he appeared to help Tintin and his friends escape their current captivity, but really putting them in a position where they could be shot while trying to escape. Despite his treachery, Tintin allowed him to go free, as Pablo once saved his life.
Paolo Colombani
Paolo Colombani is an ItalianItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
aviator
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
who appears in the adventure Flight 714
Flight 714
Flight 714, first published in 1968, is the 22nd and penultimate complete volume of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums by the Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is Vol 714 pour Sydney...
. Colombani is the private jet co-pilot for millionaire Laszlo Carreidas and is one of the hijackers
Aircraft hijacking
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
of that flight along with Spalding and Hans Boehm.
Philippulus
Philippulus is an astronomerAstronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
who appears in only one adventure, The Shooting Star
The Shooting Star
The Shooting Star is the tenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip books that were written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
. After observing a ball of fire making its way towards Earth, Philippulus goes insane, dresses himself in white sheets and goes around town beating a gong and claiming to be a prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
tasked with announcing the end of the world. The madman also decides that Tintin is a spawn of the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
after the reporter advises him to go home, and takes to harassing him at his home.
Philippulus later escapes a mental asylum where he has been sectioned, and tries to stop the expedition looking for a fragment of the shooting star in the ocean. He makes it to the expedition's ship, the Aurora, and causes a great deal of trouble, eventually taking refuge up the main mast and nearly setting off a stick of dynamite in the belief that it is a firework.
Tintin tricks him into climbing down by using a megaphone
Megaphone
A megaphone, speaking-trumpet, bullhorn, blowhorn, or loud hailer is a portable, usually hand-held, cone-shaped horn used to amplify a person’s voice or other sounds towards a targeted direction. This is accomplished by channelling the sound through the megaphone, which also serves to match the...
to shout supposedly heavenly instructions at him, and Philippulus is taken back to the asylum.
Piotr Skut
An eyepatchEyepatch
An eyepatch or eye pad is a small patch that is worn in front of one eye. It may be a cloth patch attached around the head by an elastic band or by a string, or an adhesive bandage. It is often worn by people to cover a lost or injured eye, but it also has a therapeutic use in children for the...
-wearing Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
n pilot, he appears in two albums: The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
and Flight 714
Flight 714
Flight 714, first published in 1968, is the 22nd and penultimate complete volume of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums by the Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is Vol 714 pour Sydney...
.
Neither Piotr, Skut nor Szut is a plausible Estonian name, but Skut was rather an excuse for a gag, as when they first meet Captain Haddock believes he is telling him to "scoot" rather than introducing himself. (In the original French, the Captain mistakes the name "Szut" for "zut", the French exclamation of frustration. In other international versions the last name is likewise often changed by the choice of language, to entail a rudely dismissive or slightly offensive term.)
In The Red Sea Sharks, Skut flies one of the DeHavilland Mosquitoes used by Sheik Bab El Ehr to seize power in Khemed, and his squad strafes the boat Tintin and Haddock are crossing the Red Sea on. Tintin shoots down his plane with an assault rifle
Assault rifle
An assault rifle is a selective fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge and a detachable magazine. Assault rifles are the standard infantry weapons in most modern armies...
in self defence, but later rescues him from the waters and Skut ends up marooned with the pair on a hastily-assembled life raft. Grateful for this treatment, Skut becomes a faithful friend and later refuses to betray Tintin and Haddock, instead sharing the rest of the adventure with them. He repairs the sabotaged radio of the S.S. Ramona and calls for help, which arrives just in time to save the boat from a submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
's attacks.
In Flight 714
Flight 714
Flight 714, first published in 1968, is the 22nd and penultimate complete volume of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums by the Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is Vol 714 pour Sydney...
, Skut has become a private jet pilot for millionaire Laszlo Carreidas and gets hijacked
Aircraft hijacking
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
by his own crew, who were under the pay of the criminal mastermind Rastapopoulos
Rastapopoulos
Roberto Rastapopoulos is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. He is the antagonist in many of Tintin's adventures....
. He aids Tintin and Haddock, who had been invited by Carreidas for company, in rescuing the other captured passengers and, after a wild adventure involving alien
Alien
Alien or Aliens may refer to:* Alien , a non-citizen inhabitant of a country* Extraterrestrial life, defined as life that does not originate from Earth* Introduced species, a species living outside its native distributional range...
s, returns with them to civilization.
Professor Decimus Phostle
Professor Decimus Phostle appears in The Shooting StarThe Shooting Star
The Shooting Star is the tenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip books that were written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
as the director of an observatory
Observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed...
whom Tintin consults about a large bright star he saw in Ursa Major
Ursa Major
Ursa Major , also known as the Great Bear, is a constellation visible throughout the year in most of the northern hemisphere. It can best be seen in April...
. Phostle claims that it is a ball of fire which will hit the Earth and cause the end of the world the following morning, and actually looks forward to this, thinking that predicting the end of mankind would make him famous. Initially disappointed that the meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
has missed the Earth, Phostle consoles himself by naming an unknown metal fallen from the asteroid after himself.
Phostle was to return in Destination Moon
Destination Moon (Tintin)
Destination Moon is the sixteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
and Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon
Explorers on the Moon, published in 1954, is the seventeenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is On a marché sur la Lune...
as a villain, but that early draft by Bernard Heuvelmans
Bernard Heuvelmans
Bernard Heuvelmans was a Belgian-French scientist, explorer, researcher, and a writer probably best known as "the father of cryptozoology"...
was abandoned by Hergé.
Professor Hector Alembick
Professor Hector Alembick is a sigillographer — that is, an expert on sealsSeal (device)
A seal can be a figure impressed in wax, clay, or some other medium, or embossed on paper, with the purpose of authenticating a document ; but the term can also mean the device for making such impressions, being essentially a mould with the mirror image of the design carved in sunken- relief or...
which are used to officiate state documents — who appears in King Ottokar's Sceptre
King Ottokar's Sceptre
King Ottokar's Sceptre is the eighth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring the young reporter Tintin. It was first serialized as a black-and-white comic strip in Le Petit Vingtième on 4 August...
. Tintin
Tintin (character)
Tintin is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. Tintin is the protagonist of the series, a reporter and adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy....
meets him when returning a briefcase which the professor had forgotten on a park bench. Professor Alembick — a bespectacled, chain-smoking academic — tells Tintin of his desire to visit Syldavia
Syldavia
Syldavia is a fictional Balkan kingdom featured in The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. The name was derived from TranSYLvania and MolDAVIA.-Overview:...
to research an ancient seal belonging to the Syldavian monarch King Ottokar IV that he had discovered recently. Tintin then discovers that he and the professor are under surveillance by some strange men and warnings are issued to him to mind his own business. He thus offers to act as Alembick's secretary on his journey. On the day before the trip, Alembick calls Tintin by telephone; in the midst of the conversation, Tintin hears a struggle and a cry for help before the connection is cut short. When Tintin rushes to the professor's apartment to investigate, he is startled to find the professor calmly packing his bags. Although Alembick's appearance seems unchanged, subtle changes in his behavior lead Tintin to suspect that something is amiss. At the end of the adventure, Tintin discovers that Hector Alembick had indeed been kidnapped and impersonated by his twin brother Alfred (who has unimpaired vision and does not smoke). Their name is a pun on Alembic
Alembic
An alembic is an alchemical still consisting of two vessels connected by a tube...
.
Puschov
Puschov is the leader of the international gang of banknote counterfeiters in The Black IslandThe Black Island
The Black Island is the seventh of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as the hero. It was first published in the newspaper supplement Le Petit Vingtième in the late 1930s...
. He is a cunning and deceptive figure, tricking Tintin and the authorities several times: framing Tintin for the assault on the train and, upon seeing Tintin "return from the dead", falling on his knees and begging the "ghost" for mercy, only to trip him over in order to acquire Tintin's gun.
He is also the master of Ranko, a gorilla
Gorilla
Gorillas are the largest extant species of primates. They are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...
inhabiting the gang's hideout on the Black Island whose nightly screams inspired legends of the island being occupied by a murderous creature.
R. W. Trickler
R. W. Trickler is an unscrupulous businessman who represents General American Oil in the South American republic of San TheodorosSan Theodoros
San Theodoros is a fictional Central American country in The Adventures of Tintin. It is a satirical version of a Latin American banana republic country under the yoke of military government.-History:...
. Trickler attempts to engineer a war in order for San Theodoros to seize total control of the supposedly oil-rich Gran Chapo region from neighbouring Nuevo Rico and hand it over to his company. He further seeks to profit even more through the sale of arms by his associate Basil Bazarov to both countries.
Trickler tries unsuccessfully to bribe Tintin into convincing Alcazar to start a war against Nuevo Rico. When that fails he tries to have Tintin assassinated, and bribes Alcazar in person, then has Tintin framed as a spy and nearly executed. In the end, it turns out the Gran Chapo region has no trace of oil
Hergé died while in the planning stages of another adventure, Tintin and Alph-Art
Tintin and Alph-Art
Tintin and Alph-Art was the intended twenty-fourth and final book in the Tintin series, created by Belgian comics artist Hergé. It is a striking departure from the earlier books in tone and subject, as well as in some parts of the style; rather than being set in a usual exotic and action-packed...
, which, at his request, remains unfinished. Surviving drafts of the story show Haddock and Tintin visiting Bianca Castafiore
Bianca Castafiore
Bianca Castafiore, the "Milanese Nightingale", is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
at an island villa. There they meet a number of guests, including a Mister "Chicklett", a misspelling of "Chicklet", Trickler's name in the original French.
Rascar Capac
Rascar Capac is the mummyMummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
in The Seven Crystal Balls
The Seven Crystal Balls
The Seven Crystal Balls is the thirteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
. He is an ancient Incan priest dug up by the Sanders-Harriman expedition. Professor Tarragon displays the mummy in his house. When lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
strikes into the chimney
Chimney
A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the...
, it sends a fireball hurling through the living room, and the fireball crashes into Capac, apparently vaporizing him. That night, Tintin, Captain Haddock, and Professor Calculus all have the same dream: Rascar Capac climbs into the room carrying a crystal
Crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography...
ball and smashes it onto the floor. What happens to the apparently resurrected mummy afterward is unclear.
Red Rackham
Rackham is the pirate who attacks The UnicornUnicorn (ship)
The Unicorn is a fictional three-masted armed navy vessel appearing in The Adventures of Tintin comic books The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure published in 1943 and 1944, respectively...
, the ship captained by Sir Francis Haddock (Captain Haddock
Captain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
's ancestor). In the story, Rackham engages Haddock in battle, resulting in the almost total destruction of Rackham's ship. As his ship is sinking, Rackham and his men board The Unicorn and manage to gain control of the vessel. Haddock is captured and tied to the ship's mast and the crew are cast overboard. Rackham intends to have Haddock tortured by his men the following day, but before he can, Sir Francis frees himself and engages in single combat with him using cutlasses. Rackham is killed in the duel and Sir Francis manages to blow up the Unicorn and get away safely.
Red Rackham is portrayed by Daniel Craig
Daniel Craig
Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. His early film roles include Elizabeth, The Power of One, A Kid in King Arthur's Court and the television episodes Sharpe's Eagle, Zorro and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Daredevils of the Desert...
in the motion-capture film The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn which merges plots from several books.
Ridgewell
Ridgewell first appeared in The Broken EarThe Broken Ear
The Broken Ear is the sixth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
and later in Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip graphic novels, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
.
He was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
explorer who traveled into the South American rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
occupied by the Arumbaya Native South American nation. Ridgewell settled down with the Arumbayas and decided to stay, not caring if the outside world knew if he was dead or alive. When Tintin ventured into Arumbaya territory, Ridgewell initially fired darts at him in order to scare him away but later agreed to take him to the Arumbaya village for information.
Ridgewell did bring some of Western civilization to the Native South Americans, such as introducing them to the game of golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
. However, the players do not appear to have mastered it well—on one occasion hitting Tintin's ear hole (another Broken Ear) rather than the hole in the ground.
Ridgewell's influence on the Arumbayas resulted in him gaining an enemy in the local witch doctor
Witch doctor
A witch doctor originally referred to a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. It is currently used to refer to healers in some third world regions, who use traditional healing rather than contemporary medicine...
. When Ridgewell was captured by an enemy nation called the Rumbabas (bibaros in the original French), the witch doctor kept this from the other Arumbayas, hoping to be rid of his rival. When one Arumbaya expressed concern for Ridgewell the witch doctor threatened to turn him and his family into frogs. But Ridgewell got away and fired a dart into the witch doctor's bottom as punishment. Fortunately, unlike the Arumbayas, the British man did not use poisoned darts.
Ridgewell was also a ventriloquist and had a sense of humour, shown on occasions such as when, in Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip graphic novels, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
, he fired a dart into the cigar of General Alcazar, with whom he was acquainted. In that adventure he reestablished ties with Tintin, and was shown to lament changes in the behavior of the Arumbayas, namely the spread of alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
.
Sanders-Hardiman Expedition members
They are members of an expedition which brought an Incan mummyMummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
named Rascar Capac back to Europe in The Seven Crystal Balls
The Seven Crystal Balls
The Seven Crystal Balls is the thirteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
. The members of the expedition are: Peter Clarkson , Professor Sanders-Hardiman , Professor Reedbuck , Mark Falconer , Professor Paul Cantonneau (who made an appearance in The Shooting Star
The Shooting Star
The Shooting Star is the tenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip books that were written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
), Doctor Midge ' onMouseout='HidePop("2479")' href="/topics/Charles_Darwin">Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
Museum), and Professor Hercules Tarragon , who has the Rascar Capac mummy in his possession. They were cursed by the Incas as punishment for the theft of the mummy. They were put into comas and made to suffer nightmares by Chiquito. Tintin visited the Incas' hidden temple in order to save Professor Calculus, who had been kidnapped by them. He persuaded the Inca leader to lift the curse, assuring the Incas that the expedition's purpose was not to steal from their people but simply to teach others about them.
Sir Francis Haddock
Sir Francis is an ancestor of the main character Captain HaddockCaptain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
. He is a knight and a Ship-of-the-Line Captain
Ship-of-the-Line Captain
Ship-of-the-line captain is a rank that appears in several navies...
in the French Royal Navy under King Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
, and was awarded by the king with the ownership of Marlinspike Hall
Marlinspike Hall
Marlinspike Hall is Captain Haddock's country house in Hergé's comic book series The Adventures of Tintin.The hall is modeled after the central section of the Château de Cheverny...
in 1695. Sir Francis was the commander of three-masted armed navy vessel The Unicorn
Unicorn (ship)
The Unicorn is a fictional three-masted armed navy vessel appearing in The Adventures of Tintin comic books The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure published in 1943 and 1944, respectively...
, which he was forced to destroy when it was taken by pirate captain Red Rackham. Sir Francis lived among the natives of a tropical island near where the Unicorn sank for two years before returning home. While returning home, Sir Francis concealed a treasure stolen from Rackham in the cellars of Marlinspike Hall.
Sir Francis Haddock is portrayed by Andy Serkis
Andy Serkis
Andrew Clement G. "Andy" Serkis is an English actor, director and author. He is popularly known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he earned several award nominations, including the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Two Towers...
(who also portrays Captain Haddock) in the motion-capture film The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn which merges plots from several books.
Sophocles Sarcophagus
Sophocles Sarcophagus is an absent-mindedAbsent-minded professor
The absent-minded professor is a stock character of popular fiction, usually portrayed as a talented academic whose focus on academic matters leads them to ignore or forget their surroundings....
Egyptologist in search of the tomb of the Pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
Kih-Oskh whom Tintin meets on a cruise ship at the beginning of Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
. At this stage he is already a bit of an eccentric: rowing a boat, unaware that it is not even in the water; saying goodbye to Snowy the dog as if he was a little boy; and bumping into things and people.
He leads Tintin to the tomb hidden under the sand, but disappears soon after finding it. He, Tintin and Snowy end up in sarcophagi in the middle of the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
. Sophocles is then picked up with a ship captained by Allan Thompson, a drug smuggler whose gang uses the tomb of Kih-Oskh as a base. With Sophocles as a prisoner the ship sets off for India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
(When Cigars of the Pharaoh was first published in the 1930s, he was an unnamed and beardless scholar who wore sunglasses. When Tintin explored the tomb he found sarcophagi for himself and Snowy but not for the scholar, who does not even turn up in the Red Sea incident — thus, how he ends up in India is left unresolved. In fact, Tintin even speculated that the scholar was a member of the gang of drug smugglers that he found himself pitted against.)
Tintin later finds Sophocles in the Indian jungle painting the symbol of Kih-Oskh on palm trees. He is now completely mad and imagines himself to be the Pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
Ramesses II
Ramesses II
Ramesses II , referred to as Ramesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire...
. He is eventually committed to a sanatorium in India for treatment.
He does not appear in any other Tintin stories, but is the first of a number of eccentric scientists and scholars which would culminate in Professor Calculus
Professor Calculus
Professor Cuthbert Calculus is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
.
Spalding
Spalding appears in Flight 714Flight 714
Flight 714, first published in 1968, is the 22nd and penultimate complete volume of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums by the Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is Vol 714 pour Sydney...
. He is the secretary
Secretary
A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
for millionaire Laszlo Carreidas and is one of the hijackers
Aircraft hijacking
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
of that flight along with Paolo Colombani and Hans Boehm.
In an interview with the Sunday Times in 1968, Herge is quoted as saying that Spalding was "an English public school man, obviously the black sheep of his family". Spalding has a formal manner, stiff upper lip, and fashionable clothes. Captain Haddock mistakes him for Carreidas when they first meet.
Tharkey
Tharkey is a SherpaSherpa people
The Sherpa are an ethnic group from the most mountainous region of Nepal, high in the Himalayas. Sherpas migrated from the Kham region in eastern Tibet to Nepal within the last 300–400 years.The initial mountainous migration from Tibet was a search for beyul...
guide who helps Tintin locate the ill-fated Patna-Kathmandu flight carrying Chang Chong-Chen
Chang Chong-Chen
Chang Chong-Chen is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
in Tintin in Tibet
Tintin in Tibet
Tintin in Tibet is the twentieth title in the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin, written and drawn by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Originally serialised from September 1958 in the French language magazine named after his creation, Le Journal de Tintin, it was then first published in book...
.
Although reluctant to risk the perilous attempt to find Chang, whom he believes to be dead, Tharkey leads Tintin
Tintin (character)
Tintin is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. Tintin is the protagonist of the series, a reporter and adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy....
and the Captain
Captain Haddock
Captain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
to the crash site of the aircraft. After initially leaving the site to return to his village, he feels guilty for leaving them alone and returns just in time to help Tintin and Haddock out of a dangerous situation. However, he subsequently breaks his arm and must return to the plains after partly convalescing at a Buddhist monastery while Tintin and the Captain continue their search for Chang.
He may have been based on Tenzing Norgay
Tenzing Norgay
Padma Bhushan, Supradipta-Manyabara-Nepal-Tara Tenzing Norgay, GM born Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer...
, one of the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest
Mount Everest
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
on 29 May 1953.
The Arumbayas
The Arumbayas are an indigenous people living in the jungles of South America (along the fictional river Coliflor). They first appear in The Broken EarThe Broken Ear
The Broken Ear is the sixth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
where, investigating the theft of an Arumbaya fetish with a broken ear, Tintin and Snowy venture into the San Theodoros jungle. Despite having a reputation for being vicious savages, the Arumbayas prove to be relatively civil when Tintin encounters them (their bad reputation may in fact be down to the actions of their near-neighbors, the Rumbabas, who behead anyone who passes their way, shrink the heads down and put them on display). The Arumbayas return in Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros
Tintin and the Picaros is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip graphic novels, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
, where they cooperate with Gen. Alcazar's forces.
The Bird brothers
The Bird brothers, Max and G. Bird, are the main adversaries in The Secret of the UnicornThe Secret of the Unicorn
The Secret of the Unicorn is the eleventh title in the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin, written and illustrated by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Designed to be the first volume in a two-part story, the plot of The Secret of the Unicorn was continued in the twelfth Tintin adventure, Red...
. They are identified both as "gangsters" and as "antique dealers" in the book.
In the original French their names are Loiseau (L'oiseau, French for "the bird"). One of them, Maxime, is renamed Max in the English version — "bird" being English slang for time spent in prison, i.e., Max Bird meaning a long sentence and G suggesting Gaol (jail bird).
The brothers, like Tintin, are looking for three scrolls to unlock the secret of Red Rackham's treasure. They operate from their manor, Marlinspike Hall
Marlinspike Hall
Marlinspike Hall is Captain Haddock's country house in Hergé's comic book series The Adventures of Tintin.The hall is modeled after the central section of the Château de Cheverny...
, where at one point they hold Tintin prisoner and threaten him with torture. Amongst their other crimes is the attempted murder of their helper, Barnaby, just before he can tell Tintin of their plot. The Bird Brothers are captured by Thompson and Thomson. Max escapes, but is later caught by the police while trying to leave the country.
In Red Rackham's Treasure
Red Rackham's Treasure
Red Rackham's Treasure is the twelfth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a continuation of The Secret of the Unicorn, and is one of very few Tintin...
, Max Bird has escaped again and is spotted near the Sirius, a ship used by Tintin and Haddock in their search of Red Rackham's treasure. Thompson and Thomson are thus sent as part of the expedition in order to look out for him, but he never appears, the detectives concluding at the end of the book that he was discouraged to take action due to their presence.
The Bird brothers have not been seen since, though they were depicted in sketches for the never finished Tintin and Alph-Art
Tintin and Alph-Art
Tintin and Alph-Art was the intended twenty-fourth and final book in the Tintin series, created by Belgian comics artist Hergé. It is a striking departure from the earlier books in tone and subject, as well as in some parts of the style; rather than being set in a usual exotic and action-packed...
.
The Fakir
This fakirFakir
The fakir or faqir ; ) Derived from faqr is a Muslim Sufi ascetic in Middle East and South Asia. The Faqirs were wandering Dervishes teaching Islam and living on alms....
, named "The Eyes" appears in Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
where he is a high-ranking member of an opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
smuggling ring. He uses the dangerous Rajaijah juice which drives people literally mad and among his talents are hypnosis, the Indian rope trick and escapology
Escapology
For the Jessica Mauboy song, see Inescapable.Escapology is the practice of escaping from restraints or other traps. Escapologists escape from handcuffs, straitjackets, cages, coffins, steel boxes, barrels, bags, burning buildings, fish-tanks and other perils, often in combination.-History:The art...
(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 a rock that had been intended to knock Tintin out instead.
(In the original black-and-white version published in 1932-1934, the Fakir tells his boss on the phone how he intends to bribe an asylum guard into arranging Tintin's "suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
". It is also later hinted that he is the chairman of the meeting of the hooded leaders of the drugs cartel.)
In the sequel, The Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus , first published in 1936, is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a sequel to Cigars of the Pharaoh, with Tintin continuing his struggle against a major gang of drug...
, the Fakir escapes from prison and again uses his darts to poison a Chinaman sent to warn Tintin against Mitsuhirato, another leader of the drug smugglers.
(When the Blue Lotus was originally published in black-and-white in 1934 the Fakir can be seen escaping through the forest with his blowpipe
Blowgun
"Blowpipe" and "blow tube" redirect here. For other uses of the terms, see GlassblowingA blowgun is a simple weapon consisting of a small tube for firing light projectiles, or darts....
after shooting the dart at the Chinaman. Not taking any chances, Tintin tells the Maharajah that he will not leave until he knows that the Fakir is unable to do the Maharajah any harm. The next day they receive a telegram announcing his recapture by the police.)
The Sondonesians
The Sondonesians are a fictional Southeast Asian people who appear in Flight 714Flight 714
Flight 714, first published in 1968, is the 22nd and penultimate complete volume of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums by the Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is Vol 714 pour Sydney...
. The name sounds similar to "Indonesian", and the main characters had earlier switched planes in Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. Sondonesians have typically brown skin, black hair and speaks simple Malay language.
Rastapopoulos hires the Sondonesians to collaborate in his scheme to steal Laszlo Carreidas's wealth, explaining that he will help them assist them in their war for independence. They assist in capturing the plane of Lazlo Carreidas and its crew and passengers and keep their prisoners on the island of Pulau-pulau Bompa (Bompa Islands). However, when Dr. Krollspell accidentally jabs Rastapopoulos with a truth-serum-filled syringe, Rastapopoulos then unwittingly reveals that he has planned to dispose of all his accomplices: He has mined the Sondonesians' junks
Junk (ship)
A junk is an ancient Chinese sailing vessel design still in use today. Junks were developed during the Han Dynasty and were used as sea-going vessels as early as the 2nd century AD. They evolved in the later dynasties, and were used throughout Asia for extensive ocean voyages...
, so that they will all get blown up.
When Allan corners Tintin and his entourage in a cave, the Sondonesians refuse to enter the cave, claiming that the gods have put signs in front of the cave threatening punishment for anyone who enters (in fact, these "gods" are extraterresrials, and a landing of theirs had occurred just the previous night, as signified by some strange lights in the sky that had frightened the Sondonesians). When the main characters later meet Mik Kanrokitoff, he explains that he has freed the Sondonesian guards (whom Tintin and Capt. Haddock had bound and gagged) and let them spread fear among their compatriots. When an earthquake occurs shortly afterwards, the Sondonesians' nerves are finally stressed beyond their breaking point, and they flee the island despite a frantic Allan's attempt to stop them.
Tintin's Double
Tintin acquired a double at some stage in his career. This was a one-off character who only appeared in one panel, but his involvement very much influenced the course of Tintin's adventure, and although they never met it also lead to entanglements both comical and melodramatic.The double appeared in the early editions of Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold
Land of Black Gold is the fifteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
when they were published in newspapers in 1939-1940. He also appeared when the story was redrawn, colourised and completed in Tintin magazine and in book form in the late-1940s, early-1950s. In these early versions, the action was set in the British Mandate of Palestine.
The double was a member of the Irgun
Irgun
The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...
, a Jewish Zionist terrorist group seeking to expel the British and the Arabs from Palestine and set up a Jewish state. He was given a number of names, depending on the time and the publisher.
His first appearance was in Le Petit Vingtième
Le Petit Vingtième
Le Petit Vingtième was the weekly youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle from 1928 to 1940. The comics series The Adventures of Tintin first appeared in its pages.-History:...
when Land of Black Gold was published in 1939-1940. Upon arriving in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, Tintin was arrested by the British authorities when compromising documents were found in his cabin, of which he knew nothing. A member of the Irgun
Irgun
The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...
saw him being taken into custody and mistook him for an associate, Finkelstein, whom they were expecting. The leader of the group (Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
in history, though this name is not given in the story), who dressed as a Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
(as did the real Begin during this period), ordered his subordinates to engineer his escape. With a bomb of sleeping gas, three members of the Irgun knocked out Tintin and his escort and fled out of Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
in a car with the unconscious Tintin.
At that moment the leader of the group received in his office a visitor whom he recognised as the real Finkelstein. He bore an uncanny physical resemblance to Tintin, though he had a nasty and unpleasant smirk on his face. Meanwhile, the escaping Zionists in the car had also realised that Tintin was not the man they wanted. Before they could decide what to do with him, their car was stopped by a roadblock of rocks and barrels. As they cleared it, Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
gunmen emerged from a nearby wheat field and took Tintin, whom they too believed was Finkelstein, into the desert where he met Sheikh Bab El Ehr, the Arab insurgent who was also fighting the British and the Jews. Meanwhile the Zionist militants were arrested and interrogated by British officials.
Almost like the books in the Tintin series themselves, various changes were made to the episode of the double in different publications:
- When he appeared in Le Petit Vingtième on the 11 January 1940, he was named Finkelstein;
- Later that same year the story was published in occupied France in the weekly French Catholic magazine Coeurs Vaillants (Valiant Hearts). Mentions of the political situation in the Middle East were taken out of the speech bubbles in an effort to avoid trouble with Marshal PétainPhilippe PétainHenri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
's censorsCensorshipthumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
: all references to Zionism were removed, Finkelstein was given the more French-like name of Durand and the Arabs were referred to as Rebels. The illustrations were unaffected: the leader of the Irgun still dressed as a Rabbi. - In 1946, long after Pétain's fall, the same edited version was published in the Catholic paper,La Voix de l'ouest (The Voice of the West), a local paper based in BrittanyBrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
. In an unusual move which could be interpreted as political correctnessPolitical correctnessPolitical correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
, the story was renamed Tintin et Milou au pays de l'or liquide (Tintin and Snowy in the Land of Liquid Gold). The double was still named Durand, the British were referred to as the police and some curses made by a Jewish militant about Arabs who have blocked the road were also taken out.http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/68/Tintin_Land_of_Black_Gold_in_La_Voix_de_l_Ouest.jpg - When the story was redrawn, colourised and published in Tintin magazine in 1948, the double was named Salomon Goldstein.
- In the final 1971 version that is most commonly available today, the whole episode was taken out with the action set in the fictional country of KhemedLand of Black GoldLand of Black Gold is the fifteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
and Tintin kidnapped by Arabs led by Bab El Ehr. Finkelstein/Durand/Goldstein did not feature, disappearing as mysteriously as he had appeared.
W. R. Gibbons
W. R. Gibbons is an American businessman first seen in The Blue LotusThe Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus , first published in 1936, is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a sequel to Cigars of the Pharaoh, with Tintin continuing his struggle against a major gang of drug...
. He is rude and insensitive to a Chinese youngster, for which Tintin has a fight with him and gets the better of him. He reports Tintin to the Japanese authorities in retaliation only to get himself arrested as a liar when his information is found inaccurate.
He reappears in The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks
The Red Sea Sharks is the nineteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
as Dawson's business partner.
Wang Chen-Yee
ChineseHan Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
leader of the Sons of the Dragon brotherhood who features in The Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus , first published in 1936, is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a sequel to Cigars of the Pharaoh, with Tintin continuing his struggle against a major gang of drug...
. He serves as Tintin's host during his stay in China, and later adopts Chang Chong-Chen
Chang Chong-Chen
Chang Chong-Chen is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
.
Zorrino
Zorrino appeared in Prisoners of the SunPrisoners of the Sun
Prisoners of the Sun is the fourteenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is a continuation of The Seven Crystal Balls, and is one of very few Tintin...
. He was an indigenous Indian Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian boy who made a living by selling oranges in the mountain town of Jauga. He led Tintin and Captain Haddock on the trail of their kidnapped friend Professor Calculus to the Inca civilisation in the mountains. At the end of the book, Zorrino is invited to stay in the Inca city and follow their way of life, an invitation which he accepts.