Answers: Tintin and the world of Herge

1) This word, one among the many insults in Captain Haddock’s repertoire, comes from the name given to mercenaries/irregular volunteers used by the Ottoman Empire in conflicts. Name the word. (Hint: the Turkish term translates as ‘headless’ in English)

Bashi-Bazouk. More here and here

2) A Tintin book depicts the blowing up of a rail track in the 1930s based on a real-life attack. This was used as the pretext for invasion and occupation. Who was the invader and where?

Japanese invasion of Manchuria is depicted in The Blue Lotus. In the 1931 Mukden Incident, Japanese soldiers exploded dynamite near a Japanese-operated rail track and blamed it on the Chinese. Japan used the blast as a pretext to occupy Manchuria and install a puppet state. The Blue Lotus also shows Japan’s real-life withdrawal from the League of Nations soon after the occupation of Manchuria.

3) In Castafiore Emerald Herge sympathetically highlights the discrimination faced by which community? (This community still faces widespread discrimination across Europe)

Roma, widely referred to as Gypsies earlier as well as in the Castafiore Emerald

4) While pirated copies of Tintin books started circulating in China in the 1980s, they were legally published in Chinese only in 2001. The title of one Tintin book was changed. Why?

Tintin in Tibet was changed to Tintin in Chinese Tibet. The Belgian publisher and Herge’s widow objected and the book was withdrawn from sale. The book was published under its original title in 2002.

5) How did Herge derive the name Musstler, the ringleader of the failed plot to overthrow the King of Syldavia in King Ottokar’s Sceptre?

Musstler is from Mussolini and Hitler (King Ottokar’s Sceptre was completed in 1939 just before World War II began)

6) The character of aircraft tycoon Laszlo Carreidas in Flight 714 to Sydney, depicted as ‘the millionaire who never laughs’, is inspired by a real-life aviation pioneer. Who? (Hint: the company set up by this aviation pioneer is still a prominent force in the industry)

Marcel Dassault. More about Dassault and Carreidas here

7) In Tintin and the Broken Ear the fictional Latin American dictatorships of San Theodoros and Nuevo Rico wage war over oil. It’s based on a real-life 1930s war between two South American nations, in which about 100,000 people were killed. Name the two nations who fought over a disputed border area, egged on by western oil companies.

Paraguay and Bolivia, the only two landlocked countries in South America. More here, here, here and here.

8) A key figure in the fictional war in Tintin and the Broken Ear is an unscrupulous arms dealer from the company ‘Korrupt Arms’ who sells weapons to both sides. This fictional character is based on a real-life Greek figure who was known for manipulating conflicts and selling weapons to both sides. Known as the ‘Merchant of Death’, he was very much involved in World War I. He received the Legion of Honour from the French and knighthood from the British. Who? (Hint: the fictional name given by Herge sounds similar to the real name)

Basil Zaharoff. More here, here and here. The fictional arms dealer in Tintin and the Broken Ear is Basil Bazarov.

9) X became a topic of fascination worldwide in 1951 after the London Times published the photo of a footprint clicked by mountaineer Eric Shipton. Four years later scientist and cryptozoology pioneer Bernard Heuvelmans’ book Sur la piste des bêtes ignorées' was published. Inspired by his friend Heuvelmans, Herge included X in a Tintin book. What is X?

Yeti in Tintin in Tibet. More about Eric Shipton here. The term cryptozoology was coined by Bernard Heuvelmans to describe the study of unverified animals with roots in folklore such as the Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti. Sur la piste des bêtes ignorées' was later published in English as On the Track of Unknown Animals. More on the long-running search for the Yeti here.

10) While Herge’s 1930s work signalled opposition to Nazi expansion, he steered clear of political allusions during the German occupation of Belgium while World War II raged. His comics at the time were published in a pro-Nazi newspaper and some of his work has raised questions about anti-Semitism. One book’s antagonist was named Blumenstein, who was portrayed as a greedy, hook-nosed Jewish-American financier. Herge was briefly arrested after the war for alleged collaboration but never charged. Later he toned down the Blumenstein character and changed the name. Which Tintin book?

The Shooting Star. Blumenstein was changed to Bohlwinkel and his bank became the Bohlwinkel Bank of Sao Rico, a fictional Latin American country. More on Herge’s questionable record on anti-Semitism here.

11) Who is the only real-life character to appear in a Tintin comic? He is identified as the gang leader at the end of one book and appears in person in the next.

Al Capone. He is mentioned towards the end of Tintin in the Congo and appears in person in Chicago in Tintin in America.

12) This Tintin book was translated into English only in 1991. Its presence in the children’s section of bookshops caused controversy in the UK in 2007 and the book was moved to the adult section of graphic novels. Which Tintin book and why?

Tintin in the Congo for its racist portrayal of Congolese under Belgian colonialism. More on the controversy in 2007 here, here , here and here.

A revised edition of Tintin in the Congo published in November 2023 attempted to address the questions over colonialism and racism. More here and here.

13) A British pop band formed in 1977 was named after characters in the Tintin series. At its peak in the 1980s it had three members. Name the band

Thompson Twins after the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson

14) The drawings of the fictional city of Tapiocapolis (named after the dictator General Tapioca) in Tintin and the Picaros are inspired by which city? (Hint for football aficionados: this city witnessed one of the greatest-ever upsets in 1950)

Belo Horizonte in Brazil. In the 1950 football World Cup USA stunned England 1-0 in Belo Horizonte

15) The world of Tintin is dominated by men, with one prominent exception - the opera singer Bianca Castafiore. While Castafiore is introduced in the 1938-39 book King Ottokar’s Sceptre, in later works her traits are increasingly modelled on a real-life opera singer, a revered name in the 20th century. Who?

Maria Callas

16) The fictional Khemed in two different Tintin adventures is modelled on which Middle Eastern country? (visually and not politically). In one of them, a real-life structure is shown as the hideout of the deposed Emir, who Tintin helps restore to the throne.

Jordan. The country’s tourist magnet of Petra is depicted in the Red Sea Sharks

17) What did Tintin accomplish fictionally in 1953 which was done in real life only over a decade and a half later?

Landing on the moon in Explorers on the Moon

18) The 1930s work The Black Island, which culminates in a mysterious Scottish island, has been inspired by the claims of sighting the so-called Loch Ness monster as well as the film King Kong earlier in the decade.Anotherpotent issue at the time depicted in the book so concerned nations that the first international convention was organised by the League of Nations in 1929. That treaty signed in Geneva still remains the main international agreement on the issue today. What is the issue here?

Counterfeit money. Printing and circulating fake notes is what the gang in The Black Island is up to.

19) What was inspired by a magazine picture of a promotional shoot featuring the Chinese American actor Anna May Wong for the 1932 film Shanghai Express?

The cover of the book The Blue Lotus. An early version of the cover that did not end up being used was sold at auction last week for $3.1 million.

At a time of western ‘Yellow Peril’ prejudice and fear about China exemplified by fictional characters such as Sax Rohmer’s villainous Fu Manchu, The Blue Lotus was an unusually nuanced portrayal of 1930s China under Japanese domination. Herge was assisted by Zhang Chongren, a Chinese fine arts student in Brussels, who also inspired the character of Chang.

More on Anna May Wong and Fu Manchu in my ‘China and Hollywood’ quiz answers from last year here