Tintin

Lore & Background

Tintin's origins are tied to Hergé's early life and influences. Hergé noted that during his early schooling in the midst of World War I, when Belgium was under German occupation, he had drawn pictures in the margins of his school workbooks of an unnamed young man battling the Boches (a slang term for Germans). None of these early drawings survive. Hergé was also influenced by the physical appearance and mannerisms of his younger brother Paul, who had a round face and a quiff hairstyle.

Hergé later stated that in his youth, 'I watched him a lot; he entertained me and fascinated me... It makes sense that Tintin took on his character, gestures, poses.' A few years after young Hergé joined Scouting, he became the unofficial artist for his Scout troop and drew a Boy Scout character for the national magazine Le Boy Scout Belge. This young man, whom he named Totor, travelled the globe and righted wrongs.

Years later, Totor would be very much in Hergé's mind; his new comics character would be, Hergé himself later said, 'the little brother of Totor ... keeping the spirit of a Boy Scout.' Hergé had seen the new style of American comics and was ready to try it. Tintin's new comic would be a strip cartoon with dialogue in speech bubbles and drawings that carried the story. Young reporter Tintin would have the investigative acumen of Albert Londres, the travelling abilities of Palle Huld, and the high moral standing of Totor; the Boy Scout travelling reporter that Hergé would have liked to have been.

Reader's Guide

The image of Tintin—a round-faced young man running with a white Fox Terrier by his side—is easily one of the most recognisable visual icons of the twentieth century. Hergé created Tintin as a young, blonde Belgian who is a native of Brussels. In his first appearance, Tintin is dressed in a long travelling coat and hat, a few pages later adopting his plus fours, check suit, black socks, and Eton collar. At first, the famous quiff is plastered to Tintin's forehead, but during a particularly vigorous car chase in what became page 8 of the printed volume, his quiff is out and remains so.

Hergé was once asked by interviewer Numa Sadoul how the character Tintin developed; he replied, 'He practically did not evolve. Graphically, he remained an outline. Look at his features: his face is a sketch, a formula.' Hergé never explained why he chose Tintin as the character's name, stating that it has no inherent meaning.

Michael Farr believes that 'Tintin' is probably the character's surname because other characters, such as his landlady, occasionally refer to him as Mr. Tintin (as printed on his doorbell). Tintin's age is never specified. Hergé commented, 'For me, Tintin hasn't aged. What age do I give him?

I don't know ... 17? In my judgement, he was 14 or 15 when I created him, Boy Scout, and he has practically not moved on. Suppose he put on 3 or 4 years in 40 years ... Good, work out an average, 15 and 4 equals 19.'

From Tintin's first adventure, he lives the life of a campaigning reporter. He is sent to the Soviet Union, where he writes his editor a dispatch. He travels to the Belgian Congo, where he engages in photojournalism. When he travels to China in The Blue Lotus, the Shanghai News features the front-page headline, 'Tintin's Own Story'.

In The Broken Ear, with notebook in hand, Tintin questions the director of the Museum of Ethnography over a recent theft.