Tintin Forums

Besides The Shooting Star, was Tintin exploited in any other propaganda purposes? I know in America, Donald Duck was used a Propaganda Machine. Did the Germans ever exploit Tintin to reach out to the French and Belgians? Such as Posters, or other such items?

Tintin was still in the Belgian newspaper Le Soir when it was taken over by the Nazi. Other than that, I don't believe so.

As were Bugs Bunny, Batman, Superman and Captain America, but as far as Tintin was concerned I don't think that there is anything to suggest that he was used to encourage people to contribute to the war effort, such as joining up in order to fight the Allies!

Herge tended to refer to the conflict in a very obscure background way rather than directly.

"Ottokar's Sceptre" is based on Germany's takeover of Austria before the war, so in a way you could that it is connected to the conflict.

The Japanese detective in "Golden Claws" could be a reference to Germany's alliance with Japan.

"Land of Black Gold" does have an impending war as a background, but that edition was written and drawn after 1945.

There were some plain reference to the events leading up to the war in Blue Lotus. The sabotage of the railroad, the Japanese using that as an excuse to send in more troops, finally Herge showed the Japanese withdrawing from the League of Nations.

Here's a couple of things to consider:

I've been reading a book in which the author refers to what he calls The Nestor Syndrome! In "Secret of the Unicorn", when they first meet, Nestor helps the Bird brothers and attacks Tintin. He is however cleared since he did it in good faith, truly believing that Tintin was a crook and being unaware of his employers' criminal activities: "he always performed the tasks he was ordered to do without ever questioning their legitimacy." The author suggests that this reflected the situation with Herge and other journalists when, during the war, they worked at "Le Soir" (a paper which collaborated with the Germans) simply in order to earn a living.

In "Red Rackham", the Sirius' cook tells a friend about the forthcoming treasure hunt, but then remarks that "walls have ears" in reference to the man who is eavesdropping and taking notes. Someone has suggested that this could refer to the atmosphere of caution during the war when even ordinary people had to be careful about what they said in public for fear of arrest.