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Tintin Books: People who make cameo appearances?

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Harrock n roll
Moderator
#1 · Posted: 16 Jun 2005 16:24
We have a page on Special Cameos in Tintin Books but I haven't found a thread on the subject (apart from a brief mention in Ottokar here). I'm sure there are a few more that we don't already have in our present list so, if anybody becomes aware of any more, please add them here.

Here are a few I believe could be added:

I think Al Capone may be the only real life named person ever to appear in a Tintin book (correct me if I'm wrong!) although I know many other real life people are mentioned by name; Napoleon, Columbus, Onassis, etc. Of course there are the cameos from Hergé and his associates but strictly speaking they don't count as they aren't named.

Hergé himself also appears seated with his wife Germaine in the music hall scene The Seven Crystal Balls [page 16, frame 4]. (They are slighly obscured by a old lady in a hat, bottom left of the frame).

Hergé is also supposed to be represented in the very last frame of Soviets somewhere among the scouts, but I haven't located him yet...

Hergé again, although this one is a bit more obscure! All of the planes from the Halchester Flying Club in The Black Island (1966 version) have a serial number starting with G- (for Georges?) but the biplane comandeered by the Thompsons has AIRJ as the last 4 letters. (G and J have a reverse pronounciation in French [G=djai & J=dji] but as this adventure is set in the UK it's possibly one for the English-speaking nitpickers!)
jock123
Moderator
#2 · Posted: 16 Jun 2005 17:24
I think Bob de Moor appears in Black Island; I’m at work, so I don’t have the book to hand, but I’m sure he can be seen as a man in a trilby hat on a station platform - he has BdeM’s characteristic curly moustache.

Update - can’t find him! I can see the frame in my mind’s eye, but I’ve not located the picture I meant. I’ll keep searching…
yamilah
Member
#3 · Posted: 16 Jun 2005 18:14
Harrock n roll
serial number starting with G- (for Georges?)

I don't think so...
You'll find the answer about Black Island planes and their serial numbers on

http://modelbox.free.fr/dossiers/tintin/Tintin_P/page3.html

Comments & frames with cameos can be seen on

http://e.tintin.tk.free.fr/portraits.htm

and on http://www.free-tintin.net/details.htm#apparitions
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#4 · Posted: 17 Jun 2005 12:46
jock123 Bob de Moor ... can’t find him!

Could this be him?

yamilah You'll find the answer about Black Island planes and their serial numbers on ...

Of course, the G prefix is the code for Britain, I should have known that.
jock123
Moderator
#5 · Posted: 17 Jun 2005 13:47
Harrock n roll
Could this be him?

That’s the chappie! I was beginning to doubt my memory! Thanks, Chris!
fatwasp
Member
#6 · Posted: 19 Jun 2005 21:21
Hergé is also in King Ottokar's Sceptre, both when Tintin is arrested and when he is presented with his title by the King.
jock123
Moderator
#7 · Posted: 21 Jun 2005 13:16
fatwasp
Herge is also in King Ottokar's Sceptre

There are a lot of other “celebrities” in those scenes - have a look at the link in Harrock’s post at the start of this thread if you want to see the faces identified (so far!). It has been discussed in this thread.
Charles
Member
#8 · Posted: 29 Oct 2005 21:39
It seems interesting to me that in certain crowd scenes in the books, Hergé allows his friends and family (and even himself) to make 'cameo' appearances instead of drawing anonymous 'extras,' but that he does not follow this consistently.

Certain books are rich in cameos (Congo, Cigars, Sceptre, Calculus Affair), while others seem almost devoid of them.

Did Hergé use the privilege of a 'cameo' as an occasional reward of some kind, or did he have to be in a truly spontaneous mood to do it? I ask because it would seem simpler for him to use as many familiar faces as possible, rather than have to make up designs for one frame only.

Do any of you have any thoughts on this subject?
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#9 · Posted: 10 Nov 2005 12:12
It occurred to me looking through the Chronologies that the first cameos began to appear right after the war years when Hergé was reformatting the books for colour. He redrew some of the frames from the original black and white versions to fill the extra space needed. Some of the larger frames – which wouldn’t have fit within the Petit Vingtieme or Le Soir format – feature cameo appearances, in particular the two from King Ottokar’s Sceptre and the one of the music hall in The Seven Crystal Balls. And he also redrew Congo around the same time which has cameos in the first frame. None of these are in the original versions.

I don’t think there was any reasoning behind it other than he had some space to fill and had more time to reflect upon it. Therefore he could include his family and new friends at Tintin magazine and, as Barry Norman used to say, why not?
Charles
Member
#10 · Posted: 14 Nov 2005 03:24
Harrock n roll:

1) Thanks for your ideas! It's great to think that Herge's work was spontaneous enough that not every detail had to be part of some vast master plan.
2) Who is/was Barry Norman?
3) Wish I'd thought of that username!

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