Tintin Forums

Someone asked me about the military who throws the banana peel in Cigars. He almost looks like the fakir and he was wondering if they were the same. My answer was no, but I thought that maybe one of you know why they look so similar.

In the swedish LP-record version it says that it is the fakir in military clothes but my guess is that they just saw the resemblance and tought it was.

Looking closely the only difference I spotted was that the beards seemed a bit different.

Looking back at the original 1932-3 black and white version, the guard and the fakir are two clearly different people. As you say, the beards are different, and this is more markedly so in the old version. Also the guard's turban has a loosened cloth at the back, which I believe is symbolic of some form of Sikhism (can anyone help?), while the fakir's turban is neatly tucked in. So I think it is fair to assume that they were originally intended to be two different people, and that Hergé had no need to change this for the modern colour version twenty years later.

Ed

Their eyes* are also noticeably different; in the colour version the guard (from the Red Cross?) has small dots whereas the fakir has large, hypnosis-inducing ones. The fakir's thick lips are also rather distinctive in both versions.

* Trivia note for non-Brits: The “Two lovely black eyes” which Doctor Sarcophagus sings is the chorus to an English music-hall song from the 1920s.