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Tintin's financial situation

Tintin Fan Oman
Member
#1 · Posted: 3 Feb 2011 13:43
I have read all the books in the series and I saw that Tintin and his friends fly all over the world without problems with budget. I know that Tintin's a journalist and all that but I don't remember him working in the later books.

Where did his money come from?

Thanks
Tintin Fan Oman
jock123
Moderator
#2 · Posted: 3 Feb 2011 14:16
His fortune was obviously made when he did the deal with Hergé to have his exploits turned into a series of multi-million-copy-selling adventure comic books!

Presumably there was also a royalty paid to him for the use of his name and image on a magazine which was published in several countries, as well as all the merchandise which promoted his likeness.

He also did a lot of advertising work and celebrity endorsement of products, in the Benelux countries especially - everything from margarine and spreads to kagoules and cars - and that too must have had the cash rolling in, certainly during the fifties, sixties, seventies and early eighties...
...Certainly enough to keep him in 'plane tickets and plus-fours!
mct16
Member
#3 · Posted: 5 Feb 2011 14:30
Logical, Jock, but you'd think that a leading journalist like Tintin would have written his own autobiography in text form rather than let some artist take all the credit and glory for himself.

We know nothing of Tintin's family, parentage or anything about his life before "Soviets", which makes me wonder: could he simple be someone of independent means, who may be orphaned and came into a large inheritance, or be estranged from his parents but still kept supplied with money? Wealthy and well-educated people often became journalists when short of money (Gaston Leroux, who wrote the novel "Phantom of the Opera" is a good example), but that does not mean that they were at it full-time.
jock123
Moderator
#4 · Posted: 5 Feb 2011 15:19
mct16:
Logical, Jock, but you'd think that a leading journalist like Tintin would have written his own autobiography in text form rather than let some artist take all the credit and glory for himself.

But we know from internal evidence that a Tintin book in the "Tintinverse" looks exactly like it does in our world - as shown to him by the sheik, for example.

It is entirely possible that the contents are different to the books we have, but given that the cover is as drawn by Hergé, and we don't see Tintin produce the stories, I think we can say that Hergé is the hand behind the albums there too. ;-)
Andrew
Member
#5 · Posted: 31 May 2011 19:43
Captain Haddock probably chips in financially, having made his fortune from his ancestral treasures.

Not forgetting his friend Calculus who must have made a pretty penny from all his inventions - not to mention flying to the moon.

Maybe Tintin also gets a nice reward each time he catches a criminal.
mondrian
Member
#6 · Posted: 6 Jun 2011 13:54
One more vote for Jock's explanation from here.

Also, I would like to point out that Tintin doesn't seem to have enormous journalistic ambitions. Early on we see him practicing his profession few times, but only once (in Soviets) we see him actually writing something. Even then we don't know if his story ever gets delivered to Brussels (though he's famous when he returns, so probably).

After that we occasionally see Tintin interviewing people, but whether he ever writes stories again is questionable. Actually, several times we see him interviewed by journalists and he doesn't seem too worried about losing the story. First time is in the end of Black Island, from then on Tintin is interviewed regularly. And quite often someone else is being interviewed in Moulinsart because of a news story or another, yet Tintin doesn't make an effort. Bit silly considering the exclusives he could have.
golftangofox
Member
#7 · Posted: 20 Jun 2011 18:39
I suspect that until Red Rackham, he earns a modest wage as a journalist shown by the fact that he lives in a rather modest apartment and from memory does not own a car.
He then would have definitely had a good share of Rackham's treasure, as he discovered the scrolls, worked out the hidden message & pretty much instigated the whole search. His fortune would then have been secured later on when the Inca gives him & Haddock the saddlebags of Inca treasure.
Also backtracking, you would think that perhaps King Muskar & the Maharajah would have looked after him financially given how much he did for them.
There's probably more that I can't think of at the moment.
snowybella
Member
#8 · Posted: 12 Mar 2017 03:46
Tintin Fan Oman:
I saw that Tintin and his friends fly all over the world without problems with budget.

Maybe his boss pays for him, thinking that he might be a proper reporter for once.

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