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Tintin in America: Rastapopoulos in the dinner scene?

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blisteringbarnacle
Member
#21 · Posted: 3 Dec 2011 03:52
Isn't Rastapopoulos American? That's always what I imagined him, so it would make sense that they first met in Chicago. Does Tintin tell Rastapopoulos that they had met in the French version of The Cigars of the Pharaoh?
Tintinrulz
Member
#22 · Posted: 3 Dec 2011 04:13
Greek-American, is my understanding.
mct16
Member
#23 · Posted: 3 Dec 2011 13:58
blisteringbarnacle:
Does Tintin tell Rastapopoulos that they had met in the French version of The Cigars of the Pharaoh?

No. After their first meeting on the cruise ship, Tintin simply remarks that Rastapopoulos "n'est pas le premier venu", which in English would be something like "not any old passer-by".
There is no mention of their previous meeting in "America".
GSC
Member
#24 · Posted: 3 Dec 2011 17:04
Tintinrulz:
Greek-American, is my understanding

I dont think that he is Greek-American. His first name "Roberto" is a Spanish name, and his last name "Rastspopoulos" is Greek, which would most likely make him Greek-Spanish.
mct16
Member
#25 · Posted: 3 Dec 2011 18:53
GSC:
His first name "Roberto" is a Spanish name, and his last name "Rastspopoulos" is Greek,

Born in America to a Greek father and Spanish mother?
jock123
Moderator
#26 · Posted: 3 Dec 2011 18:57
GSC:
His first name "Roberto" is a Spanish name

And Portuguese, or Italian? And it’s also used in Panama, Bolivia, Chile, etc. It would be Rovértos in Greek, I think.

I’m with you, though in as far as it’s hard to see how we can know he’s American, be that Greek-American or otherwise. I know that the character guide on this site suggests Greek-American, I’m just not sure what the evidence is for it (that’s not to say there isn’t – I could easily have overlooked something which is obvious to others). I don’t think being a film-maker is strong enough, as it was an industry full of people from all corners of the world, plus it would have been very unusual for a film to be made on location in Europe for an American production, as they’d just have built sets on a Hollywood backlot, or gone to the desert in the States.

I’ve always assumed he was European, and the way he’s likened in some respects to Aristotle Onassis (his yacht the Scheherezade, according to The Complete Companion, is based on Onassis’s boat Christina) makes me think that he’s a likely to be from Europe as America.
Furienna
Member
#27 · Posted: 4 Dec 2011 11:30
The last name "Rastapopoulos" sounds very Greek, so that's enough to suggest a Greek heritage. The first name "Roberto" doesn't Greek though, but rather Spanish or Italian, so I don't really know how to explain that one. Maybe his first name really is "Rovertos", but he thought "Roberto" sounded better internationally, when he became a world-famous billionaire. Or maybe the good Hergé made a little mistake.
sondonista
Member
#28 · Posted: 14 Dec 2012 22:24
mct16:
No. After their first meeting on the cruise ship, Tintin simply remarks that Rastapopoulos "n'est pas le premier venu", which in English would be something like "not any old passer-by". There is no mention of their previous meeting in "America".

The English translation of Cigars was done after other albums in which Rastapopoulos had appeared so it was done for continuity's sake is my understanding, although of course it actually mucks up the continuity. Unless, of course, he's referring to the meeting at the dinner table in America. Except, the translation for that was done after Cigars....
GSC
Member
#29 · Posted: 12 Sep 2013 18:48
I'm sure that if Rastapopoulos had been in the dinner scene in Tintin In America, Hergé would have made it more evident.
jock123
Moderator
#30 · Posted: 12 Sep 2013 21:37
GSC:
Hergé would have made it more evident.

How would he have done that then, I wonder? He probably didn't even have a name for the character when he drew him (as mentioned here at the start of the thread)...
Remember, the reality of the situation is that Hergé in all probability drew the figure in the dinner scene, liked the look of him, and remembered him when it came to need a face to put on the villain of his next tale, and may indeed have wanted to make the association with the gangs and gangsters Tintin had encountered on his travels.
Therefore he couldn't make it "more evident" that Rastapopoulos was Rastapopoulos, because even Hergé didn't know who he was at that time!
It's being able to look back that makes his appearance at the table significant!
These things happen; famously Superman's Lex Luthor started out as a mad scientist with red curly hair - that's how he appeared in his comic debut. However, the next person who drew him was given a reference picture showing Luthor with a bald-headed hench-man, and because the artist thought that the bald man was more striking, assumed that he was the baddie and the curly-haired scientist was the lacky. Luthor went bald over night, and didn't get hair until John Byrne revised him in the Eighties!

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