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Things I never noticed in Tintin comics until now

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CaptainFatstock
Member
#41 · Posted: 14 Aug 2017 03:07
jock123:
He wears a blue shirt at the start of King Ottokar's Sceptre

Ah yes, I have forgotten about that. Well, the white and yellow shirts are the colours he's worn the most.
jock123
Moderator
#42 · Posted: 16 Aug 2017 14:48
CaptainFatstock:
Ah yes, I have forgotten about that

That's the point of an "unnoticed things" thread, surely...? ;-)
Mikael Uhlin
Member
#43 · Posted: 25 Aug 2017 17:23
jock123:
He wears a blue shirt at the start of King Ottokar's Sceptre, as Mikael pointed out recently in a Facebook page discussion about the famous sign in Brussels, which also shows Tintin with a blue collar.

He wears a blue shirt in the last pages of Tintin in the Land of Black Gold as well
Mikael Uhlin
Member
#44 · Posted: 28 Aug 2017 11:46
...and in most of Tintin in America
jock123
Moderator
#45 · Posted: 28 Aug 2017 13:25
Mikael Uhlin:
...and in most of Tintin in America

He's getting his money's worth out of that blue shirt...! :-)
Prof Schwarzschild Calculus
Member
#46 · Posted: 9 Mar 2018 16:58
Rereading Tintin somehow suggested that Hergé did not like the Germans very much.
Some of the antagonists are:
a. Dr. J.W. Müller : As German as sauerkraut or brätwurst
b. Hans Boehm in Flight 714
c. Kurt in The Red Sea Sharks
d. Dr. Krolspell : Possibly based on Dr. Mengele ?
e. Marshall Kurvi-Tasch : Ran a 'Taschist' regime , had (in)famous facial hair , one of his top aides went to a South American country
f. Colonel Boris' alias , Jorgen , is suspiciously German sounding
g. Müsstler in King Ottokar's Sceptre
Richard1631978
Member
#47 · Posted: 9 Mar 2018 17:43
Prof Schwarzschild Calculus:
Rereading Tintin somehow suggested that Hergé did not like the Germans very much.

Germany invaded Belgium twice in Hergé's lifetime, so it's not surprising.
jock123
Moderator
#48 · Posted: 9 Mar 2018 17:55
Prof Schwarzschild Calculus:
Dr. J.W. Müller : As German as sauerkraut or brätwurst

Hmmm... This has been discussed before, and the answer is less clear-cut than you are stating, I think: the jury is pretty much out on that one. We don't even know that his name was actually Müller, let alone that he was German.

Prof Schwarzschild Calculus:
Marshall Kurvi-Tasch

I'm not certain what you have done to come to that conclusion; it obviously plays in some ways on Hitler - but Hitler wasn't German either, he was from Austria. That aside, the setting of Marshall Kurvi-Tasch's regime is Borduria, so one would have to assume (until information for the contrary appears) that he was Bordurian.

Prof Schwarzschild Calculus:
Müsstler in King Ottokar's Sceptre

Again, there is a play on the name of Hitler, but equally it's a reference to Benito Mussolini too, so it's a long shot to say that he's a German, rather than just a pot-shot at European Fascist dictators in general.

However, these points only dispute the details of your argument: broadly speaking, I agree with your proposition, and think that Hergé, along with many Belgians following the occupation of the First World War (and, inevitably the Second too), found it hard to think fondly of the German regime at the time.

In many ways, the clearest exposition of this isn't the later books - if Krolspell is a German, then it is more to do with the fact that Nazi war criminals on the run had become a mainstream trope for thriller writers by the time Flight 714 came out, than as an indictment of German criminality.

No, to me you have to look no further than Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, which book devotes almost as much time to lampooning the ways of the Germans Tintin encounters, as it does to exposing the Soviet Union as a corrupt system.
Prof Schwarzschild Calculus
Member
#49 · Posted: 9 Mar 2018 18:31
jock123:
We don't even know that his name was actually Müller, let alone that he was German.

A name like Müller is quite stereotypically German.
Unless it is an assumed identity, I think it is safe to assume that he is German.
Also , at least in the English versions , he frequently uses words such as Kruzitercken , Himmel and Teufel. He is probably not a Nazi as he has worked with Puschov and Ivan, probably Slavs , who were untermenschen in the Nazi ideology.
I do not dispute the fact that Kurvi-Tasch is Bordurian. But somehow Sponsz going to San Theodoros reminded me of the ratlines set up after 1945.
As regards your statement about Nazi war criminals on the run being a staple for thriller writers , could you give a few examples? As far as I know , one of the defining works in this genre, The Odessa File by Forsyth, was published after Flight 714.

PS: Could you tell me how to reference certain phrases from a previous post? I am sorry for the ungainly appearance of mine .
Mikael Uhlin
Member
#50 · Posted: 9 Mar 2018 21:40
Müller also used the names "Smith" (in Land of Black Gold) and "Mull Pasha" (in Red Sea Sharks).

BTW, "Kurvi-Tasch" (and thus the "taschist" pun on Fascism) is only used in the English translation. He's called Plekzy-Gladz (a pun on "Plexiglass") in the original (and in several other editions).

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