Tintin Forums

The captains not a hinderance really, If anyone has read Willy Vandersteen's spike and suzy (or Bob and Bobbette) they will note that Lambik is the type of hinderance character that you are trying to pin on good old Haddock. lambik's stupidity and ignorance gets everyone in trouble every time. Haddock just has some unlucky scrapes that culminates with him in a bit of comedy slapstick (most of the time).

Incidently the famous amsterdam comic shop Lambiek is named after Lambik (The owner spelt it wrong!!!)

From what I have seen over the years, Tintin and Captain Haddock are like yin and yang: there is a relatively flat character who seeks adventure working together with a more complex character who generally does not want much "careering around the world" ("The Castafiore Emerald"). They are opposites, yet they make a dynamic team over the various episodes. He is only a problem when he is drinking, but he otherwise is quite a helpful force who will help to get things done...

Herge's books would be so boring without Haddock...I wouln't have become a tintinologist if Tintin had remained by himself!
(I was going to write: ...had remained single...)

I couldn't put it better myself, gnolles, whether in or out of brackets.

The captain can be both a help and a hindrance. He is certainly genuine. What I like about him is that he is flawed but has a good heart and generally does the right thing.

His biggest weakness is, as we all know, whisky. Usually this is the catalyst when he is being a hindrance. I think his being a sailor has something to do with his drinking. This may seem like a stereotype but having been one myself, I can speak from experience.

The captain shines when he is at sea (and sober). He also showed his mettle in "Tintin in Tibet."

Because of his flaws he is (for me anyway) the more believable of the characters and the easiest with which to identify.

Well he's a bit of both, but I can think of numerous times when he's saved the day. I think his very finest hour comes in The Red Sea Sharks in the sequence aboard the Ramona, and especially during the thrilling denouement when the tanker is being torpedoed by the sub. He does mess things up frequently though, but who doesn't? His fallibility is one reason why I think Herge developed a particular fondess for Haddock.

Rich :)

funny, the more the series advance, the less alcoholic he seems and the less he is trouble for Tintin, for example; in The Crab With the Colden Claws, in his first appearance ever, he's drunk, but not in a funny (!) way, he just seems like a poor unhappy fellah (he even cries). in the same book, later, Tintin dreams that Haddock mistakes him for a bottle of champagne (it occured not only in the dream) He scares the hell out of half his appartment building in
The Secret of the Unicorn and almost kills Tintin recalling his ancestor's adventure. He's not that alcoholic in the end of the series since he doesn't touch a drop in Flight 714 not in The Castafiore's Emerald and he's as sober as we know in Tintin and the Picaros