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I've just noticed that the rainbow on page 54 of The Seven Crystal Balls (which appears when it stops raining, after Haddock and Tintin have struggled to get the roof of the car up) has all its colours the wrong way up.

Rainbows have red at the top (ie: the outer arc) of the bow, and violet at the bottom (the inner arc). But Herge's rainbow has violet at the top and red at the bottom.

Sometimes in real life, you see a double rainbow - a second bigger and fainter rainbow above the first one - and these secondary rainbows do have the colour order reversed from that of the main rainbow. But this phenomena clearly isn't what Herge's portraying here. The rainbow in that picture is a main rainbow - close to the horizon and the only one in the sky - so it's colours are definitely the wrong way up!

I've seen other minor mistakes by Hergé referred to in books about Tintin, such as the upside-down bunch of bananas in The Broken Ear, but I've not seen this one referred to before. Was it simply a colouring error, or was Hergé deliberately trying to subconsciously un-nerve the reader by giving a weird twist to the rainbow (a sun-related natural phenonoma, after all), echoing the weird stuff that's happened earlier in the book?

Seems likely to be a research error (or rather, a lack of any research), rather than a coloring error.

Where's Yamilah when you need her...

I'm almost sure Nicolas Sabourin had that listed in his mistakes pages before he closed his wonderful site down. I also believe it is just an error. Though the twist with it being intentational is interresting.

Most definitely I want to believe that is an intentional mistake (even if it doesn't seem that way).

Actually that seems to be a rare sort of rainbow in another way as well. Rainbows appear opposite to the sun (so that the observer is between the sun and the rainbow), and assuming it's about noon when the incident takes place, the sun should be in the south. Now that would mean Tintin and Haddock are driving to the east, although Haddock says they're going to Saint-Nazaire (which is roughly south-west from Moulinsart).

Of course the exact time isn't given, but on the p. 50 it is morning. It maybe takes Haddock an hour to pack and have a few drinks, then on p. 54 it is said that their conversation takes place "a few minutes later".
It could be as early as 10am (which would mean they're driving north-east) or at the latest something like 3pm if several hours are missed somewhere between the frames (in which case they'd be driving south-east). In my estimation it is about noon, and it seems they're going east.

So, are Tintin and Haddock lost? Don't think so, I'm sure we'd see Haddock commenting on that at some point. So contrary to what I said earlier, they must be driving westwards.

The only* logical explanation left is that the sun must be shining from the north on that day, and the Incas in fact are capable of controlling the movement of the sun (of course they manage to hide that fact in the finale of Prisoners).

*of course it could be argued that all this is just an error by Hergé, but that's a rather boring explanation, isn't it?

I don't think so.
Because Hergé did some unusual work in his books.
Like water on the Moon!
By the way I'm a new member nice to meet you all!

little martine

Sorry about the late reply but welcome to Tintinologist! :D -hugs-

As for the rainbow, I'm inclined to think that Herge took a little artistic license ^^ Being an artist, he would undoubtedly know what real rainbows would look like.

It could be because of the rainbow showing at the wrong moment, that is, after all the effort of Haddock & Tintin's to set their car roof and rinse their clothes.The research would be correct but given the situation,the rainbow has the colors the opposite way.