Tintin Forums

While doing research for my review of the comic "Georges and Tchang - A Love Story", I came across an interesting assumption. Some researchers suggest that Dawson, the chief of police of the International Settlement, was based on the real-life Patrick Givens.

Born in Tipperary, Ireland, Givens joined the Shanghai Municipal Police in 1907 and rose to become Assistant Commissioner. He was the head of the local Special Branch, which handled matters threatening the security of the state. Givens was especially involved in curbing communist activity by tracking down left-wing activists and handing them over to the right-wing Chinese Kuomintang government for execution. When he retired in 1936, the Kuomintang decorated him with the Chinese medal of honour.

It's possible that Zhang Chongren described Givens to Herge and that Dawson was based on him. "Givens" sounds like "Gibbons" and I'm thinking that the fictional Dawson and Gibbons were two sides of the same man.

Herge may have decided that naming the fictional Shanghai chief of police Gibbons was risky and open to libel. Thus, by giving the name "Gibbons" to another character but making him and Dawson close associates, he could deny any direct links which would be obvious to people who could still make the connection between Gibbons, Dawson and Givens.

Of course, Herge became a lot bolder in the next story, "Broken Ear", in which arms dealer Basil Bazarov was clearly based on the real-life Basil Zaharoff and he had already included Al Capone in "America".

It would be interesting to know if the name "Givens" is ever mentioned in Herge's notes from the time that he was working on "Blue Lotus".

Some great research there mct16.I wonder if it would be the publishers choice to not use the real names of people. Becuase Tintin America was wirtten at the time Al Calpone was alive.Do you think it is risky business for them to portray a real character even when there is fact to back it up?.

It can be risky when it is open to libel, but I'm thinking that in the case of Capone and Zaharoff there were factors in Herge's favour. Capone for instance was being prosecuted for tax evasion at the time that he appeared in "Tintin in America" and Zaharoff may not have sued Herge out of fear of the publicity it would create (in any case he died in 1936 when "Broken Ear" was being published for the first time). I suspect that that concern is what many political cartoonists are counting on when they lampoon politicians and other leading figures in society.