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[Locked - duplicate thread] How many countries has Tintin been to?

ilovetintin
Member
#1 · Posted: 2 Dec 2009 07:48
How many countries has Tintin been to, I can't help but wonder. This is my first topic ever, and I wanted to find out.
mct16
Member
#2 · Posted: 3 Dec 2009 17:54
Well, going through the books and excluding duplicates like the fact that "Destination Moon" takes place in Syldavia which he already visited in "King Ottokar's Sceptre":

"Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" - Belgium, Germany, Poland, Soviet Union - 4

"Tintin in the Congo" - Congo - 1

"Tintin in America" - United States - 1

"Cigars of the Pharaoh" - Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India - 3

"The Blue Lotus" - China - 1

"The Broken Ear" - San Theodoros, Nuevo-Rico - 2

"The Black Island" - Britain - 1

"King Ottokar's Sceptre" - Czechoslovakia, Syldavia, Borduria - 3

"The Crab with the Golden Claws" - Morocco (maybe, the country is not actually named) - 1

"The Shooting Star" - Iceland - 1

"The Secret of the Unicorn"

"Red Rackham's Treasure" - Caribbean - 1

"The Seven Crystal Balls"

"Prisoners of the Sun" - Peru - 1

"Land of Black Gold" - British Mandate of Palestine, later relocated to Khemed - 1

"Destination Moon"

"Explorers on the Moon" - Moon - 1

"The Calculus Affair" - Switzerland, France - 2

"The Red Sea Sharks" - Lebanon (they stop over there on their way to Khemed) - 1

"Tintin in Tibet" - Nepal - 1

"The Castafiore Emerald"

"Flight 714" - Jakarta, Pulau-Pulau Bompa island, Australia (even though it does not feature in the book) - 3

"Tintin and the Picaros"

Based on the list above (caution: it's of my own doing) the total would be 29.

For "The Blue Lotus" it's a matter of opinion. Does China count as 1 country or do you take into account the parts occupied by the Japanese (1) and the Western powers (1)? That would take the total to 31.

If "Tintin and Alph-Art" had been completed and published with the storyline that Herge was working on at the time of his death, Tintin would have visited the island of Ischia, which raises it to 32.
tregenza
Member
#3 · Posted: 9 Dec 2009 09:13
The answer is slightly dependent on which versions of the books you are reading and in which language.

As mct16 noted, some books were radically changed, e.g. Land of Black Gold. There are also minor differences.

At the end of King Ottakar's Sceptre, in the English version Tintin flies back to Southampton in the UK, but in the French version, he flies back to Marseille in France.

It also depends on what you count as visited: does there have to be a frame featuring Tintin in the actual country? In some versions of Tintin in the Congo, he mentions visiting Lisbon and Tenerife on the way, but he is not seen there.

It also depends on when you consider the books are set. Several places he visited are no longer countries or have changed. The town of Stolbtzy, at the time Tintin visited in Land of the Soviets was in the USSR, but is now in Belarus.

Like you I was interested in this question so I drew a map of everywhere Tintin visited:
Link removed

Moderator Note: While we appreciate your effort, we have to take care with linking to works of fan art; given this, and the nature of some of the other material available through your site, we have therefore removed the link.
The Tintinologist Team
Tintinrulz
Member
#4 · Posted: 9 Dec 2009 09:35
You can't really count Australia. He visits it but we don't enjoy his adventure there.
I wish Hergé had done an Australian Tintin adventure - I'd have liked to see what he would make of our country.
ilovetintin
Member
#5 · Posted: 11 Dec 2009 06:07
Well thanks mct16 and tregenze!!!I wish there was an aussie adventure too!
jock123
Moderator
#6 · Posted: 17 Dec 2009 22:39
This topic has previously been covered in this thread Tintin: countries visited
Colonel Sponsz
Member
#7 · Posted: 23 Dec 2009 10:02
Interesting thing: Tintin visits India in Cigars of the Pharaoh, but that was British-ruled India. He flew from (Saudi?) Arabia in a light plane with limited range; the plane crashed when the tanks emptied after being hit by machine gun fire shortly after taking off, so he can't have got too far.

He ought therefore by rights to have come down somewhere in the extreme west of British ruled India, which would be Balochistan in modern Pakistan.

Unfortunately, Balochistan is an arid rocky area, more like Afghanistan than like the lush forest we see in the India of Cigars, which (along with the people) would be far more characteristic of the Terai (Himalayan foothills) area of North India - which he couldn't possibly have reached.

This topic is closed.