Tintin Forums

Barry Norman is a British journalist and broadcaster who for many years presented a BBC movie review programme (the name was actually different each year as it took the form Film and then the last two digits of the year, e.g. Film90). He apparently had a number of mannerisms of speech which became “trademarks”, one of which was to end an opinion with the phrase “and why not?” (“I liked Rambo XXI, and why not?”); they were the sort of things which impersonators and comedians would use if mimicking him. Of course, as with all these things, it’s hard to say if he actually used it that much, or adopted it more after it was attributed to him…

Hergé also drew himself into a story as a non-speaking minor character in the beginning of The Broken Ear.

Edgar P. Jacobs also appears now and then, most notably as one of the mummified Egyptologists in Cigars of the Pharaoh.

Hergé & Germaine are in the audience at the theatre in The Seven Crystal Balls, but only seen from the back.

Technically speaking, Hergé is in the picture, but he must be standing next to Tintin, in front of the station, which is where we know him to have been when Tintin returned from Russia. We just can’t see him from the back of the crowd!

Actually (and I can’t find this mentioned else where) I think Hergé does make a cameo in Soviets, but on p.57 (of the current standard edition of the book), where he draws himself as the mechanic lying under the Amilcar when Tintin leaps in and steals it, and who then tries to exact revenge by attempting to blow up the car by setting fire to the petrol trail. The nose and rather severe haircut are typical of how he drew himself.