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Cigars of the Pharaoh: Thom(p)sons out of character?

Bashi bazouks
Member
#1 · Posted: 12 Nov 2009 02:26
I know Cigars was the Thompsons' first appearance, and they showed signs of bumbling in the book, but it was totally out of character when they saved Tintin from execution from a firing squad.

Here is what they had to do to achieve this:
-Bribe at least one person to put blank bullets into the firing squad's rifles
-Bribe the soldiers who untied and moved the supposed dead Tintin after the guns were fired
-bribe the undertaker to create a shallow grave with a breathing pipe inserted
-Live for several days disguised as women.

It was a spectacular achievement, worthy of James Bond or the Mission: Impossible crew.
Maybe they were the best Interpol agents at this point in the career and their skills deteriorated from this point on.
Possibly by the time of their Tintin adventures, they were burnt out and just waiting around for retirement.
Mad Hatteress
Member
#2 · Posted: 12 Nov 2009 15:14
Yeah, that segment really surprised me to because of how incompetent they are. Of course, like you said, it was first book and a lot of time when characters make a first appearance in a comic book their personalities aren't quite set in stone yet.
cigee
Member
#3 · Posted: 13 Nov 2009 14:15
Hergé said in an interview that, at the times, he was making things along on the spot. The weekly strips were published on Thursdays. He often did not know on Thursday morning how he would get Tintin out of the situation he had put him the week before. He probably thought it was a good idea for agents X33 and X33b, as they were known then, to be resourceful in getting their man, not knowing they would later evolve to be clowns.

If you compare the original black and white to the color version, some of their actions were modified to make them more consistent with their later role in the series.
cigars of the beeper
Member
#4 · Posted: 14 Nov 2009 14:07
Of course, what they did was rather absurd, since they went to all that trouble to save Tintin because they wanted to arrest him.
jock123
Moderator
#5 · Posted: 14 Nov 2009 16:43
cigars of the beeper:
Of course, what they did was rather absurd,

I’m with you on that - I’ve always thought that it was just a joke that they made such a massive effort; thinking about it, it isn’t out of character at all, given that they continually find the most difficult way of doing something simple, then do it to the bitter end!
mct16
Member
#6 · Posted: 15 Nov 2009 14:23
In the original B&W version published in the 1930s they tell Tintin that they need him alive in order to claim the reward for his capture and to receive some major award of recognition. I've wondered why Herge changed that to them saying, in the current version, that they are simply obeying orders. I suppose that it makes them appear less selfish.

On the practical side, if they hadn't been there to save him then who would have? Some actual Arab women who fancied a Westerner? I don't think that the attitude of the time would have allowed Herge to get away with that.
Mad Hatteress
Member
#7 · Posted: 15 Nov 2009 14:40
I really didn't see what the Thompsons did as "over the top" and still see what they did as being a little too intelligent for the characters they become.
Morganson
Member
#8 · Posted: 20 Nov 2009 04:08
Overall they don't seem as much like bumbling fools in Cigars, as they do in the rest of the series.

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