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In Emerald on pg. 33 Bianca tells her future plans: a series of recitals in the USA where she would stay for two months and then to South America (where she will be arrested by Tapioca).

Actually she didn't reveal if she was leaving for the USA in the near future and if she was going to South America right after the US tour. But I have got the impression these concerts would happen very soon, within few months.

If so, these three Albums (Emerald, Flight 714, Picaros) and their events would take place in few months as well. Tintin is in a great hurry, isn't he? We must keep in mind that in addition to his regular adventures Tintin had time to visit the Astronautical Congress in Sidney. (Furthermore during all the fuss Tintin found a new trouser style.:-)

Or am I badly mistaken?

EDIT (14.5):

The title was changed by moderator. But I was wondering that all the events in the last three albums take place in a very short period of time. Not only Bianca is busy but Tintin and Captain are in hurry as well.

I don't think you're badly mistaken, I believe the events of Picaros are meant to take place almost right after The Castafiore Emerald. In Picaros they were accused of hatching the plot against Tapioca whilst Castafiore was staying at Marlinspike. Also, at the end of The Castafiore Emerald the Thompsons are given orders (or hired?) to accompany her on her tour in order to watch over her jewels, which bears out in Picaros. I suppose the events of Flight 714 were meant to take place whilst Castafiore was in the USA. And by the time the others had got back from the Aeronautical Congress in Sydney she would have been starting the South American leg of her tour.

I think it's a demonstration of the alternate time and space in which the characters live; the books you mention spanned 13 years, but the events seem to happen consecutively, one after the other. I think Hergé did mention once that Tintin ages only two or three years throughout the whole canon (1929-1976). And, is it just me, or does Tintin appear to have grown ever so slightly taller by Picaros?

That is a piece of a surprising new! I supposed the period of time from Sovjets to Picaros is much longer than two or three years. But I never have thought it properly. Maybe the false impression arises from the development of the characters in Tintin. Archie seems to be a rather different man in Emerald than in Crab. Could he change in one or two years so much? Perhaps.

Now you mentioned, Tintin IS a bit longer in Picaros than in Emerald for instance. :-)

I found the reference to Tintin's age. It was in a magazine interview Hergé gave in 1979 to celebrate the 50th anniversary where he said "Tintin became 3 years older in 50 years (...) in the beginning he was 14, now he is 17". But it's completely illogical when you consider how the background era to the books changes over the years, so it appears that society somehow developed at the rate of 50 years over just three.

Well, perhaps it's not illogical if the Tintinverse were in some kind of parallel universe where time runs slower, perhaps due to gravitational time dilation?

The Tintinverse is another dimension - a dimension of time, of mind and of imagination. It's a dimension which we call - the Twilight Zone... (creepy guitar music, fade out....) ;-)

Either that or there are an infinite number of parallel universes, each with their own Tintin having adventures over a three year period, with those three years beginning from the 1920s to the 1970s, depending which universe the reader is looking in on. After all, Tintin managed to somehow have a lot of his earlier adventures twice, or in the case of The Black Island, three times; in 1937, 1943 and 1966!

Argh, my head hurts! ;)

Well, the events of Flight 714 take place over the course of only two or three days. This would give Tintin and Haddock plenty of time to get back to Marlinspike before arrived in South America. It all makes perfect sense.

Yes it does, they have enough time.

The vague point of my opening is that Tintin and Captain surprisingly seem to live very hectic life. The development of history or sosiety or technology or characters in Tintin albums gives a reason to believe that the events take place in rather long period of time. According to my impression Archie lives in Marlinspike in piece, smokes his pipe, reads his papers, spares his time. But no way. Tintin and Captain are always on the road. Bianca's interview is a tool to schedule the events. There is not much leasure time for Archie to have a quiet whiskey. The opening pages of Destination moon give a another hint of hectic life of Marlinspike guys. Archie doesn't have time to unpack his bags. Where was he coming from? From the Land of Black Gold.

No wonder why Captain is unwilling to travel anywhere.

But, as was mentioned before, they were on their way to the Aeronautical Congress in Sydney and we don't know how long they stayed. They might have had a couple of weeks holiday in Australia to recharge their batteries for all we know. What's more, we don't really know how long after Emerald the events of 714 take place, nor do we know how long after 714 the Picaros adventure occurs, so it's all conjecture really.


That might go some way to explaining the strange anachronistic nature of Cigars Of The Pharaoh, or why Haddock didn't recognize Tintin at the beginning of The Seven Crystal Balls.

That is not unusual in literature, where the same character(s) appears in numerous volume. In children's literature, the Famous Five and Secret Seven members do not age throughout their many adventures. In adult literature, to name one, P.D. James' Inspector Dalgliesh ages maybe a maximum of 10 years, even though the novels were published between the 60's and the 00's.

Harry Potter is the exception, as he ages one year in every book. Then again, the delay between books was a little bit longer than one year.


Haddock doesn't recognize Tintin because he is not wearing his monocle, which he claims to need to see clearly. (He is still playing aristocratic chateau owner at the time.)

My comments about "gravitational time dilation" were meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek cigee, and I absolutely agree with your points. My apologies for not making it clearer.

Another good example of apparent agelessness in comic strip is the Peanuts strip (Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy, etc). Like Tintin, Peanuts also ran for almost fifty years, although most of the characters didn't seem to age more than two years. When the strip started in the early 1950s Charlie Brown was supposed to be four years old, then he gradually grew up to be an eight-year-old and after that remained as one for the duration of the strip. There's also the strange way in which new characters (baby family members like Rerun) slowly grow up to be infants like the rest of the cast, and then stop. However, unlike Tintin the background era is harder to detect (unless you can spot the contemporary references which so often pop up in Peanuts), so it all seems very timeless.