Tintin Forums

I re-read Tintin in America today, and noticed characters who are visually quite similar to J.M. Dawson and his unnamed friend who appears in The Blue Lotus.
In fourth panel of page 58, the fourth one from the left resembles Dawson's hairstyle, toothbrush mustache and circular glasses. (Except shape of face. His face are shorter and rounder compared to Dawson.)
Also man with a white mustache who appears in the same page and calls the detective, is extremely similar to unnamed Dawson's friend with green suit. (Page 7 of The Blue Lotus).
Can they be Dawson and his friend? Any thoughts?

It would be a nice touch if they were. For the record, Rastapopoulos, the behind-the-scenes villain of "Cigars" and "Lotus", appears on the previous page - page 57, panel 5, where he is seated next to Tintin.

I have often thought that, following his arrest in "Blue Lotus", Rastapopoulos would have met Dawson and their mutual hatred of Tintin would be a kind of bond which resulted in Dawson working for Rastapopoulos as his arms dealer in "Red Sea Sharks".

However, the man in "America" looks more chubby-faced than Dawson, so I doubt if it is supposed to be him.

As for the man who calls the detective, his moustache is very different from that of the unnamed man in "Lotus". Also, the man in "America" is bald-headed, while the one in "Lotus" does have some hair on the back of his head.