The Original Online Tintin Characters Guide

The first comprehensive Tintin characters guide in English, online since 1998: more than 300 characters from the 24 books, A to Z, with each one’s first appearance, trivia and other appearances.

The main characters

  • Tintin

    In every book in the series. Before moving into Marlinspike Hall as Captain Haddock’s guest, he lived at 26 Labrador Road. His quiff first stood up during a car chase in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.

  • Captain Haddock

    First appears in The Crab with the Golden Claws, as commander of the Karaboudjan. His first name is Archibald, and he is President of the Society of Sober Sailors.

  • Snowy

    Tintin’s dog, in every book from Tintin in the Land of the Soviets on. His French name, Milou, was the nickname of Hergé’s first girlfriend, Marie-Louise Van Cutsem.

  • Thomson and Thompson

    The two detectives first appear in Cigars of the Pharaoh, as X33 and X33 bis; Hergé didn’t name them until King Ottokar’s Sceptre. Tell them apart by the moustache: Thomson’s is pointed, Thompson’s straight.

  • Rastapopoulos

    Tintin’s recurring enemy, first met in Cigars of the Pharaoh – though he can be spotted earlier in Tintin in America. Also known as the King of Cosmos Pictures, and in disguise as the Marquis di Gorgonzola.

  • Bianca Castafiore

    Opera singer known as the Milanese Nightingale, first seen in King Ottokar’s Sceptre. Her world fame rests on the Jewel Song from Gounod’s Faust.

  • General Alcazar

    President of San Theodoros more than once, first seen in The Broken Ear. He enjoys chess and knife throwing.

  • Professor Calculus

    Inventor of the shark submarine, first seen in Red Rackham’s Treasure. He was inspired by Auguste Piccard, inventor of the bathyscaphe; in French he is Tryphon Tournesol.

  • Nestor

    Butler at Marlinspike Hall, first seen in The Secret of the Unicorn. In Tintin and the Picaros he drinks whisky and listens behind the door.

  • Chang

    The Chinese orphan Tintin saves in The Blue Lotus, who becomes his good friend. He is based on Chang Ch’ong-Jen, the student who taught Hergé about China.

Find any character

Characters are listed by surname, or by the name they are best known by: for Bianca Castafiore, look under C.

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Credits

Compiled by Irene Mar; proofed and updated by Etienne Chevalier. First edition proofed by Rob Sharp.

Guide first created: 1998. Major revisions: 2003, 2005, and between late 2006 and early 2007.

Contributors: see each letter’s page for credits. Special thanks to Chris Owens, Ethan Gold, Julianne Means, Nick Vicentini, Paul Durdin, Gustav Gullberg, Chikahiro Masami, Amir Moradian and Richard Wainman for their advice and input.