some themes in tintin

in english: tintin lives at 26 Labrador Road (address mentioned in 7CB and T in Tibet: Chang's letters is addressed to Labrador Rd, the forwarded to Marlinspike, then to wherever they are holidaying together)

of course I forgot what Marlinspike actually LOOKS like: there is no country house in the whole of the British Isles w.that high raked gable style - it is certainly in Belgium (or France).

v.long-running weird science gag: calculus's pendulum

the name archibald is originally german not british (it means "very brave")

Anyway, sorry to be a spoilsport, but this seems to prove that Tintin isn't English.

Also, I was told once by a French BD fan, that T and T are in fact "typical Belgian stereotpyes", and not as everyone thinks "typical Englishmen" -- any Belgians out there agree/or not?

(except actually i think the english translaters seem sometimes to be hoping that you do mistakenly assume he is English, for reasons that baffle grown-up mark s)

my only reasons for wondering about haddock and marlinspike, respectively, were that "sir frances haddock" somehow looked more of an english privateer (bcz i didn't know that belgium wz notorious for pirates in the 18th century); and that nestor somehow looked more of an english butler, dress-wise

FIW, The Avengers TV series was known in France as Chapeau Melon & Bottes de Cuir (Bowler Hat and Leather Boots).

the deaths in explorers haunted me as a kid, frank wolfe's anyway ("by some miracle i will escape too")

i still get anxiety shakes when i think about explorers on the moon, let along pick it up and read it

According to Hergé, he inserted the "perhaps by some miracle I shall esacape too" line on the orders of Tintin magazine. Suicide was still taboo in Catholic Belgium, even if heroic. Hergé later regretted adding this cop out, saying something along the lines of "Wolff was condemned and he knew it".

Yeah, I read that in Harry Thompson's excellent Herge biog.

That's where I got it from too, I think- but the original source is probably Entretiens avec Herge, for which an English translation is long overdue.

another theme in tintin--something gets broken, then fixed, then immediately broken again. happens to the thom(p)son twins all the time

Haddock falls over/walks into something.