Tintin Inspiration – The Ephemerist has been collecting popular reference to Tintin in the media. Tintin Inspires, part two, part three. I like the Elvis / Blue Lotus remix.

The is an information-light write up of the 3D technology due in cinemas next year. It is said that the Tintin Movies will in 3D but there is no confirmation of that yet.

Remember how in the Calculus Affair, Tintin and Captain Haddock are going through Calculas’ things to find clues to his disappearance and they find a book on German WII technology with a photograph of two large parabolic dishes? Not surprisingly for Herge, the book and photograph are absolutely real. The Stalker blog has a post on Tintin and Infrasound with more information on the book and photograph. Anauel, a non-english blog picks up on this and also highlights appearance of acoustic radar in King Ottakar’s Scepture. To wrap it up, the Stalker also has information on infrasound weapons of the type Calculus was trying to develop.

Finally a short but interesting look at the role of race in Tintin following the Herge / Tintin / Racism from a south asian perspective.

Who is that mystery man? Tintinologists discuss a rather shaggy haired man with glasses, a black bow-tie and a brown suit who appears in several books.

Teesside is an area in the north-east of England around the city of Middlesbrough. Like the rest of the cities around their, Middlesbrough has a strong regional accent and a very straight forward approach to life. NSFW.

Thanks to The Beat

Following the Herge / Tintin / Congo / Racism row, the planned publication of Tintin in the Congo for the US market has been scrapped by publisher Little Brown Books. According to Publisher Weekly:

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, which had been planning to publish Tintin in the Congo, a book criticized for its racist, Colonial-era depictions of Africans, has quietly pulled the title from its fall list, PW has learned. The publisher also said it will not include the book in a forthcoming box set of all 24 books in the Tintin series.

Publicist Melanie Chang did not give a reason for the standalone book’s cancellation, but of its omission from the box set she said, “Given the controversy surrounding the Congo title, we felt including it in the box set would eclipse the true intention of the collection, which is to showcase Hergé’s extraordinary art and his remarkable contribution to the graphic arts.”

Tintin made his first appearance on January 10th, 1929. So happy birtheday to Tintin and Snowy though not to Captain Haddock, the Thompson Twins or Professor Calculus as they didn’t appear for several more years.

In most languages, Tintin’s name isn’t translated as Tintin works well in most situations. When it is translated, it tends to remain one word but a few languages it splits into two words. In Arabic and Vietnamese it is ‘Tin Tin’ and Japanese and Farsi its ‘Tan Tan’. However, judging from the traffic I get from Google, a lot people mistakenly spell Tintin as two words and end up looking for ‘Tin Tin Movie’ or ‘tin tin film’.

It’s very odd as Tintin is book so most people searching for it would be familiar with how its written. This is going to increase as the release of the film approaches. More people will only learn about Tintin via word of mouth or watching trailers online. So if you are one of those people who have come here looking for the ‘Tin Tin movie’ then welcome and have a good look around. But please remember, unless you looking for the Arabic or Vietnamese versions, its Tintin not Tin Tin.

A five minute piece on Tintin on America’s PBS network. It does get a lot of the facts about Herge and Racism muddled up but its not a bad introduction to Tintin for Americans: Tintin in the World

Its looking likely that Peter Jackson‘s Tintin movie will be the first one made. According to the Slashfilm blog Spielberg has got three projects on the go once the new Indiana Jones film is done. They are Tintin, Lincoln and The Trial of the Chicago Seven. It seems that The Trial… will be the first made meaning Spielberg won’t be able to put any time into Tintin under the end of this year.

This make a fair bit of sense. Peter Jackson’s production company is doing the special effects for all three Tintin films and Andy ‘Lord of the Rings’ Serkis has been cast, probably as Captain Haddock. Spielberg has never directed anything that is 100% CGI so with Jackson going first, it he will be able to work out the kinks in the CGI more easily than Spielberg and get the actors used to the process.

From the BBC’s review of the year in cartoons, looking at the whole Herge / Tintin / Racism fuss.

Can you spot the cover of Tintin in Tibet in this music video?

There are lots more Tintin cameos in this list on Tintinologist.

A billboard in St Nazaire. An approximate translation is:

Tintin: And now, Captain, could you tell me finally where we go?
Captain Haddock: to Saint-Nazaire!

From TrekEarth

The original image is from the the Seven Crystal Balls. In the English edition is say “Westermouth”. Does anyone know if Saint-Nazaire is what appears in the original French version or has it been adapted for the advert?