Thanks to Stephen who highlighted that Herge took the name Moulinsart (Marlinspike in English) from the village Sart Moulin and Sarmoulin as I suggested in Where is Marlinkspike? .

I’m still not 100% sure that Sart Moulin exists as Google puts the location in the middle of a quarry.

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Stephen also An entirely different Steven sent me this great picture that morphs the original Château de Cheverny into Herge’s Marlinspike.

Two minutes of Tintin fun as a couple of Tintin fans and their dog make a homage to The Crab with the Golden Claws

It is all in French, which I don’t speak, but I suspect there are some clever jokes in it. However it is still remarkably recognisable as The Crab with the Golden Claws. Well worth a watch.

Note: I found this on the Facebook group: The Adventures of Tintin. There is also a Tintin group and a Don’t Let Dreamworks Ruin Tintin group.

Andy Serkis (Captain Haddock) said in an interview that filming will start in two weeks (around the 25th January). However there is is absolutely no word on who is to play Tintin.

Andy Serkis on Tintin and The Hobbit

It has been a busy week in Tintinland.

• Nestor gets a mention as one of the Ten Best Butlers
• Tintin, Nazi Germany and contemporary art looks at Tintin from a New Zealander’s point of view.
• Tintin turns out to be Danish – Tintin displays his Danish roots
• There were lots of responses, especially from the French, to the Times article about Tintin being gay, but I liked this because it hits the nail on head – Tintin is Gay; an African Response
• Tintin’s 80th birthday got plenty of coverage as well, including this from the Chinese new service CCTV: Cartoon legend Tintin celebrates 80th birthday

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is our hero’s first appearance and he is barley recognisable in the early part of the book. It is hard to imagine that this crude artwork is by the same man who put such loving detail into his books from The Blue Lotus onwards.

Tintin the Reporter

Though Tintin is always referred to as a reporter in the books, we never see him doing any actual reporting. Such as filing copy or talking to his editor. The only time we see Tintin doing anything like work is at the start of Tintin in the Land of Soviets when what we see Tintin writing copy for his editor. Clearly Herge decided that his readers are not be interested in such mundane things and never featured Tintin’s work again.

Herge, the Hater of Communists?

It is clear from the very start of the Tintin in the Land of the Soviets that this book will be full of a negative images of Russia. In panel 4 of page 1, Snowy is worried that there will be fleas. By page 2, a communist agent is plotting to kill Tintin because he might report the truth about the Soviet Union.

Herge’s attitude to the communist Soviets came about because of his conservative upbringing that involved church schools and partaking in the scouting movement. In 1925 Herge started working for a the Catholic newspaper Le XXe Siècle under the editor Norbert Wallez, a Catholic abbot who kept a photograph of Mussolini in his office.

By 1929, the Communist Government in Russia had been in power for over ten years. In the meantime, Belgium’s neighbour Germany was in a state of near anarchy as the fascists under Adolf Hitler fought the communist for control. In all the major european countries, socialist parties were attracting a lot of support. The idea that communism could spread across the whole of europe was seen as a very real threat. Against this backdrop, Herge’s youthful ignorance was focused into an anti-communist comic for children by Norbert Wallez and Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is the result.

Signposts to the Future

Whilst the artwork is crude and the storyline chaotic, even by Tintin’s standards, there are clear indications in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets of what Tintin would become. There is plenty of slapstick humour with people running into things and falling down stairs. As is Tintin’s ability to beat armed enemies with a few simple punches. Snowy’s roll as occasional saviour of Tintin and supplier of sarcastic remarks is firmly established.

The first signs of Herge’s love of the accuracy can be seen. On page 53, Tintin is being chased in a speedboat. The boats and the machine gun his pursuers are armed with are well drawn and accurate (if simple) depictions of those in use at the time. These hints in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets would become full blown obsessions in later books where Herge would create models of boats and follow the latest scientific develops in an attempt to be as realistic as possible.

One aspect of Tintin’s personality hasn’t yet become fixed. Towards the end of the book (page 121) we see Tintin get drunk. Though Tintin does occasionally get drunk in the latest books, it is normally the result of an accident. In Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Tintin chooses to drink and wakes up with a hangover.

Returning from the Land of the Soviets

After a long sequence where Tintin appears to travels around unnamed parts of Russia, Tintin ends up in control of a plane. By luck, he finds himself in Tempelhof, Germany and from there he starts his return journey. Though this being Tintin, the return leg of the journey it is not without its own adventures.

As he rides the train in the final stage of the journey, Herge once again starts providing exact details of our hero’s location as he identifies the towns the train passes through. It is possible that the nature of how Tintin in the Land of the Soviets was written dictated this sequence. Herge supplied two pages every week but never had an overall plan. Each week’s adventure would go wherever Herge felt like at the time. But having decided to finish the adventure, Herge had to pace the story out over the final pages. Tintin’s identification of the towns and Snowy’s comment on the sugar producing region of Tienen might just be there to fill up space.

Tintin, The Beginning

Unlike all his other works, including the heavily criticised Tintin in the Congo, Herge never redrew Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. Why? Was he embarrassed by the anti-communist, stereotypes he portrayed in the book? Or was it just that the story was so weak that it was not worth revisiting? Herge would of have had to rewrite and redraw the whole book. Moving on and doing something new would of been far more attractive.

Reading Tintin in the Land of the Soviets for the first time has been an interesting experience. I’ve been reading Tintin for over thirty years and I’m now about twice the age of Herge when he start the book. Before starting it I was worried it would be too crude and too anti-communist to be a proper Tintin book but I have been surprised. Whilst flawed and primitive, it is certainly a Tintin book. The same humour and attention to detail can be seen whilst the adventures are as wild and exciting as any later books.

General Tapioca is the rival of General General Alcazar. He is first mentioned in The Seven Crystal Balls when Tintin finds Alcazar reduced to a knife throwing stage act because of Tapioca’s coup.

The general’s name gives us another clue to the location San Theodoros. Tapioca, the bland yet somehow disgusting foodstuff, comes from the plant Cassava. Though widespread in the Americas it was first cultivated at a 1400 year old Mayan site Joya de Ceren. Located in present day El Salvador.

General Tapioca’s name in conjunction with the other Mayan references in the books, adds to the evidence that San Theodoros is located in central America and not South America as had been assumed.

Marlinspike is Tintin’s spiritual home and the very real home to Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus. It was purchased by Professor Calculus for the Captain at the end of their treasure hunting trip in The Secret of the Unicorn / Red Rackam’s Treasure and became the starting point for many of their later adventures.

Will the Real Markinspike Please Stand Up

Herge very rarely invented anything from scratch. When drawing a boat or a plane or a gun he preferred to start with an object and then simplify it. See the Junkers JU 52 in The Broken Ear or the Mayan pyramid in San Theodoros for two of the many examples of this approach. When drawing Marlinspike (Moulinsart in the original French) he copied a French chateau and simplified it.

Below is Château de Cheverny, the inspiration of Marlinspike. Compare it to the image from Red Rackham’s Treasure and it is clear that Marlingspike is Cheverny with the two outermost wings cut off.

Pinning It Down

But where did Herge imagine Marlinspike was physically? Frustratingly, Herge sometimes placed Tintin in very real and identifiable places (even giving map coordinates on one occasion) and at other times, he was incredibly vague to even which country Tintin was in.

What we can workout from the books is that Marlinspike was in Begium. Traffic drives on the right-hand side of the road and the police wear uniforms very similar to the Belgium police. The estate clearly has a lot of land and is surrounded by countryside so it is outside of any city. We know that Tintin lives in Brussels and he travels to Captatin Haddock’s house via motorcycle (Tintin and the Picaros) and via Marlinspike train station (The Seven Crystal Balls). As Tintin never has any luggage with him it safe to assume that Marlinspike is not far outside of Brussels.

The Final Clue

Marlinspike original French name was Moulinsart. According to Tintin and the world of Herge, this is a reversal of Sarmoulin. A small country town in Belgium. Unfortunately it is so small even Google cannot find it. There is no entry for it on Wikipedia either. Is it real but very, very, small or is the existence of Sarmoulin one of Herge’s jokes?

The Broken Ear starts off with an unidentified man walking into the Museum of Ethnology. The museum’s name is odd and gives some clues as to where the book is set, or at least on what city Herge based his setting.

Herge’s Inspiration

The world’s very first Museum of Ethnology was in the Dutch city of Leiden. For the first time, a museum set out to explore the culture of other ethnic groups rather than displaying artifacts as mere curiosities or stolen treasures. The museum started out as a museum of Japan but soon developed a broader base. The museum was only 50 miles from Herge’s Brussels home so it was very likely he knew about and visited it at some point.

However a far more likely candidate is the Africa Museum in Brussels itself. As the name suggests, it is focused on African cultures and does not include South American artifacts but it might not be a coincidence that the first two exhibits portrayed in The Broken Ear are both African.

Another clue may be the very idea of Fetish. They are man made objects that are worshiped or treated with great respect because they are believed to have power. Though all cultures have fetishes, the term can be applied to any religious object, African and North American indians are those most associated with the term fetish. This may be another clue that The Broken Ear was inspired by the Africa Museum in Brussels, especially as the North American fetishes were almost always animals rather than humans.

Tintin By Air and Sea

EDIT: See Carsten’s comments below. He has found some great info / corrections on the planes and ships in The Broken Ear

On page 12 of The Broken Ear, Ramon and Perez plot their route to San Theodoros via Le Havre, a port in the North West of France. The port was home to S/S Normandie, the greatest of all French passenger liners. On her maiden voyage in 1935, the year The Broken Ear was written, the Normandie set a record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic. As a starting point for a trip to the Americas, Le Havre is an obvious choice for anyone in north eastern France or in the low countries.

The plane the villians are seen boarding in frame 14 is very similar to a Junkers JU 52. Most famous for its role as a troop and cargo transported for Germany’s Luftwaffe during WWII, it was also used by civilian lines including the Belgium national airline Sabena. The first JU 52 to be seen in Belgium was one used by Lufthansa in 1932, but in 1936 the first of Sabena’s aircraft was delivered. No doubt, the arrival of these striking airplanes would of been reported in the papers, giving Herge plenty of source material just as he was writing The Broken Ear.

As can been seen below, Herge was pretty accurate with his drawings. The image from The Broken Ear has similar markings to the two photos of the actual Sabena JU 52s.

The liner that Tintin travels on to San Theodoros, the Ville de Lyon, does not seem to be modeled on any particular liner of the day. Though the of the SS Normandie must of been in the back of Herge’s mind.

Los Dopicos, San Theodoros

As Tintin’s adventures continue in Los Dopicos, one of the running jokes about San Theodoros becomes apparent. Anyone in the army or Government is a Colonel. By page 31 of The Broken Ear, Tintin is a close confident of the General and takes a meeting with R. W. Trickler of General American Oil who tries to bribe him to start a war. This is event is based on fact. In 1932 Bolivia and Paraguay fought a war over the Gran Chaco region in an attempt to seize land thought to be rich in oil. The Standard Oil company backed Bolivia whilst the Shell Oil company backed Paraguay.

The role of arms dealers in the real war is mimiced by Herge in The Broken Ear. Both sides tried to buy modern military equipment despite trade-bands ordered by the League of Nations. The arms dealer Basil Bazarov, who sells weapons to both sides, is based on the real life Basil Zaharoff. This renown arms dealer’s death in 1936 would of been widely reported, just in time for Herge to place him into the story. Though he was not involved in South American politics, he bribery and influence led to several wars and prior to the first world war, he was selling arms to both sides.

Home to Brussels, or is it Le Havre

After his adventures in San Theodoros and his visit to the Arumbayas, Tintin returns home but by home we must assume he means Europe in general rather than Brussels. Almost immediately after getting of the boat, Tintin finds that the real fetish is on its way to America on the SS Washington. However Tintin is not to be out-foxed and catches up with the liner via a seaplane before disposing of the two villains. With everything wrapped up, The Broken Ear ends with the severely damaged fetish back in the Museum of Ethnology.

Sources: Junkers Ju 52/3mge W Nr 5670 6309, An upright and locked position: early aviation, SABENA World Airlines

I’m rereading Tintin and the Picaros and it is amazing how many little things I did not notice before.

Tintin for Nuclear Disarmament

Written in the mid-70s, Tintin and the Picaros saw Tintin updated for a new generation. Gone are the trademark plus-fours and Tintin appears more mature, less innocent about the world. This signs are subtle, such as the CND sticker on Tintin’s helmet on page 1, but whether this is a deliberate attempt to modernise the character or a reflection on Herge’s growing weariness of Tintin’s naivety it is impossible to tell.

Haddock and Whisky

Herge’s relationship with alcohol through all the books is interesting but in Tintin and the Picaros we see it develop. The undoubtedly alcoholic Haddock was always a strange companion for the T-Total Tintin. Alcohol is certainly presented as a negative influence and numerous times it gets Captain Haddock, Snowy and very occasionally Tintin into trouble. In Picaros, we see Haddock cured of his taste for whisky (unknowingly) with a pill that is a remarkably like a super-strong version of Disulfiram.

One interesting take on alcohol in Tintin and the Picaros are these two panels from page 8. The text reads “Are you depressed? Does the day seem long? We have the answer. Loch Lomand”. A typically Herge ironic attack on advertising and alcohol. Totally unconnected with this, on the same page (panel Captain Haddock uses the word pachyrhizus about General Tapioca. Pachyrhizus is a small genus of five or six species of tropical and subtropical plants, mostly found in Bolivia.

Later on in the book we see Loch Lomand whisky being responsible for drunkenness amongst the native Arumbayas and the Picaros rebels under General Alcazar.

Tintin Monkeys Around

On of the questions about Tintin and the Picaros (and Tintin and the Broken Ear) is where the country of San Theodoros is located. There are several contradictory clues. On page 28, whist Tintin seems to be back into his normal adventuring style despite his uncharacteristic unwillingness to get involved early on the book, a monkey saves Tintin’s life. The monkey looks like a Titi monkey, common in Colombia to Brazil, Peru and north Paraguay. This puts San Theodoros more in a more southerly location than previously assumed.

Further wildlife clues can be found on page 37 of Tintin and the Picaros. A cayman crocodile, an adaconda and an electric eel (Gymnotus) all make an appearance. There are several varieties of cayman crocodiles but the largest (and most likely to attack a human) is Spectacled Caiman and is common in Venezuela but can be found as far north as El Salvador. The largest and most common of the anaconda family is the Eunectes murinus that can grow us to 25 feet (7.6 m) in length. The species is found in Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. The gymnotus or electric knifefish can be found all over the south and central americas, from southern Mexico to Argentina.

Herge’s Ambivalence to the Picaros

One of the striking things about Tintin and the Picaros is how little Tintin cares about the country of San Theodoros. In earlier books, Tintin would be leading the revolution for the sake of the people. In this book, Tintin is lax in coming to his friends help early on in the book. Later on, he almost walks away from helping Alcazar with the revolution.

The most telling of aspect of the book are the comparison between page 11 (panel 9) and page 62 (panel 11). Both are images of the slums of the capital. In both, there are shanty town houses and rubbish strewed streets. The only difference is the name of the capital has been changed. With this, is Herge indicating his own disillusion with the world? Rejecting the idea that one man, no matter how good or brave, can save so many poor and downtrodden people. If so, Tintin and the Picaros represent a low point for Tintin and Herge.

Tintin and the Picaros, like the best of Herge’s work, leaves us with more questions about Herge than it answers.

Continuing my work on updating the Tintin Map, I’m looking into San Theodoros. This fictional country appeared in Tintin and the Picaros (TatP) and The Broken Ear. It is described as a Latin American country and Castafiore stops there after visiting Ecuador, Columbia and Venezuela. However, the temple Tintin visits in TatP clearly looks Mayan, compare the photo of the Chichen Itza temple with the one on page 25 of Tintin and the Picaros. This ancient culture was dominant in present day Mexico but did extend into Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and western Honduras.

In The Broken Ear, the countryside, dress and general look of San Theodoros has a predominately Mexican feel. The use of spanish prefixes in both the county’s name, the capital (Los Dopicos) and the capital its neighbours Nuevo-Rican (San Facion) suggest Mexico or another Central American such as Costa Rica.

Tintin sails to Los Dopicos from Le Harve. There is no mention of the Panama canal so San Theodoros’ capital must be on the east coast of central or south America.

As with all of Herge’s fictional places, he did not tie himself down to specifics but instead took what he need from different places. Locations are further confused by differences between the originals and their translations and between different editions as Herge habitually made many changes when updating albums. Herge lacked consistency in his own work as well. Los Dopicos is a port city in The Broken Ear but by Tintin and the Picaros it seems to be inland.

Putting the different clues together – Mayan pyramids, styles of dress and buildings, coastal location and the strong Spanish influence on names, I think the east coast of the Mexico including the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize and Honduras is the best fitting region.