Minor characters in The Adventures of Tintin
See also: List of The Adventures of Tintin characters |
The Adventures of Tintin sports a vast array of secondary and tertiary characters. |
The Adventures of Tintin has several minor characters:
Professor Hector Alembick is a
sigillographer - that is, an expert on
seals - who appears in
King Ottokar's Sceptre.
Tintin meets him when returning a briefcase which the professor had forgotten on a park bench. Professor Alembick - a bespectacled, chain-smoking academic - tells Tintin of his desire to visit
Syldavia to research an ancient seal belonging to the Syldavian monarch King Ottokar IV that he had discovered recently; he subsequently hires Tintin as a secretary to accompany him on his journey. On the day before the trip, Alembick calls Tintin by telephone; in the midst of the conversation, Tintin hears a struggle and a cry for help before the connection is cut short. When Tintin rushes to the professor's apartment to investigate, he is startled to find the professor calmly packing his bags. Although Alembick's appearance seems unchanged, subtle changes in his behavior lead Tintin to suspect that something is amiss. At the end of the album, Tintin discovers that Hector Alembick had indeed been kidnapped and impersonated by his twin brother Alfred (who has unimpaired vision and does not smoke).
The Bird brothers, two brothers named
Max Bird and
G. Bird (Bird being English slang for time spent in prison i.e. Max Bird meaning a long sentence and G suggesting Gaol (jail) Bird), are the main adversaries in
The Secret of the Unicorn. They, like Tintin, are looking for three scrolls to unlock the secret of Red Rackham's treasure. They operate from their manor,
Marlinspike Hall, where at one point they hold Tintin hostage and threaten him with torture, convinced he is behind their failure in collecting all three scrolls. Amongst their other crimes is attempted murder, as Max shot their helper, Barnaby, just before he could tell Tintin of their plot. The Bird Brothers were captured by Thompson and Thomson. Max escaped, but was later caught by the police, trying to leave the country.
In
Red Rackham's Treasure, Max Bird escapes again and is spotted near the
Sirius, a boat used by Tintin in the search of Red Rackham's treasure. He never moves to strike, supposedly due to the presence of Thompson and Thomson. The Bird brothers have not been seen since, though they were depicted in sketches for the never finished
Tintin and Alph-Art.
Mr. Bohlwinkel is a financier who appears in
The Shooting Star. As the owner of the Bohlwinkel Bank of São Rico and a
petroleum firm called Golden Oil, he uses his wealth and resources to attempt to beat Tintin in the race to find a recently fallen
meteorite. Apart from financing the exploratory vessel
Peary, he (unsuccessfully) attempts to sabotage the competing expedition's ship Aurora by depositing lit
dynamite on its deck, instructing another ship under his control - the S.S.
Kentucky Star - to ram the Aurora during a storm, refusing to allow the Aurora to refuel at a Golden Oil depot, and sending a fake S.O.S. to throw the Aurora off course.
The Shooting Star ends with a dismayed Mr. Bohlwinkel listening to a radio announcement revealing that the
police are on his trail.
It is conspicuous that Bohlwinklel has the exact physiognomy of the stereotypical
Jew in
Nazi propaganda; in the original edition of
The Shooting Star, moreover, he was referred to as "Blumenstein" and his bank was explicitly stated as being located in New York. In later editions of the album, Herge attempted to alter the financer's antecedents by relocating him to a fictitious
South American country, changing his name to an obscure
Belgian word for a sweet shop - Bollwinkel - and modifying the spelling of the new name. Alas, he subsequently learned that Bohlwinkel is also a Jewish surname. Several other changes were made in later editions of
The Shooting Star.
A
mechanic that appears in
The Castafiore Emerald, he was hired by
Captain Haddock to fix the broken step in Marlinspike Hall. However, he tends to put off the repairs due to many reasons he gives, namely: catching the
flu, his cousin's marriage, etc. Because of his put offs, the Captain has been thinking about finding someone else, but, strangely, never gets around to doing that either. Mr. Bolt was one of the people who sent the Captain a telegram when a
magazine article about the Captain about to marry
Bianca Castafiore. At the end of the book, Mr. Bolt finally comes and fixes the broken step. However, the Captain trips up on the step, instantly undoing Mr. Bolt's work!
:In
French:
:fr:Laszlo CarreidasA wealthy business
tycoon, Laszlo Carreidas is kidnapped (along with his new jet) by
Rastapopoulos in
Flight 714. His unassuming figure notwithstanding, Carreidas is revealed to be a cunning individual with a long history of unscrupulous behavior not limited to the business world; he is not above cheating Captain Haddock at a game of
Battleships with the help of a closed-circuit television.
Carreidas is the owner of a brand of
soft drink called "
Sani-Cola" (a pun on the French pronunciation of "Saint Nicolas"), which apparently contains
chlorophyll. The healthfulness of this beverage is brought into question when the whisky-loving Captain Haddock discreetly empties a cup forced upon him by Carreidas into a potted plant that wilts dramatically immediately thereafter.
Carreidas' name is a pun:
carré d'as means 'four aces' in French. Accordingly, the logo on the tail of his Carreidas 160 supersonic business jet consists of four aces. This aircraft appears to be a combination of a Gates
Learjet and the
Mirage G swing-wing fighter, and possibly is the purest - and most practical - example of the concept to date.
It seems that Hergé based Carreidas on
Marcel Dassault, who possessed a similar combination of wealth, aeronautics engineering genius, and quaint notions of fashion (Dassault's wardrobe remained frozen in the mid 1930s).
Chiquito appears as the sidekick of
General Alcazar (under the stage name "Ramon Zarate") in
The Seven Crystal Balls. Later, in
Prisoners of the Sun, it is revealed that Chiquito is actually the High Priest of the Sun God of an
Inca temple in
Perú. One night, at the home of Calculus's friend Professor Tarragon, Chiquito hides himself in the trees after casting a spell on Tarragon. In the morning, Calculus is kidnapped by Chiquito and his men. Chiquito takes the professor to Perú and Tintin and Captain Haddock go after them.
Chiquito is known to be a practitioner of
black magic. He casts a spell on all seven members of the
Sanders-Hardiman expedition, and holds them in a drug-induced trance. He is also able to torture them remotely from his temple. His real name is Rupac Inca Huaco and he is one of the few remaining descendants of the Incas.
:In French:
:fr:Boucherie SanzotThe local butcher shop where calls from
Marlinspike Hall usually connect to first by accident, as the butchers' number of 431 is frequently mistaken for 421 to Marlinspike.
The delivery man from the butcher plays a vital (but invisible) role in
The Calculus Affair by offering Professor Calculus a lift to the village just in time to save him from a
Bordurian kidnapping attempt.
This unnamed
fakir appeared in
Cigars of the Pharaoh, and was a high-ranking member of an
opium smuggling ring. He created the dangerous Rajaijah Juice, the "poison of madness," and among his talents were hypnosis, the Indian rope trick and escapology (to the point where he was offended by Tintin thinking he could tie him up). The fakir caused Sophocles Sarcophagus and Mr. Zloty to go mad with his poisoned darts, and made an attempt on the Maharajah of Gaipajama, though Tintin had placed a dummy in the Maharajah's bed which took the dart instead. Once Tintin unmasked the members of the ring, the fakir helped the head of the ring (later revealed to be
Rastapopoulos) escape, but was captured when a falling rock knocked him out. In the next book,
The Blue Lotus, the fakir was never actually seen, but it was mentioned that he escaped from prison, and probably poisoned a messenger sent to warn Tintin of
Mitsuhirato.
:In French:
:fr:IrmaThe maid of
Bianca Castafiore. In
The Castafiore Emerald, she went with Bianca Castafiore and her
pianist Igor Wagner to
Marlinspike Hall. Castafiore describes her as a faithful, loyal and honest maid. Despite giving a meek impression, she has a strong sense of personal pride. When
Thompson and Thomson accuse Irma of stealing Castafiore's emerald, in the titular album, she becomes very angry and assaults the Thompsons with a walking stick.She also appears in The Calculus Affair as La Castafiore's maid that Colonel Sponz wants to meet.
Kronik and Klumsi are inept
Bordurian secret service agents ostensibly assigned by
Colonel Sponz to ensure Tintin and Captain Haddock's safety and well-being during their visit to the Bordurian capital
Szohôd. Like the
KGB agents on whom they are presumably based, their real objective is to prevent the visitors from making indiscreet inquiries in their hunt for
Professor Calculus. Tintin and Haddock neutralize the agents by plying them with drinks at dinner and then locking them in their respective hotel rooms.
The director of an
observatory who calculates the end of the world at 8.12½a.m. the morning after the night Tintin went to the observatory to inquire about a large, bright star he saw in
Ursa Major in the
Shooting Star. He turns out to be wrong, however, in his calculations, as the
meteor supposed to collide with the Earth instead passed 48,000 km away. Instead, a piece of the meteor broke off and collided with the Earth, not destroying it but still causing an
earthquake. Professor Phostle discovers an unknown metal in the meteorite that fell in the
Arctic Ocean which he names phostlite. An expedition was organised to find the meteorite including Tintin and Captain Haddock. Despite a rival exedition trying to get the upper hand, the group was successful in finding the meteorite and studying phostlite.
:In French:
:fr:WronzoffApparently of Russian origin, Puschov is the leader of the international gang of counterfeiters in
The Black Island. He is also the master of Ranko, a
gorilla inhabiting the gang's hideout on the Black Island whose nightly screams inspired legends of the island being occupied by a murderous beast.
They are members of an expedition which brought an Incan
mummy named Rascar Capac back to Europe in
The Seven Crystal Balls. The members of the expedition are: Peter Clarkson (photographer), Professor Sanders-Hardiman, Professor Reedbuck, Mark Falconer, Professor Paul Cantouneau (who made an appearance in
The Shooting Star), Doctor Midge (director of the
Darwin Museum), and Professor Hercules Tarragon, who has the Rascar Capac mummy in his possession. They were cursed by the Incas as punishment for the theft of the mummy. They were put into comas and made to suffer nightmares by
Chiquito. The Expedition's members were saved by Tintin who visited the Incas' temple to save Professor Calculus, who was also kidnapped by them.
:In French:
:fr:Philémon SicloneSophocles Sarcophagus is an
absent-minded Egyptologist in search of the tomb of the
Pharaoh Kih-Oskh whom Tintin meets on a cruise ship at the beginning of
Cigars of the Pharaoh. Later in the album, he goes mad and imagines himself to be the
Pharaoh Rameses II; he is eventually committed to a sanitarium in India for treatment. He does not appear in any other Tintin stories.
:In French:
:fr:Bobby SmilesChicago boss of the rival gang fighting
Al Capone. Smiles makes an appearance in
Tintin in America and he and the reporter go after each other throughout much of the story. Smiles even manages to turn the
American Indians against Tintin. He is eventually captured and sent to the police by Tintin.
Tharkey is a Sherpa guide who helps Tintin locate the ill-fated Patna-Kathmandu flight carrying
Chang Chong-Chen in
Tintin in Tibet.
Although reluctant to risk the perilous attempt to find Chang, whom he believes to be dead, Tharkey leads
Tintin and the
Captain to the crash site of the aircraft. After initially leaving the site to return to his village, he feels guilty for leaving them alone and returns just in time to save Tintin and Haddock, who are stranded on a cliff in a storm. However, he subsequently breaks his arm and must remain convalescing at a Buddhist monastery while Tintin and the Captain continue their search for Chang.
A scientist who is an expert in ultrasonics with whom Professor Calculus arranged to meet with in
The Calculus Affair to talk about his ultrasonic invention that is capable of shattering glass and china and a full scale model presumably metal, bricks, concrete and other stronger materials. When Tintin and Captain Haddock first meet him, he was bound and gagged in his cellar. After he is freed and given an explanation of the recent events, Professor Topolino reveals that he received two letters from Calculus regarding his invention and arranged to meet with him. But on that day, an intruder pretendind to be Calculus bound and gagged Professor Topolino and left him in the cellar. The intruder would then pretend to be Professor Topolino and kidnap Calculus when he arrived. A minute after Professor Topolino finished explaining, his house was blown up by the enemy. However, everyone survived.
:In French:
:fr:Igor WagnerThe quiet
pianist working with
Bianca Castafiore. In
The Castafiore Emerald he is discovered to be a gambler who bets by telephone on races in secret. He has a small moustache and dresses formally in black with black shoes. After the thievery of Castafiore's emeralds, his attempts to help more often than not incriminated himself, as his footprints were found near Castafiore's window, he was suspiciously rummaging in the attic, and later broke a step on the staircase. He also tries to sneak out of his hour-long training sessions (dictated by Castafiore). His surname is probably a reference to the opera composer
Richard Wagner.
:In French:
Jean-Loup De La Batellerie and
Walter RizzottoTwo reporters working for the magazine
Paris Flash. They first appear in
The Castafiore Emerald, where - to the fury of
Captain Haddock and the amusement of
Bianca Castafiore - they write a sensational article for their magazine speculating that the captain and the diva are engaged. They later appear in
Flight 714 and
Tintin and the Picaros. Rizotto makes a small appearance in the redrawn version of
The Black Island.
:In French:
:fr:Wang Jen-GhiéChinese leader of the
Sons of the Dragon brotherhood, opposed to the Japanese occupation of China. He is first seen observing Tintin defend a Chinese boy from being beaten by rich racists and Gibbons in
The Blue Lotus. Wang Chen-Yee sends his son to secretly defend Tintin from the numerous assassination attempts by
Mitsuhirato. His son is tragically made mad by the Rajaijah juice (see
Cigars of the Pharaoh). Wang Chen-Yee is also mentioned in the newspaper notice that prompts Tintin's rescue mission in
Tintin in Tibet.
