After twenty years of
navigation, the Captain becomes Tintin's best friend. Haddock is the descendant of
the "Chevalier" François de Hadoque, marine captain under Louis XIV.
Introduced in Crab with Golden Claws, the Captain has an impulsive
character and is as often passionate about something. This passion he often experesses in
a torrid barrage of verbal invective which is quite amusing. But apart from that, he
really is a very sensitive man who gets on very well with Tintin, for whom he would (and
has) risk his life. Although he yells at Professor Cuthbert Calculus and pokes fus
at him he is quite attached to Cuthbert Calculus. When the Professor went missing,
Captain was quite distraught. But it would be a mistake to think that such an
ebuillent character has a great thirst for adventure and travel. For Haddock has,
especially after his installation at Marlinspike Hall, a constantly-thwarted ambition to
be but a gentleman-farmer. A whisky and a good pipe in front of a cosy fire, after an
invigorating walk in the countryside, seem to be all he desires of life. The
Captain's taste for liquor is legendary. But two periods need to be distinguished:
the time before he meets Tintin, when he is a piteous drunk, a wreck who is bullied by his
first mate, and after his providential meeting with the young reporter, when things change
fundamentally, even if he is not quite equal to his elevated position as Honorary
President of the Society of Sober Sailors, and his partiality for drink is no more than a
pleasant penchant. Haddock also likes tobacco very much and often smokes the pipe.
He's mostly dressed in black trousers, a blue pullover with an anchor on it, and
his seaman's cap. The most characterizing element of Haddock is his register of
insults.
Snowy, a fox terrier, is Tintin's
pet. The two are never apart. Fiercely loyal and often funny, Snowy is a
lovable character. Herge has taken pains to give Snowy a personality. Although
a dog, Snowy presents quite a human character. Snowy is as sensitive as sensible,
very superstitious, and has an enormous general knowledge. Apart from this, he has
an extraordinary good sense of smell and good intuition. He has a distrust of
strangers and is scared of spiders. His taste for adventure is also more muted: he
yearns for peace and quiet and is suspicious of Tintin's ideas. Occasionally timorous,
Snowy makes up for this quickly with amazing feats of ingenuity and courage to pull Tintin
out of the tightest corners. One loses count of the number of times the terrier saves his
master. However, Snowy's canine greed does on one occasion cause him to
hesitate between a juicy bone lying on the road and the saving of King Ottokar's
Sceptre. Moreover, the fox terrier's weakness for whisky causes problems: the moment
the Loch Lomond blend starts flowing, from leaking barrels or bottles, nothing else seems
to count for Snowy. In fact, with these characteristics, Snowy strongly resembles Captain
Haddock, whom he anticipates in many respects. The fox terrier and the Captain are
characters of the same type: each balances Tintin perfectly whenever he is too good and
righteous. And it is precisely the many points that they have in common which explains the
relative decline in Snowy's importance following the arrival of the Captain. Haddock plays
a similar role to the fox terrier but with much greater force and verve, providing a
counterpoint to any haughtiness on Tintin's part.
Cuthbert Calculus first
introduced in Red Rackham's Treasure is a rather crazy and mad scientist.
He is nearly deaf but refuses to believe that he has that problem. Most of
the time, he understands only the end of sentences, which often led to funny
misunderstandings. His relations to female characters are quite surprising, and he
is able to find all women charming, especially Peggy Alcazar, who is in no way a
sex-symbol. In spite of his calm appearance he can get very angry, but he usually
expresses few feelings, and is modest and reserved. When riled, the Professor turns
red and blue and green with rage. The funny part is he would often fail to
understand Captain Haddock's verbal jabs but when he does hear them he gets pretty worked
up. Like when he was called an old goat by the Captain in Destination
Moon. Calculus becomes mostly victim of the circumstances. He was
kidnapped by the goons of Syldavia for his scientific prowess which led to a series of
adventures. Both his appearance and his manner are an anachronism, and there is a subtle
contrast between his behaviour, which is that of at least a century earlier, and his
highly advanced inventions. For a while, Calculus himself does not change, but his
scientific career progresses by leaps and bounds. From being a small time inventor
who invented the little submarine used in Red Rackham's Treasure he becomes a nuclear
scientist in his Syldavian adventures.
Although they are not twins they might as well be. The two bumbling nitwits first made an appearance in Cigars of the Pharoahs trying to arrest Tintin. From that start, the two often helped Tintin out and participated in quite a few of his adventures. They even stowed away with Tintin and crew on the rocket to Moon and proceeded to 'gulp up' oxygen to conserve which Captain Haddock was earlier forbidden from smoking. The two cotland Yard detectives are equal in almost each detail, except for their moustaches. Thompson's moustache curled up on the ends. As police officers, they lead quite discrete and efficient enquiries but towards the end they always make a mess of it. Thomson and Thompson have a lot of accidents and fall over everything that's in their way. One always tries to reword what the other just said with the tag like "To be precise ...." and in the process totaly jumbles it up. Their idea of blending into the crowd in a foreign country is to wear the most ornate folk costume. This inflexible idea of what is typical or traditional has exactly the opposite results to those intended. The disguises, which are meant to make them blend in discreetly with the local populace, enable them to be spotted a mile off. The two of them spice up the books.
The Milanese Nightengale. Very famous singer of the "Scala de Milan", she is the only important female character in the Tintin series. She is hysterical and in no way modest. Bianca Castafiore is very emotional, and falls to the ground at the smallest excitement. Calculus finds her charming and they get on well but that may be because the Professor is deaf. The strange thing is that she is felicitated around the world as an opera queen and never tires of hearing her sing the Jewel song from 'Faust', but she gets no respect in Tintin books. Captain Haddock tries to avoid like a plague, but always ends up meeting her. All the other main characters avoid listening to her. Bianca can never seem to remember Captain's last name and calls him be every name but Haddock including Hammock. The comic side to her character should not obscure the fact that Bianca Castafiore is a loyal ally of Tintin and Haddock; as when in The Calculus Affair she hides them in her dressing room without asking any questions. Some might say that she simply wanted to join them in the game, but it is more likely that she felt she was part of the team.
He appears for the first time in The Calculus Affair as an agent for Rock Bottom Insurance, and seems to feel at ease anywhere. He is shown as a typical sales man. He is oblivious that he gets on other people's nerves, especially on Haddock's, and considers his ease as other people's ease. Jolyon Wagg keeps telling stories of his uncle and more than once terrorizes Marlinspike appearing accompanied by his large family. Of all the human types thought up by Hergé, Wagg is certainly the most realistic and the most contemporary. He is the perfect picture of a vulgar chap, an archetypal bore. Wagg loves company above all else, which is the prime cause of Hergé's hostility towards him. When he is not with his family, this impossible man is at the centre of a group. He organises rallies for his village motor club, the Vagabond Car Club, of which he is of course the president. He takes all the way to San Theodoros a party of the roisterous "Jolly Follies", carnival revellers whose costumes he has, needless to say, designed. Wagg knows about everything, there is not a hobby he does not have, but there is above all one art in which he is a past master: that of getting in your way at the very moment you least want to bump into him.
When Captain Haddock gained Marlinspike Hall he also gained the faithful butler Nestor, and the series gained a very colourful, if a little shy, character. Very well mannered, Nestor is the prototype of a domestic. With a lot of courtesy and patience, he hardly ever shows a reaction to anything. But he sometimes seems to be a bit xenophobe and even racist. He appreciates the Captain's whiskey too, and, of course, sometimes looks through the key-hole or listens behind the doors. When we first meet Nestor in The Secret of the Unicorn, he is the butler of the nasty Bird Brothers, who own Marlinspike Hall. He aids them in their capture of Tintin, but Hergé makes us aware that he is only doing so out of loyalty to his employers. For this reason, Tintin is ready to forgive him at the end of the book, and he becomes a faithful friend and servant to Captain Haddock at the end of Red Rackham's Treasure. He is, quick to come to his masters aid in a crisis, although he often appears spineless, such as in the opening sequence of The Calculus Affair.
Chang was Tintin's first real
human friend. Tintin had saved his life from flood in the Yangtze river in China, and he
even showed tears, which rarely happens, when he had to leave him for his trip to Europe.
In spite of the distance, they never lost contact, and they met again in Tintin in
Tibet, Tintin saving Tchang's life once again. The last news of him arrive in The
Castafiore Emerald: a letter from London. The character of Chang was inspired by
a real Chang Chong Jen, a Chinese artist with whom Hergé maintained a life long
friendship. It was Chang who 'taught' Hergé to take his art more seriously.
The result was Blue Lotus, a book set in China which dealt with opium
smuggling and the Japanese invasion of China. Chang also influenced Hergé's
politics: although Hergé was able to give a more informed portrait of the Chinese, he
unfortunately managed to portray the Japanese in a manner that can best be described as
offensive. The Japanese ambassador to Belgium was furious, demanding that the story
be banned. Hergé's work came under scrutiny of the Belgian government, who suggested that
some of his material was too controversial for the eyes of children.
Tintin meets this salesman for the first time in Cigars of the Pharoahs, and can't help buying a whole stock of unuseful things, because of Oliveira da Figuera's genious know-how in business. Oliveira acts the same way with his Arabian customers. Tintin and he meet again in Land of Black Gold and in The Red Sea Sharks. In The Red Sea Sharks he saved Tintin and Captain Haddock using all his pitchers. Some time later he is one of the first persons to present their compliments to Haddock for his "wedding".
Just like General Alcazar, as Emir of the Khemed, Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab undergoes troubles. During his first trip to Khemed in Land of Black Gold Tintin saves Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab's son Abdallah, a very badly behaving child, from Dr. Muller's and Bab El Ehr's plots. Bab El Ehr manages to get the power in The Red Sea Sharks, but soon Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab takes back his throne. Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab has no mercy for his enemies, while he's very tender in front of his son, except when he's the victim of Abdallah's jokes.
He several times ruled San
Theodoros, which he's intimately bound to, but he was conquered every time by General
Tapioca. In The Broken Ear), he meets Tintin, but they are brutally separated.
When they get together again in The Seven Crystal Balls, Alcazar has become
a knife-thrower and went by the name Ramone Zarate. After their meeting in The
Red Sea Sharks where he discovers that the General is buying weapons illegally, Tintin
finally helps Alcazar to hold the power in Tintin and the Picaros. In that book,
General Alcazar's personalities were fully shown as a tradition follower, an ambitious
commander, and an uxorious husband. "Peggy my dove!", Alcazar is often
seen pleading with his wife. His wife is very bossy and demanding but seems to be
the only one able to tell Alcazar what to do. The bloodless revolution at San
Theodoros will gain him a longer reign, hopefully.
Did you know.... General Alcazar's name has more to it than meats the eye! In Spanish, an
Alcazar is an Arabian style castle. This word is derived from the Latin word 'Castru'.
This Latin word is also present in the Spansih language as the word 'Costro' which means a
fortified town/village. But Castro is also the name of that famous head of state who is
similar to our good old friend, Genral Alcazar!
This multi-millionaire is Tintin's worst enemy. They first met in Cigars of the Pharoahs on board of the oceanliner, then in the desert, where Rastapopoulos is producing a film. Only in The Blue Lotus, Tintin finds out that Rastapopoulos is in fact the leader of the opium trader gang that he is fighting against. In Red Sea Sharks Rastapopoulos has become a slave trader. He then disappears making people believe he's dead. This character has absolutely no scruples and is proud of it too. He's good at finding accomplices, such as Allan Thompson (Captain Haddock's mate in Crab with Golden Claw), who can help him a lot. As if pronouncing his name wasn’t bad enough he is an out and out baddy who makes absolutely no bones about it. Tintin manages to spoil most of his plans. He’s heavily into drug trafficking and is also a movie tycoon- owner of Cosmos Pictures- to boot. He can be extremely suave when he wants to be. But his real character comes out during his encounter with millionaire Carreidas when they argue as to who’s the devil incarnate!
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