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Castafiore
Tooot

Tintin's Cars
Page 2 (miscellaneous)

Quiz
Marguerite
Covers
Advertising
American cars
Variations
Error 1
Error 2
Error 3
Characters
Racism
Marlinspike
Syldavia
Destination Moon
Syldavian language
Jacques Martin
Ted Benoît
Français
Français

 
Quiz
Open this image from The Red Sea Sharks and check your knowledge... The Red Sea Sharks, last page The two cars at the bottom right are not complete and hard to recognise.
How many do you know ?

Solution

The diva sings Gounod's Faust
Bianca Castafiore
Bianca Castafiore singing the "Jewels" air
Eight cover pages
Cover pages of Journal de Tintin in 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, and 1979.
Do you recognise the cars?
If you know the second one, you are a real expert!
Publicité 1953 Publicité 1954
? ?
1953 1954

The next ones are easier...
Publicité 1953 Publicité 1954
? ?
1955 1955

Publicité 1956 Publicité 1956
? ?
1956

Publicité 1954 Publicité 1979
? ?
1956 1979


These cover pages are not advertisements; they show the prizes that can be won when entering competitions organised by "Le journal de Tintin".
 
Advertising for Citroën
B2 SM
13 images by Hergé in another window, with two more ads for the 2 CV.
A Bugatti from Quick & Flupke
published in "Le Petit Vingtième" on 24 January 1935
Bugatti type 35 Bugatti type 35
Two American cars from "La Vallée des Cobras"
(The adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko)
Cobras
Cadillac 1954
Cadillac
Cobras
Buick 1954
Buick
Variations
Several of the albums have been "updated" by Hergé. One of them, The Black Island, has been thoroughly re-worked. See other examples on the next page.
L'Île Noire première version L'Île Noire seconde version
The Black Island, first version The Black Island, second version
L'Île Noire première version L'Île Noire seconde version
Land of Black Gold, first version Land of Black Gold, second version
The Black Island, first version The Black Island, second version
The Black Island, first version The Black Island, second version
The Black Island, first version The Black Island, second version
Tintin in America, first version Tintin in America, second version
A small mistake of the Hergé studios
Simca 8 Simca 5
Photo Simca 8 1100The Seven Crystal Balls, page 46. The red car stopped by the Belgian road police is a Simca 8 "1100" or a Fiat from which the Simca was copied in France. It has a grille in two parts, and 4 doors that open in a characteristic way as shown in the second frame. Photo Simca 5In the following frame, the grille is in one piece, and the general shape of the car is that of a Simca 5 (Fiat Topolino) which was in production between 1936 and 1948.
Another small mistake of the master
Niet Niet
Page 42 of the Black Gold:
 
Tintin is trying to get the news on the radio. He gets successively music, a broadcast in English, then in Russian, and finally in French. Whilst the "Da?" (yes in Russian) is correctly written in Cyrillic script, the "Niet!" is not: the Cyrillic "I" is an upside down Roman "N", and here it is shown the "Latin way".
A third small mistake
Mercedes

Plaque

Page 28 of The Calculus Affair :
 
The Mercedes 300 shows the CD of the diplomatic corps and is registered in canton Vaud (VD). This is not probable, as representatives of international organisations in Geneva woud have their cars registered in canton Geneva (GE).

Looking even closer, you will see that the emblem in the registration plate has a vertical division, which would correspond to Geneva, although the colours do not match: GE. On the other hand, the emblem of canton Vaud has a horizontal division: VD. It is almost correctly represented in the registration plate of the Rover shown on page 21 of the same album when the car enters the city of Nyon, except that it is upside down (a fourth mistake!) with the green part on top instead of on bottom.

Other Swiss cantons also have diplomats: Berne, capital of Switzerland, and Zurich, where a few consulates are located.

Another quiz: the characters
Do you recognise them?
If you want to see all the characters of Tibtin's albums, I have compiled a page containing more than 250 of them!
Tous les personnages principaux et secondaires sont répertoriés dans une page du site officiel de Tintin.
On en trouve aussi une liste complète sur Wikipedia, mais sans images.
Was Hergé a racist?
Congo
Tintin's albums, especially "Tintin in the Congo", were criticized for the way Blacks were treated there. Is that really racism?
Marlinspike Hall
Marlinspike Hall (Château de Moulinsart) first appears in The Secret of the Unicorn. Here live the brothers Max and G. Bird, who kidnap Tintin and imprison him in the basement. The Bird brothers are later arrested (Red Rackham's Treasure) and the manor is offered for sale. It is acquired by Prof. Calculus on behalf of Captain Haddock. Hergé designed Marlinspike Hall based on the French castle of Cheverny. He removed both big external wings, but kept the central parts with most of their details.
Cheverny
Cheverny
Hergé
Hergé's Moulinsart
There are small differences in the various representations of the manor: in the first image, the central staircase is curved, but straight in all subsequent pictures. The basement has the colour of the manor’s walls in the beginning, but later is made of grey stone, eithe uniform or in bricks. The basement window wells also do not appear in all the pictures.
Moulinsart
7 Balls (yellow base)
Moulinsart
Castafiore (grey base)
Hergé
Red Sea (uniform grey)
Moulinsart
Picaros (bricks)
Hergé
Unicorn (window wells)
Initially, the entrance of the manor had a glass door. Later on, it got a monumental door with solid green panels.
Moulinsart
Unicorn p.48
Hergé
Seven Balls p.2
In The 7 Crystal Balls, the columns at the entrance gate are drawn in the same colour as the wall, whereas in The Red Sea Sharks, they are grey.
Moulinsart
7 Bballs p.2
Hergé
Red Sea Sharks p.13
In The Castafiore Emerald, the manor is entirely surrounded with flowers:

Moulinsart
Castafiore (flowers)

I have attempted to rebuild Marlinspike Manor with POV Ray-Tracing:

Moulinsart
My rendition of the manor

Where is Syldavia?
Destination moon

Hergé shows it precisely on a map.

Destination Moon: the Jeep of Prof. Calculus
Objectif Lune
Destination Moon (album cover)
Jeep
The actual Jeep Willys
Objectif Lune
My version with POV
Learn Syldavian!
Syldavie Syldavie
Coat of arms of the kingdom of Syldavia (click)
See last page of "King Ottokar's Sceptre".

Syldavie

The motto of Syldavian kings is: "Eih bennek, eih blahvet", in English: "Here I am, here I stay." If you want to know what the two farmers above are saying, see an exhaustive study of the Syldavian language.

From a different hand
Auto 1950 I prepared another page for you with
14 cars of the 1950's
drawn by Jacques Martin.
Auto 1950
as well as...
Auto 1950 American cars
by Ted Benoit.
Auto 1950

See also my links on Tintin and on classic cars.
All pictures are obviously © Hergé, but this page was prepared by François de Dardel. Last update 28rd Jan 2022.