Billions of blistering barnacles! Find out how well you know the boy reporter, his dog and the friends who followed him around the world.
10 questions on Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock and the best-loved adventures, from The Blue Lotus to Explorers on the Moon.
Pick your level
The normal quiz sticks to what any reader of the English editions will remember: the dog, the house, the rocket, the catchphrases and a few of the most famous adventures. If you read the books as a child, you should be on course for eight out of ten.
Hard mode goes further: the villains who keep coming back, the side characters who only appear in a few panels, how the books reached other countries and how they reached the cinema. Five out of ten there is a good score.
Tintin was created in Brussels in 1929 by Hergé, the pen name of Georges Remi. The books were first published in French and only reached British readers in the 1950s, when the English translations gave most of the characters new names: Milou became Snowy, Dupond and Dupont became Thomson and Thompson, and Professor Tournesol became Professor Calculus.
Those names stuck so well that many English readers grew up without knowing the originals. The questions use the names from the current English editions.
Hergé finished twenty-three Tintin adventures between 1929 and 1976. A twenty-fourth, Tintin and Alph-Art, was left as pencil sketches when he died in 1983, and he had made it clear he did not want anyone else to continue the series.
All ten easy level questions, with the answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: Snowy
Snowy, who is Milou in the French original.
Correct answer: Reporter
Reporter, even if we rarely see him file an article.
Correct answer: Captain Haddock
Captain Haddock, who first turns up in The Crab with the Golden Claws.
Correct answer: Bianca Castafiore
Bianca Castafiore, whose voice breaks glass and spirits.
Correct answer: Belgium
Belgium, where Hergé first published Tintin in Brussels.
Correct answer: ...barnacles
Barnacles, as the English translators rendered "Mille millions de mille sabords".
Correct answer: Bowler hats
Bowler hats, with matching moustaches and matching mistakes.
Correct answer: He is hard of hearing
He is hard of hearing, and answers questions nobody asked.
Correct answer: The Moon
The Moon, fifteen years before Neil Armstrong.
Correct answer: Hergé
Hergé, from his reversed initials R.G., read aloud in French.
Want to warm up before playing or double-check something? Open any question to reveal the correct answer and a short explanation.
Correct answer: Wire fox terrier
A white wire fox terrier. Snowy talks in his speech bubbles, but only the reader can understand him, and he has a weakness for bones and whisky.
Correct answer: Marlinspike Hall
Marlinspike Hall, Moulinsart in the original French. It was built by the captain's ancestor Sir Francis Haddock and comes back into the family in Red Rackham's Treasure.
Correct answer: To be precise!
"To be precise!", usually followed by a garbled version of what the other has just said. "Great snakes!" is Tintin's own exclamation in the English books.
Correct answer: Cuthbert
Cuthbert. In French he is Tryphon Tournesol, "sunflower". The English name, Calculus, gives him a scientific name instead of a flower.
Correct answer: The Yeti
The Yeti, who turns out to have been keeping Chang alive in a mountain cave after a plane crash. Hergé leaves him as a lonely, almost sympathetic figure.
Correct answer: Nestor
Nestor, who came with the house: he served the Bird brothers, the crooks who owned it in The Secret of the Unicorn, and stays on to serve the captain.
Correct answer: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, made with motion capture. Tintin and the Lake of Sharks is a 1972 animated film, and Tintin and the Golden Fleece a 1961 live-action one.
Correct answer: Red and white checks
Red and white checks, one of the most famous images in comics. The rocket lands on the Moon in Explorers on the Moon, published as a book in 1954, fifteen years before Apollo 11.
Correct answer: Shanghai
Shanghai, in 1931, during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. It is in this book that Tintin meets Chang, the friend he will search for years later in Tibet.
Correct answer: A quiff
A quiff, the tuft of hair that stands up at the front. It appears in the very first adventure, blown up by the wind as he speeds along in an open car.
Stuck on one, or just curious how nasty it gets? Every hard mode question is here with its answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: Kuifje
Kuifje, meaning "little quiff". In German he is Tim, and Struppi is the German name of Snowy.
Correct answer: Jamie Bell
Jamie Bell, the star of Billy Elliot. Andy Serkis played Captain Haddock, and Daniel Craig both Sakharine and his ancestor Red Rackham.
Correct answer: Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner
Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner, who invented most of the English names and puns. Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge translated Asterix.
Correct answer: Rastapopoulos
Roberto Rastapopoulos, film tycoon and criminal mastermind. Allan, his loyal henchman, is the first mate who keeps Haddock drunk in The Crab with the Golden Claws.
Correct answer: Scotland
Scotland, on an island off the coast guarded by a gorilla named Ranko. For the British edition of 1966, Hergé's studio redrew the whole book after his English publisher sent a long list of details about Britain that were wrong.
Correct answer: Jolyon Wagg
Jolyon Wagg, Séraphin Lampion in French, who arrives uninvited with his car, his jokes and sometimes his whole family.
Correct answer: Oliveira da Figueira
Oliveira da Figueira, first met in Cigars of the Pharaoh. His talent as a salesman later helps Tintin and Haddock in Land of Black Gold and The Red Sea Sharks.
Correct answer: 1946
1946, in Brussels. It published new Tintin adventures alongside many other series, among them Blake and Mortimer. In 1929 Tintin first appeared in a children's supplement of a daily newspaper.
Correct answer: Prisoners of the Sun
Prisoners of the Sun, the second half of the story that starts with The Seven Crystal Balls. Tintin saves everyone from execution by predicting a solar eclipse.
Correct answer: Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson, whose New Zealand studio Weta Digital created the animation. The two had planned to direct one film each, but only the first was made.