(first posted in 2011, and expanded in 2013)
Perhaps the Belgian comic books Tintin by Hergé were not so big in most American households, but they certainly played a significant role in ours. And although my son probably was more swept up in the stories than identifying the nicely rendered cars as we read them, for me it was the other way around. It was such a refreshing change from the typical featureless cars in comics and kids’ books, with a few exceptions. And although I could identify most of them at the time, there were a few obscure ones that stumped me. No more, now that I’ve stumbled unto the devoted work of one Francois de Dardel, who has scrutinized and identified them all. I’ve picked a random few to test yourself, or just enjoy. If you need help, place your cursor over the picture.
I had them all, my mother bought the lot of them, and portioned them out between the years 7-9. I usually got one on a special occasion that really wasn’t in the magnitude of birthdays or christmases, but was special enough in other ways. I usually got one as a companion when I traveled somewhere, and I traveled a lot when I was a kid, as my parents were divorced. Riding the car on holidays, or when I traveled by train. Or when we had visitors, or when someone else in the family had their birthdays. In true 70’s fashion, my mother thought it was unfair that the kids that wasn’t celebrated didn’t get any presents. So, when someone had their birthday, all in the family received a small and token present, to celebrate the occasion.
One thing I like about Tintin, is Hergés meticulous attention to detail. He truly was the Stanley Kubrick of comic books. I read somewhere that he witheld the suspension of disbelief by being true to detail while having outlandish plots. The bigger the lie, and so on. Therefore, in the Calculus Affair, when Calculus are travelling to Syldavia, the plane stops one leg in Switzerland. And he flies with Swissair to the very real Cointrin Airport in Geneva, and stays at the very real Hotel Cornavin, that actually looks the same today as it did then. Tourists are actually asking for the same room number as Calculus, though that number was fictional. So, when Calculus travels to the very fictional Syldavia that is painted with the same attention to detail, the reader buys the story hook line and sinker.
What strikes me looking at those pictures is how authentic all the cars look, even though they are painted, all of them.
Ingvar, thanks for helping put Tintin in context.
Tintin really is the staple of my generation. I can’t think of any people that haven’t read it, or doesn’t have at least a couple of albums at home. I think it was published weekly in France, one page a week. Though, it was mostly known as being published in albums.
I LOVE your mother, what a genius!
Thank you Ingvar for mentioning Hergé’s detail.
I remember seeing the Tintin books in the school library when I was a kid. Seeing the pictures sure brings back memories. I was too young back then to appreciate how real the illustrations were.
I imagine the Tintin books held much the same place in kid’s heart as the Asterix books did to a later generation. There is something special about European cartooning.
The local rag never carried this strip, I was quite fond of Joe Palooka and Lil Abner though.
Best Tintin car moment ever at 11:25 here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX_6n3Eyifs It’s way better in the book, but you get the idea. Hopefully the Peter Jackson version of Secret Of The Unicorn (Summer 2011) does better justice to Herge’s stunning detailing than the show did.
Been reading Tintin since I was a kid. Anyway, let’s take a gander at identifying the cars…
1. Lincoln Zephyr?
2. Dr. Muller drives a Buick Roadmaster.
3. Dunno.
4. Jaguar Mark X.
5. Dunno, but it must be an expensive car, as it belongs to an Emir.
6. Dodge? Plymouth?
7. Austin/Morris 1100.
8. VW Beetle, Citroen Traction Avant. The taxi is some kind of Simca, I think.
9. Some kind of British sports car.
10. Dunno.
11. Dunno.
13. Willys Jeep.
14. Dunno.
15. Mercedes 300 “Adenauer”.
16. Plymouth? Dodge?
17. Citroen Ami.
Don’t know about the rest. The black limo was inspired by the ZIL limo, I think.
You know, that Herge guy must be quite a car buff!
I think #5 is a Lancia Aprilia
3 is a 1936 Ford
Could 10 be a Triumph Herald? (Wow – look at JPC ID a British car!)
14 is a 1949 Chrysler
18 looks like a late 1920s Lincoln
20 is a 1946-48 Ford. With an overheated flathead V8. My, this is lifelike. 🙂
22 looks a bit like a Pierce Silver Arrow, but the headlights are not flaired into the fenders, so I could be wrong here.
The last one is a very nicely done Packard.
I never read TinTin, so this comic is wholly outside of my experience. I am impressed with not only the detail of the cars, but with the wide variety of cars featured. I would not have expected so many U.S. models to be featured. However, I suppose that more U.S. cars would have been exported to Europe in those years before so many legal restrictions on the cars themselves sprung up.
American cars were still popular and plentiful in Europe in the forties and fifties, starting to fade out in the sixties. They were popular as large cars and taxis. Like the Oldsmobile Super 88 Paul told us about that was used as a taxi in his childhood Austria. Simply because there really were no suitable European cars to fill those needs. But you can see that change even in the world of Tintin, where those large cars, like the Ford ’37, was replaced by cars like the Peugeot 403 and (English) Ford Zephyr. Even the smaller Simca was used as a taxi.
It wasn’t the legal restrictions to importing American cars. As European cars got bigger and better, and the folks spent more time on the fast autobahns and such, American cars began to fall out of favor. The Brougham Era really was a coffin nail, not surprisingly. Once upon a time, American cars were very prestigious in Europe; not so much so in the seventies and on.
I believe the fuel restrictions following the Suez crisis played an important role in the disinterest for US cars. The war memories were still vivid and people feared another conflict, with severe rationing. AGB
US cars were popular the world over Paul even with the tax induced high prices but by the 70s US cars had become inept and too gas hungry for most other markets
In addition to buying me Tintin books, my parents took us to foreign movies (that’s what happens growing up in Berkeley California), and two that I vaguely remember are Jacques Tati’s “Mon Oncle” and “La Belle Americaine”. The first features a lot of ’50’s cars in France, particularly a ’56 Chevy convertible … see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPs_A_Bf_uA ; and the latter title (“The Beautiful American”) refers not to a woman, but to a customized/de-branded 1960-ish Olds convertible.
I was stunned at the sight of a Triumph Herald towing a caravan. Sure it has a full chassis, but I imagine it would proceed very slowly!
With that grille its a Wolseley 1100.number 7 I mean.
Wow. I have only a very, very vague memory of this cartoon, but the attention to detail is amazing…….
My avatar is too far into his bottle of “Loch Lomond” to do anything but say “”Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles!” ” when I asked him about the cars.
Ten thousand thundering typhoons!
My leading memory of a car in the Tintin books is the detectives Thompson and Thomson screeching to a halt in a Citroen 2CV, its roly-poly suspension crazily heaving forward and their bowlered heads hurled into the canvas top.
http://dardel.info/tintin/2CV.jpg
The comics had a big impact in making me curious about the world when I was a kid. Spielberg’s butchery of the character into a kinetic CGI-addled young Indiana Jones was a travesty of unimaginative hackery. I hope Peter Jackson does a better job.
Peter Jackson is a Kiwi – we always do great jobs! 😉
I think the most interesting cars are the fictional cars. The “mustachioed” cars from the Kûrvi-Tasch regime of Borduria. The yellow convertible that looks like a more modernized Mercedes 300SL, though slightly larger and in 2+2. And the black Limousine that looks like a cross between a Mercedes 600 and a Russian Zil. As I mentioned in the earlier post, they are made with the same attention to detail as the other “real” cars, therefore you buy into the illusion.
Some of the cars from the earlier albums always looked very non descript. I always wondered if they were based on reality, or simply some artistic “every car” rendering.
The limousine doesn’t overtly resemble any actual Mercedes models, but it looks like it has a 3-pointed star hood ornament.
I don’t agree. I think there’s quite a lot of the Mercedes 600 in it, more in style than in actual detail. But the door- and sidewindow treatment are especially alike.
Actually, that’s not a 3 pointed star – it’s the three-pointed mustache of Pleksi-Glasz, the Bordurian leader, who supported the regime in San Theodoros where the limousine is. Same logo is more visible on the red flag on the limo’s left front fender, as well as on the yellow Bordurian roadster.
Buick Roadmaster, Jaguar Mk.X, MG 1300, Citroen Traction Avant, Triumph Herald, Borgward Isabella, Citroen Ami, and Renault 4CV (among many others)??
I had no idea that these books were so auto-literate. Though published well before my time, I bought several as 10-cent discards from the local library when I was a kid. Don’t recognise any of the above shots, so those must have been ones I didn’t get my hands on.
#6 – the police car – is a UK Ford Zephyr Mk III. Driving on the right (ie left) side of the road. #7 is the MG badged version of the Austin-Morris 1100.
Wow, this is a nice topic. I have all Tintin albums and my 10-year old son learned to read with them. They haven’t aged a bit and never will. Hergé’s attention to detail was extraordinary and that included the cars he drew. Some were imaginary but most were not. The Calculus Affair (“l’affaire Tournesol” in the French original) features one of the greatest car chases in European comics history. It involves a beautiful Lancia Aurelia and a mighty 1956 (give or take) Chrysler New Yorker. The bad guys in the Chrysler escaped.
Thanks for republishing this Paul! Like some others here, I grew up with these, as did my kids, and we still have all the books … most in English but a few in French. Not only are the external details rendered perfectly, but at the end of The Calculus Affair, when the yellow Bordurian “Kurvi-Tasch” styled roadster flips over, we see it’s Mercedes-like swing axles in full view. The rally at the end of The Red Sea Sharks is shown in another great concentration of cars in one frame. I thought the Spielberg movie was weak, but my kids, raised on the books but also exposed to the modern style of CGI from Toy Story to Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, thought it was fine. And it had a few bits of appropriate automotive detail.
I was always intrigued by that yellow convertible. To me, it always seemed Mercedes-inspired, though it had no place in the Mercedes line-up. It seemed to be based on the 300SL styling language, though a bit larger. “The Calculus Affair” came out in 1956, and the car actually looks very modern for that time. Mercedes had their W188 Mercedes 300S as their top of the line Coupe and Roadster, and of course, the W198 300SL.
But the 300S looked more ancient with its non-integrated wings, though it was produced in small numbers up to 1958. And the “Calculus roadster” looks more contemporary, as if Mercedes had made a BMW 503 of their own. I think the thinking went like that. What if Mercedes had replaced their 300S with a BMW 503, and styled it like the SL. And then had it copied by that fictional country of Borduria, mustachioed and all.
Perhaps they had some sort of backstory to explain the Mercedes pedigree? Remember, there was an East German BMW-clone called EMW, that produced cars through the entire fifties. After WWII, BMW:s largest factory found itself being located behind the iron curtain, and they simply continued making cars and motorcycles like nothing happened. The EMW 327 was one of the eastern blocs true sportscars, with its 2-litre straight six, also used in England by Bristol and A.C.
Before rolling my mouse over the picture, I figured the yellow convertible for a Borgward Isabella. There are at least some similarities, and the Isabella would have been a brand new car at the time that comic was drawn. Obviously not identical, though…
I think it could be a Fiat Neckar 1200 Spider. Those were assembled in Heilbronn/Germany and had a slightly different grille from the italian Fiats, which Hergé possibly didn’t remember correctly.
The movie was disappointing, a bland series of action sequences with no character development. Spielberg totally missed the essence of what made Tintin special — the humor, wit, travel locations and attention to detail.
Yes I also loved Tintin and the real-life cars. I think the mouseover brand/model tags are all correct except the open 1936 “Ford” tourer full of Soviet-type troops could be a Russian license-built GAZ.
The red ice cream truck in the background of one of the pics looks to me like a 1936 Ford.
A Triumph Herald towing a caravan yeah good luck with that. Ive been to Peter jacksons Weta Workshops in Wellington NZ where TinTin was filmed and most of those model cars can be bought should you so desire look it up on the interweb
Nice post, I remember reading Tintin in my primary school library, also Asterix. Those books/comics (soft cover) had seen a bit of use!
Tintin was my favourite ‘comic’ growing up. As a 10 year-old, I loved the attention to detail, the realism, and especially the identifiable cars (which was the the cherry on the top of the realism ice-cream).
Fun fact: Herge updated The Black Island in the 1960s. As part of that, most of the imagery and the cars were updated. The pictures below (from the article above) are actually the same frame but show the updated edition Jag MkX and the early edition Humber.
Yes, Hergé had real resources, with his company Studios Hergés started in 1950. And with all that manpower, he had between 12-50 employees, he could delve into really anal retentive research. For the 1966 update of Black Island, he had his assistant Bob de Moor travelling to England to photograph everything, people, places, cars, and so on, just to get it right. Even costumes. Several of the Studio Hergés alumni became great and talented authors in their own right, like EP Jacobs, Jacques Martin and Roger Leloup. I suspect that the latter was the one responsible for all the technical details in the books, like cars, trains, planes, and so on, from the mid-fifties and up. Any techno-phile should look into Leloups own series about Yoko Tsuno. Studio Hergés was simply the best, and stood in the forefront of the Franco/Belgian comic book movement, the powerhouse of comic book making. And yes, I’m a collector…. 🙂
Ingvar, you’re more than a collector … you’re a true Tintinologist! http://www.tintinologist.org/
Perhaps so. As said, I grew up with them. They are a big part of my childhood. Come to think of it, I actually learned how to read with Tintin albums. They were the first things (outside of school) that I read by my own accord, and I usually read them going to sleep. To this day, I can not sleep without reading something first.
But thanks for the link, I’ll delve into it….
Thanks for the info Ingvar, I’ve read a lot of articles about Herge, including one of the biography books, but didn’t know about his assistant travelling to England for research. It explains why the detail is superb. Black Island was my favourite, as all the cars pictured in it were still in everyday use here in NZ in the early 1980s. Thus I could relate to all of them and picture myself in the story.
I’ve loved Tintin books for over 30 years now. I remember the anticipation and excitement I felt each time the school library ordered another issue. The were incredibly expensive here back in the early 80s, so new issues rarely arrived. I bought the odd one new then, but it took a lot of lawnmowing to pay for them…! I’ve bought a lot more since then, and several collector editions.
But the highlight of my collection of Tintins came when the school closed a few years ago. My Mum was a teacher there at the time, and I was gifted with all the old Tintins from the library. They’re all tatty, but they are the very issues an 8-10 year old me poured over 20-25 years earlier in the first half of the 80s. Knowing I touched them and was probably their first reader when they were new gives me such a strong reminder of the simple joys of childhood. I’m holidaying in Europe in May this year, and am going to Belgium especially for the Tintin museum, it’ll be a huge highlight! 🙂
Is #1 a Rosengart of some type? Perhaps the Supertraction?
LOL! I ‘saw’ my first Citroen Ami 6 in Tintin and saved that book thinking what a wacky but detailed car it was…only decades later I was astonished to find it actually existed!!
The last pic is a ’37-38 senior series Packard (ie: 160 or 180 coupe)
8.5.17
Wow ;
I never read this column before .
I discovered Tintin in the early 1960’s at a school mate’s house ~ he loved the stories and didn’t care a whit about the cars / art works, both of which fascinated me .
Thanx for this great article ! .
-Nate
Trivia:
When Hergé died in 1983, his heirs found dozens of catalogues for outboard boat engines from several manufacturers. Hergé needed them for depicting the correct outboarder in case he needed to. Which he never did.
Excellent rendering, most of the cars are very easily identifiable, which is a rare thing in such works, AFAIK.
I hadn’t known anything about the series until the first time this article was posted on CC, so thank you, Paul, for this bit of cultural education
(according to ru-Wiki, it seems that the publishers in USSR/Russia used to be very shy about this comics and it was not published much until mid-2010s – not even during the late 1980s – late 1990s comics boom in Russia – presumably because of its “strong anti-Soviet and pro-Colonialist bias” – sic!)
I wonder, by the way, if the original publisher had to pay anyone, anything for depicting actual models of cars in the work of art, as intellectual property. I had some personal experience with this subject, when I tried to acquire the rights to use depictions of actual cars in a videogame (old ones, mostly 1960-s – 70s). If I had known what a hellish task that turned out to be, I would not have even tried…
Probably copyright law was less strict those days, at least in Belgium. Or maybe this has something to do with that generic black limo, with single chevrons on hubcaps instead of an actual brand logo ? Looks like a bastard child of a Mercedes-Benz 600 and a 1968 Imperial.
In the animated adaptation of the Adventures of Tintin done by Tele-Hachette/Belvision studios who did a light adaptation of the comics book novels. We see cameos of Plymouth or DeSotos cars lookalike like the car Thompson and Thomson are in The Shooting Star.
Oops, wrong screenshot, here the correct one.
Another screenshot from “The Shooting Star”.
One of my childhood favorites – always loved Tintin books and mow my nephew is into them as well. I even found myself reading them a couple of years ago when I found them in the local library and they brought back lots of happy memories. The cars? Never thought of them when I was a child, but I spot here a Jaguar, Triumph Herald, the limousine type car looks Russian, a Citroen Ami, of course a Beetle and a Traction Avant Citroen.
I’m trying to find this image of the gangster car and i thought it was from one of the tin tin books.
anyone know?