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Most of the adventures concerned the ([[Comic Book Time|eternally]]) young hero investigating some event or trying to do someone a good turn and, as a result, falling into adventure. The adventures range from thwarting criminals to treasure hunts, from spy stories to a voyage to the moon.
 
[[Real Life Writes the Plot|The real world frequently impinges upon the stories]], with many identifiable events from real life being presented with only a few slight changes of name, for example the [[Chaco War|Grand Chapo (real life, Gran Chaco)]] war in ''The Broken Ear'', and the [[Second Sino -Japanese War|Sino-Japanese war]] in ''The Blue Lotus''.
 
Eventually the real world was to catch up with the series in a more serious manner. Two stories from the late '30s, ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' and the original version of ''The Black Island'', as well the opening chapters of ''The Land of Black Gold'' (later revised and republished), show a possible buildup to war with villains who look suspiciously like Nazis. War, of course, came, and Belgium was occupied. Hergé made the decision to continue his work under the occupation to provide entertainment for his countrymen. To escape the Nazi censor, his stories in this period are fanciful high-adventure yarns with no reference to war at all. (''The Crab with Golden Claws'', ''The Shooting Star'' and the treasure hunt stories, ''Secret of the Unicorn'' and ''Red Rackham's Treasure''.) These stories' fantastic quests and pulp adventures would influence later stories who would include such high-adventure elements even as the stories themselves would return to real-world inspired elements. However, after liberation, Hergé was accused of being a collaborator for publishing in a [[Les Collaborateurs|collaborationist newspaper.]] Worse, ''The Shooting Star'' had a very obvious Jewish-financier stereotype villain. His work was interrupted for a time.
 
After his name had been cleared, Hergé continued his stories in a magazine titled ''Tintin''. The stories were now much more tightly scripted than the earlier examples, and included some new characters, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus (Tournesol in French, meaning Sunflower), who had been introduced in the wartime adventures, as well as two clownish policemen, Thompson (with a 'p', as in 'Philadelphia') and Thomson (without a 'p', [[Dissimile|as in 'Venezuela']]) who had appeared earlier. (The original French version used [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"|"Dupond" and "Dupont" - pronounced the same]] in French.)
 
The stories continued, with returns to various settings previously visited, and sudden appearances by a large supporting cast, and included a very well-researched mission to the moon, tending toward the 'Hard' end of [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness]]. The last completed adventure was published in 1976. Hergé was working on a twenty-fourth adventure, ''Tintin and Alph-Art'', [[Author Existence Failure|until his death in 1983]].
 
The third ''[[TheIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Film)|Indiana Jones]]'' film's story was adapted from a ''Tintin'' script [[Steven Spielberg]] was writing.
 
== There were two animated series: ==
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* ''Tintin and the Sun Temple'' (1969), by Belvision and made from the combined storyline of ''The Seven Crystal Balls'' and ''Prisoners of the Sun''. Usually agreed to be the best of Belvision's ''Tintin'' productions, and the only one that Hergé himself had any significant involvement with.
* ''Tintin and the Lake of Sharks'' (1972), by Belvision with an original storyline.
* ''[[The Adventures of Tintin (Filmfilm)|The Adventures of Tintin]]'' (2011), a 3D animation based on ''The Secret of the Unicorn''. More details on its respective page.
 
== ...two live-action films: ==
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...two radio series by the BBC in 1992-93, a Dutch musical in 2001, and a theatre adaptation of ''Tintin in Tibet'' in 2007/2008.
 
[[Tintin (Filmfilm)|A feature film]] has now been released, the first of three directed by [[Steven Spielberg]] and [[Peter Jackson]] and written by [[Steven Moffat]]<ref>He was supposed to write the second too, but to quote him: "[[Promoted Fanboy|As we all know, it is the proper duty of every British subject to come to the aid of]] [[Doctor Who|the TARDIS.]]"</ref> and [[Edgar Wright]], entitled ''[[Long Title|The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn]]''. It features [[Billy Elliot|Jamie Bell]] as Tintin, [[Serkis Folk|Andy Serkis]] as Captain Haddock, and [[Simon Pegg]] and Nick Frost as Thomson and Thompson, and was made through the use of Motion Capture by WETA. It was released in 2011 and is a combination of the plots of ''The Secret of the Unicorn, The Crab with the Golden Claws'' and ''Red Rackham's Treasure''. A sequel is due in 2014 and is rumoured to be based on ''The Calculus Affair'' and written by [[Anthony Horowitz]].
 
A [[Re Cap]] page for the individual stories is under construction [[Tintin (Comic Book)/Recap|here]].
 
----
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* [[The Ace]]: This was Tintin's original character concept.
* [[Actually, That's My Assistant]]: In ''Flight 714'', Haddock mistakes the billionaire's dapper right-hand man for the billionaire himself.
* [[Adaptation Distillation]]: The Nelvana from [[The Nineties]] animated series is considered of superior quality and more well known nowadays. It's also often well known because it would sometimes air on [[Nick Jr.]] or Nickelodeon. How many cartoons would teach the kids about drug-smuggling?
* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: The Belvision animation adaptations added more plot elements, some of them which could actually be considered an improvement to the original stories, such as the Bird brothers returning to interfere with the Red Rackham treasure hunt.
* [[Added Alliterative Appeal]]: Haddock's [[Unusual Euphemism|Unusual Euphemisms]].
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* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Calculus, when hitting the aforementioned [[Berserk Button]]. He lifts and hangs a guard twice his size on a coat rack in ''Destination Moon''.
* [[Big Bad]]: Roberto Rastapopoulos, a Moriarty/Blofeld-type recurring bad guy. Many of the other villains in the [[Rogues Gallery]] work under him at some point.
* [[Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti]]: A yeti portrayed as a gentle giant.
* [[The Big Guy]]: Captain Haddock is a big man, and though he isn't especially skilled in a fight, those he does hit ''stay'' hit. He once [[Does Not Know His Own Strength|ripped a wooden chair in half with his bare hands]] when angered. While the director of the space center was still sitting on it.
* [[Binocular Shot]]
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{{quote| '''Thompson:''' You forget, my friend, in our job there's nothing we don't know!<br />
'''Thomson:''' To be precise: we know nothing in our job! }}
* [[Caught in Aa Snare]]: In ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'', Tintin steps into a snare intended to catch tigers. He might have been able to free himself if he weren't in a straitjacket at the time.
* [[Cave Behind the Falls]]: In ''Prisoners of the Sun''.
* [[Celibate Hero]]/[[Chaste Hero]]: He was created as a role model for Catholic Boy Scouts, remember?
* [[Cerebus Syndrome]]: The first two [[Tintin (Comic Book)]] adventures (''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'' and ''Tintin in the Congo'') are outright comedies where the action is often completely surreal and played for laughs (for instance Tintin [[Values Dissonance|killing a rhino]] by drilling into it's hide and dropping in a stick of ''dynamite''.) The third adventure (''Titin in America'') was transitional with a lot of off the wall comedy still mixing with the plot before the series finally found it's familiar mood of realistic action adventure with ''Cigars of the Pharaoh''. There was still comedy but it was far more down to earth and character driven.
* [[Chained to Aa Railway]]: In ''Tintin in America''.
* [[Character Development]]: For both Tintin and Hergé by ''The Blue Lotus''
* [[Characterization Marches On]]:
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** Tintin himself was very cruel to animals and condescending to natives in his earliest adventures, in contrast to his more humane attitude in the rest of the series.
* [[Character Title]]
* [[Chased Byby Angry Natives]]: This happens in the Belvision animated series, even though natives were not even shown in the original ''Red Rackham's Treasure''.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: In ''The Castafiore Emerald''
* [[Cliff Hanger]]: Lots! Especially during the period when the stories appeared in newspapers. Hergé was a firm proponent of the "suspense en bas de page", stating that each ''page'' should end in a cliffhanger. It was later (lovingly) lampooned by humoristic authors of the French/Belgian school.
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* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: Rastapopoulos, Carreidas, not to mention every single one in ''Tintin in America''.
* [[Cowboy Episode]]: ''Tintin in America'' (at least the bits that don't involve gangsters).
* [[A Crack in Thethe Ice]]: In ''Tintin in Tibet'', Tintin falls into a crevasse during a blinding snowstorm. He climbs his way out two hours later, after having found in the ice cave below a stone on which Chang had carved his name.
* [[Crapsack World]]:
** America in ''Tintin in America''. Crime runs rampant, and meat producers put dogs, cats and rats in the [[Mystery Meat|meat]].
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* [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas]]: When we first meet Haddock, Tintin manages to make him cry by asking him what his mother would think of him drunk.
* [[The Everyman]]: Tintin himself. His name is quite appropriate, as it is a somewhat outdated colloquialism for "nothing" in French.
* [[Everything's Better Withwith Llamas]]: The [[Running Gag]] with Haddock and the llamas in ''Prisoners of the Sun''.
* [[Everything Is Better With Monkeys]]:
** The apes in ''Congo'' (which leads to infamous silly scenes).
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*** Miriam Margolyes (Castafiore in the final episode)
*** Stephen Moore (Calculus)
** The Japanese dub of the 90s TV series, oddly enough, have some voice actors from the [[DragonballDragon Ball]] series in the cast: Tintin [[Takeshi Kusao|is]] [[Dragonball Z|Trunks]] and [[Guilty Gear|Ky Kiske]]. Capt. Haddock [[Kenji Utsumi|is]] [[Fist of the North Star|Raoh]] and [[DragonballDragon Ball|Sheng Long]]. Dupond & Dupont [[Ichiro Nagai|are]] [[DragonballDragon Ball|Karin-sama]] and [[Hilarious in Hindsight|maybe the most hilarious casting gag]] is General Alcazar [[Kinryu Arimoto|is]] '''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SeedSEED|Chairman Patrick Zala!]]'''
** In Brazilian Portuguese, the 90s Nelvana and 2011 film Tintins are [[Captain Planet|Ma-Ti]].
** When the Belvision series got dubbed to English they got Paul Frees (Boris Badenov from ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'') to voice Captain Haddock, Thomson, and Thompson
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* [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]]: Most don't know that Hergé intended the Tintin series to be a series of adventures ''chronicled'' by Tintin. Most don't know what he does for a living, or assume he's a [[Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|Reporter Who Never Reports Anything]], not knowing that the books ''are'' his reports!
* [[Live Action Adaptation]]: Two of them.
* [[Lost Atat Sea]]: Tintin, Snowy, Haddock and Skut find themselves stranded on a raft in ''The Red Sea Sharks''; more unusually, Tintin, Snowy and Sophocles Sarcophagus are set adrift in coffins in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh''. (The coffins in the latter example actually appear to be stone sarcophagi, but [[You Fail Physics Forever|seem to float perfectly]].)
* [[Master of Disguise]]: Tintin, but see [[Paper-Thin Disguise]] below.
* [[Mayincatec]]: ''The Seven Crystal Balls'' and ''Prisoners of the Sun''. (Based mostly on the Inca.)
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* [[The Namesake]]: The titular sharks only show up at the end of ''The Red Sea Sharks'', which may explain why the English title translation is an outlier for an adventure everyone else knows roughly as "Coke on Board". The signficance of the title in ''The Broken Ear'' also takes a while to come into focus.
* [[National Stereotypes]]: Too many to name
* [[A Nazi Byby Any Other Name]]: While it later became an analogy for [[Commie Land]], pre-war Borduria (''King Ottokar's Sceptre'') is clearly a fascist dictatorship, right down to using German built Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter planes. Dr. Müller (''The Black Island'' and others) and Dr. Krollspell (''Flight 714'') have also been suggested to be Nazis/ex-Nazis. Ironically, when the ''real'' Nazis occupied Belgium, they banned ''The Black Island'' because it was set in Britain, their enemy, while ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' was still allowed, despite having an almost obvious Nazi-analogue.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: While deputising for the ill General Alcazar in ''The Broken Ear'', Tintin turns down an offer from an American oil company on the grounds that it would require starting a war with a neighboring country. Later, after Alcazar turns on him, Tintin flees to the country in question using a stolen armored car... and ends up ''causing'' the war with that country, after they mistake it for an act of aggression by Alcazar's government.
* [[Non-Human Sidekick]]: Snowy.
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* [[One for Sorrow, Two For Joy]]: ''The Castafiore Emerald''
* [[One-Hour Work Week]]: Tintin is supposedly a journalist. This is rarely mentioned, and the only time he is ever seen writing an article or explicitly doing actual journalism is in ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets''. See Literary Agent Hypothesis above, though.
* [[Only Known Byby Their Nickname]]: In ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'', Tintin tells somebody that his name won't mean anything to them, but back home, they call him "Tintin". It could simply mean that Tintin didn't expect anybody to have heard of him all the way out in Egypt. Some fans, however, take this to mean that Tintin is just a nickname.
* [[Opium Den]]: The titular Blue Lotus.
* [[The Other Darrin]]: In the BBC radio Productions, Haddock is voiced by Leo McKern (yes, [[The Prisoner|THAT Leo McKern]]) in the first 6 episodes and by Lionel Jeffries for the remaining 6. Nestor changes to a new actor in the second half as well, and Castafiore changes actresses ''every'' time she appears.
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** Mr. Bolt the Builder
* [[Put Down Your Gun and Step Away]]: Subverted in ''Land of Black Gold'', as Tintin and Haddock both refuse Muller's demand that they put down their guns even though he has Abdullah hostage.
* [[Putting Onon the Reich]]: Borduria, not incidentally.
* [[Qurac]]: Khemed.
* [[Ransacked Room]]: In ''The Secret of the Unicorn''.
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** Done a few times with the redrawn versions of the color stories. For instance, the Thompsons are inserted into the first panel of ''Tintin in the Congo'', while a previously anonymous smuggler is turned into Allan in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh''. The original version of ''Land of Black Gold'' didn't occur in a generic-looking fictional Arabic country, but in British Mandate Palestine.
** The Belvision cartoon series did this numerous times, inserting characters into stories where they had not yet appeared in the original albums. To wit, Professor Phostle is deleted from ''The Shooting Star'' and replaced by Professor Calculus, who had not been introduced yet in the book.
* [[Riddle for Thethe Ages]]: How Captain Haddock rescues Tintin in ''Land of Black Gold''.
* [[Ripped from the Headlines]]: Several storylines.
* [[Rogues Gallery]]: A nonsuperhero example, but it still counts when you consider that guys like Rastapopoulos, Allan, Colonel Jorgen, Colonel Sponsz, General Tapioca and Dr. Müller all served as recurring antagonists.
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* [[Space Is an Ocean]]: sort of, the nautical-minded Captain Haddock threatens to maroon the Thom(p)sons on a desert star while in space.
* [[Space Is Noisy]]: Deliberately refuted in ''Explorers on the Moon''. The animated version by Belvision embraced this trope, however: while the meteor was silent in the original comic, in the cartoon there is a meteor shower that makes a lot of noise!
* [[Spanner in Thethe Works]]:
** If you are a criminal mastermind and, by some stroke of luck, Tintin hasn't come there specifically to foil your plan, he will still manage to unknowingly do the one thing that will either derail your intricate plot or reveal the existence of that plot so that he can start intentionally derailing it. Basically, if you're running a criminal enterprise and you hear that Tintin is within a hundred miles, just shut everything down and leave the country for a few months. It's all you can do.
** The pickpocket in ''The Secret of the Unicorn'' also qualifies.
* [[Spared Byby the Adaptation]]:
** {{spoiler|The Villains}} in the {{spoiler|Broken Ear}} Episode of the second animated series
** {{spoiler|Mitsuhirato}} in the Blue Lotus episode of the same series.
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* [[Submarine Pirates]]: The submarine from Di Gorgonzola's slaver gang in ''The Red Sea Sharks''.
* [[The Syndicate]]: Two major rivals in ''Tintin and America''. Also in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' & ''The Blue Lotus.''
* [[Tap Onon the Head]]: Lots of characters get easily knocked out without lasting harm.
* [[Technology Marches On]]: Calculus mentions inventing ''Colour television'' in ''The Castafiore Emerald''.
* [[The Door Slams You]]: Happens to Nestor in ''The Seven Crystal Balls'', the Thompsons in ''The Broken Ear'' and Tintin himself in ''Flight 714''.
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* [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]]: More than one villain gets accidentally shot during a [[Gun Struggle]]. Tintin makes several absolute rulers promise to give their enemies fair trials, much to their annoyance. Played for laughs in one scene where the deposed dictator of a [[Banana Republic]] and his successor are in tears over Tintin's lack of respect for "tradition" in not allowing one to put the other in front of a firing squad.
* [[Ticker Tape Parade]]: The end of ''Tintin in America''.
* [[Timmy in Aa Well]]: Snowy does this a lot, most notably in ''Tintin in Tibet''.
* [[Trademark Favorite Food|Trademark Favorite Drink]]: Haddock and Loch Lomond whisky.
* [[Trampoline Tummy]]: Tintin jumps on a fat man's tummy to get over a wall in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh''.
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