Tintin’s Seventh Adventure is set in the imaginary Balkan Kingdom of Syldavia. Hergé’s fascination for Royalty, history and politics was Inspired by realtime events of his time. King Ottokar was modeled on real life King Carol II, of Romania. The Ottokar’s Sceptre is to be directed into a motion picture by Peter Jackson in the Second Trilogy of the Tintin adventures produced by Steven Spielberg ( See Below).
Animated Cartoon: King Ottokar’s Sceptre :
Tintin theme in Symphonic Orchestra:
About the Album:
King Ottokar’s Sceptre (French: Le Sceptre d’Ottokar) is the seventh of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written andillustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring the young reporter Tintin. It was first serialized as a black-and-white comic strip in Le Petit Vingtième on 4 August 1938. A new colour version was drawn and published in 1947.
Political Subtext :
Like earlier stories such as The Blue Lotus, Tintinin the Land of the Soviets and The Broken Ear, King Ottokar’sSceptre had a political subtext. The theft of the Sceptre is just part of a plot by Borduria to plunge Syldavia into a major political crisis and clear the way for a foreign invasion.
King Carol II of Romania & Prince Michael visit the UK 1938:
10 May 1932 Royal National Day, Bucharest. Parade – King Carol II of Romania, Prince Nicholas:
Written in 1938, the story may reflect the annexation and invasion of neighbouring states by Mussolini’s Italy and Nazi Germany. However, at this pointin time Mussolini had not attempted to annex a European state. The unseen leader of the conspiracy is called Müsstler, ablend of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Müsstler is the head ofthe Iron Guard. The name implies that it is a pro-fascist paramilitary group, similar to the SA or Blackshirts, which were common in Europe between the wars. An actual fascist and anti-Semitic group called the Iron Guard was very active in Romania in the years leading upto the Second World War. The Romanian Iron Guard was often in violent conflict with the King ofRomania, King Carol II,who they accused of corruption and being influenced by his Jewish mistress. Infact the year the repression of the Iron Guard commenced was 1938, the year King Ottokar’s Sceptre was first serialised. The leader of the Iron Guard, Codreanu, was executed for treason by the Romanian government. The Iron Guard briefly formed the government in 1940 under Horia Sima after the King’s abdication but Hitler ended up backing the more conservative General Antonescu in January 1941 and the Iron Guard was eliminated from government and purged.
King Carol II of Romania inspects The Iron Guard !:
The German censors did not obstruct the book during the occupation of Belgium during World War II.
This could be because there were frequent schemes, plots, wars and coups in thehistory of the
Balkans, many of which had native fascistic movements or governments during the 1930s, and it was
not clear to the German occupier that Hergé was specifically targeting National Socialist Germany.
Moreover, as discussed above, Germany supported the authoritarian regime in Romania under the
aegis of a King, a regime that actually violently repressed the Romanian Iron Guard.
Recommended Readings:
By Darius KADIVAR
By Darius KADIVAR
Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson announce their First Tintin Movie Project and the Opening of the Tintin Museum at the Angouleme Comic Book Convention. The Secret of the Unicorn has already wrapped up and due in 2011. It will be the first of the Trilogy shot in Motion Capture Technique and co-directed by Peter Jackson( Lost of The Rings, King Kong) and Steven Spielberg ( Raiders of the Lost Ark, JAWS).
Tintin Related Links:
Imaginary Syldavian Press Agency ( For Tintin Fans)
Tintin in Tehran (Quiz) by DK (Iranian.com)
Tintin inTehran After Revolution by Zartosht Soltani (Iranian.com)
King Ottokar’s Sceptre garners $316K as Tintin auction In Paris Fetches $ 1.3 M (bbc)
Related Blogs:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TINTIN ;0) | Iranian.com
SAPRISTI : Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson announce Tintin Movie Project
