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70 free The Adventures of Tintin trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Tintin has been travelling since 10 January 1929, when a Brussels Catholic newspaper's youth supplement packed him off to the Soviet Union, and this quiz follows him all the way to the Moon and back. It covers Hergé (why he is called that, the Scout strip that came before Tintin, the Chinese friend who taught him to research, the wartime job at Le Soir, the studio on Avenue Louise) and the whole cast: Snowy and his French name, Captain Haddock's first name and finest curse, the sunflower professor, the two detectives you tell apart by their moustaches, and the diva who cannot get Haddock's name right. There are questions on the albums themselves, from the crude black-and-white debut and the notorious Congo book to King Ottokar's Sceptre, The Blue Lotus, the Moon diptych, the magpie in The Castafiore Emerald and the unfinished Alph-Art, plus the fictional countries, the real satire behind them, and the adaptations: the Nelvana cartoon, the Spielberg film and a British bookshop chain named after a king. Easy questions suit anyone who read the albums as a child; the expert tier asks which page the quiff went up. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the series, its creator, characters and individual albums, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
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Q 01The Adventures of Tintin were created by a cartoonist from which country?
Belgium
A six-metre replica of Tintin's Moon rocket stands in the departure lounge of Brussels Airport.
Q 02What is the real name of Hergé, the creator of Tintin?
Georges Remi
His pen name is the French pronunciation of his initials reversed: R.G.
Q 03How many Tintin albums are there in the series, counting the unfinished final one?
24
By 2007 they had been published in more than 70 languages and sold over 200 million copies.
Q 04What is Tintin's job?
Reporter
He is seldom seen actually filing a story, and under the German occupation his role quietly shifted from reporter to explorer.
Q 05What is Snowy's name in the original French editions?
Milou
It was the nickname of Hergé's first girlfriend, Marie-Louise Van Cutsem.
Q 06What breed of dog is Snowy?
Wire Fox Terrier
Like the Captain he is partial to Loch Lomond whisky, and his one fear is spiders.
Q 07Tintin first appeared on 10 January 1929 in the youth supplement of which Brussels newspaper?
Le Vingtième Siècle
The supplement, Le Petit Vingtième, was run by the staunchly Catholic Abbé Norbert Wallez.
Q 08Hergé wanted Tintin's debut set in the United States, but his editor ordered it set where?
The Soviet Union
Abbé Wallez wanted anti-socialist propaganda for children; the result was serialised from January 1929 to May 1930.
Q 09Which is the only completed adventure that Hergé never redrew in colour?
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
He began redrawing his early adventures in colour from 1942 but decided against reworking his crude first effort.
Q 10What was the name of Hergé's Scout patrol leader who became Tintin's prototype?
Totor
Hergé described Tintin as being like Totor's younger brother; the two are graphically almost identical apart from the Scout uniform.
Q 11The name of Hergé's clean, expressive drawing style translates as what?
Clear line
Ligne claire uses uniform lines and flat colour with no hatching, and influenced generations of European cartoonists.
Q 12Captain Haddock's country house, Marlinspike Hall, is modelled on which real French stately home?
Château de Cheverny
Hergé left off the wings, saying it was one thing for Haddock to inherit a beautiful residence and quite another to inherit a stately home.
Q 13In which album is Captain Haddock introduced?
The Crab with the Golden Claws
Q 21Bianca Castafiore's party piece is the Jewel Song from which opera?
Gounod's Faust
She sings it at the least provocation and mangles Haddock's name into 'Paddock', 'Stopcock' or 'Hopscotch'.
Q 22In the post-war albums, Bianca Castafiore was modelled on which real opera diva?
Maria Callas
Hergé's Aunt Ninie, known for shrill operatic singing, was an earlier inspiration.
Q 23In which album does Bianca Castafiore make her first appearance?
King Ottokar's Sceptre
The same 1939 story introduced the two fictional Balkan states that reappear in later albums.
He starts out as a weak, drunken figure and only becomes heroic once he inherits his ancestor's treasure.
Q 14What is Captain Haddock's first name?
Archibald
In French he is simply Capitaine Haddock; his ancestor is Sir Francis Haddock, the Chevalier François de Hadoque.
Q 15Complete Captain Haddock's most famous curse: 'Billions of bilious blue blistering...'
barnacles
The French original is 'Mille milliards de mille sabords!', a sabord being a gunport.
Q 16Professor Calculus's French name, Tournesol, is the French word for which flower?
Sunflower
His full French name is Tryphon Tournesol; in English he is Cuthbert Calculus.
Q 17Professor Calculus was partly based on which real Swiss physicist?
Auguste Piccard
Piccard was famous for balloon flights into the stratosphere and deep dives in his bathyscaphe.
Q 18How can you tell Thomson and Thompson apart?
By the shape of their moustaches
Thompson 'with a P' has a flat drooping walrus moustache; Thomson 'without a P' has a flared one.
Q 19Thomson and Thompson were partly based on which relatives of Hergé?
His father and uncle, identical twins
Alexis and Léon Remi took walks together in matching bowler hats carrying matching canes.
Q 20What are the detectives called in the original French?
Dupont et Dupond
They suffer from chronic spoonerisms and are usually bent on arresting the wrong person.
Q 24The 1939 album about a plot to steal a Balkan king's sceptre satirised which real event?
Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria
Borduria's plot to swallow its neighbour mirrors the Anschluss of March 1938.
Q 25The name of Borduria's fascist leader, Müsstler, is a portmanteau of which two dictators?
Mussolini and Hitler
Borduria's later ruler is Marshal Kûrvi-Tasch, whose 'military advisors' meddle in San Theodoros.
Q 26The Syldavian language in the albums is really a Slavic-looking transcription of what?
Marols, a Brussels dialect
Hergé gave the kingdom a history, customs and a language, and by his own admission modelled it on Albania and Montenegro.
Q 27Which Chinese art student, whom Hergé met in 1934, transformed his research and inspired the character Chang?
Zhang Chongren
Hergé lost touch with him for decades until a Brussels restaurant worker turned out to be Zhang's godson in 1979.
Q 28Which Hergé album, set in Japan's 1931 invasion of China, began his serious background research?
The Blue Lotus
Its seascapes show the influence of Hokusai and Hiroshige woodcuts.
Q 29The pharaoh's tomb in Cigars of the Pharaoh introduced which two recurring elements of the series?
Thomson and Thompson, and Rastapopoulos
The story was serialised weekly from December 1932 to February 1934.
Q 30Where did Hergé work during the occupation, producing six apolitical stories?
Le Soir
The Nazis had closed his old paper; Le Soir was allowed to continue under German management, which caused Hergé trouble after the liberation.