Tintin (Fictional Flags)

Last modified: 2008-07-05 by marc pasquin
Keywords: book | tintin | borduria | syldavia | san theodoro | nuevo rico | khemed | rawhajpoutalah | feic |
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• Borduria
  • Bordurian Police
• Fonds Européen de recherches Scientifiques
• Khemed
  • Khemed's maritime police
• Nuevo Rico
• Rawhajpoutalah
• Syldavia
• San Theodoro
• Sao Rico
• Unnamed Country (Les cigares du pharaon)
• Unidentified Flag or Ensign (L'étoile mystérieuse)
• Unidentified Flag or Ensign 2 (L'étoile mystérieuse)

• Fictional Flags
• Fictional Flags in books
• Todd Mills' Tintin pages.

A note on Black Fimbrations

Would it be wrong to suppose, that the narrow black fimbrations in some of the flags mostly has to do with Hergé's style of drawing? He drew vitually everything with black borders, which doesn't mean it should be like that in "reality".
Elias Granqvist, 14 april 2001

That's a possibility, of course. I would even say that it's a probability. But I don't think we can say anything about it for sure without asking Hergé himself, which is not probable to happen in the near future ;-) Therefore, I just put a fimbriation where there was a fimbriation in the flags of the french site (except all around the flags themselves, which has an even higher probability - about 99.9%, really - to be a drawing artifact).
Jorge Candeias, 14 april 2001

by Jorge Candeias

From: "Le Sceptre d'Ottokar (1st edition), a black flag with a red disc centered charged with a black device similar to a hourglass.
Jorge Candeias, 13 april 2001

by Jorge Candeias

From: "Le Sceptre d'Ottokar (1947 edition), yellow, with a black disc centered, divided into 3 sectors by a red shape like an inverted "Y". Interesting the fact that Hergé changed this flag from the 1st edition, but not very clear why and what he had in mind with "real-life" symbolisms here.
Jorge Candeias, 13 april 2001

by pierre gay

Borduria was governed for many years by a dictator named Pedzy Gladtz, whose moustache was incorporated in a symbol in the national flag (red of course). I am not very sure of the fact that these flags are current. Probably near 1990 Borduria changed its flag losing the moustache in favour of a precommunist (but unknown) symbol.
jaume ollé, 08 september 1996

I remembered a discussion with Bob De Moor (Hergé's first assistant, who I worked with) when we talked about a disc behind the flag. We concluded that there should logically have been a white disc on the flag, as on the ZEP armbands. But Hergé had done differently in 54. Still, I have seen the colour originals in 86, and the flags were more red than orange.
pierre gay, 1998-DEC-4

by Jorge Candeias

From: "L'Affaire Tournesol", Red with a black shape similar to a moustache, centered.
Jorge Candeias, 13 april 2001

F.E.I.C. are the Spanish initials of the "Fondo Europeo de Investigaciones Cientificas" (I assume that French editions have the original initials), which pays for the expedition. Why not a Belgian expedition, being Tintin from Belgium?? Well, bear in mind that this album was originally published as Belgium and half of Europe were occupied by Nazi Germani: press censorship and ideological control were important (the scientific team of the F.E.I.C. is composed solely by scientists from occupied or strictly neutral or even Axis countries (Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany). The flag is a green field with the initial "F.E.I.C." outlined in its centre, in black. It appears in pages 21, 23, 43, 46, 47, 48, 51, 59, 60 and 61.
Aveledo Coll 1 december 2000

The album is L'Étoile mystérieuse (The Shooting Star in english). A meteorite crashed in the arctic ocean and Tintin becomes a member of an international scientific team. Their sponsor is the Fonds Européen de recherches Scientifiques (European Fund for Scientific Researches), its flag is green with the FERS letters on it.
Corentin Chamboredon, 19 June 2007

Can we assume that this flag shows differently in every separate language edition -- though some may share the same acronym? How many different editions of _L’Étoile mystérieuse_ were published?
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 June 2007

I think there are more than 80 (!) different editions. You can see the list here.
Corentin Chamboredon, 20 June 2007

by pierre gay

It occurs as a fin flash in 'Koks i Lasten' (Coke en stock) - on the plane that Piotr Schyyh (the Estonian pilot already mentioned under various names) flies. The flag/fin flash seems to represent Khemed (the country also referred to in Det sorte Guld [Tin Tin au Pays de l'Or Noir]).
ole anderson

by Jorge Candeias

A red-green-red horizontal tricolour charged with a white crescent and star, each with a black outline. Pierre Gay's image, however, shows a different crescent and the star in a different position relative to the image at the french website where I found this image.
Jorge Candeias, 13 april 2001

by Jorge Candeias

Flown by the maritime police of Khemed. Red with a white disc outlined by a thin black fimbriation and charged with a very simplified anchor - basically an arc and a vertical line.
Jorge Candeias, 13 april 2001

pierre gay 1996-SEPT-08

The Republic of Nuevo Rico is a neighbour of San Theodoro, and is like Paraguay or Honduras.
pierre gay 1996-SEPT-08

Black with 3 (1+2) red 5-pointed stars, more or less centered. Although in the french website, the stars are not pointy as in Pierre Gay's GIF - the points are rounded - and they are smaller too.
Jorge Candeias, 13 april 2001

The flag, more a streamer than a flag, is a Plain yellow swallowtail.
Jorge Candeias, 13 april 2001

pierre gay

by jaume ollé

In South America General Alcazar took power in San Theodoro, overthrowing his rival, General Tapioca. The country could be identified as like Bolivia. It seems the flag never changed in spite of the continuous regime changes.
jaume ollé, 1996-SEPT-08

The disc comes in various diameters in both books where one can see the San Teodoran flag. It just looks better with a smaller red disc.
pierre gay, 1998-DEC-4

by Aveledo Coll

The other expedition was financed by a bank from the fictional State of Sao Rico, somo sort of American Republic. This flag appeared not in the 1942 edition, but in the first edition of the album after the war (Herge, Tintin's creator, had claimed it did the changes before the war was over), substituting the flag uf the United States, which appeared as the rival expedition's home country on the first edition. The flag is a red field with a black, four pointed star (quite large) as if saltired (displayed as an 'X') on the field. IMHO, it is a clever design. The Sao Rican flag apears on pages 45, 47 and 48.
Aveledo Coll 1 december 2000

Red with a black symbol centered, similar to a4-pointed star rotated 45º. However, in the image at the french website, the symbol is not a 4-pointed star as appears in Aveledo's image (only present in one of the two pages), but what looks like two boomerangs connected by the center.
Jorge Candeias, 13 april 2001

Here, we can see how the flag of the US in the original edition of _L’Etoile mystérieuse_ was replaced by that of (newly devised) Sao Rico in the 1954 edition (and foll.).
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 June 2007

pierre gay, 1996-09-08

Syldavia it is similar to Bulgaria or Albania, and symbolises a western country under threat of the communism. It is called the Kingdom of the Black Pelican. Borduria it is also a balcanic country, symbolising the countries under communist government.
jaume ollé, 1996-SEPT-08

The COA can be found here
Jaume Ollé, 13 april 2001

by Jorge Candeias

Green with a black complicated writing-like symbol all over. I can't understand how come the author of the website where I've found it attributed it to Khemed (since apparently, there where no hints about it in the album of Les Cigares).
Jorge Candeias, 13 april 2001

Here are two flags which can be seen on pages 47-48 of Tintin's album "The Shooting Star", first published in 1942. The album narrates the story of an asteroid which is posed to strike Earth and eventually destroy life as we know it (as a metaphor of WWII in Europe). The asteroid misses its target, but an aerolite from it has fallen in Arctic waters, and is floating (the aerolite is the size of an isle) precariously... Two expeditions lift anchors towards the aerolite-isle, to get their hands on a rare mineral of extraterrestrial origin (aptly namde Calystene, after the astronomer Calys, discoverer of the material and leader of one of the expeditions) which composes most of the chip's mass, embarking on gripping race to get to the aerolite first and claim it (placing their respective flag on it) for science and progress, blah, blah blah...

What seems to be a Belgian flag appears flying on the astern of the ship 'Aurora', of the F.E.I.C. team on pages like 33 and 45. The ship 'Peary', of Sao Rico, wears and seemingly US flag on page 35. However, none of those flags wear their colours (you could still tell them by their outilines), wearing both pale shades of green. Perhaps this was overlooked or simply ot considered at all when doing the re-edition of the album.
Aveledo Coll 1 december 2000

I have seen and image relating to tintin, it shows Tintin and Snowy on the bow of a ship, near an unknown house flag.

Here is a Link to page in Dutch, showing the poster (source of image) for a Tintin & Hergé exhibition at Ostend.

I do not have the albums, does someone know where this picture is to be found (the shipping line is no doubt imaginary)?
Jan Mertens, 19 June 2007

The album is L'Étoile mystérieuse (The Shooting Star in english). A meteorite crashed in the arctic ocean and Tintin becomes a member of an international scientific team. Their sponsor is the Fonds Européen de recherches Scientifiques (European Fund for Scientific Researches), but its flag is green with the FERS letters on it. Since Belgium was occupied when Hergé made this album (1942), I guess he avoided anything which could look like a patriotic symbol and created a new flag for their ship.
Corentin Chamboredon, 19 June 2007