Last modified: 2005-06-17 by marc pasquin
Keywords: tintin | borduria | syldavia | san theodoro | nuevo rico |
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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
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
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
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
From: "L'Affaire Tournesol", Red with
a black shape similar to a moustache, centered.
Jorge Candeias, 13 april 2001
This is a San Theodoros police banner:
red square with a white device similar to a curly half of a Citroën symbol
(and also similar to a moustache... hum...), centered.
Jorge Candeias, 13 april 2001
This flag should be under
Borduria
António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 january 2004
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
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
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
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
The flag, more a streamer than
a flag, is a Plain yellow swallowtail.
Jorge Candeias, 13 april 2001
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
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
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
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
F.E.I.C. are the Spanish initials of the "Fondo Europeo de Investigaciones
Cientificas" (I assume that French editoions 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 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