July 18, 2006

How to tell a Thompson from a Thomson. Or a Dupond from a Dupont. Or a Jansen from a Jansens. Whichever you'd prefer.

The moustaches, unless they're confused themselves.

posted by Capt. Renault 18 years ago
  • To be precise: They are confused moustaches themselves.
  • You needn't eat the leg, Thompson, there's still plenty of good meat - look at that arm!
  • I fuckin' loved the Tintin books as a kid. I think I had every one. I had both versions of the Sceptre of King Ottakar! (the first printed version had different background art - later Herge had another bloke do all that to help him - that artist was also responsible for the marvelous moonscapes of the.. er.. that moon one) But I never knew there was a difference in the Thomson spellings! How stupid of me. Guess I wasn't very observant.
  • I loved these books as a kid too - and the TV versions. "Her-ges Adven-tures of Tin-tin!" The one on the moon, the one in Tibet when the Yeti saves him and feeds him, the one with the shark sub. Fantastic. And The Thompson Twins song, 'You Take Me Up' always makes me think of a computer geek in love: "I know what it means to work hard on machines, It's a labour of love so please don't ask me why" Thought I'd drop that in.
  • Yes, but did you ever read Tintin in Thailand? :) I think you can still find it on the net (the somewhat sanitized version).
  • It is part of the proofreaders' arcane code to sometimes refer to "Thomson" as "dry Thomson", meaning there isn't any pee.
  • "Billions of blue blistering barnacles!" Is nothing sacred? *searches for 'Asterix in Amsterdam'*
  • I was hopping that this would have been about how to tell postmodern, non-rational lawyer Jack Thompson from Robert Thompson. Telling them apart it easy. One of them says insane things the other just says inane things!
  • /time to search the torrent sites for that one
  • Ha! found it.
  • This tells me nothing about how to distinguish Canadian comedian Scott Thompson from Canadian dramatic actor R. H. Thomson.
  • Mine is a Dupont.
  • /cackle!! Oh.. this is choice!
  • Snowy bites your leg.
  • I never noticed the mustache thing, and I have all the Tintin books (and Astrix to, but of course). Guess I'll have to take a look-see through them again.
  • Certainly doesn't help to distinguish painter Tom Thomson from the slightly less aesthetically pleasing results of John T. Thompson's intellect.
  • haha, this is one of the few times i've correctly guessed what a mysteriously titled post was going to be about.
  • Militant Tintin. In which our hero and Captain Haddock find themselves up for a bit on the picket lines and subsequent social revolution. I remember the original hard-copy of this doing the rounds during the Wapping dispute.
  • Oh yeah, I remember that.
  • NON.
  • The thought of a photorealistic Tintin, down to hairs and pores, while still looking like Herge's cartoon Tintin kinda creeps me out. Sounds like something that would fall into the uncanny valley.
  • > Militant Tintin. That's fun. > Spielberg, Jackson join forces for 'Tintin' trilogy That's hum.
  • Years ago when I was working with proofreaders (now a threatened species), they would audibly differentiate Thompson from Thomson by calling the first a wet Thompson, and the second a dry one. No pee, you see.
  • Bid to ban 'racist' Tintin book. Is Congo racist? Sure. But a) it only reflects the attitudes of the time, and b) Herge more than made up for it with his cultural depictions later on. As long as those are kept in mind, why ban it? Besides, Congo is hardly mainstream-Tintin. People are coming to it only after having exhausted the main canon. It's of historical interest to fans only -- you get far more out of repeated rereads of Tibet. IMHO, YMMV, IANAD, etc.
  • More rough times for Tintin in the Congo. Also, Tintin sales are subject to the Streisand Effect.
  • Frite Alors in Montreal now has a home brew, named Bachi-Bazouk. Billions of blue blistering barnacles!