Rastapopoulos
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Roberto Rastapopoulos (Greek Ροβέρτος Ρασταπόπουλος) from The Adventures of Tintin series of classic comic books drawn and written by Hergé, is a Greek American tycoon (also known under the fake name Marquis di Gorgonzola); he was apparently partly inspired by the Greek shipping tycoon Onassis.
He is Tintin's arch-nemesis, who first appeared in Tintin in America at a banquet. His first major appearance is in Cigars of the Pharaoh, initially as a seemingly sympathetic character. It was not until the denouement of The Blue Lotus, the follow-up to Cigars of the Pharaoh, that Rastapopoulos was revealed to be the head of the sinister opium-cartel against which Tintin had been pitting his wits for two books.
Rastapopoulos is the owner of Cosmos Pictures (Production in some titles) a studio house, and a front for many of his illegal activities and a good excuse for moving to various locations.
The man sitting next to Tintin at the banquet in Tintin in America does look a lot like Rastapopoulos. Next to him is a young blond-haired woman: in the 1932 black-and-white edition of the book this woman is referred to as the actress Mary Pickford, an appropriate companion for a movie mogul!
Rastapopoulos subsequently resurfaced as a slave trader in The Red Sea Sharks, and kidnapped the billionaire Laszlo Carreidas in Flight 714 to gain the password to his multi-billion Swiss Bank account, but he was captured by aliens. In the unfinished Tintin and Alph-Art, a character often thought to be Rastapopoulos in disguise -- under the name of Endaddine Akass -- appeared. The unofficial version of Tintin and Alph-Art by Yves Rodier revealed that Akass was indeed Rastapopoulos, with a few surgical alterations. Rastapopoulos apparently died at the end of Rodier's version when an attempt at hanging Tintin and Captain Haddock went badly wrong, resulting in him being thrown off a cliff.
Rastapopoulos also appeared in Tintin and the Lake of Sharks, an album adapted from an animated feature of the same name, and into which Hergé had no creative input. It is not considered to be part of the Tintin canon.
| The Adventures of Tintin | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creation of Tintin · Books, films, and media · Ideology of Tintin | ||||
| Characters: | Supporting · Minor · Complete list | |||
| Miscellany: | Hergé · Marlinspike · Captain Haddock's exclamations | |||
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