That I am a huge fan of Herge and Tintin is no big secret, but I came across something very recently (as recently as 2 days ago), while I was reading Tintin and Picaros, for the n-th time probably.
Note the image below – General Tapioca along with Tintin are now going to Tapiocapolis to take over the evil government dressed as circus clows – The air is full of festivities and its carnival atmosphere. Given Herge’s genius in carving minute details in such large canvas, to look for something unusual.
And unusual did I find 🙂 – If you notice carefully, somewhere in this carnival, you will see:
Asterix.
Yes. Asterix – I had least expected to find Asterix in a Tintin comic – given that they both existed around the same time, and both of them were equally famous in their own realm, I had never thought about the possibility of Tintin and Asterix being together. But then I guess, its only fair that this was bound to happen, and be very cleverly hidden by Herge’s artists.
Funnily enough, a little google search revealed that this favor was returned by Albert Uderzo in Asterix in Belgium (pretty appropriate when one would think about it!)
And who features from Tintin – land? No one else, but Thomson and Thomson – with a P.
(Original image from here)