Tintin’s adventures with testosterone: Does an artist have to imagine a fictitious character’s sex life?

‘Does an artist have the right to wonder about Tintin’s sex life?’ This is a question that French artist Xavier Marabout’s lawyer asked the heirs of the beloved Belgian comic book hero’s creator Hergé after they slapped a lawsuit for his risqué artworks featuring the ever-young reporter with six-pack abs and flanked by buxom ladies. ‘Billions of blue blistering barnacles!’ you say?

Set in Edward Hopper’s realist-melancholic landscape, Marabout’s rugged, TestosteronTintin is seen biking Brad Pitt-style through rough terrains with a pin-up beauty riding pillion, lounging in bed post-coitus à la Daniel Craig Bond. It’s stuff you can never unsee, just like Marabout’s other pieces, including a Batman orgy-Gustav Klimt painting mash-up.

It’s not the first time that someone’s wondered about Tintin’s gender or sexuality. In 2017, French philosopher Vincent Cespedes insisted Tintin was a girl who disguised herself as a boy to avoid misogyny or prejudice. Others have lauded him as a gay icon, reading (a little too much, perhaps?) into the homo-erotic subtext between him and Captain Haddock, only to be shut down by those who believe he’s trans, androgynous or asexual.


Coming back to Marabout’s question, while an artist can certainly wonder about a fictitious character’s sex life, we can only wonder why they really have to. Who next, Feluda?