Rastapopoulos

Rastapopoulos
Rastapopoulos, from Flight 714 to Sydney, by Hergé
Publication information
Publisher	Casterman (Belgium)
First appearance	Cigars of the Pharaoh (1934)
Created by	Hergé
In-story information
Full name	Roberto Rastapopoulos
Partnerships	List of main characters
Supporting character of	Tintin

Roberto Rastapopoulos is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. He is a criminal mastermind with multiple identities and activities.

A visual prototype for Rastapopoulos appears in Tintin in America, where he is among the assembled dignitaries at a Chicago banquet held in Tintin's honour. Here he is seated next to the actress Mary Pikefort, an allusion to the real-life actress Mary Pickford.Michael Farr asserted that this was indeed a depiction of Rastapopoulos, and that it would be expected for a film director to be seated next to a Hollywood actress. The name "Rastapopoulos" had been invented by one of Hergé's friends; Hergé thought it was hilarious and decided to use it. He devised Rastapopoulos as an Italian with a Greek surname, but the character fitted anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews; Hergé was adamant that the character was not Jewish.

Hergé first introduced the character of Rastapopoulos in Cigars of the Pharaoh, which was serialised in Le Petit Vingtième from 8 December 1932 to 8 February 1934. Tintin runs into him at the start of the Adventure aboard the M.S. Isis, a cruise ship docking at Egypt. Here, Rastapopoulos bumps into the Egyptologist Sophocles Sarcophagus, and threatens to beat him until Tintin intervenes. He then shouts at Tintin, accusing him of being an "Impudent whipper-snapper!" Tintin recognises Rastapopoulos, commenting that he is "the millionaire film tycoon, king of Cosmos Pictures... And it's not the first time we've met..." Later in the story, Tintin runs into Rastapopoulos again, this time running into his desert film set, interrupting an apparent assault on a young woman before realizing that it was only part of the film. Although many of the actors are annoyed, Rastapopoulos is affable, and invites Tintin into his tent where, over a pot of Turkish coffee, Tintin informs him of everything that has happened to him since leaving the cruise ship, Rastapoloulos subsequently providing him with clothes and directions to another village. Farr noted that this idea of the hero mistakenly trusting the villain was one that had been used by John Buchan and Alfred Hitchcock, the latter of whom was an influence on Hergé.