Captain Archibald Haddock. Tintin’s closest human companion, the foul mouth, almost always drunk, old sailor. We know that he would gulp down bottles of rum, wine or whisky with equal enthusiasm. But given a choice, he always went for whisky. And the brand? Loch Lomond, of course. Or is it? Among the 23 complete adventures of Tintin, we find Loch Lomond mentioned in only 3. One of them being even before Haddock’s introduction.
The Johnnie Walker tanker in the original edition of The Black Island
The first brand names in the Tintin stories appeared in The Black Island. While chasing Dr Müller and Ivan, Tintin boarded a cargo train carrying a Johnnie Walker container. A few pages later, inside the White Hart pub, Herge drew an advert of Guinness along with a couple of Ginger beer and Gin and tonic posters. Later, at the Scottish pub in Kiltoch, we saw the advertisement for John Haig whisky. All the barrels, though, were marked with the ambiguous Old Scotch Whisky.
White Hart Pub – The Black Island
The Pub in Kiltoch – The Black Island
Strangely, “The Crab With The Golden Claws”, which saw the introduction of Haddock, had no mention of any brands. Bottles were labelled Old Whisky or Old Scotch Whisky. The next mention of a brand name was in The Shooting Star. Captain Haddock, the president of the Society of Sober Sailors, ordered crates of John Haig whisky for his voyage.
John Haig Whisky crates – The Shooting Star (French Edition)
John Haig was mentioned again in The Red Sea Sharks. When Allan locked up Tintin and Captain in a cabin, he left a bottle of John Haig Gold Label for the old mariner. Then how on Earth did all the Johnnie Walker and John Haig change to Loch Lomond?
John Haig – The Red Sea Sharks
The first nine of Tintin’s adventures were initially in black and white. Also, the number of pages was more. The later editions were colour with reduced pages. These books were all in the original French. The first English translation to be serialised in Britain was King Ottokar’s Sceptre in Eagle. Later Methuen started publishing the translated books. They, however, didn’t follow the original order of publishing. The Black Island, which forced Haddock to change his brand, was published after their expeditions to Tibet and Moon.
Redrawn Black Island – Introduction of Loch Lomond
With Tintin travelling to Britain in The Black Island, Methuen asked Herge to modify certain things to make it believable for the local readers. They even sent a list of 131 errors to Herge. Based on that, The Black Island was redrawn. The publishers also wanted to remove actual brand promotions from a book made mainly for young readers. Hence Herge created the fictitious Loch Lomond to replace Johnnie Walker and John Haig. He even rebranded the barrels of the ambiguous Old Scotch Whisky. It looked as if Britain survived only on Loch Lomond.
Redrawn Black Island – Loch Lomond monopoly
For The Shooting Star, the task was easy. They just had to remove John Haig from the whisky crates. Surprisingly, the bottle in The Red Sea Sharks survived. The reason might be that the name was visible only partially.
Redrawn Black Island – Guinness removed
Redrawn Black Island – John Haig changed to Loch Lomond
John Haig removed – The Shooting Star (English edition)
In 1965, the new, redrawn Black Island started appearing in the Tintin magazine. Next year it was published as a book. Only two complete adventures, Flight 714 to Sydney and Tintin and the Picaros, were published after that. Although Loch Lomond was mentioned in both, Captain was seen drinking the brand only in the latter. Among 23 complete Tintin adventures, only two disclose Captain’s choice. John Haig in The Shooting Star and Loch Lomond in Picaros. But, as John Haig was removed from English and subsequently from many other versions translated from it, Loch Lomond won the final race.
Loch Lomond – Flight 714 and Picaros
But, was the purpose served that urged Herge to change real-life names with Loch Lomond? Loch Lomond is an actual loch or lake in Scotland. Herge might have thought that naming a whisky after a Scottish Loch would place him close to reality. Little did he know, at least at the time of redrawing Black Island, that a distillery with the exact name is getting ready for production. It first opened in 1814, before closing down three years later. But who would have imagined the century-old forgotten distillery would reopen in 1965, the same year the redrawn Black Island’s serialisation started? Though not widely available, Loch Lomond continues to be in production to date.
A bottle of Loch Lomond from the Scottish distillery.
All Tintin images copyrighted to Moulinsart.
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