Sorry I've never read the stories. Only just saw the film.
TinTin looks like a boy but he lives alone with his dog.
So he's an adult?!
Is TinTin ever given an actual age in the comic books?
He holds down a full time job and lives independently in his own apartment. I think we can safely assume he's at least 18.
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." -Gandalf
I was surprised to see him fighting people and wielding a gun and wasn't sure what age he was supposed to be. Agree that he's probably in his late teens.
shareAccording to the special features on the Blu-ray, herge initially meant for him to be about 15
shareI've heard 17 put about, but I don't know for sure.
It's worth remembering though, in the film at least, Tintin isn't really a 'character' at all. He displays very little by way of personality - outside of the basic traits of his curiosity, ingenuity, and tenacity - he has no discernible past, and his character development is absolute zero.
Tintin is just a character designed to be able to adapt to whatever the writers happens to need him to do with the story (story always comes first). Tintin is just a blank slate, and his personal life - age included - is irrelevant, as it will change to suit the needs of the story.
Think of it like the house in The Simpsons, or in fact like the entire town of Springfield. There is not set design or floor plan, they simply change to whatever they need to be to make an episode - or even a single joke - work.
Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds
I don't like to argue with the author about details like this, for they will of course know their characters the best. So I hate to do this. And as I admire Hergé very much, this makes it even harder for me. But there is no way, that I can believe that Tintin is only seventeen years old! Because as young as he is compared to most of the other characters, he does have a job as a reporter, lives in his own apartment, travels around the world with his trusty dog as his only company (until he makes friends with Captain Haddock in his 9th adventure), can drive a car and even an airplane, etc etc.
To be fair though, I believe that you're very close to the truth: Tintin is meant to be an escapist character, who is maybe not entirely realistic. So he's young enough to be relatable to all the kids, who were his primary audience, but still enough of an adult to be able to pretty much do what he wants. And if you see it that way, it will make more sense that his exact age is kept so vague through the whole run of the series. I like to pretend though that he's 20 years old at least in "Tintin & the Picaros" (which was the last adventure, that Hergé was able to finish), just to make it feel a bit more realistic...
Intelligence and purity.
Many things in Tintin books are not properly explained and are contradictory. For example, Tintin does very little journalism (especially later on), considering he is supposed to be working as a journalist. And of course, the setting for the stories is always very contemporary featuring latest technology while the characters won't age, change their outfits (except in The Picaros) or otherwise change in any way.
Hergé originally wrote Tintin for a Catholic youth magazine aimed at teenage boys. Tintin was supposed to be an upright role model for young boys and close to their age. One of the inspirations for Tintin was Palle Huld, a 15-year old Danish scout who travelled around the world all by himself in 1928 without using air travel in 44 days. So Tintin in Land of the Soviets was clearly meant to be a fictional version of Palle Huld, an exceptional 15-17-year old boy engaging in journalism in a foreign country and exposing the threat of Socialism.
The portrayal of Tintin's abilities was over-the-top: while still supposed to be a young boy, he was adept with firearms and fist-fighting, could, like you pointed out, drive a car as well as fly an aeroplane and was well-read, observative, cunning and physically tough. Later on, Hergé, in keeping with the escapist nature of the character, found it hard to drop these characteristics or establish any sensible backstory for Tintin, while the adventures themselves became more serious and realistic, commenting on actual current events.
So Tintin himself forever remained a 15-17-year old, while still inexplicably renting a flat in Brussels, traveling around the world engaging in grand adventures and possessing vast martial, physical and intellectual skills. Only the stories "grew older".
I'd think that Tintin would have realistically been in his 30s in The Picaros as he has lost his thirst for adventure and become cynical. But how Hergé really viewed the situation was that he, and us, and the world, had lost our thirst for adventure and become cynical.
For example, Tintin does very little journalism (especially later on), considering he is supposed to be working as a journalist.
One of the inspirations for Tintin was Palle Huld, a 15-year old Danish scout who travelled around the world all by himself in 1928 without using air travel in 44 days. So Tintin in Land of the Soviets was clearly meant to be a fictional version of Palle Huld, an exceptional 15-17-year old boy engaging in journalism in a foreign country and exposing the threat of Socialism.
I'd think that Tintin would have realistically been in his 30s in The Picaros as he has lost his thirst for adventure and become cynical. But how Hergé really viewed the situation was that he, and us, and the world, had lost our thirst for adventure and become cynical.
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As someone else points out Tintin was based on a 15 year old boy called Palle Hudd who went on a world tour in the 1920s ( as a prize in a magazine writing competition IIRC).
Don't forget in the days when Tintin first appeared, most people left school at 14 and there were journalists as young as 15-16 working on local newspapers (I think the writer Georges Simenon was one such). Adulthood began much earlier in those days; there were 16 year old boys who fought in the Great War, for example.
I've always assumed Tintin was supposed to be about 17 years old, which explains why he has a flat and a job and can drive a car, but isn't that interested in drinking, smoking, girls etc (although partly that's because he was created as a role model for Roman Catholic teenagers). In most children's fiction, the hero is a little older than the age of the intended readership, because it gives them someone to aspire to and look up to .