Rastapopoulos

Roberto Rastapopoulos (Greek Ροβέρτος Ρασταπόπουλος) is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin series of comic books drawn and written by Hergé.

Fictional character background

Rastapopoulos is a Greek American tycoon (also known under the fake name Marquis di Gorgonzola); he is partly inspired by the Greek shipping tycoon Onassis. He is Tintin's arch-nemesis, who first appeared in Tintin in America at a banquet. His first major appearance is in Cigars of the Pharaoh (serialized in Le Petit Vingtième from December 8, 1932 to February 8, 1934), initially as a seemingly sympathetic character. However, with constant and careful attention, one can claim the villain to be Rastapopulous. As the book approaches the climax,we see a photo in a newspaper in which the Thomson brothers fall off a staircase(an informal photo). Just adjacent to it, we see an article which reads that the famous film producer Rastapopulous disappears. Even during the course of the story,the poet Zloty reveals that the boss is a film producer,before the fakir poisons him . It is not until the denouement of The Blue Lotus, the follow-up to Cigars of the Pharaoh, that Rastapopoulos is revealed to be the head of the sinister opium-cartel against which Tintin has been pitting his wits for two books. Rastapopoulos is the owner of Cosmos Pictures (Production in some titles) a studio house, and a front for many of his illegal activities and a good excuse for moving to various locations. Rastapopoulos subsequently resurfaces as a slave trader in The Red Sea Sharks, and kidnaps the billionaire Laszlo Carreidas in Flight 714 to gain the password to his multi-billion Swiss Bank account, but he is captured by aliens. In the unfinished Tintin and Alph-Art, a character often thought to be Rastapopoulos in disguise -- under the name of Endaddine Akass -- appears. Although a page revealing Akass to be Rastapopoulos was started (and printed in the 2004 Egmont edition), as the book was never completed, Rastapopoulos' fate following Flight 714 is unknown. Rastapopoulos also appears in Tintin and the Lake of Sharks, an album adapted from an animated feature of the same name, and for which Hergé had no creative input. It is not considered to be part of the Tintin canon.