Tintin's travel traumas: Health issues affecting the intrepid globetrotter

Despite the highly hazardous life-style led by comic book characters such as Tintin, we are unaware of any previous systematic description of the challenges and health impairments faced by Tintin in the course of his adventures.

We evaluated the spectrum of health impairments (HIs) that Tintin sustained in his 23 adventures as well as their causes, consequences, and relation to travel. We diagnosed Tintin's HIs according to descriptive terms in the text. We then classified HIs as traumatic and non-traumatic, and distinguished between intentional (those perpetrated by others) and unintentional events.

We found 236 events leading to 244 HIs, 13 kidnappings, six hospitalisations and two surgical procedures. There was a median of 8 HIs/adventure (range 1-30/adventure). The mean number of HIs per adventure was much greater before 1945 than subsequently (14.9 vs. 6.1; P=0.002), which was also true of the number of kidnappings (11 vs. 2; P=0.001). Of the 244 HIs, there were 191 cases of trauma (78.3%) and 53 non-traumatic problems (21.7%). The most common form of trauma was concussion (62%) whereas the most common forms of non-traumatic problems were sleep problems (15.1%), depression/anxiety (13%), and gas or chloroform poisoning (13%). Overall, we found 46 losses of consciousness (LoC), including 29 traumatic and 17 non-traumatic LoCs. Of the 236 events, there were 69 (29%) perpetrated by others against Tintin (including 55 homicide attempts), and 167 (71%) events that were not (including 69 events related to Tintin's actions).

Tintin's almost superhuman qualities, a luxury afforded him by his fictional status, make him highly resistant to trauma. He is also not susceptible to the usual travel-related illnesses but is easily influenced by his friends and Snowy, his faithful hound.