Rastapopoulos

Roberto Rastapopoulos or, more often, simply Rastapopoulos, is a fictional character from the comics series The Adventures of Tintin, by Belgian cartoonist Hergé, who plays one of Tintin's main antagonists in the series, appearing in several of the comics.

Rastapopulos is a mafia millionaire and a great enemy of Tintin. Lacking scruples, he organizes the most convoluted plots to achieve his goals. He usually surrounds himself with people of the same style, and several times he is associated in crime with Allan Thompson, another recurring character. Despite his airs of grandeur, in the end his nouveau riche character always remains tacky and ridiculous. His nationality is a mystery, although he is sometimes mentioned (and assumed by his name) to be Greek ^{[citation needed]} .

He appears for the first time anonymously alongside the protagonist in a final scene of Tintin in America, or perhaps he was a conceptual character of his. The first meeting between both characters takes place in The Pharaoh's Cigars, aboard the ship Epomeo, which sails through the Mediterranean Sea. There is no rivalry in that first moment, but the scene already shows that Rastapopoulos is an unrecommended character. Tintin will meet him again a few pages later in the middle of the desert, directing a film for the film production company Cosmos Pictures. In The Blue Lotus, an album in which the plot begun in the previous one continues, Tintin will discover that Rastapopoulos is the one who directs the opium trafficking that serves as the common thread of both albums. He reappears in Coke Stock dedicated to the slave trade in the Red Sea, off the coast of Khemed, camouflaged under the identity of Marquis of Gorgonzola. He will disappear leaving Tintin to believe that he has drowned at sea. His last confrontation takes place on Flight 714 to Sydney: Rastapopoulos tries to seize the fortune of millionaire Laszlo Carreidas. He will disappear with his partner Allan Thompson in a flying saucer, to an unknown destination.

Rastapopoulos is also an important character in the plot of Tintin and the Lake of Sharks, a film made in 1972 (and not drawn by Hergé, but supervised and accepted by him) that later It was published as a comic strip. In this adventure, Rastapopoulos was finally arrested by the authorities, after carrying out a plot to forge works of art.

Supposedly he would also appear in the unfinished Tintin and the Alpha-Art, although Hergé did not reveal the villain's identity in the album.

According to Yves Rodier's version of Tintin and the Alpha-Art, the hypnosis that was carried out on board the flying saucer apparently did not make the character have the will to abandon his desire for criminal activities, as occurred with others affected like Allan. Rastapopoulos died after falling off a cliff while trying to kill Tintin and Captain Haddock.