Editing Thomson and Thompson (section)

==Character history==
In ''[[Tintin in America]]'' there are characters similar to Thomson and Thompson: two policemen who collide with each other, and an incompetent detective called Mike MacAdam.<ref name="Metamorphoses61">{{cite book |last1=Apostolidès |first1=Jean-Marie |title=The Metamorphoses of Tintin, Or, Tintin for Adults |year=2010 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-6030-0 |page=61 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8TizX-868GgC&q=tintin+in+america+two+yankee+policemen&pg=PA61 |access-date=12 June 2020  |quote=the two Yankee policemen who crash into each other while chasing Tintin (''TA'', 8, III, 2); and Mike MacAdam, the private detective who turns out to be a braggart, a coward and an incompetent (''TA'', pp. 45, 46, 58).}}</ref>

In ''[[Tintin in the Congo]]'', Thomson and Thompson make only a brief one-panel appearance (although they did not appear in the original version). Their first contribution to the plot of a story comes in ''[[Cigars of the Pharaoh]]'' (originally published in 1934), where they first appear when they come into conflict with Tintin on board a ship where he and Snowy are enjoying a holiday cruise. When this adventure was first published they were referred to as X33 and X33A (X33 et X33 bis in French).<ref name="HowToTellAThompson">{{cite web |url=http://en.tintin.com/personnages/show/id/13/page/0/0/the-thomsons |publisher=tintin.com|title=The Thomsons |access-date=7 May 2018}}</ref><ref name="ManWhoCreated"/> Here they show an unusually high level of cunning and efficiency, going to great lengths to rescue Tintin from the firing squad (in disguises that fool even Tintin) and saving Snowy from sacrifice. In this and two other early stories — ''[[The Blue Lotus]]'' and ''[[The Black Island]]'' — they spend most of their time, forced to follow official orders and faked evidence, in pursuit of Tintin himself for crimes he has not committed, the two noting in ''Blue Lotus'' that they never believed in Tintin's guilt even though they had to obey their orders. Except for their codenames, they remained nameless in the early adventures. It was not until ''[[King Ottokar's Sceptre]]'', published in 1938, that Tintin mentions their definitive names when introducing them to Professor Alembick at the airport.

In his 1941 play ''[[Tintin in India: The Mystery of the Blue Diamond]]'' co-written with [[Jacques Van Melkebeke]], Hergé named them as "Durant and Durand", although he later renamed them as "Dupont and Dupond".{{sfnm|1a1=Thompson|1y=1991|1p=52|2a1=Lofficier|2a2=Lofficier|2y=2002|2p=31|3a1=Assouline|3y=2009|3p=42|4a1=Peeters|4y=2012|4p=65}} When ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' was serialised in ''[[Eagle (comic)|Eagle]]'' for British readers in 1951, the characters were referred to as "Thomson and Thompson"; these names were later adopted by translators Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner in their translation of the series into English for [[Methuen Publishing]].{{sfn|Thompson|1991|p=86}}

While the original version of ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' was published in 1932, the rewritten and redrawn version was issued in 1955, and was not published in English until 1971. This resulted in some chronological confusion for English-speaking readers of the ''Tintin'' series, which is why the text hints that Tintin already knows the pair, and is surprised at their unfriendly behaviour; however, in the original chronological sequence, this is indeed the first time they ever meet. In addition, Hergé retroactively added them to the 1946 colour version of the second ''Tintin'' story, ''[[Tintin in the Congo]]'', in the background as Tintin embarks for what is now [[the Democratic Republic of the Congo]].{{sfn|Farr|2001|p=21}}

Thomson and Thompson were originally only side characters but later became more important. In the re-drawings of the earlier books, especially ''The Black Island'', the detectives gained their now-traditional mannerisms.

In ''[[Land of Black Gold]]'', the detectives mistakenly swallow some mysterious pills used to [[adulterant|adulterate]] fuel, that causes them to sprout immensely long beards and hair that change colour constantly and grow at a break-neck pace. The condition wears off by the end of this adventure, but it relapses in ''[[Explorers on the Moon]]'', causing problems when [[Captain Haddock]] must continuously cut their hair, repeatedly switching back to re-cut floor length hair (and mustaches and beards) which all grow back in seconds. Frustrated at this, the captain exclaims "After all this, when they ask me what did I do on the rocket, I'll reply 'Me, you say? I was the barber!'"

In the 19 books following ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'', Thomson and Thompson appear in 17 of them, not appearing in ''[[Tintin in Tibet]]'' or ''[[Flight 714 to Sydney]]''. In some of these books their role is minor – the duo's appearance in ''[[The Shooting Star]]'' is confined to two panels; they appear briefly only at the beginning of ''[[The Broken Ear]]'' (before being tricked into closing the case in the belief that the stolen object has been returned when it was actually replaced by a fake); and are imprisoned and face execution on false charges in ''[[Tintin and the Picaros]]''. During their other appearances, they serve as the official investigators into whatever crimes Tintin is currently investigating. Their final appearance was in ''[[Tintin and Alph-Art]]''.