Colonel Jorgen

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Colonel Boris aka Jorgen

Colonel Boris aka Colonel Jorgen is a fictional character from The Adventures of Tintin series of classic comic books drawn and written by Hergé. A sworn enemy of Tintin, they first met in King Ottokar's Sceptre. He made a cameo appearance in Destination Moon and confronted Tintin again in Explorers on the Moon.

To all intents and purposes he is a Syldavian, but a traitor who is always out to betray his country one way or the other.

[edit] Political Conspirator

Colonel Boris in ceremonial uniform in the 1947 edition of King Ottokar's Sceptre

The colonel first appeared as Boris in King Ottokar's Sceptre, published in 1938 (later redrawn and colourised in 1947). He was aide-de-camp to King Muskar XII of Syldavia. Tintin discovered a plot to steal the King's Sceptre and tried to warn the Monarch. He met Boris who agreed to arrange an audience with the King that evening. What Tintin did not know was that Boris was part of the conspiracy, the ultimate aim being to force the King to abdicate and re-attach Syldavia to the neighbouring state of Borduria. The plot included supporters in the police and the government.

(The aim of forcibly merging one country with another was based on Nazi Germany’s Anschluss with Austria and the Sudetenland.)

That evening Boris arranged for Tintin to be attacked by accomplices in the grounds of the Royal Palace itself, but Tintin beat off the men with the help of his faithful dog Snowy. He then burst into the main entertainment hall where Bianca Castafiore was giving a performance. Boris forcibly kept Tintin quiet, preventing him from naming the names of those involved in the plot against the King. As Tintin was led away by guards Boris told the Monarch that Tintin was an anarchist (in the 1930s anarchism was synonymous with terrorism).

"Oh no you don't!" Tintin knocks Boris to the ground in the presence of Snowy and the King

Tintin escaped the police following an accident during his transfer to the state prison. He then came across the King who was out driving his car with Boris. When Boris threatened him, Tintin punched him to the ground and persuaded the King of the truth about the plot. The King ordered Boris to return to the Royal Palace while he checked out Tintin's claims.

They proved to be right when Tintin and the King reached the chamber where the Sceptre was guarded only to find it gone. However Tintin soon recovered it and foiled the Bordurian invasion.

It is not revealed if Boris obeyed the King and returned to the Palace from where he would quite likely have been taken into custody, or if he took advantage to escape now that the game was almost up.

[edit] Rocket Hijacker

Boris returned under the name of Colonel Jorgen in Destination Moon (published in 1950). Yet again he was involved in betraying his country which had built a moon rocket as part of a major space program. He acted on behalf of an unnamed foreign power, his motives being that he had "an old score to settle with our young friend Tintin".

The moon rocket had been designed by Tintin's friend Professor Calculus. With the reluctant help of Calculus' assistant, Frank Wolff, Jorgen was smuggled aboard among the crates containing supplies for the journey. The operation was codenamed Ulysses, after the Greek hero who was himself a master of intrigue and deception (Homer refers to him as such in the Odyssey).

Wolff had been told that Jorgen was a journalist who would reveal his presence once the rocket was on the moon. But when Wolff got him out of the crates, Jorgen announced that his real mission was to hijack the rocket and take it back to the foreign power that employed him.

"See how you like it!" Boris/Jorgen takes his revenge in Explorers on the Moon

When Calculus, Captain Haddock and Thompson and Thomson set off in the lunar tank, Jorgen took advantage to knock Tintin out with a cosh. He then told Wolff that they were leaving.

Jorgen displayed a very callous nature. Not only was he prepared to abandon other men on the moon to a certain death, but he also smoked a cigarette, even after pointing out the lowering oxygene supply. He then used his cosh on Snowy and kicked him down the hatch into the floor below, causing the little dog to break a paw.

"Not much!" Tintin turns the tables yet again

Jorgen also showed a great deal of impatience and frustration at the fact that it took so long for the rocket to get started. When it failed to take off he accused Wolff of sabotage and gave him ten seconds to launch the rocket or be killed — but his gun was knocked out of his hand with a spanner by Tintin who had freed himself from Jorgen's bonds and prevented the launch.

Ever the professional, Jorgen refused to talk, leaving it to the pathetic Wolff to make a full confession. They were then taken down to the rocket's hold. Haddock had them firmly tied up, even vowing to drink nothing but water if they escaped by their own means (quite a promise to be made by an alcoholic).

But as the rocket was on its way back to Earth, Jorgen managed to escape when the Thompsons decided that Haddock's knots were not good enough and tried to replace the ropes with handcuffs. Jorgen overpowered them and held the rest of the crew at gunpoint.

He announced that he was going to kill them in spite of the fact that he had promised Wolff to spare their lives. Wolff would not let him carry out his threat and in the struggle that followed Jorgen was shot and killed when his gun went off.

With the rapidly diminishing oxygen supply, it was too risky to take a dead body back to Earth and so Jorgen was cast out into space.

Overcome with guilt over the way he had betrayed his companions, Wolff later let himself out into the void, thus enabling the others to return to Earth alive.