Tintin often concussed, but never travel sick

The research has turned up some pretty surprising findings. Despite Tintin regularly suffering concussion resulting from blows to the head, this never resulted in any lasting damage. The globetrotting journalist also never suffered from travel sickness.

The doctors that also work as researchers at the prestigious Sorbonne University in Paris and the University of Atlanta in the United States have written up the results of their research in a paper entitled "Tintin's travel traumas: Health issues affecting the intrepid globetrotter".

The research is based on a detailed analysis of 23 of Tintin’s 24 adventures.

In the 46-year period between 1930 and 1976 Tintin experienced no fewer than 244 health issues. The majority of these (191) were injuries.

62% of the medical problems encountered by the globetrotting reporter involved concussion. The researcher says that were Tintin a living being, this would have resulted in him suffering pathological degeneration.

In addition to often being concussed, Tintin also suffered from insomnia (15.1% of his medical issues) and was often knocked out by gas or chloroform.

During his 46-year career, Tintin also lost consciousness no fewer than 46 times.

However, he never once suffered from travel sickness and appeared to be immune to malaria and “Montezuma’s revenge”.

The researchers write that “Tintin’s near super-human powers (he was after all a fictional character) mean that he is very resistant to injury. However, he is very sensistive to issues encountered by his loyal companion Snowy.”