Tinus, do you think we have enough blast-off?
Tinus Trotyl is a Dutch comic drawn by Jan van Haasteren and written by Philip Schier.
It follows the eponymous protagonist, a Mad Bomber who just loves explosives and uses them whenever he can, whether the situation calls for it or not. The stories covered one to five pages and appeared in the Dutch magazines Sjors and Eppo between 1974 and 1976. 32 episodes have been made, although the last one is incomplete and has no text. About half of them have been bundled in a single album, the others were never published outside of the magazines although there have been a few reprints in other magazines.
The comic has two main characters:
- Tinus Trotyl: A man who clearly loves explosions a litte too much. No matter what situation he faces, whether it is being kidnapped by terrorists, having to pay a debt or just waiting in line at the post office, he'd always try to resolve things with a generous helping of TNT, grenades, rockets or anything else that can explode. Hilarity usually ensues. His catch phrase is "Geen woorden, maar knallen!" note
- Thomas: Tinus' friend and side kick who always goes along with his schemes even though he does usually have second thoughts, expressed by his catchphrase "Zou je dat wel doen, Tinus?" note He acts as The Watson to Tinus, with Tinus usually explaining his plans to him at the start of the story.
This comic provides examples of:
- Alliterative Name: Tinus Trotyl.
- Ash Face: The usual result of standing too close to an explosion.
- Big, Bulky Bomb: Because bigger is obviously better!
- Cartoon Bomb: In every shape and size you can imagine.
- Catchphrase: Tinus and Thomas both have one, described above. Tinus also sometimes paraphrases captain Haddock by exclaiming "Tweeduizend bommen en granaten!" note
- Clothing Damage: Tattered and scorched clothes often result from being too close to a blast.
- Demolitions Expert: Tinus, although he has a little too much fun doing it.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Tinus will take explosive retribution on anyone who annoys him. But he really went overboard when someone pulled the Explosive Cigar gag on him, his revenge resulted in the destruction of an entire trailer park.
- Evil Laugh: Tinus often produces a little evil chuckle when preparing or executing his explosive schemes: "Gni, gni!"
- Explosive Cigar: Never accept a cigar from Tinus. Actually, never accept any item at all from him. When someone actually pulled the trick on him though...
- Fire-Breathing Diner: When a court bailiff comes to visit Tinus (who is several months behind on his rent), he tricks the man into drinking nitroglycerin, which results in flames and smoke shooting out of the poor guy's ears and him running away right through a fence, screaming "Water, waaaaaater!"
- Mad Bomber: Tinus, so very much. In one picture he is seen juggling several live grenades.
- Meaningful Name: Trotyl is another name for TNT.
- Nitro Boost: Tinus sometimes uses explosives or rockets to make a vehicle temporarily go faster. His motorbike actually runs on nitroglycerin!
- Non-Fatal Explosions: Nobody ever dies or even gets seriously injured, no matter how close they are to an explosion.
- Plunger Detonator: Shows up quite frequently.
- Stuff Blowing Up: All the time.
- Villain Protagonist: Tinus, although he can be very helpful if he happens to feel like it. He did once solve a huge traffic jam by using his explosives to clear a road that had been blocked by a rock avalanche, and he once disarmed an undetonated World War 2 bomb that was threatening his home town. But at other times he was blowing up a police officer for citing him on a traffic violation, or cutting the line at the post office by threatening to detonate a bomb.
- The Watson: Thomas is usually only there so Tinus can explain his schemes to him.
- When All You Have Are Explosives: No matter what the situation, Tinus will use explosives to get his way.
