Tintin in America America"). The dog Snowy was given a diminished role in "Tintin in America", which contained the last instance in the "Adventures" in which Tintin and Snowy have a conversation where they are able to understand each other. In the banquet scene, a reference is made to a famous actress named Mary Pikefort, an allusion to the real-life actress Mary Pickford. That same scene also featured a prototype for the character of Rastapopoulos, who was properly introduced in the following "Cigars of the Pharaoh" story. The strip's serialisation coincided with the publication of another of Hergé's comics set in the United
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets wanted to write and draw his own cartoon strip. Hergé already had experience creating comic strips. From July 1926 he had written a strip about a boy scout patrol leader titled "Les Aventures de Totor C.P. des Hannetons" (""The Adventures of Totor, Scout Leader of the Cockchafers"") for the Scouting newspaper (""The Belgian Boy Scout""). The character of Totor was a strong influence on Tintin; Hergé described the latter as being like Totor's younger brother. Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier stated that graphically, Totor and Tintin were "virtually identical" except for the scout uniform, also noting many similarities between their respective