Professor Decimus Phostle (French: Professeur Hippolyte Calys) is the director of an observatory and an absent-minded professor whom Tintin consults about a large bright star he saw one night.
History
Tintin hears from Phostle about a ball of fire that will hit Earth and end the world the following morning, Tintin visit's Phostle's laboratory. he actually looks forward to this, thinking that predicting the end of mankind would make him famous. Initially disappointed that the meteor has missed the Earth, Phostle consoles himself by naming an unknown metal fallen from the asteroid after himself. He then headed the Aurora Expedition which set sail to study a fragment of the asteroid that landed on Earth in the Arctic Circle. They managed to claim the fragment ahead of the Peary. Phostle was initially to return in Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon, this time as a villain, but that early draft by Bernard Heuvelmans was abandoned by Hergé.1
Phostle as seen in the book series
Character
The professor likes to be very accurate (when he and his assistant had wrong calculations, he threw various objects at him) and always trying to make sure he is right. He seems to get angry if he is wrong, even when it means the world would be destroyed if he were right. He also cares about other peoples' lives, for when there was a distress signal, he immediately said to head for the signal.
References
- 1 Tintin: The Complete Companion by Michael Farr, John Murray publishers, 2001, ISBN 0719555221, ISBN 978-0719555220