TINTIN by Hergé (1907-1983)
1930 Tintin au Pays des Soviets
2019 SOLD for $ 1.12M by Heritage
Hergé performs various tasks for the daily newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle. He is skilled in drawing and caricature and gets familiar with newspaper printing techniques. In November 1928 his boss the abbé Wallez entrusts him with the management of a weekly children's supplement, Le Petit Vingtième. He is only 21 years old.
Wallez uses journalism to encourage the bourgeoisie of Brussels to fascism. In 1929, Degrelle works for him. To interest young readers, Hergé imagines the incredible and burlesque adventures of a group of children. Tintin and his dog Milou appear in turn from January 1929, opening Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter du Petit Vingtième, au pays des Soviets. In real life Milou is the nickname of Hergé's girlfriend.
Hergé follows the example of Alain Saint-Ogan who publishes since 1925 the series Zig et Puce in Le Dimanche illustré. The drawing must be simplistic while remaining easily identifiable by the youngest. It is prepared in ink with a line of constant width. Saint-Ogan is also the first user of speech bubbles in European comic books.
Hergé does not master his subject at once. He works without a script. He gradually discovers that his line should not be too thin for remaining readable on the printed newspaper and that the black areas create unpleasant thickenings. He thus develops his ligne claire delimiting cloisonné spaces that will be much later highly effective for enclosing the flat colors.
The dynamism of Tintin brings its success among young people. Wallez defines improvements. On January 23, 1930, the number of pages of Le Petit Vingtième is doubled and the cover page is illustrated by a large drawing from another author.
The first cover drawing made by Hergé appears three weeks later, in the edition containing the 57th double page of the Soviets. With a full year of experience, Hergé masters his clear line. He has the trick of making a specific drawing rather than simply enlarging a panel of the story. Tintin carves a plane propeller from a tree trunk.
The out-of-frame gushing of the two ends of the propeller in a powerful diagonal gives this image the desired dynamism, while the two small leaves that remain on the trunk maintain the burlesque dimension.
The original 27 x 29 cm art in black ink and reworks in gouache was sold for $ 1.12M on June 8, 2019 by Heritage, lot 91108.
Tintin is back safe and sound from his weird adventures in the land of the Soviets. On the initiative of the abbé Wallez, Hergé sends his young reporter in 1930 to the Congo to glorify the civilizing influence of the Belgian colonialism. Tintin au Congo, which is the first album of Hergé's maturity, is a great success.
Wallez uses journalism to encourage the bourgeoisie of Brussels to fascism. In 1929, Degrelle works for him. To interest young readers, Hergé imagines the incredible and burlesque adventures of a group of children. Tintin and his dog Milou appear in turn from January 1929, opening Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter du Petit Vingtième, au pays des Soviets. In real life Milou is the nickname of Hergé's girlfriend.
Hergé follows the example of Alain Saint-Ogan who publishes since 1925 the series Zig et Puce in Le Dimanche illustré. The drawing must be simplistic while remaining easily identifiable by the youngest. It is prepared in ink with a line of constant width. Saint-Ogan is also the first user of speech bubbles in European comic books.
Hergé does not master his subject at once. He works without a script. He gradually discovers that his line should not be too thin for remaining readable on the printed newspaper and that the black areas create unpleasant thickenings. He thus develops his ligne claire delimiting cloisonné spaces that will be much later highly effective for enclosing the flat colors.
The dynamism of Tintin brings its success among young people. Wallez defines improvements. On January 23, 1930, the number of pages of Le Petit Vingtième is doubled and the cover page is illustrated by a large drawing from another author.
The first cover drawing made by Hergé appears three weeks later, in the edition containing the 57th double page of the Soviets. With a full year of experience, Hergé masters his clear line. He has the trick of making a specific drawing rather than simply enlarging a panel of the story. Tintin carves a plane propeller from a tree trunk.
The out-of-frame gushing of the two ends of the propeller in a powerful diagonal gives this image the desired dynamism, while the two small leaves that remain on the trunk maintain the burlesque dimension.
The original 27 x 29 cm art in black ink and reworks in gouache was sold for $ 1.12M on June 8, 2019 by Heritage, lot 91108.
Tintin is back safe and sound from his weird adventures in the land of the Soviets. On the initiative of the abbé Wallez, Hergé sends his young reporter in 1930 to the Congo to glorify the civilizing influence of the Belgian colonialism. Tintin au Congo, which is the first album of Hergé's maturity, is a great success.
1932 Tintin en Amérique
2012 SOLD for € 1.34M by Artcurial
The reporter Tintin has set out to conquer the world. The character created by Hergé meets the expectations of the public of the 1930s for moralistic adventures in an increasingly dangerous world.
At first, the adventures of Tintin are published in black and white, only the cover page is in color. Hergé made a gouache cover for each of the first five Tintin books. Two of them are privately owned and represent the Holy Grail of Tintin lovers.
In 1932, after Soviet Russia and the Belgian Congo, Tintin tackles America. He is the good boy who comes to oppose the powerful gangsters of Chicago and confront the picturesque Indian customs.
The original gouache cover of Tintin en Amérique was sold by Artcurial for € 760K on March 29, 2008 and for € 1.34M on June 2, 2012. Tintin cooks his food and Milou-Snowy gnaws a hard bone without appreciating that they are watched by the Indians.
At first, the adventures of Tintin are published in black and white, only the cover page is in color. Hergé made a gouache cover for each of the first five Tintin books. Two of them are privately owned and represent the Holy Grail of Tintin lovers.
In 1932, after Soviet Russia and the Belgian Congo, Tintin tackles America. He is the good boy who comes to oppose the powerful gangsters of Chicago and confront the picturesque Indian customs.
The original gouache cover of Tintin en Amérique was sold by Artcurial for € 760K on March 29, 2008 and for € 1.34M on June 2, 2012. Tintin cooks his food and Milou-Snowy gnaws a hard bone without appreciating that they are watched by the Indians.
1936 Le Lotus Bleu
The first three Tintin stories reviled communism and capitalism and exacerbated colonialism.
Wallez leaves Le Vingtième Siècle in 1933. Hergé continues Le Petit Vingtième. The popular success of Hergé's stories attracts the attention of the publisher Casterman and this new cooperation will greatly help Hergé to abandon the poorly architected and childish storytelling of the earlier Tintin albums.
Tintin leaves to the Orient in Les Cigares du Pharaon, and Le Petit Vingtième announces that this story will have an extension in China. Very concerned about the risk of anti-Chinese racism of the future album, the Chinese community of the Catholic University of Louvain challenges Hergé who suddenly understands that it is unfair to show foreigners through funny stereotypes without being previously documented on the reality.
Le Lotus Bleu appears in Le Petit Vingtième between August 1934 and October 1935. Under the influence of his new Chinese friends, Hergé manages to surround his turbulent story by an attractive and almost realistic atmosphere while expressing the Sino Japanese extreme tension of that time. The Japanese in turn are unhappy.
Wallez leaves Le Vingtième Siècle in 1933. Hergé continues Le Petit Vingtième. The popular success of Hergé's stories attracts the attention of the publisher Casterman and this new cooperation will greatly help Hergé to abandon the poorly architected and childish storytelling of the earlier Tintin albums.
Tintin leaves to the Orient in Les Cigares du Pharaon, and Le Petit Vingtième announces that this story will have an extension in China. Very concerned about the risk of anti-Chinese racism of the future album, the Chinese community of the Catholic University of Louvain challenges Hergé who suddenly understands that it is unfair to show foreigners through funny stereotypes without being previously documented on the reality.
Le Lotus Bleu appears in Le Petit Vingtième between August 1934 and October 1935. Under the influence of his new Chinese friends, Hergé manages to surround his turbulent story by an attractive and almost realistic atmosphere while expressing the Sino Japanese extreme tension of that time. The Japanese in turn are unhappy.
1
cover
2021 SOLD for € 3.2M by Artcurial
The edition by Le Petit Vingtième of Les Aventures de Tintin reporter en Extrême Orient is completed in October 1935. The album will be published in 1936 by Casterman under the title Le Lotus Bleu. The comic stripe is in black and white.
Hergé prepares for the cover a 34 x 34 cm drawing in India ink, watercolor and gouache. He is very proud of his new knowledge of Chinese culture, acquired through an effective collaboration with the Chinese diaspora from Brussels and Louvain. He chooses a scene in the vestibule of the opium den, with the image of a dragon in tapestry and a blue and white vase of monumental size.
Hergé has full confidence in Casterman but his cover design requires a perfect mastery of four-color printing. For the final version, he removes the pattern of thin clouds in which his dragon evolves, too complicated to print in yellow and red on a black background and unrelated to the story. The album is published with this second image pasted on the hard cover, in 6,000 copies.
The unused cover drawing is given by Hergé to the publisher's son who folds it in six to store it in a drawer. It surfaced in 1988 in Ixelles in an exhibition dedicated to the sixtieth anniversary of the Adventures of Tintin. It was sold for € 3.2M from a lower estimate of € 2.2M by Artcurial on January 14, 2021, lot 18. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The dragon mutates for the reissue of the album in 1942. It becomes a black silhouette on a red background. On the vase, its barely legible figure is replaced by a little bird.
Hergé prepares for the cover a 34 x 34 cm drawing in India ink, watercolor and gouache. He is very proud of his new knowledge of Chinese culture, acquired through an effective collaboration with the Chinese diaspora from Brussels and Louvain. He chooses a scene in the vestibule of the opium den, with the image of a dragon in tapestry and a blue and white vase of monumental size.
Hergé has full confidence in Casterman but his cover design requires a perfect mastery of four-color printing. For the final version, he removes the pattern of thin clouds in which his dragon evolves, too complicated to print in yellow and red on a black background and unrelated to the story. The album is published with this second image pasted on the hard cover, in 6,000 copies.
The unused cover drawing is given by Hergé to the publisher's son who folds it in six to store it in a drawer. It surfaced in 1988 in Ixelles in an exhibition dedicated to the sixtieth anniversary of the Adventures of Tintin. It was sold for € 3.2M from a lower estimate of € 2.2M by Artcurial on January 14, 2021, lot 18. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The dragon mutates for the reissue of the album in 1942. It becomes a black silhouette on a red background. On the vase, its barely legible figure is replaced by a little bird.
2
full page inset
2015 SOLD for HK$ 9.3M by Artcurial
Casterman publishes Le Lotus Bleu as an album in 1936, with for the first time in Hergé's work five colored pictures in full page size which he did not prepare in direct colors.
The original drawing of one of them in black ink and white gouache 30 x 23 cm was sold for HK $ 9.3M on October 5, 2015 by Artcurial in association with Spink, lot 1.
This drawing expresses the contemporary atmosphere of a street in Shanghai with the rickshaw, the military, the Chinese marks. Readers prefer action : of little added value for the story, this page will be discontinued at the first reissue of the album in 1939, unlike the other four full page insets that will be reused.
The original drawing of one of them in black ink and white gouache 30 x 23 cm was sold for HK $ 9.3M on October 5, 2015 by Artcurial in association with Spink, lot 1.
This drawing expresses the contemporary atmosphere of a street in Shanghai with the rickshaw, the military, the Chinese marks. Readers prefer action : of little added value for the story, this page will be discontinued at the first reissue of the album in 1939, unlike the other four full page insets that will be reused.
1937 introduction double page of Casterman albums
2014 SOLD for € 2.65M by Artcurial
From 1934, Casterman in Tournai publishes the new Tintin albums and reissues the earlier stories.
In 1937, when young readers open L'Oreille Cassée, they cannot miss a first double page consisting of 34 drawings in white on a dark blue background displaying Tintin in the most typical situations from his adventures.
The first album, Tintin au Pays des Soviets, is not used, not for political reasons but because Casterman could not work on this story whose some drawings had been lost.
The Tintinophiles rejoice to find an intruder (a single one) : Tintin and Snowy dressed as polar explorers, a situation that will not occur until five years later.
This double page used by Casterman until 1958 encouraged the users to read again and buy all the albums. It is a masterpiece of Hergé, and an outstanding example of wordless advertising.
The original art in black ink retouched with white gouache, 35 x 53 cm was sold for € 2.65M from a lower estimate of € 700K by Artcurial on May 24 2014.
In 1937, when young readers open L'Oreille Cassée, they cannot miss a first double page consisting of 34 drawings in white on a dark blue background displaying Tintin in the most typical situations from his adventures.
The first album, Tintin au Pays des Soviets, is not used, not for political reasons but because Casterman could not work on this story whose some drawings had been lost.
The Tintinophiles rejoice to find an intruder (a single one) : Tintin and Snowy dressed as polar explorers, a situation that will not occur until five years later.
This double page used by Casterman until 1958 encouraged the users to read again and buy all the albums. It is a masterpiece of Hergé, and an outstanding example of wordless advertising.
The original art in black ink retouched with white gouache, 35 x 53 cm was sold for € 2.65M from a lower estimate of € 700K by Artcurial on May 24 2014.
1939 Le Sceptre d'Ottokar
Intro
From one story to another, Tintin never gets older. His post-adolescent freshness seduces his readers. This does not happen in that way in real life, fortunately. His author and father Hergé reaches an extended range of view and thought which pushes him away from the Rexisme, the Belgian fascism. Just in time. If Hergé had followed the editorial line of the newspaper that employed him, Le Vingtième Siècle, his work would not have survived the Second World War.
Every week from 4 August 1938 to 10 August 1939, Le Petit Vingtième includes a double page in three rows of images of the new adventure of Tintin, Le Sceptre d'Ottokar. Hergé prepares the double plate on a single sheet of paper 40 x 58 cm. Large drawings 22 x 25 cm are also made for the cover page of the magazine. All drawings are made in black ink, light blue watercolor and white gouache.
The drawings of that story were scattered by Hergé who enjoyed to present them to his collaborators and friends. Some pieces come at auction to the delight of the collectors.
Prices follow the degree of tension in the story. The cover art in which Tintin shears the beard of the professor was sold for € 380K by Banque Dessinée on June 28, 2015. The more emotionally charged drawing where Milou (Snowy) brings the sceptre back to the king was sold for € 540K by Millon on 14 December 2014.
Every week from 4 August 1938 to 10 August 1939, Le Petit Vingtième includes a double page in three rows of images of the new adventure of Tintin, Le Sceptre d'Ottokar. Hergé prepares the double plate on a single sheet of paper 40 x 58 cm. Large drawings 22 x 25 cm are also made for the cover page of the magazine. All drawings are made in black ink, light blue watercolor and white gouache.
The drawings of that story were scattered by Hergé who enjoyed to present them to his collaborators and friends. Some pieces come at auction to the delight of the collectors.
Prices follow the degree of tension in the story. The cover art in which Tintin shears the beard of the professor was sold for € 380K by Banque Dessinée on June 28, 2015. The more emotionally charged drawing where Milou (Snowy) brings the sceptre back to the king was sold for € 540K by Millon on 14 December 2014.
1
sheet 95-96
2015 SOLD for € 1.56M by Sotheby's
In Le Sceptre d'Ottokar, Tintin is in the service of the King of Syldavie (in English: Ruritania) who is a barely veiled substitute for the King of Belgium. After an operation in another country that symbolizes the Balkan fascism, Tintin comes back to Syldavie by foolishly seizing a military plane. Hergé keeps the logic by leaving the Syldavian anti-aircraft defense shooting down the enemy plane piloted by his hero when it crosses the border.
Published in Le Petit Vingtième on July 6, 1939, the plates 95 and 96 of Le Sceptre d'Ottokar show that firing. The original drawing on a single sheet 40 x 60 cm was sold for € 1.56M from a lower estimate of € 600K for sale by Sotheby's on October 24, 2015, lot 94.
The aircraft piloted by Tintin is a Heinkel He 118 and clearly bears the mark of that company which equips the Luftwaffe with its most terrifying bombers. Through this illustration, Hergé had warned his young readers two months before the outbreak of the war that the fascisms are supported by the Third Reich.
The plane hit by a shell falls diving. These images echo the fact that the intended use by the Luftwaffe for that Heinkel model is the bombing through a diving to the target. Heinkel is a flagship of the Nazi technology.
These pages with three rows of images are in the earlier format of the Tintin albums. When Le Sceptre d'Ottokar is redrawn for its color edition in 1947, Heinkel is no longer a threat and the aircraft becomes a Messerschmitt fighter, a brand which is better known by the readers.
The original drawing for the sheet 75-76 was sold for € 243K by PIASA on May 29, 2010.
The original of the sheet 77-78, published by Le Petit Vingtième in early May 1939, was sold for € 810K by Tajan on March 12, 2016, lot 93.
It is highly appealing by the cleverness of the action: Tintin finds that the leaving of the sceptre from the closed room was performed with the photo camera turned into a catapult by the thief. He validates his theory by throwing a model by this method up to the woods beyond the river. Arriving at the presumed location of the impact, he sees two men obviously busy to search for the real sceptre.
Published in Le Petit Vingtième on July 6, 1939, the plates 95 and 96 of Le Sceptre d'Ottokar show that firing. The original drawing on a single sheet 40 x 60 cm was sold for € 1.56M from a lower estimate of € 600K for sale by Sotheby's on October 24, 2015, lot 94.
The aircraft piloted by Tintin is a Heinkel He 118 and clearly bears the mark of that company which equips the Luftwaffe with its most terrifying bombers. Through this illustration, Hergé had warned his young readers two months before the outbreak of the war that the fascisms are supported by the Third Reich.
The plane hit by a shell falls diving. These images echo the fact that the intended use by the Luftwaffe for that Heinkel model is the bombing through a diving to the target. Heinkel is a flagship of the Nazi technology.
These pages with three rows of images are in the earlier format of the Tintin albums. When Le Sceptre d'Ottokar is redrawn for its color edition in 1947, Heinkel is no longer a threat and the aircraft becomes a Messerschmitt fighter, a brand which is better known by the readers.
The original drawing for the sheet 75-76 was sold for € 243K by PIASA on May 29, 2010.
The original of the sheet 77-78, published by Le Petit Vingtième in early May 1939, was sold for € 810K by Tajan on March 12, 2016, lot 93.
It is highly appealing by the cleverness of the action: Tintin finds that the leaving of the sceptre from the closed room was performed with the photo camera turned into a catapult by the thief. He validates his theory by throwing a model by this method up to the woods beyond the river. Arriving at the presumed location of the impact, he sees two men obviously busy to search for the real sceptre.
2
sheet 105-106
2016 SOLD for € 1.05M by Artcurial
The complicated action of Le Sceptre d'Ottokar gets its conclusion in page 104 which explains the strategy used by the conspirators : the bandit had kidnapped his identical twin who was an honest scholar, and Tintin had successively met the two men without imagining the substitution.
104 pages are not enough for the standard of the album. Hergé realizes the final double page, 105-106, which is published by Le Petit Vingtième on August 10, 1939.
This last supply is a joke unrelated with the rest of the story: Hergé uses once again his theme of the immeasurable stupidity of Dupont and Dupond (Thomson and Thompson). The twin policemen forget that their aircraft is a seaplane, go to panic when it comes down to the sea and laugh so hard of their own naivety that they fall into the sea when leaving the plane.
The original drawing 40 x 60 cm of this double page was sold for € 1.05M from a lower estimate of € 600K by Artcurial on April 30, 2016, lot 157.
On 1 September 1939, Germany attacks Poland. On September 3, Britain and France declare war on Germany. Germany begins immediately the invasion of Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.
Hergé continues to work. The first page of L'Or Noir is published by Le Petit Vingtième on September 28, 1939. This story is interrupted in May 1940 by the intensification of the military operations. Hergé temporarily abandons L'Or Noir and begins publishing Le Crabe aux Pinces d'Or in October 1940 in the supplement for the youth of the newspaper Le Soir.
104 pages are not enough for the standard of the album. Hergé realizes the final double page, 105-106, which is published by Le Petit Vingtième on August 10, 1939.
This last supply is a joke unrelated with the rest of the story: Hergé uses once again his theme of the immeasurable stupidity of Dupont and Dupond (Thomson and Thompson). The twin policemen forget that their aircraft is a seaplane, go to panic when it comes down to the sea and laugh so hard of their own naivety that they fall into the sea when leaving the plane.
The original drawing 40 x 60 cm of this double page was sold for € 1.05M from a lower estimate of € 600K by Artcurial on April 30, 2016, lot 157.
On 1 September 1939, Germany attacks Poland. On September 3, Britain and France declare war on Germany. Germany begins immediately the invasion of Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.
Hergé continues to work. The first page of L'Or Noir is published by Le Petit Vingtième on September 28, 1939. This story is interrupted in May 1940 by the intensification of the military operations. Hergé temporarily abandons L'Or Noir and begins publishing Le Crabe aux Pinces d'Or in October 1940 in the supplement for the youth of the newspaper Le Soir.
1942 Tintin en Amérique, new cover
2023 SOLD for € 2.16M by Artcurial
The war, and more specifically the occupation of Belgium by the German troops, changes the practice of Hergé. The strips now appear in Le Soir Jeunesse. After the suppression of that weekly supplement of Le Soir, the stories are transferred in the daily newspaper at the rate of one strip every day.
The publication of Le Crabe aux Pinces d'Or by Le Soir ends in October 1941. L'Etoile Mystérieuse immediately takes over. Another innovation is waiting for Hergé. Casterman, which has been publishing the Tintin albums since 1934, anticipates the full color and requests a change of the template from three to four strips per page with 62 pages overall per volume.
This modernization provides much work to Hergé, who will re-draw the previous eight Tintin stories and prepare their cover pages in full size.
The third story, Tintin en Amérique, is arguably the most popular with its continuous funny action throughout the USA. The small size cover image in 1932 featured Tintin and Milou having a meal in the Wild West while being unknowingly watched by Indians. Its original art was sold for € 1.34M by Artcurial on June 2, 2012.
The new full page cover drawing is more dramatic with Tintin tied to the torture stake while the chief holding the war axe asks for reprisals against him. This highly successful image will be used in colors for the last black and white edition in 1942 and for the full color editions from 1946.
The original grande image drawing of Tintin en Amérique, prepared by Hergé in 1942 in black ink, graphite, blue pencil and corrective gouache, 52 x 36 cm, was sold for € 2.16M by Artcurial on February 10, 2023, lot 12.
After a daily strip in Le Soir from October 1941 to May 1942, L'Etoile Mystérieuse is in December 1942 the first Tintin to be originally published in the 62 page full color format.
The publication of Le Crabe aux Pinces d'Or by Le Soir ends in October 1941. L'Etoile Mystérieuse immediately takes over. Another innovation is waiting for Hergé. Casterman, which has been publishing the Tintin albums since 1934, anticipates the full color and requests a change of the template from three to four strips per page with 62 pages overall per volume.
This modernization provides much work to Hergé, who will re-draw the previous eight Tintin stories and prepare their cover pages in full size.
The third story, Tintin en Amérique, is arguably the most popular with its continuous funny action throughout the USA. The small size cover image in 1932 featured Tintin and Milou having a meal in the Wild West while being unknowingly watched by Indians. Its original art was sold for € 1.34M by Artcurial on June 2, 2012.
The new full page cover drawing is more dramatic with Tintin tied to the torture stake while the chief holding the war axe asks for reprisals against him. This highly successful image will be used in colors for the last black and white edition in 1942 and for the full color editions from 1946.
The original grande image drawing of Tintin en Amérique, prepared by Hergé in 1942 in black ink, graphite, blue pencil and corrective gouache, 52 x 36 cm, was sold for € 2.16M by Artcurial on February 10, 2023, lot 12.
After a daily strip in Le Soir from October 1941 to May 1942, L'Etoile Mystérieuse is in December 1942 the first Tintin to be originally published in the 62 page full color format.
1942 L'Ile Noire, new cover
2014 SOLD for € 1M by Artcurial
The original line drawing cover art in black ink 51 x 35 cm of L'Ile Noire in 1942 was sold for € 1M from a lower estimate of € 600K by Artcurial on May 24, 2014, lot 2.
In the same sale, the original color formatting made in gouache over a gray print of the same image, 39 x 30 cm, was sold for € 100K, lot 3.
Both had been used for the last black and white issue in 1942 and for the color issues from 1943 to 1965.
In the same sale, the original color formatting made in gouache over a gray print of the same image, 39 x 30 cm, was sold for € 100K, lot 3.
Both had been used for the last black and white issue in 1942 and for the color issues from 1943 to 1965.
1954 On a marché sur la Lune
2016 SOLD for € 1.55M by Artcurial
War is over and Hergé endeavors to rely his new themes on novelties. The frightening German missiles suggest that the conquest of space will soon be possible. In the USA the atomic plant at Oak Ridge is a model for a modern organization capable of carrying out industrial projects of unprecedented ambition.
Hergé decides to send Tintin, his dog and his friends on the Moon after they contributed to the development of the space program. The story is titled On a marché sur la Lune and will be pre-published in the Belgian weekly Journal de Tintin.
The publication began in 1950 but was stopped after 24 pages, just before the launch of the test rocket. The novelty of the subject, seven years before Sputnik 1, apparently intimidated Hergé ever anxious to wrap his fantasies in a realistic surrounding. He takes the relevant information on the lunar topography, on movements in weightlessness and on the weak gravitational pull of the Moon.
The weekly issue restarts two years later and ends on 30 December 1953. Unlike the pre-war stories that were prepared in double pages, each original is limited to one page.
They must now prepare for the album. The story is very long and is split at that time in two albums released in 1954 : the adventures on Earth become Objectif Lune and the actual journey retains the original title. To adjust to two books of 62 pages each, many changes are made in the settings of the pages and some gags are reworked.
Two original drawings 37 x 51 cm in black and white before letters and colors are sold in Paris on November 19, 2016 by two separate auction houses.
Christie's sold for € 600K as lot 75 the page 117 of the first version, published in Le Journal de Tintin on December 9, 1953 and remaining unchanged as page 59 of the second album. The rocket reaches Earth after a late braking and a disaster is likely. The traveling heroes are not visible.
Artcurial sold as lot 498 for € 1.55M from a lower estimate of € 700K the page 26 of the second album, which is a rearranged copy of the bottom of page 78 and of the full page 79 of the pre-publication. The arrival of Milou on the Lunar ground and his first experience with Lunar gravitation have been simplified. This page shows the astonishment of the characters in those conditions that no living creature had experienced before them. It is funny and emblematic.
Hergé decides to send Tintin, his dog and his friends on the Moon after they contributed to the development of the space program. The story is titled On a marché sur la Lune and will be pre-published in the Belgian weekly Journal de Tintin.
The publication began in 1950 but was stopped after 24 pages, just before the launch of the test rocket. The novelty of the subject, seven years before Sputnik 1, apparently intimidated Hergé ever anxious to wrap his fantasies in a realistic surrounding. He takes the relevant information on the lunar topography, on movements in weightlessness and on the weak gravitational pull of the Moon.
The weekly issue restarts two years later and ends on 30 December 1953. Unlike the pre-war stories that were prepared in double pages, each original is limited to one page.
They must now prepare for the album. The story is very long and is split at that time in two albums released in 1954 : the adventures on Earth become Objectif Lune and the actual journey retains the original title. To adjust to two books of 62 pages each, many changes are made in the settings of the pages and some gags are reworked.
Two original drawings 37 x 51 cm in black and white before letters and colors are sold in Paris on November 19, 2016 by two separate auction houses.
Christie's sold for € 600K as lot 75 the page 117 of the first version, published in Le Journal de Tintin on December 9, 1953 and remaining unchanged as page 59 of the second album. The rocket reaches Earth after a late braking and a disaster is likely. The traveling heroes are not visible.
Artcurial sold as lot 498 for € 1.55M from a lower estimate of € 700K the page 26 of the second album, which is a rearranged copy of the bottom of page 78 and of the full page 79 of the pre-publication. The arrival of Milou on the Lunar ground and his first experience with Lunar gravitation have been simplified. This page shows the astonishment of the characters in those conditions that no living creature had experienced before them. It is funny and emblematic.
