If, nowadays, we discover the adventures of Tintin as 62 pages books in color, we should not forget that the first eight adventures of our hero - in addition to the Soviets - were initially created in black and white. To read them is to discover a whole part of Tintin's history and Hergé's work which is too often ignored...
Some history...
Tintin's first two adventures - Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo - were initially published by the rather short-lived Éditions du Petit Vingtième, in a rather limited edition, since Hergé believed that Tintin's success was only a temporary phenomenon. As the sales increased, the publication was entrusted to the Éditions Casterman in 1931. During all the inter-war period, the Tournai-based company continued to publish the book in black and white, in a size slightly larger than the current books.
| CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE | First black and white edition |
First color edition |
| Tintin in the Congo | 1931 | 1946 |
| Tintin in America | 1932 | 1945 |
| Cigars of the Pharaoh | 1934 | 1955 |
| The Blue Lotus | 1936 | 1946 |
| The Broken Ear | 1937 | 1943 |
| The Black Island | 1938 | 1943 |
| King Ottokar's Sceptre | 1939 | 1947 |
| The Crab with the Golden Claws | 1941 | 1943 |
At that time, the books' length was very variable, from 130 pages for the Soviets to 104 for the Crab, since Hergé did not have any constraint as for the number of pages. He had not yet fully developed his narrative technique and decided what would happen to Tintin from week to week, just listening to his imagination, with no other principal concern than creating a suspense at the end of each two pages episode. This is why we can find some interludes or developments more or less necessary, which gives to the first versions a sometimes disjointed style. However, when came The Blue Lotus, Hergé, conscious of the growing importance that took his creation, started to give more importance to the development of its stories, giving them a denser and more coherent structure - the constant reduction in the number of pages illustrates it well -, while developing and a concern for thorough realism.
As Tintin evolved, the conditions of publication changed too. Soon, it became clear that the hero could not remain a long time in black and white. Since 1936, the need for leaving the black and white format for commercial reasons had been foreseen, and Hergé had proposed to insert color plates in the books. During World War II, the paper price increased by more than 50%, and the difficulties in provisioning as well as the acquisition of an offset press led Casterman to make new proposals to Hergé. The books should from now on fall within a rigid framework of 62 pages. On the other hand, they would be printed in quadrichromy. The deal was concluded in 1942. While The Shooting Star became Tintin's first adventure published in color, Hergé tackled the hard work of redrawing the books of pre-war period, first with the help of Edgar P. Jacobs, then of what was going to become gradually the team of the Hergé Studios.
| COVERS AND INSET PLATES | ||||
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| Tintin in the Congo | ||||
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| Tintin in America | ||||
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| Cigars of the Pharaoh | ||||
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| The Blue Lotus | ||||
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| The Broken Ear | ||||
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| The Black Island | ||||
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| King Ottokar's Sceptre | ||||
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| The Crab with the Golden Claws | ||||
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