The Adventures of Tintin, a comic book series created by Belgian cartoonist Hergé, has a publication history of 24 albums, including one unfinished adventure. Each story, except the last, was pre-published in a newspaper or magazine before being published as an album. The first adventure in the series, "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets", was launched on January 10, 1929, in "Le Petit Vingtième", the weekly youth supplement of the Catholic, nationalist, and conservative Belgian daily "Le Vingtième Siècle". It was in this same periodical that all stories written before the Second World War were published, until "Tintin in the Land of Black Gold" was discontinued after the invasion of Belgium in May 1940.
The series resumed the following September in "Le Soir", a daily whose circulation was almost twenty times that of "Le Petit Vingtième", for the duration of the German occupation of Belgium. After the country's liberation, Hergé was banned from publishing for a time, before finally resuming his activities in a new periodical, "Tintin" magazine, created by Raymond Leblanc, whose first issue appeared in September 1946. Until he died in 1983, all the cartoonist's stories appeared in this periodical. "Le Vingtième Siècle" also published the first three adventures in album form, before Hergé signed an exclusive contract with Casterman. Initially in black and white, the albums were printed directly in color from 1942 onwards, entailing a lengthy reworking of the first stories to adapt them to the new standard format of 62 colorized plates.
The various adventures were also published in newspapers and magazines around the world. The series was first published in France in the weekly "Cœurs Vaillants", then in Switzerland in "L'Echo illustré", while the Portuguese newspaper "O Papagaio" offered Tintin its first translation in 1936. In 1940, Hergé's hero made his debut in Belgium's Dutch-language press, before enjoying wide distribution and international success from the 1950s onwards. This was also the period when the first foreign-language albums were produced, reaching over 100 translations by the 2010s, including many dialects and regional languages.
As the "Adventures of Tintin" are published in periodicals around the world, they undergo several changes, whether for commercial or editorial reasons. The author's original texts and drawings are sometimes adapted without his consent. Likewise, the series' foreign publishers force the author to make numerous alterations, both to correct his work and to comply with censorship.
Original publications.
Creation of the series in "Le Petit Vingtième".
Hergé joined the subscription department of "Le Vingtième Siècle", a conservative Catholic daily run by Norbert Wallez, in September 1925, where he was employed as a photojournalist and cartoonist from August 1927, after completing his military service. His work consisted mainly of illustrating stories serialized in the daily paper or its literary supplement, while continuing to contribute to other periodicals such as "Le Boy-Scout belge", in which he published "Les Aventures de Totor, C. P. des Hannetons," and "Le Sifflet", a Catholic and satirical Sunday weekly.
In 1928, Norbert Wallez put him in charge of "Le Petit Vingtième", a weekly youth supplement whose first issue appeared on November 1. It was in this periodical that "Tintin au pays des Soviets", the first episode in the "Adventures of Tintin", appeared on January 10, 1929.
The story was published up to May 8, 1930, with two plates published every Thursday in the centerfold, for a total of 69 episodes. The December 25, 1929 issue, a special Christmas edition, includes several special features. It featured double the number of pages and, for the first time, a cover designed by Hergé. It also contained three plates of Tintin's adventures, instead of two, two of which were printed in a two-color process, an exception until the adventures published during World War II.
From the very first story, Hergé and his team sought to win the loyalty of their readers by mixing fiction and reality. They included fictitious interviews with Tintin in the pages of "Le Petit Vingtième" or published a fake threatening letter from the Guepeu to stop the reporter's activities in the USSR. This innovative and interactive practice is of major commercial interest, as Geoffroy Kursner points out: "Dialoguing, even playing with readers, to build loyalty and increase the number of readers, and, above all, mixing fiction and reality, is undeniably an ingenious method". One of "Le Vingtième Siècle"'s contributors, Charles Lesne, suggested that Abbé Wallez stage Tintin's return to Belgium as if his adventures had taken place. The event, generously publicized by the daily in the days leading up to it, took place on May 8, 1930, at Brussels' Gare du Nord, and drew a large crowd. Young Lucien Pepermans, a 15-year-old scout, was chosen to play the role of Tintin. A welcome speech was given, followed by a wreath of flowers and the distribution of sweets, while the fake Tintin signed autographs.
Norbert Wallez also decided to bring together the plates from "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" in an album, an "intuition [that] was by no means obvious, especially for a press publisher", according to Benoît Peeters. Planned for the Salon de l'Enfant to be held in Brussels at the end of June 1930, the album didn't come out until the following September and was a huge success. The ten thousand copies sold testify to the considerable success of the operation throughout French-speaking Belgium. A numbered edition of 500 copies was made available to the first subscribers, each signed by Tintin and Snowy. Hergé signed the young reporter, while Germaine Kieckens, Abbé Wallez's secretary and future wife, signed his faithful companion.
First success and signature at Casterman.
On May 22, 1930, the front page of "Le Petit Vingtième" showed Tintin and Snowy pondering their future destination in front of an oversized globe. The central double-page spread, illustrated by Hergé, shows the two heroes comfortably installed in their home, with Tintin even wearing a robe and slippers. The new adventure, "Tintin in the Congo", finally began on June 5, 1930, and ran until June 18, 1931. The supplement's pagination increased and was enriched with new stories, such as the Quick and Flupke gags. As of May 1931, readers no longer needed to buy the daily to read its Thursday supplement: the "Le Petit Vingtième" subscription, previously reserved for schools and patronages, was extended to individuals. As with "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets", the return of Tintin and Snowy from the Congo is orchestrated by "Le Vingtième Siècle" and celebrated at Brussels' Gare du Nord on July 9. The event was accompanied by a commercial operation: the album, already ready, was put on sale on the spot, accompanied by a piece of Congolese art."Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter, à Chicago" (The Adventures of Tintin, Reporter, in Chicago) began on September 3, 1931, and became "Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter, en Amérique" (The Adventures of Tintin, Reporter, in America) on the following December 10, whose plates were collected in an album under the title "Tintin en Amérique" (Tintin in America) when publication ended on October 20, 1932.
In April 1932, Charles Lesne, a former colleague of "Le Vingtième Siècle" who had become an associate of the director of Casterman Editions in Tournai, contacted Hergé with a proposal to illustrate book covers for the publishing house. At the end of 1933, Charles Lesne proposed that Casterman take over from "Le Vingtième Siècle" in the printing of his future albums. Negotiations were particularly tough with Norbert Wallez, who saw himself as a sort of co-author of "The Adventures of Tintin", and intended to keep his share of the next three albums. Under the terms of his contract with Hergé, the Abbé was responsible for printing the albums, while the artist was in charge of sales, with profits divided equally between them. Norbert Wallez, meanwhile ousted from the weekly's editorial board, finally gave in. In March 1934, a contract was signed between Hergé and Casterman, making Casterman the new publisher of the series. Under the terms of the agreement, royalties amounted to 15%: the artist received three Belgian francs for each copy sold, reduced to two francs for sales of 10,000 copies or more. This agreement was decisive in conquering the French market, where Tintin had been published in the Catholic weekly "Cœurs Vaillants" since 1930.
"Les Cigares du Pharaon", published in "Le Petit Vingtième" from December 8, 1932, to February 8, 1934, under the title "Les Aventures de Tintin en Orient","" was the first album published by Casterman in November 1934. In all, the adventure comprises 124 plates, a record for the series."" Its publication was accompanied by an interactive game in the form of a column entitled "Notre grande enquête: le mystère Tintin", inviting readers to give their point of view on the case. "Le Petit Vingtième"'s editorial team drew inspiration from the detective novels of Ellery Queen, with challenges to the reader. The operation was a success, with letters pouring in from readers.
The late 1930s.
On August 9, 1934, "Le Petit Vingtième" began publication of "Aventures de Tintin en Extrême-Orient", which ended on October 17, 1935, and became Le Lotus bleu when published in album form in October 1936. Limited to 6,000 copies, this album includes five color off-text illustrations. As with the previous adventure, a readers-detectives' mailing list is set up, and for the fourth time, Tintin's return is staged, this time at the Cirque Royal in Brussels.
The following stories were published in the same newspaper, firstly L'Oreille cassée (from December 5, 1935 to February 25, 1937) and L'Île Noire (from April 15, 1937 to June 16, 1938), both under the simple title Nouvelles Aventures de Tintin et Milou, then "Le Sceptre d'Ottokar", which appeared under the title Tintin en Syldavie from August 4, 1938. On the following November 17, the editorial staff relaunched the "Tintin Inquiry" column, offering a series of challenges to readers and encouraging them to give their opinion, by mail, on elements of the plot. The adventure ended on August 10, 1939.
The following week, "Le Petit Vingtième" announced the start of a new adventure: "Soon Tintin... in the land of black gold". However, the launch was delayed: Hergé was mobilized on the 1st of September 1939, following the outbreak of World War II. Temporarily demobilized a few days later, the illustrator got back to work, so that, after announcing the return of Tintin, "Le Petit Vingtième" published the first plates of this new story on the following October 12. Mobilized again at the end of December 1939, Hergé continued to send drawings from his barracks but was only able to supply one plate a week from the following February. Publication of the adventure was chaotic. Eventually, Hergé was granted two days' leave a week to work on his illustrations, and in April he was allowed to go home for medical reasons, before being declared unfit for service on May 10. On the same day, the German invasion of Belgium interrupted "Le Petit Vingtième" and, de facto, the adventure. At this stage, only 56 plates had been published.
Tintin in "Le Soir" during the Occupation.
During the first weeks of the Occupation, many newspapers were sequestered, including "Le Vingtième Siècle". On June 30, the daily's management confirmed the notice of dismissal sent earlier to its staff and announced that their contracts would end three months later. From then on, Hergé set about finding new periodicals to publish his creations. He was soon approached by Raymond De Becker, who suggested he create a weekly illustrated magazine for young people, to be distributed by "Le Soir". The first issue of "Le Soir-Jeunesse" appeared on October 17, 1940, and featured a new Tintin adventure, "Le Crabe aux pinces d'or" (The Crab with the Golden Claws). However, the story did not yet have a title: it was simply published as "Les Aventures de Tintin et Milou". For Hergé, joining the editorial staff of Le Soir was a godsend: in addition to the opportunity to develop his creations and secure a regular income, Le Soir's circulation, almost twenty times greater than that of "Le Petit Vingtième", considerably increased his readership.
The Adventure of The Crab with the Golden Claws was first published weekly in "Le Soir-Jeunesse", but from September 23, 1941, it was published daily: the wartime context led to a shortage of paper, and Le Soir 's management decided to reduce the size of its supplement, before discontinuing it for good. The