The Adventures of Tintin. Black Island

Returning from South America, Tintin takes on a new puzzle. This time his path lies in Britain, where an unmarked plane has just crashed. Tintin had already seen this plane the day before, and an encounter with the pilots almost cost him his life. In England, Tintin barely escapes from the sinister Dr. Muller, who turns out to be the leader of a gang of counterfeiters. Tintin must find an underground printing house where the criminals print counterfeit banknotes. All traces lead to Scotland, to the Black Island, which has a bad reputation. There, in the ruins of Ben More Castle, lives a monster that supposedly devours everyone who dares to disturb its peace. Tintin takes a boat and sails there...

"The Black Island" is the only book in the "Adventures of Tintin" series that exists in three different album versions (plus one more magazine version, the very first one, published in a "sequel" format in 1937-1938). The first black and white version from 1938; the second - in color from 1943 and the third - a completely redrawn color version from 1965. Moreover, it was not Hergé who redrawn it, but his assistants, primarily Bob de Moor and Roger Lelou. Hergé only supervised the process, and only in passing, since he was busy with the current album and did not really want to return to the plot of 30 years ago. The re-drawing was caused by the requirement of the English publisher of the series, who considered the 1943 version outdated and full of small details that do not correspond to reality (the action takes place in Britain!). The English presented Hergé with a list of over 130 corrections, after which Hergé decided it would be easier to redraw everything. It is believed that the redrawing, although it greatly increased the accuracy, destroyed the charm of the first color version. And this is despite the fact that Bob de Moor and Lelou were brilliant artists. But Hergé was more than just a “brilliant artist.” However, it was the third version that was chosen by the publisher as the basic one and it became part of the classic series. Both previous ones, however, are also quite available as facsimiles (luxury editions on expensive quality paper).

Recommended reader age: 7+

Author: Hergé
Artist: Herge
Translation: Mikhail Khachaturov
Number of pages: 64
Publisher: Melik-Pashayev
Cover type: Hardcover
Dimensions: 290 × 217 × 10 mm
ISBN: 978-5-00041-457-6
Series: The Adventures of Tintin