Hi folks,

I finally came by a copy of the book ‘HERGE and TINTIN – REPORTERS’ (by Philippe Goddin). Inside is a segment dealing with the animated film, made by Belvision and released in 1969, called PRISONERS of the SUN.

According to the book, this film is …“a fairly faithful adaptation of the book, with the exception of a few cuts and insertions”. It seems Herge was closely involved with the film project, unlike TINTIN and the LAKE of SHARKS which followed three years later in 1972.

In the book there is a nice illustration, I believe used as part of an advertising poster for the film; our hero is clinging for dear life to the talons of a great Condor, just like in the book version of the story, but to my surprise Tintin is seen to be wearing those LONG trousers. I’d always thought the long trousers made their first appearance in LAKE of SHARKS,…not so.

If there’s anyone out there who has seen the PRISONERS of the SUN film, I’d be interested to hear their impressions of it.

And finally, how about this for a wild idea; whoever owns the rights to this property could take stills from the film and put together a ‘book of the film’ – like they did with LAKE of SHARKS (only better perhaps). It would be a re-telling (a re-imagining?) of the PRISONERS adventure,… a NEW Tintin book for our Christmas stockings!

A guy can dream, can’t he?

-Harry

Sorry to say I doubt such a book would be popular compared to the truely brilliant Herge drawn effort.

Prisoners of the Sun was on not so long ago on Channel 5 on Saturday morning (maybe six months or so) so it appears that C5 has the rights to show them on TV. Keep a lookout in the listings but i;m sure it'll be pointed out on here.

It was released on video and copies pop up on ebay all the time if you're really interested.

Rik

I think there might even have been a story-book version of it in French?

With the less than happy response by many to the Lake of Sharks book (so strong is the feeling about it that it doesn’t even feature in the book list on this site!), I doubt that many would be looking for a copy at Christmas.

I don’t think Hergé was that closely involved, either; given that he started as an animator, duties for this and Lake largely fell to Bob de Moor, Hergé’s long-time associate.

jock123 :
I think there might even have been a story-book version of it in French?

There was a magazine edition from 1969, with screenshots (actually redrawn images - very much like Lake of Sharks) with a short description of the story underneath each. The boxes were rounded, so they looked rather like television screens. It wasn't awful, but not really the sort of thing that could be published in 2005 and expect to sell.

Richard There was a magazine edition from 1969, with screenshots (actually redrawn images - very much like Lake of Sharks) with a short description of the story underneath each.

Here's a sample page I scanned from the magazine of the Prisoners strip to show how it looked.

Hmmm ... I've never seen that before. It looks interesting, but it's based on the film, so it's not rated that highly by me ! ;o) I really wouldn't expect that to sell, or even be published in the first place, as it looks very dated and the movie isn't even released on DVD or video ...

I saw this film once when I was a little kid but I've never seen it since. Here in Australia Lake of Sharks was released a couple of months back under the title "The Adventures of Tintin Volume 1". The distribution of the series was done by another publisher, so all that could really leave for a volume 2 is the movie based on Prisoners book.

Unfortunately, there has been no Volume 2 announced thus far.

Hello again,

jockosjungle:
Sorry to say I doubt such a book would be popular compared to the truely brilliant Herge drawn effort.

I guess it’s the ‘collector’ in me that always wants more…the urge to find new Tintin material, even the Belvision stuff, is STRONG. (The quality of the artwork shown in the scanned sample page looks quite good).

Slightly off topic, but does anyone know why the books title was translated as PRISONERS instead of the more obvious TEMPLE of the SUN?


jock123:
With the less than happy response by many to the Lake of Sharks book...

Unpopular with the fans - I know, but for some reason LAKE of SHARKS is always in stock and on the shelves here in New Zealand – for as long as I can remember. Go figure!

-Harry

derdup
Slightly off topic, but does anyone know why the books title was translated as PRISONERS instead of the more obvious TEMPLE of the SUN?

Just to make the title more exciting! I hesitate to toot my own trumpet, but the subject comes up in my World of Tintin conference report.

I have seen an excerpt of The Temple of the Sun film, and of the musical too!

I'm hoping that one of the upcoming Tintin films will be the Prisoners of the Sun saga!