Tintin Forums

Another story which I have seen in the French press, but had a hard time understanding the significance of, concerns the forthcoming sale of a black-and-white copy of The Black Island, somewhat drawn on, with a crayon cross through the cover, and many pages with panels cut out or missing.

This battered and damaged book looks the worse for wear, but is predicted to set records for the price paid for a Tintin book.

It turns out, from a report to be read here on a site called The London Economic, that this copy was one of a limited batch of ten, made for Hergé in 1943, to allow him to present the strips to potential buyers from the foreign press, who might like to place his strips in their papers.

This copy which is a black-and-white version of the first colour edition, was subsequently annotated and marked up by Hergé (including cutting out parts of pages, during the revision process for the 1966 edition.
Now this one-of-a kind item is up for sale on the Catawiki site, and (as of time of writing), bidding has nearly reached £58,000.

Update: The book sold for €68,501 (c. £60,048)