l'Œuvre Integrale Hergé: The Rombaldi collection

Rombaldi's l'Œuvre Integrale Hergé was a set of 13 leather-bound volumes, containing pretty much all of Hergé's work, released in the Eighties as a mail-order collection.

The only things I know are missing are They Explored the Moon and Q&F 10-12.
Here is a list of the things in the collection for reference:

Volume 1
Les extraordinaires aventures de Totor, C.P. des Hannetons
L'extraordinaire aventure de Flup, Nenesse, Poussette et Cochonnet
Tintin au pays des Soviets
Tintin au Congo

Volume 2
Tintin en Amerique
Les cigares du Pharaon
Popol et Virginie
Cet aimable Mr Mops
Quick et Flupke

Volume 3
Le lotus bleu
L'oreille cassee
Le Manitoba ne repond plus
L'eruption du Karamako

Volume 4
L'ile noir (version 1947 et 1966)
Le stratonef H22
Quick et Flupke II

Volume 5
Le sceptre d'Ottokar
Le crabe aux pinces d'or
L'etoile mysterieuse
Quick et Flupke III

Volume 6
Le secret de la Unicorn
Le tresor de Rackham le rouge
Dupont et Dupond detectives
Quick et Flupke IV

Volume 7
Les sept boules de cristal
Le temple de soleil
Au pays de l'or noir
Quick et Flupke V

Volume 8
Objectif lune
On a marche sur la lune
Quick et Flupke VI

Volume 9
L'affaire Tournesol
Coke en stock
Crayonnes inedited d'une histoire abandonnee
La vallee des cobras
Quick et Flupke VII

Volume 10
Tintin au Tibet
Les bijoux de la Castafiore
Tintin au cinema (1)
Voir et savoir
Les cartes de vœux
Quick et Flupke VIII

Volume 11
Vol. 714 pour Sydney
Tintin et les Picaros
Cinquante ans de travaux fort gais
Tintin et Alph-art
Tintin au cinema (2)
Quick et Flupke IX

Volume 12
Blanc et noir aventures de Tintin

Volume 13
Tintin et alph-art

Volume 12 opens up, and contains 9 miniature editions of the black and white Tintin books.
Volume 11 has alph art, and Volume 13 has all the original sketches.

Does anyone own them? What are they like?

No 11 has alph art, but no 13 has all the original sketches.

Volume 11 was published shortly after Hergé had died and Benoît Peeters compiled an essay with selected drawings from Alph-Art to illustrate it. In 1986 when the book was officially published, Rombaldi brought out Volume 13 specially to include the full story.

Ed

Thanks, Ed, does anyone know what the 2 'tintin au cinema's' are. The fact that there are 2 makes me think that it's the live action films, but could it be 'lake of sharks'?

Tintin au cinema (1) is about the two live action films (6 pages in total) with an introduction (1 page), one page on each film and three pages with pictures.

Tintin au cinema (2) is about the two Belvision film, Prisoners of the sun and The Lake of Sharks (4 pages in total).

Further to the above, Rombaldi produced a seven volume series called L'univers d'Hergé. This seems <a href="http://www.objectiftintin.com/whatsnew_Tintin_491.lasso" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">to have been quite comprehensive in its scope</a>.

There was also a Rombaldi series called Les meilleures histoires du Journal Tintin (The Best Stories from...), comprising and collecting work by authors other than Hergé which had appeared in the Tintin magazine. It was made up of the following volumes:

Barelli by Bob De Moor
Monsieur Tric & Cie. by Bob De Moor
Corentin by Cuvelier
Line by Cuvelier
Pom et Teddy by Craenhals
Chlorophylle by Macherot
Chick Bill by Tibet
Blake et Mortimer by E.P. Jacobs (three volumes)
Lefranc by Jacques Martin and
Le Chevalier Blanc by Funken

This may not be an exhaustive list, but they were the details I have been able to find. While some only have a tangential link to Tintin, the de Moor, Jacobs and Martin volumes of course are by prominent members of Hergé's studio.

Just doing some research into this collection, were the original mail order albums all hand signed by Hergé's second wife, Fanny? If so, are these much rarer than unsigned editions?

No, the 12th volume in the series was the one that was signed - it had been intended that that would have been the final volume in the series, but it was then extended by one more book, to accommodate the addition of L'Alph-Art.

jock123

Ah right ok thank you very much for clearing that up!

I've done a bit of digging around, and I have seen a note to the effect that the signed edition was "limited to subscribers"; I'm not sure what this actually indicates, as it was my understanding that you had to subscribe to get the books in the first place.

It could, I suppose, mean that there was a tiered promotion in place, where those who took up a subscription at the start of the endeavour - or perhaps pre-ordered the entire run - were given the signed edition, while those who perhaps paid on a volume-by-volume basis did not, but this is merely speculation; perhaps someone out there knows?