Tintin Forums

It has been such a long wait for the next English B&W Facsimile of The Broken Ear. I don't see it listed for coming out next year - it seems like such an epic wait.

Likewise I find it very frustrating! One keeps hearing statistics on how many Tintin books are sold each year and the extreme popularity of the series across the world in the news - perhaps with all the millions of Tintin fans there is very little demand for the b&w facsimiles and they have given up on the rest of the b&w series as it is not economically worth printing? Would be interesting to know how many copies Last Gasp have sold. I've noticed that bookshops stock all the colour series but none of the b&w. I've had to order all of mine off the internet from Amazon or Abe. Maybe it is because the bookshop owners assume that children/younger Tintin fans would find the b&w ones boring as there are no pretty colours! I know that if they had them when I was I child I would have bought them all!

I hate the way companies operate with that idea.

Look at it this way give something back to the fans who made them what they are by bringing out the B&W facsimiles this will show they have respect for the fans and still keeps Tintin a bit fresh.

They have already given us the horrible electronic print maybe bring the rest of the B&W Facsimiles out as a sorry for this.

Electronic print? Do you mean the changed typeface? The body font now used in the comics?

As I don't think that they will be coming out anytime soon, I've decided to tranlate them myself!!!!

I have a friend who is very good at French and I own all of the French facsimiles - I'm that die-hard a fan that I own ones where only one or two of the drawings differ.

Sadly due to legal reasons I can't sell copies, but I may scan our handywork when it is done.

Our first project will be the 1950 verision of 'Tintin in the Land of Black Gold' as there won't be too much work to do, before moving on to the black and whites.

Moderator Note: Again, we have to say that while it is up to you what you do in the privacy of your own home, you cannot post your own translations of the books here, regardless of whether or not it is for money, nor give any direction as to how to obtain them; this would be a potential breach of copyright, and could lead to us being shut down.

Many thanks for your cooperation in this; you might want to take a moment to re-read the forum rules.

The Tintinologist Team

The English versions of the B&W editions are available up to The Blue Lotus with Michael Turner as the translator.If there is a publication wait for a possible B&W edition of The Broken Ear, it could be because of the issue of the choice of translator after Turner.

Has anyone tried using an internet translator? They seem to have improved a lot recently - only don't try using them to translate Japanese into English! I'm thinking about doing that as I don't have the patience to wait 35 years until the other B&W English translations to come out!

I believe that at the World of Tintin Conference in Greenwich, in May of 2004, Michael Turner suggested that the translation work was substantially complete for the remaining unissued volumes.

Egmont don't have the rights for the B&W books (whether through choice or not I can't remember - I'm sure Chris or Richard or some of the other esteemed members will know), so my guess would be that the first ones haven't been financially successful enough to generate the incentive for Casterman to complete the run.

It's an expensive business to market and distribute a book - some chains will actually charge the publisher to carry a volume, and you get an even smaller time on the shelf now than in the days when the books first appeared. If you don't start flying off the shelves in a couple of weeks, you'll be relegated to fewer and fewer copies in far less accessible spots of the shop, in an inevitable spiral of death.

However, let's take heart in the fact that this may actually be a strategy, and the publicity for the film might be used by Casterman/ Last Gasp/ Moulinsart to generate collateral interest in all things Tintin, including the early facsimiles.

But what about the online retailers such as Amazon? People who order Tintin books from there would see the section which shows other Tintin books that other customers have bought. This would be one way of discovering the B&W facsimile volumes for those who are new to Tintin. With all the millions of Tintin fans one keeps hearing about, surely it would not take much effort to get those B&W facsimile books from Amazon (that's where I got mine from)? I understand why bookshops such as Waterstones don't stock these books. I get fed-up with browsing through bookshops that don't have books that are in print that I want, or commonplace books that you would expect them to have and they don't stock them! I get all my books from Amazon, AbeBooks and ebay.

What about them? They are in a very strong position, and no doubt dictate price and promotion fees with publishers too. They'll charge to have books shown in recommendations too; in fact they'll probably be able to charge more, as it is absolutely tailored to what the customer is likely to be interested in.


Yes and Amazon constantly discount books, so the publisher isn't actually going that be delighted. When you read stories that Amazon (or Sainsbury's or Waterstones, or whoever) are selling the latest Harry Potter for £5 rather than £15, be sure that the retailer isn't losing money, the publisher (and author) will be the one(s) taking the hit.

Fortunately for the publisher, a Harry Potter book is going to sell by the ton, people want in immediately, and if they can't get a £5 copy, they'll pay full price somewhere else, and the sums probably start to work out again.

If your target market is already small (as would be for the facsimiles, let's be honest), then there is less wiggle room, and discounting isn't going to have a great deal to offer the exercise.


Then ask them to get them in! They won't stock books (or can't afford to stock books) if you don't let them know what you want.

Going to Amazon or eBay, it just exacerbates the issue, and makes there even less incentive for bookshops to operate.