Tintin Forums

Hi, I hope someone may be able to help me...
I have a book which I have been led to believe is a publisher's dummy of Tintin au Pays des Soviets; it's in black and white, printed on one side only of each page.
Been looking to sell it, but not sure what it's worth, if anything...
Would be grateful for any information!
Lyn

Hi Lyn - have you previously been in touch by e-mail? I'm sure that we've had a similar enquiry, but haven't located it yet...

The publishers dummies I have seen have all been "fake" books - blank pages cut and bound to size, round which a wrapper (with a sometimes temporary cover design, sometimes the final art (more or less)) can be put so that picture can be taken, or so that there is something for marketing and sales people to display at book fairs etc.

It sounds like you might have part of a test run, where a printer has been setting up and checking the plates.

Another possibility is that it is an "underground" edition: having been out of print for many years, there were also pirated editions in circulation before Hergé agreed to have it reprinted, first as a private edition he made for friends and colleagues, then in an anthology of his early works Les Archives Hergé (which became a series of four volumes), then in a facsimile of the Petit Vingtième. Perhaps it is some sort of pirate?

Without seeing any of it, it's very hard to make an identification, and likewise possible price is in the lap of the gods. At one point it was very hard to get a hold of, but those days have long gone, so it's anyone'e guess what it might be worth, really.

If you are convinced that it is in some way rare or valuable (only you kno how it came to you, so there might be something in its past you feel etablishes where it came from etc.), you could approach one of the auction houses in Brussels and Paris which have comics sales, or make an enquiry to Studios Hergé, who have some system for appraising items.