Tintin Forums

Just a note to add that the Tintin Shop are still selling copies of this, for £15. I ordered it from their website, along with some other stuff last week, and though the rest of the books arrived within 48 hours (I'm always impressed by the speed with which they process orders!), there was a little note in with them saying that The Secret Ray was out of stock, but they'd send one along as soon as they got some more in. Thought I was in for a long wait, but it actually arrived this morning!

It's a handsome volume all right, and well worth picking up. It's a rattling good read, if taken in the same spirit as old movie serials, such as Flash Gordon, which were being made at roughly the same time as it was originally printed in PV! In fact, it's rather satisfying to view it as a series of episodes, given the breathless, constant rounds of capture, escape and deadly peril throughout.

The loony scientist is indeed rather OTT, but suits the fantastic nature of the storyline as a whole. I think if I'd read this as a nipper I'd have found him somewhat frightening, with his habits of flying off the handle, being perfectly beastly to the young heroes and zapping his henchmen with that handy raygun-torch thingy!

The natives on the island are definitely portrayed in an even worse light than in Congo, and I can see why this has probably caused similar problems with producing a "standard" edition. Even so, I reckon my nephew, who's trying to get to grips with Tintin (he's only 6, and he's finding some of them heavy going), would find this to be right up his street. I might even get him a copy for his birthday this month, assuming that the Tintin Shop hasn't sold out again!

I've got The Secret Ray and Valley of the Cobras in Swedish. They're pretty good, although not as good as Tintin of course. ;)

I eventually got around to ordering my copy of The Secret Ray from the Floral St. Tintin Shop today :) I'm unduly excited about its arrival too.

I've been meaning to order it for the last few weeks after seeing it posted on the Tintin Shop website but a problem with JavaScript meant I couldn't order it online. I dallied around, until last night when I saw the book had been removed from the shop's website! In a bit of a panic I phoned this morning to order a copy only to be told that they had ONE copy left. Very fortunate!
The lady on the phone said I was lucky to have it as it's no longer in print but that Casterman "keep finding cases of them in their warehouse" and then send them over to the Tintin Shop.

Perhaps this accounts for why the shop has been able to keep selling them way past the book's publication date, and it also means that The Secret Ray could well be available again in the Tintin Shop at some point in the future.

I'm one relieved Hergé fan tonight though!

Rich :)

When I bought my copy there on a visit to London four or five years ago, I was told it was unlikely it would ever be reprinted, so you should get it while you can. I'm surprised that more boxes still keep turning up.

Just so you know and thanks to the guy who e-mailed me the information

Jo, Zette and Jocko - The Secret Ray is available at the Tintin Shop at the moment

http://www.thetintinshop.uk.com/acatalog/Miscellaneous_Books.html

R

For some strange reason, The Secret Ray is available in the States right now through Amazon.

There's no graphic accompanying the listing, but it really is the 1994 English edition. At least, the one I just received from them is. For years I've been doing occasional searches here and there for this elusive little creature, and was certain this would turn out to either be a permanent-backorder, or a French edition, or heaven-knows-what. But, well, here it is in front of me.

Anyway, I can't be the only one hunting this particular game. Hope this is helpful to someone.

That's interesting, I see from the Amazon link that the publisher is given as Moulinsart. I'm pretty sure the publisher was Sundancer in the original 1994 edition, not Moulinsart, so is this a reprint? Or maybe old stock...?

It is in fact the 1994 Sundancer edition.

'Manitoba' cover on one side, 'Karamako' cover on the other, pink and white checkerboard liner on the inside and a couple pages of notes and pictures before the story starts.

I have searched high and low for this one in English, with no luck.

Has anyone been able to pick this up for a reasonable price?.

number1fan


I've done the same for years now - but I've given up now!

The reason why it's so difficult to come accross is because "Jo, Zette and Jocko" is not half as famous/popular as Tintin (e.g. there is less demand for them), there is some questionable content in the last pages of "Manitoba", and that English edition has now been out-of-print since the Nineties. The fact that, as mentioned earlier in the thread, there were still some unsold copies surfacing in the early two-thousands, says a great deal about the book's "success".

In other words, we Johnny-come-latelys (including me!) should have bought it years ago when it was still in print.

The best option is to arm oneself with a French dictionary and battle through the original editions, which is what I've resorted to, though I think there is a copy somewhere on Amazon.com selling for a few thousand dollars...