Tintin Forums

The current exhibition at the British Library, Out of this World: Science Fiction But Not as You Know It, covers 2,000 years or more of the development of science fiction through books.

It's nice to see that among all the other great authors and works, they have included Hergé and Tintin. They display a first edition of Destination Moon, open at the spread where Tintin and Cº first see the rocket on the launch-pad.

If you are at all interested in SF (especially literary SF, although they do give nods to plays, films, TV and other outlets), this is a good chance to see many rare and interesting artifacts - and it's free!
They also have a rather lovely large-scale Martian War Machine from The War of the Worlds, and a full size police box replica for fans of you-know-Who.

The British Library is situated in Euston, London, and is right next door to St. Pancras International Station; entrance to the exhibition is free to all, and it runs until September. There are a number of related, ticketed events during the run.
Details can be found on the British Library web-site.

I saw that on Saturday. I suppose my brain wasn't totally in gear but I was initially surprised the exhibition had only books on display. The fact it was organised and displayed at the British Library should have given me a clue...

Tintin wasn't the only comic-related exhibit - off the top of my head I remember there being a couple of manga books, V for Vendetta, and an original page from Bryan Talbot's 'Grandville' series.

I can't say I was especially inspired by the display or the labelling to dive further in to Sci-Fi than the ankle-deep wading I've already undertaken (Ballard, Dick, etc.) but the whole thing is well worth a visit if anyone is in town this summer.

Co-incidentally I picked up a copy of Explorers on the Moon that morning as a gift to a god-daughter.

Oh, and slightly under-lit!

George

It's all right, don't worry - we went yesterday, and nobody was talking about the gent who turned up at the British Library, and was surprised to find books. Well, not many people, anyway... ;-)

In addition to the others you mention, there was also was a Dan Dare related piece as well.

I was surprisingly engaged with the early nineteenth and twentieth century exhibits - I'd be interested in some of the future history titles they feature, where characters "from the future" look back on the times of the writers. I'e already searched out online The Mummy! A Tale of the 22nd Century by Jane C. Loudon, written in 1827.

I also liked the examples of fine and interesting binding and illustration, which made many of the books lovely to look at, never mind their literary merit.


That's unfortunately always going to be the case when dealing with cabinets of rare books and manuscripts, although I agree that it does make things a tad murky at times; if it's any consolation, I think it might have been a bit brighter than the last exhibition I saw there...!