Tintin Forums

In another thread, Harrock n roll wrote that when Tintin debuted in Flemish in Het Laatste Nieuws in the 1940s, the Congo and America stories were redrawn, making three versions of both stories (black & white, Het Laatste Nieuws and colour). There are some pages from them reprinted in Chronologie 5.

Does anyone know anything more about this? What were the circumstances for Herge to find time and motivation to redraw these stories twice during the war?

I should first clarify that those stories were not completely redrawn for the colour version (going by the ones printed in Chronologie 4, not 5 after all). The Laatste Nieuws version was adapted into the colour version. Probably a lot of it is the same but there are many differences between panels, backgrounds and whole pages shown in Chronologie 4, most notably with Congo. When I get time I'll try to put up one or two scans here for study purposes.

What were the circumstances for Herge to find time and motivation to redraw these stories twice during the war?

I think he felt he needed the work and he liked to keep busy as the chronologies testify. Le Petit Vingtième had just closed in 1940 so he started working for the "stolen" (i.e. Nazi controlled) Het Laatste Nieuws and Le Soir (he did Crab for Le Soir at the same time as Congo). Whether that was a good decision or not is a matter of some debate.

In '43 when Casterman were wanting to put the books out in colour he adapted Congo and America again and finished them in '44. I think the war years were his most productive period when you consider he also produced Crab, The Shooting Star, Unicorn, Rackham, Seven Crystal Balls and worked on the colour adaptations of earlier books.

Harrock n roll wrote:
When I get time I'll try to put up one or two scans here for study purposes.
Please do. I find this quite intriguing and interesting.

he started working for the "stolen" (i.e. Nazi controlled) Het Laatste Nieuws and Le Soir
Considering that the B/W-albums of America (and Black Island) were withdrawn by the Nazi authorities in the annexed Belgium (as they dealt with "the enemies") it's quite surprising that a Nazi controlled paper permitted a redrawn/recasted version of the same story.

In '43 when Casterman were wanting to put the books out in colour he adapted Congo and America again and finished them in '44.
As for the colour versions, I've seen the years 1945 for America and 1946 for Congo.

I think the war years were his most productive period
This was also when he began to use assistants. Phillipe Goddin mentions an Alice Devos for the first "recast" albums (America, Congo, Crab) and then - from 1944 - Edgar P. Jacobs. I guess his input is mostly noticeable in 1946-47 (Lotus, Ottokar, Broken Ear). Of course, he also participated in the making of the new adventures like 7 Crystal Balls and Sun.

Moderator Note: The story of the German authorities banning America and Black Island does not appear to have basis in fact; the books were published as long as paper supplies were available, and may actually have had a greater allocation than that given to other titles at the time because of the demand for them. As paper became scarce, it would seem that all un-necessary printing was stopped, but not for reasons of censorship.

Here's a scan of the promotional “numéro zéro” of De Bengel which would have been the Flemish version of Le Petit Vingtième. Had it got underway it would have featured “Miloe” and the detectives “Peters & Peeters”.

This example from “Tintin in Kongo” published in Het Laatste Nieuws, 7 Nov 1940, shows how Hergé has used the original Petit Vingtième version but updated it by giving Tintin a mouth and eyebrows ! (if you compare the two).

Going by the pages reproduced in Chronologie 4 it looks as if a lot of the Het Laatste Nieuws “Tintin in Kongo” became the basis for the later colour version. This scan shows a page from 18 Sept 1941, similar to the colour book apart from the last frame which was unpublished.

Finally an original ink published in Het Laatste Nieuws 16 Oct 1941 which corresponds to the penultimate page of the b&w Petit V. edition, but is not in the colour book.

As mentioned earlier in another thread, Tintin's name didn't become Kuifje in Flemish until midway through De geheimzinnige Ster (The Shooting Star) in 1943.

Harrock n roll wrote: Here's a scan of the promotional "numéro zéro" of De Bengel

Thanks, Harrock! This was all very interesting. It indeed looks as if the first page is just merely updated while the later examples are redrawn. The drawings on the page from 18 Sept 1941 is exactly the same as in the colour book.

The Laatste Nieuws-version also explains why the first 11 pages in the colour book looks more modern than the rest as they were redrawn later - probably shortly before the album was re-released in 1946.

Additionally, the Lyon-edition of French magazine Coeur Vaillantes-Ames Vaillantes published Congo (as Tintin dans la brousse) and America (as Tintin chez les Indiens) from May 1941 to July 1944. I wonder if these versions were the same as the ones in Het Laatste Nieuws? The title Tintin dans la brousse is interesting as it - like the Dutch Kuifje in Afrika - seems to be a rather deliberate way to remove all references to Belgian Congo.