Tintin Forums

yamilah
Used to have a yellow spine, but things are changing (or just getting more simple, or visible?), and not just in the English versions: since a few years you can find Tintin et les Picaros with an orange spine even in the shops...

Interesting, I wasn't aware of this! I have a fairly recent French edition of Picaros (three years old, maybe) and that still has the bright yellow spine.

If the spine colour has just recently changed, presumably at Casterman's discretion, how does this impact the theory? Was Hergé even very involved in choosing the colours? Most of the books have gone through at least two different-coloured spines in their publication history.

Perhaps I'm adding fuel to the fire here, but when I did my little numeric theory, I too noticed that three does crop up an awful lot throughout the books.

Richard
Perhaps I'm adding fuel to the fire here, but when I did my little numeric theory, I too noticed that three does crop up an awful lot throughout the books.

The number three crops up a lot in various ways many fiction traditions - myths, legends, fairytales, novels, movies, joke formats and slapstick routines. It seems to be a very strong number for the human brain to latch onto when structuring and taking in narratives. So I guess it's not surpsrising to find that there's much in the Tintin books which fits this tradition.

On a similar subject, seven seems to be a strong number for titles and lists in fiction - Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Seven Crystal Balls, Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven, Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Seas, Dance of the Seven Veils etc.

I'm sure other numbers, including four, are also used significantly in fiction and titles. I wasn't being entirely flippant several posts back, when I said that you could evolve a theory about the significance of any number in a canon of books like the Tintin books. Each number has its own qualities.

Regarding the spine colour issue, I don't have any problem with the idea that Hergé personally decided the spine colours for his books. In fact, given how much he put into these cover designs, it seems rather unlikely to me that he'd have left to others the choice of something that has such a significant effect on the colour balance of the whole cover.
But I am finding it difficult to understand how he could have recently come back from the grave to tell Casterman to bring the Picaros spine into line with the orange spines in the series (thus tightening up some numerical clue he'd hidden in the covers), which seems to be what you're implying, yamilah!

As usual, if I'm misunderstanding you, please feel free to explain what you are saying more straightforwardly!

Richard
how does this impact the theory?
What you call theory was actually expecting some transformation into 7 similar spines -7 yellow ones, or 7 orange ones- liable to incarnate -somehow childishly- one most visible 7...

Balthazar
I don't have any problem with the idea
that Hergé personally decided the spine colours for his books.
Nor do I, but as far as I know it has never been admitted officially...

(...) how he could have recently come back from the grave to tell Casterman to bring the Picaros spine into line with the orange spines in the series
Who knows, in Tintin's unique world, with all these avatars and incarnations?
I even read somewhere that the Foundation was about to turn into some re-incarnated Herge's Studios...

yamilah
I even read somewhere that the Foundation was about to turn into some renewed Herge's Studios...

It has actually reverted back to the old name of the Studios Hergé as of January this year. I suppose this reflects the work they put into the books about Tintin and Hergé, which is reasonable enough - there's probably more coming out of Avenue Louise now than at a few occasions during Hergé's lifetime. But this is heading a bit off-topic I fear ...