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Tintin: Abandoned ideas for adventures?

number1fan
Member
#1 · Posted: 12 Jun 2008 16:30
I wonder if Hergé started an adventure then abandoned the idea?
Is it documented anywhere about adventures he wanted to do?
IvanIvanovitch
Member
#2 · Posted: 12 Jun 2008 21:37
Well, Tintin:The Complete Companion by Michael Farr mentions that there was another plot intended for Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon.
In it Professor Phostle (I think that was the guy) wanted to sabotage the expedition to get money so that he could buy a diamond for Rita Hayworth. But it wasn't Hergé's idea, and it certainly wasn't as good as his own.
In Farr's book it also quotes Hergé as wanting to stage an entire adventure within the confines of an airport (think Terminal, with Tom Hanks), but his plan was never realized.
Alph-Art had a few different plot line that were discarded, mainly about the Captain.
He went hippie, or was cured of his whisky aversion (but at the expense of his hair and beard), took up music, etc. Strange.
There were probably hundreds of story ideas that Hergé considered and rejected in the writing process.
Richard
UK Correspondent
#3 · Posted: 13 Jun 2008 17:58
I've no books to hand to check, but Hergé had considered setting another story in the USA and re-tackling the Native American subject.
Think that was around the time of Tintin in Tibet.

There was a storyline about Nestor being framed for murder, around the same time.

In the 1930s he intended to set a story in the far north (Siberia?) and if you look at the endpapers in an old edition, the drawing of Tintin and Snowy in furs actually comes from that, rather than - as you might expect - Soviets.

Some books went through so many changes that the final story bears little resemblance to its starting point. Early drafts of Picaros involved internment camps and Tintin and Haddock's plane being hijacked (which made its way into Flight 714). I think Tibet started out with a jewel being brought to Marlinspike for safe-keeping, although that might be completely wrong.
Balthazar
Moderator
#4 · Posted: 13 Jun 2008 20:11
And then there's the adventure in Berlin (early 1960s I think) that someone else scripted (a cartoonist called Greg, I think), and which Hergé drew a few beautiful pencil rough pages for, before deciding he didn't like it. From memory, I think it might have been called Le ThermoZèro, an idea that was then handed over to Bob de Moor to turn into a Jo,Zette and Jocko adventure, but which was also abandned.
Or am I muddling two things up? I'm sure there's a thread on it somewhere on this forum, so someone will know.
skut
Member
#5 · Posted: 13 Aug 2008 02:55
The Calculus Affair started out as a rough idea called Tintin In Berlin (according to Harry Thompson's excellent book).
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#6 · Posted: 14 Aug 2008 10:02
Here's an account of an abandoned story idea from 1943, The American Circus, which I read about in the Chronologie, Tome 4.

Hergé had been thinking about his next adventure following Red Rackham's Treasure.
José De Launoit (a fellow illustrator and longtime friend and collaborator) gave him outlines of a more or less structured scenario: a story about the theft of artworks in which the European tour of a large American circus is used as a cover, and some of the ideas are both interesting, and a little familiar:
· Captain Haddock is fascinated by a conjurer who changes water into alcohol, and goes there daily in order to discover the secret of the trick, dragging Tintin along
· Next, Haddock befriends an Englishman who hopes to see a trainer devoured by his wildcats (De Launoit had evidently read the 'Fables' book which had been recently illustrated by Hergé).
· Tintin is very quickly struck by the coincidence between the thefts and the presence of the circus.
· He joins the troupe, and meets the travelling entertainers, one of whom is Pedro, a knife thrower. The Thom(p)sons are there too, as clowns naturally!
This story was not developed any further by Hergé, but some of the elements were clearly retained for The Seven Crystal Balls.

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