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Golden Fleece & Blue Oranges: Plans to reprint the books?

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advnarayan
Member
#1 · Posted: 22 Jun 2004 04:18
Wondering whether Golden Fleece and Blue Oranges will be republished for a whole new generation to enjoy. I hope so, because the new Steven Speilberg Tintin movie is bound to create a flutter of interest in the old Tintin movies. I hope the publishers come up with this idea - they sure can make a killing in the sales,
hoping, hoping and ever hoping
--
Posted by advnarayan 8 Aug 2005 11:21:12
In the late Sixties, Metheun had brought to print these two albums, translated from French, based on the 2 live action Tintin movies - I believe there was a second edition in print in the Seventies.

But since then these two albums have been forgotten by Methuen.
At the same time, Tintin and the Lake of Sharks based on "characters created by Hergé" still enjoys a good run and is easily available - (at least here in India).
So friends, any idea about the mystery surrounding these two albums?

narayan

[Edited by moderator. Merged two posts]

Note to poster: Please refrain from bumping up old threads unless you have something new and relevant to add. Thanks.
jock123
Moderator
#2 · Posted: 22 Jun 2004 08:21
My guess is we will see it sometime, if the new facsimile sales confirm that there is a market for them. Given that they went out of print in English many years ago I can't imagine that they were hugely popular, but there could be a captive market for them now.
I've got them in French in a fairly modern edition, and Golden Fleece in a very battered English version, and to be honest, while I like them in the collection for completeness, they are really rather unattractive - the pre-Photoshop image enhancement consisting of someone having drawn rather crudely in India ink, over some low-fidelity black and white stills, for the most part.
If they were to be released again, I'd like to see the images re-done, or if left "as is", for there to be a production notes section added, with back-ground material and set photos etc. collected and nicely printed.
I wonder if the scarcity of the English versions is down to the covers having been made out of what seems to have been bio-degradeable shredded-wheat waste. I've yet to see a copy which has survived in anything better than fair condition - all the corners seem to self destruct, spines fall off, and the laminate cellophane stuff cracks and peels.
Or were Tintin books just read and loved so much that it is the work of many tiny hands?
advnarayan
Member
#3 · Posted: 22 Jun 2004 15:58
What jock 123 said is absolutely right - I envy him for having read them both.
They might be bad in print, but a new edition, having more clarity while at the same time preserving the authenticity of the original, would be welcome.
Perhaps they enjoyed a poor run in the sixties, but judging by the prices they are being sold for today - a reprint is sure to bring big bucks to the publisher, right?
Richard
UK Correspondent
#4 · Posted: 1 Jul 2005 22:36
They don't come cheap. You can pick up an English edition of Tintin and the Golden Fleece at prices starting around £50 for a fair condition one. Tintin and the Blue Oranges, definitely the rarer of the two, costs at least £100 for an average condition one. However, if you've got even a basic understanding of French, it would be worth picking up French editions for around £10-£15 each, sitting with a French-to-English dictionary and reading them that way. The best place to look for out-of-print books such as these is Abebooks, which is like a global second-hand bookshop.
jockosjungle
Member
#5 · Posted: 2 Jul 2005 09:21
I just have the French editions, don't really see them being released again to be honest. They were principally a movie tie-in.

Haven;t seen a reprint of the Official Book of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom lately.

Rik
jockosjungle
Member
#6 · Posted: 8 Aug 2005 22:05
To be honest I strongly doubt it, can't really see a market for a book of a film that has not been seen in years by most people.

The style of books (photos and text) of other more famous films such as Indiana Jones and Star Wars are long since out of print

Rik
Richard
UK Correspondent
#7 · Posted: 8 Aug 2005 23:20
I personally can't imagine there being a reprint, maybe a French one could appear alongside the colour facsimiles. There was actually talk of featuring the two film books in the recent boxed-set of small albums, but they were dropped in favour of Soviets and Alph-Art, I suppose to make it more of a 'Hergé' set of books.

And sort of on topic : considering the rarity of the book, I was surprised to find no less than three copies of Tintin and the Golden Fleece on eBay.co.uk.
jock123
Moderator
#8 · Posted: 8 Aug 2005 23:43
I still think that as long as they exploit the franchise, Moulinsart and Casterman will inevitably re-print these books, if they are able: I mean, they are bringinging every other old edition of the series back into print, so the film books will almost certainly be brought back at some point, even if only in a collector's edition.
jockosjungle
I strongly doubt it, can't really see a market for a book of a film that has not been seen in years by most people.
Well, "most"(?) people never saw the movies first time around either - neither were smash hits - but the movie books outlasted them in circulation for decades (in French at least). I'd guess more people have seen the books than the films.
They certainly have had a far longer career than the Indiana Jones and Star Wars books have had, so I don't think there is any comparison.
Basically they fit in with the main series of Tintin books, and act as a bridge between them and the films.
For Lucas films (and indeed many other picture books from movies), it's the opposite - the books had to exist on their own.
Now with DVD making them available again, the books would seem to have a better chance than ever before.
thundercars
Member
#9 · Posted: 27 Aug 2005 04:00
Both films are readily available in France on dvd, and I guess that a lot of French kids have grown up seeing the films on tv during the Christas holidays. So it is no wonder that the two books have been reprinted in France a couple of times.
In the Netherlands we had the original printruns in 1962 and 1965 (softcovers with linen spine), and only one reprint in the mid-seventies (softcovers with paper spine). I remember that in the seventies I watched the films on German tv, at least twice.
Maybe when the Spielberg film comes out either the tv stations or the dvd companies will see sense, as they have done with The Dukes of Hazard (both on TV here and on DVD) and The War of the Worlds (the 1953 version is available on DVD, but unfortunately not in 3D).
I have a spare French first edition of The Golden Fleece in nice condition (hardcover, 1962) which I would trade for nice condition English Tintin books.
jock123
Moderator
#10 · Posted: 30 Aug 2005 08:30
thundercars
In the Netherlands we had the original printruns in 1962 and 1965 (softcovers with linnen spine), and only one reprint in the mid-seventies (softcovers with paper spine)
It may just be a tiny fault in your otherwise excellent English, but do you really mean "softcovers"?
That would normally refer to something like a paper-back novel, which would be very unusual, as I don't think there were softcovers anywhere else for Tintin until the seventies.
It would seem more likely that they are hard-covers (stiff, thick card), especially with the binding on the spine.
Otherwise, many thanks for the information!

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