Although the facsimiles of the 1940s colour versions of Black Island and Black Gold are only available in French, you wouldn't have any difficulty following the story, assuming you've got the modern English versions to hand (or in your head). As you no doubt saw from that book in the Tintin shop, café noir, the dialogue and action in the 1940s Black Island book was matched almost frame for frame in the 1960s redraw. And the page or so of completely different stuff in the 1940s Black Gold (the involvement of the Jewish gang in Palestine) is pretty easy to follow from the pictures.
Only the early pages of Black Gold were redrawn in the 1960s version - the scenes on board the Speedol Star were updated and the Palestinian setting was changed to the fictional Khemed, with changes to its soldiers and its insurgent gangs. After that, once Tintin gets taken into the desert, the 1960s version isn't redrawn at all from the 1940s book. And of course, the 1930s black-and-white version of Black Gold stops halfway through, because Hergé abandoned the story at the outbreak of war.
So to answer your original question, café noir, I think The Black Island is the only Tintin book which has gone through three complete redraws, and the only adventure where all three different book versions are complete. |