Tintin Forums

Hi friends.
this official, alternate, cover (Magnet Paperback) to the Tintin Moon Adventure.

I discovered this curio on eBay a while back - Tintin Moon Adventure an official omnibus of the two moon stories, with an alternate, cover - and, of course, I had to add it to my collection.

My copy is a Magnet paper-back, and seems to date from the mid 1980's – ISBN O 416 96710 8.

I wonder if any of the other two-part stories were published with alternate cover art? Does anyone know?

Cheers,
-Harry-

I've got that edition. (We had the two seperate albums as children, but I bought this double album version when restocking my Tintin books in the eighties.)

The rocket blueprint, of course, is taken from a page in Destination Moon.

I think the circular picture has been lifted from a bigger picture that showed Calculus, Tintin and Haddock greeting two American astronauts stepping out from their lunar module, which was the cover (I think) of a short booklet that was drawn by Hergé's team and published at the time of one of the Apollo moon landings (the 2nd or 3rd I think, rather than the 1st).

I'm sure someone on this forum will know more about this booklet and be able to confirm whether I've got this right or not. (I've seen a copy of this booklet, but don't have one.) From memory, most of the booklet shows the actual American mission in straight, realistic detail, without fanciful interactions with Tintin and co.

The way this illustration's been used on this double-album makes it look as if Tintin, Haddock and Calculus are looking out of the book and greeting the reader, which is nice, though it lacks the more sombre atmosphere of Explorers on the Moon's actual cover.

The image was originally drawn by Hergé to commemorate the first moon landing, Apollo XI, and had a speech bubble of Tintin saying "Bienvenue sur la lune Mr. Armstrong!" (Welcome to the moon, Mr. Armstrong!).

Apparently Hergé presented this drawing to the astronaut Neil Armstrong. According to what Michael Farr has said in the past the two men regularly corresponded with each other for a number of years. Neil Armstrong is known to be a very private person and has rarely spoken in public about the Apollo 11 mission.

The image was also re-produced for the Ils ont Marché sur la lune exhibition, which was held in Paris in 1985. The speech balloon, with the "Mr. Armstrong", was removed.

Coincidently, [shameless self promotion here!] I just listed the book of the exhibition on eBay. Should anyone like to take a punt, please feel free!

Moderator Note: See thread about the Armstrong image here.