The "Archives Hergé" series

Having been slightly surprised that the Chronologies books are not incorporating the entire artwork of the individual albums and Hergé's other strips, I am wondering if the Archives Hergé volumes contain material which is not otherwise available?
However, they do seem to cover much of the material which will come out in the facsimiles.

My questions are: are they indispensible, and would I have to get all four Archives, or would volumes one and three (for example) suffice? Can anyone do a rundown of what each volume contains?

Many thanks!

Chronologie d'une œuvre and the Archives Hergé do not have the same purpose.
The first tries to explain Hergé's way of working, and the evolution of his work.
The Archives Hergé gives a larger audience access to the black-and-white versions of the early Tintin stories, and other early work.

But you're right, if you have facsimiles, you don't need to buy all the Archives Hergé volumes, the contents of which are as follows:

Archives Hergé Volume 1: Totor and Tintin au pays des Soviets, Tintin au Congo, Tintin en Amerique [Totor was previously republished in the Rombaldi series; Soviets is complete with the missing page!)]
Archives Hergé Volume 2: Quick et Flupke, Amiable M. Mops
Archives Hergé Volume 3: Les Cigars du Pharaon, Le Lotus Bleu, L'Oreille Casée
Archives Hergé Volume 4: L'Île Noir, Le Sceptre d'Ottokar, Le Crabe aux Pinces d'Or

I would suggest that you buy Volumes 1 and 2. The problem will probably be to find them!

Thanks for that, Chevet. It more or less confirmed what I had guessed.
My surprise at the Chronologies was only because I saw pre-publicity where the Fondation was seeking submissions from collectors of any early material which might have been lost from the archives, which seemed to suggest that the books were to be a comprehensive collection of all available material, akin to a catalogue raisonné.
However, it is a feast of fascinating material as it stands, so it is not a disappointment.

I am now puzzling as to where I saw Totor, as I don't have either the Archives or the Rombaldi series.
Would have been in Benoît Peeters' Monde d'Hergé book? I have that at home in Scotland so I can't look and see...

Anyway, I'll keep my eye out for them.

At the risk of becoming repetitive, what all were in the Rombaldi volumes?
I've only seen one complete set for sale, in Dutch, which is a language I cannot read, and I didn't have the time to take a proper look, but I did see that Alph-Art was included, as was a special "fake" volume, which looked like a book, but was actually a box, containing miniature facsimiles.

Totor appeared at the Greenwich Tintin at Sea exhibition, but I've never actually seen it anyplace else.

Rik

jockosjungle noted:
Totor appeared at the Greenwich Tintin at Sea exhibition

Thanks for the reminder on that; yes he did, and I had forgotten.
However, I am sure I have at least a sequence of Totor strips, if not the entire thing, in a book somewhere, and my guess is it might be Le Monde d'Hergé, by Benoît Peeters.

jock123, there's no Totor in the English version of Le Monde d'Hergé. Perhaps it's in Hergé and Tintin, Reporters?

Thanks, Ren, but I'm fairly certain that I don't have the Hergé and Tintin, Reporters book.

I've got the French version of the Monde, not the English one, and as a result I have never done a side-by-side comparison; however, given that the French one is as thick as a phone book, and the English one isn't, I think that quite a lot of material was left out.