Tintin Forums

So I'm trying to get back into reading Tintin, who was a staple of my childhood.

I'm looking for nice hardcovers that I could read to my children.

I'm disappointed with the latest multi-volume versions that are scaled down in size from the larger magazine-sized releases.

What are the best choices? I'm in the States, looking for English versions, but would import them from the UK if needed.

It looks like Casterman published the first 5 in their original B&W versions - did they make more? While not the optimum edition to read to my kids, I'm fascinated by possibly seeing the original versions.

And then it looks like Egmont(/Mammoth?) published great editions in 2003, but I'm only seeing them up to around Red Rackham's Treasure, as listed in the book guide at this site. Did they make more?

Thanks!

I agree with you that the recent (or relatively recent) 3-in-one volumes are too small.

As far as I know, Egmont, the current UK publisher still keeps the full-sized versions of the whole series in print in their hardcover as well as paperback editions. It certainly looks that way from typing "Tintin hardcover" into Amazon's UK website, which brings up this page.

They seem to be selling them for around £7 each, which isn't a bad price per book, though would obviously add up to a fair bit if you were buying the whole set of 23 books and getting them shipped to the States. I don't know if anyone sells the whole lot of hardbacks together at a cheaper "box-set" price, or if the US Amazon site would let you buy these UK Egmont edition directly through them, not that I know if that'd be any cheaper. (You might lose any saving on shipping on their mark-up for imported items.)

My collection is a mixture of paperbacks and hardcovers (all full size), but I don't blame you for wanting them all in hardcover. Apart from the extra sturdiness, you get the lovely portrait gallery endpapers with the hardbacks. But I prefer the matt printing and hand-lettering of my old editions, which are Methuens or various imprints thereof (Mammoth, Magnet, etc), compared to the new digitally lettered and glossier Egmont editions, so I'm inclined to stick to the mix of paperbacks and hardcovers that I've got, for as long as they last. But that's a whole other can of worms, and it might be a challenge to find decent hardback copies of these old versions anyway, so it may not be worth your worrying about that particular distinction. And some people prefer the current glossier and digitally lettered versions anyway.

The facsimiles of the early b/w versions are indeed also interesting (I've got two or three), as is the facsimile edition of the first colour version of The Black Island (the current version being a 1960s redraw) and the partially different first colour version of Land of Black Gold. I think most of these various b/w and colour facsimiles have been translated into English (making them not really facsimiles of anything that originally existed, but easier to read for those of us with limited French!)

You'll see some of these facsimile translations on the following pages from that Amazon.co.uk page I linked to. (In fact, in some cases, such as the Broken Ear, it'd be quite easy to confuse which is the modern edition and which is the facsimile at first glance.)

But as you say, you'd maybe want to start with getting the "standard" modern colour versions, especially for sharing with kids. (Though the first adventure, Land of the Soviets, only exists in black-and-white, of course, as does the last uncompleted pencil-rough book, Alph Art.)

Hope that helps, and good luck!

It’s your choice, though I would suggest the hardcover editions. They are more durable and last longer.

I only own one Tintin book (someday, I'm going to collect the whole series), Tintin in the Congo, colour edition, from Segment, and it’s hardback.

But it’s all up to you. If you want the hardback editions, collect the hardback editions. Or if you want to collect the paperback editions, collect the paperback editions. It’s all up to you.

Moderator Note: Hi! It’s good of you to participate so enthusiastically, but the original poster isn’t deciding on whether they want hardback or paperback editions: they have decided they want hardback copies, and are asking which ones of those they should buy, and from where.

The Tintinologist Team

Sorry if i caused confusion. I didn't read the post proply(my Mom says sometimes I read to fast).

Thanks for all the advice. While it looks like the black and white facsimile editions would be fascinating to read, they wouldn't be the best choice for my kids (and I do love the irony that you can have a replica edition where all the text has been translated into English...).

Of the color hardcovers, though, is there a difference between versions? I'm looking for the hardcore fans here who can describe the differences.

The Egmont editions seem the most recent, and are cheaper (at least for me). The covers all seem to have a matching red stripe on the spine (but again, I'm only seeing these matching 2003/2008 editions through Red Rackham's Treasure).

I appreciate the advice that these are glossy with digital lettering. (to me, that's not a deal-breaker, but it does provide some of the extra info I'm looking for)

Here, the "Methuens or various imprints thereof (Mammoth, Magnet, etc)" seem more expensive ($40 vs. $18), so I'd be leaning more towards the more recent Egmont editions (if they have indeed published the whole line)

And are the colors better/different in the Egmont editions? (I've seen them described as "color facsimiles)
Thanks!

That’s because they are the current publisher for Tintin in English in the U.K.; they took over from Methuen, who had published the books since 1958.

Egmont do indeed publish the entire line of books (which Methuen didn’t do, as they never put Congo into English). I don’t know where you are looking at the images of the covers, but the regular books have got a range of coloured spines, made of laminated paper; early editions in all languages, including those from Methuen, before Flight 714 appeared in 1967 had a cloth tape spine; the coloured facsimiles (also from Egmont) have used red cloth tape (or a simulation thereof) on them - that might be what you have seen.


Than/ to what? If you have decided not to buy the Methuens, which can only be had second-hand, there isn’t much choice, really, unless you find Little Brown library covered (which is what I think they call their hard-back versions) – and even these will be more or less the same as the Egmont books.