Tintin Forums

Tintin.com have announced on their Facebook page that they are working on a digital download app, which will allow you to buy and collect the albums to read on devices such as the iPad.

From early next year they hope to have the books available in French, Dutch and English, and are working to bring out many more languages after that.

They also mention that as you complete your collection you will be able to add "virtual objects" to "decorate your shelves".

Should be interesting!

Are there any plans to do iPad or Kindle editions of the Tintin books?

Moderator Note: A gentle reminder to everybody to do a forum search before launching a new topic - your post has been moved to this existing thread.
It should be noted that there doesn’t seem to have been much progress since the initial announcement, as the digital comics are yet to appear; whether this is for technical reasons, or because of problems with the agreements with various publishers around the globe who do the paper versions (which may complicate matters) we don’t yet know.

The Tintinologist Team

That was 3 years a go - any updates?

Moderator Note: No, as previously mentioned we don’t know what has happened, and the sugestions above are our best guesses.

The Tintinologist Team

Now available in French on the iTunes Store!
English to be available soon.

Good news!
I wonder, as I have just been pondering over on our Facebook page, if this might be a means by which the remaining facsimiles might be brought out in English…? Just a thought…

jock123
if this might be a means by which the remaining facsimiles might be brought out in English…?

It could well be more profitable financially, without the outlay of a printed edition. I could see it being useful as a method of testing the water for more specialised books, such as the first colour Black Gold or the Le Soir strips.

The decision by Casterman (or Moulinsart?) to standardise the typeface across all foreign language editions would make producing the digital books easier - if the publishers felt it would benefit them, it could even be possible to sell a single multi-language edition. Hopefully that extends to the black & white books, too.

If the English facsimiles appear through this iPad app, though, that is the point we definitely need a new label for them!

I think everything has to move with the times, so if there is an option for you to download them digitally to read on your iPad it can only be a good thing, becuase you are aware of Tintin.

But it’s not the same with the film - the film is always better viewed in the cinema than on a small digital media tablet.

For me nothing will compare to holding the book and turning the pages, but for more obscrure titles, let’s say for example The Black Island in the Welsh language, it will help if you are able to download it, instead of seeking it from an online bookstore becuase it is not in your local high street.

Hopefully it will also mean the release of some content that has been out of print for a long time.

There is an interesting debate in France at the moment. Aurélie Filippetti, the Culture Minister, announced that the BNF (French National Library) was going to digitize over 60,000 books which were otherwise unavailable and put them online. These would include many out-of-print comics by such artists as Fred & Liliane Funcken or Yves Chaland. Some of Herge's more obscure work, such as one-off illustrations for text stories or other commissions, may also be included.

This however has caused annoyance from some authors who object to the opt-out process by which it is up to them to require that their work be taken offline rather than them being consulted before it is put online. What's more, it is up to them to prove that they still own the copyrights and it can be a complicated procedure.

Among the critics is Benoit Peeters (author of many books including a biography of Herge) who pointed out that Google used such a method and was criticised by the BNF which is now adopting the same tactic. He likened it to a burglary, by which the thieves will return your property if you raise objections after the theft!