Tintin: Best book in Black-and-White?

In the past few years, many Tintin books have been made available in their original black-and-white versions, whether in French, English, Spanish, or other languages.

So, what do you think is the best black-and-white Tintin book?

This could be compared to the color version, or as a stand-alone comic.

I would guess that Land of the Soviets is most popular, simply because the black-and-white versions of the other books are sometimes hard to obtain.

However I own a black-and-white version of Tintin in America, which I prefer to Land of the Soviets.

But it is hard to decide, as I have only read four of the B&W books!

I can't say for sure since I've only read the black-and-white editions of Congo and Cigars, but as a stand-alone comic, I think that Soviets, despite what everybody else says, is my personal best. When I compare the other two to their colour versions, I think that Cigars is better.

I have all of the English black and white books (except Congo) and I must say that my favourite is probably Tintin in America. I don't know why I like it so much, I just do. It is fun to compare it to the later colour edition though.

I really like the original French facsimile edition of the Black Island, as it enables me to spot the various small changes that Herge made to the albums in the subsequent editions.