Tintin Forums

There was quite a stir about it around 6 years ago when a British human rights lawyer complained about the content. Read this article for more details.

Also an actual Congolese man, Mbutu Mondondo Bienvenu, took the publishers to court over the matter.

(Moved to existing thread - Mod.)

My introduction to Franco Belgian comics (I still love calling them comics- rather than albums) came in the mid eighties when my dad introduced me to Tintin and Asterix.

Thankfully all the official Tintin works are available in English, but that cannot be said for Asterix.

Works like Le Secret de la Potion Magique, Le Menhir d'Or , l'Empire du Milieu and eight smaller albums published in the early nineteen-eighties still have not had an official English translation.

I wrote to the official publishers many times... but there was no reply.

Fed up - and with enough free time during the covid season - I translated one work to English.
Then the translating bug really caught hold of me and the I translated two more (with some help from equally fanatic Asterix lovers).

Of the other eight books mentioned, I have translated three. Feeling pretty good, and giving myself a pat on the back.

My effort is now to finish the remaining five. Though, I cannot share the English translations (since it's copyright protected the translations are for my eyes only) I take glee in shamelessly boasting about it – and what better place to do so than over here?

This sounds like a fun project! Best wishes for it. I've similarly thought about translating Tintin et le Thermozéro (which I've posted about elsewhere on this forum) just for fun and private use.


I have these in French. I don't think much of the two movie tie-ins. But like you, I would love to see Le Menhir d'Or in English: the last untranslated Asterix story by Goscinny himself as far as I know, and full of his familiar sense of humour. I'd also like an English translation of the 2016 album of The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, which contains different text and illustrations from the 1976 album. I recall reading an interview with Adriana Hunter (the current Asterix translator) in which she indicated that she actually had translated it. But for some reason that was never published. If you write to the publisher again, ask them why!


I think these are long out of print even in French? If you are working through minor spin-offs like this, you might look at the new Dogmatix comics for younger children. None of those have been translated, though the accompanying TV series has an English dub. I have one of the comics, Idéfix et le druide, which is the only one so far that is an original story rather than adapted from TV. It is simple but has its charms.


That depends on what you mean by 'official'. A lot of Tintin material is unavailable in English, including most of the earlier variants of the main albums plus things like Thermozéro.

RedVictory356
Thank you for the kind words. For the time being, I am restricting myself to the illustrated albums. Panel strips with speech bubbles require something more than translation- and one should be adept with photoshop or such tools to go for it. That's why for the time being I have not yet taken the task of Dogmatix works. And I agree of the works which I Have translated- personal favourite is "Menhir D'or" .
Of the 8 smaller works published in the early Eighties....my personal favourite is "Jericocorix"