"La Valise Triangulaire": Parody Tintin cover by Bilal...

In the UK television listings magazine Radio Times there used to be a back-page feature called "my kind of day" - usually a short piece by a "celebrity" and a photo of them in their room/garden. I can't recall the year or the celebrity, but one of them was a Tintin enthusiast and had a framned print of a (parody?) Tintin book cover on the wall.

It was entitled Hergé's Adventures of Tintin - The Triangular Suitcase, and pictured Tintin as drawn by Hergé, dashing along in a tremendous hurry whilst carrying the bizarre 3-sided suitcase mentioned in the title.

The clear memory of this cover has always intrigued me, and I am surprised to find no mention of it at all on the web.

Does anyone know about this or indeed any other unusual items from The Tintin Shop in Covent Garden?

Are you sure that the pic was from The Tintin Shop and can you remember roughly when it was? It does strangely ring a bell though...

I'm pretty sure from my short tenure there in the late 80's that the shop would never have stocked "Parodies" so if it was officially sold there it would most definately be a Hergé.

The shop used to stock loads of great books back then (official ones only of course) but they seem to have run the availability down a bit since.

Chris

Well, I am 100% certain that the actor in question stated he was a Tintin fan and visited the shop. I don't think he said the poster came from the shop, in fact it wasn't mentioned in the half-page of copy; it was merely on the wall in his room (kitchen?) in a frame on the photograph. The year would have been roughly 1985 to 1990 I think. But searching through old copies of Radio Times could take ages (I bet the British Library has them) it was on the inside back page if that helps :) the Herge-esque cover showed Tintin dashing along what looked like an Underground (Metro) tain platform, sweating and holding a blue (triangular) suitcase. Very intriguing!
I spent years thinking this was an unfinished Herge book or perhaps a story published only in newspapers/the Tintin magazine, like "...in the Land of the Soviets" which came as an equal surprise. I remember the title vividly - my biggest surprise when getting the Internet was that there was no mention, anywhere, of this cover or the article.
A mystery worthy of our Belgian journalist himself!
Well done on working at the shop by the way - a labour of love?

I can put you out of your misery, Frankymole...

The picture (La Valise Triangulaire) is by French comic strip artist Enki Bilal (the Woman Trap, Gods in Chaos) and was done for the 'Nous Tintin' book which is recently mentioned in the 'Tintin in Barcelona' topic elsewhere. It is only a mock cover, from about 1987.

Is that the one?

Fantasic!!! 17 years of misery ended ;)

I wonder why I remembered it as a blue suitcase, still at least I got the title (albeit translated) and the underground setting right!

Thanks for resolving the mystery. A few more years and I might've thought I dreamt it.

3 Aug 2023 22:49 - Merged topic:
Wanted: specific Tintin postcard

...that I bought in the comics museum in Brussels, and have now lost. It wasn't by Herge, but I don't think it was unauthorized or else they probably wouldn't have had it in the museum gift shop. Anyway, as I recall, it showed Tintin in a black or dark gray overcoat, with a machine gun in one hand and a strange triangular briefcase in the other. He was sort of fleeing something or someone, didn't show what. Had a bloody bandage on one hand, I think, and Snowy figured into it somehow. Oh, and on the wall behind him there was a cryptic, colorful symbol, not the one from Cigars of the Pharaoh, I don't think. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone had ever seen this item and could tell me who the artist is or where I could find the image. Thanks in advance.

It must be the fantasy cover of "La Valise Triangulaire" (The triangular briefcase) by Enki Bilal.

Yes! That's it! Thanks so much, guys, I was sure I'd never found the image. Off to go find out more about it and see if I can't order a postcard or poster. Thanks again!