Land of Black Gold

Compiled by Irene Mar Last updated:

Land of Black Gold
© Hergé / Tintinimaginatio

Original French title

Tintin Au Pays de l'Or Noir

Plot

Petrol that makes car engines explode is turning up all over Europe as war threatens. Tintin traces it to an oil tanker and sails on her to the desert kingdom of Khemed; Thomson and Thompson are on board too. There he is framed, then kidnapped by the rebel Bab El Ehr, and catches Dr Müller, his enemy from The Black Island, wrecking the pipeline. When the Emir's son, Abdullah, is snatched, Tintin goes after him.

Publication history

Serialised in Le Petit Vingtième between 28 September 1939 and 8 May 1940.

Re-drawn and serialised in the Tintin magazine between 16 September 1948 and 23 February 1950.

Published in book form in 1950.

Re-drawn in 1971 (pages 6 - 20 redrawn, Arabic text changed).

English editions

  • 1972 - Methuen (London). Translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner. Colour. 64p. 31cm. ISBN/ISSN: 0416836208, 0416088406.
  • 1988 - Magnet (London). Translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner. Colour. 64p. 30cm. ISBN/ISSN: 0416836208.
  • 1990 - Mammoth (London). Translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner. 64p. Paperback. ISBN: 0749704608.

Trivia

  1. On the inside back cover of the editions of most Tintin books is a British colonel who was replaced with an Arab officer when Hergé rewrote pages 16-17. The British colonel appears close the bottom of the page. [AD]
  2. On page 7, last frame (D2), Thompson is seen carrying a red life buoy, but on page 8, frame 1 (A1), we find Thomson with the red buoy. [EC]
  3. The ashtray seen on page 46, frame 13 (D1) disappears on page 47, frames 7, 10 and 11 (B3, C3 and D1). [EC]
  4. On page 43, frame 6 (B3), the black man Oliveira da Figueira calls on is not Murad (but Abdul). Murad is not black, he can be seen on page 51, frame 9 (C1); and the black man's name is actually Abdul - see page 53, frames 3 (A3) and 4 (B1). [EC]
  5. On the last frame of page 37, Ben Kalish Ezab reads the letter out to Tintin; however, he does not give Tintin the exact words. The actual letter reads: "To Mohammad Ibm Khalil. If you want to see your son alive, you should sign the contract with the company Skoil. Signed: Bab El Ameer." [EC]
  6. What the Arabic and Hebrew signs in Land of Black Gold say

Characters

Title in other languages

  • Alguère - Tintín país de l'or negre
  • Basque - Urre beltzaren lurraldean
  • Bengali - Kalo Sonar Deshe
  • Breton - Tintin e bro an aour du
  • Catalan - Al pais de L'or negre
  • Chinese - China: 黑金之国 (Heijin zhi guo) / Hong Kong and Taiwan: 黑金之國 (Heijin zhi guo)
  • Danish - Det sorte guld
  • Dutch - Het zwarte goud
  • Farsi/Persian - Sarzamii talayi siyah
  • Finnish -- Mustan kullan maa
  • Galician - Tintín no país do ouro negro
  • German - Im Reiche des schwarzen Goldes
  • Greek - O Tentén sti chora tou Mavrou Chrysou
  • Hebrew - Eretz Ha'Zahav Ha'Shachor
  • Hungarian - A fekete arany országában
  • Icelandic - Svarta gullid
  • Indonesian - Negeri emas hitam [Indira edition] / Di Negeri Emas Hitam [Gramedia edition]
  • Italian - Tintin nel paese dell'oro nero
  • Japanese - 燃える水の国 Moeru mizu no kuni
  • Norwegian - Det sorte gull
  • Portuguese - No país do ouro negro
  • Spanish - Tintin en el pais del oro negro
  • Swedish - Det svarta guldet
  • Turkish - Kar altin diyarinda
  • Vietnamese - Dén xú vâng den

Next album: Destination Moon

Credits

Originally created by Jesper Jühne. Revised and maintained by Irene Mar.

Characters list compiled by Irene Mar.

Contributors and sources: Anthony Durrant, Etienne Chevalier, Debasish Mandal, Chikahiro Masami, Sauvik Biswas, Peter Szabo, Syaiful Bahri, BP = Tintin and the world of Hergé by Benoît Peeters. London: Methuen, 1989.

Discuss it

Have something to add? Discuss it in the forums →