Tintin: King Ottokar’s Sceptre
by Hergé (Le Petit Vingtième, 1938-1939); re-drawn in colour (Casterman, 1947); trans. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Methuen, 1958)
Not as coherent as some of the later Tintin stories, nor as sublimely threaded with humour—though the Thom(p)son twins do offer some light relief from the conspiracy plot and death-defying Boy’s Own antics. Hergé’s attention to artistic detail continues to amaze.
Tintin: The Shooting Star
by Hergé (Casterman, 1942)
trans. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Methuen, 1961)
A straightforward adventure in the style of early SF novels: a hint of the supernatural, a lashing of fantastic elements (most memorably the gigantic mushrooms and other dreamlike eruptions), but a dramatic pulse that comes largely from the sabotage- and race-to-get-there-first plots.
Mr. Pump’s Legacy
by Hergé; trans. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Methuen, 1987) [from Le Testament de Monsieur Pump, 1951]
![Book cover: “Mr. Pump’s Legacy” by Hergé; trans. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Methuen, 1987) [from Le Testament de Monsieur Pump, 1951]](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Herge_Mr-Pumps-Legacy.jpg)
Hergé’s children’s adventure series opens here with a comedic salvo (a four-page cameo from the speed-obsessed Mr. Pump) before settling into the improbable thriller/action sequences and manifold lucky escapes that dominate early Tintin volumes. Eyebrows raise at such derring-do from pre-teen protagonists.
The Valley of the Cobras
by Hergé; trans. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Casterman, 1957)
In this final book of the series, Hergé at last strikes the right balance, giving free reign to slapstick antics while more or less side-lining Jo and Zette (though still depicting them as adventurous mini Tintins; Jocko serves as a surrogate Snowy).
Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald
by Hergé, trans. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Methuen, 1963)
A truly delightful instalment. Hergé casts aside Tintin’s usual action-adventuring in favour of a manor house mystery full of playful misdirection. Even while humour and slapstick abound, he gives his fans a knowing wink (note the front cover) and subverts their expectations.
Tintin: Land of Black Gold
by Hergé (Methuen, 1972)
Land of Black Gold had a troubled creation (which ultimately shows), interrupted by the German invasion of Belgium in 1940, completed six years later and then revised twice more, ultimately being shoehorned—without a commensurate joie de vivre—into the Calculus years.