638 TINTIN
Th e modern Tintin canon comprises 24 books, from the black-and-white Tintin in
the Land of the Soviets (1930) to the posthumously issued drafts for Tintin and Alph-Art
(1978–82). A complex publication history means, however, that this tally of 24 books
should be very nearly doubled, as the majority of the stories exist in at least two distinct
authorial versions. Th ere were also a number of false starts and abandoned projects for
which rough sketches have been preserved. All of the Tintin narratives were initially
published as serials and later converted into book form (in black-and-white until 1942,
and then in color). Graphic conventions and narrative content were signifi cantly infl u-
enced by the prerequisites of the serial form.
First, drawings had to be easy to reproduce in print. Hence the contained dynamism
of Hergé’s “clear line” pen strokes and the simple yet highly eff ective system of graphic
notation—speed lines, sweat droplets, stars, spirals, arabesques—used to depict
movement and emotional reactions.
The Adventures of Tintin: Cigars of the Pharaoh showing Tintin with his dog, Snowy. Little,
Brown & Company/Photofest
