Tintinology (formally Tintin Movie .org) is an independent news and analysis service on the Tintin movie and the works of Herge. (c) Chris Tregenza, Tintinology.poosk.com

Tintin, Tintin & Snowy, Captain Haddock, Thomson & Thompson, Professor Calculus and Herge are all trademarks of Moulinsart S.A. The text and images of the 24 Tintin albums (c) Herge / Moulinsart S.A.

Tintin in Madrid

Do any of you readers live anywhere near Madrid? I don’t know why you would, but in case you do, there’s a Tintin treat in store for you in the Gran Via de Hortaleza  Mall, right outside the Mar de Cristal metro stop on the Brown metro line. On display in the mall are a series of collectible Tintin items from the collection of a true Tintinologist. Among the objects on display were a copy of the world’s first edition of Tintin in Tibet, a copy of ”German Research in World War II” seen in the Calculus affair, and copies of Tintin books in every language from Vietnamese to Latin. Since many of you don’t live in Madrid, and I do, I was more than happy to go check out this display and see if anything there was worth a blog post. This post looks long but it really isn’t! It just has a lot of large photos. By the way I would appreciate it if you would look at them, because I was informed half way through taking them that photography was not allowed in the mall. Not to be left with an unfinished post, I evaded guards and risked imprisonment just so you could get a taste of the display.

It’s free, and consists of about 10 glass boxes with collector’s items in them running along a hallway on the ground floor. The first one I saw covered Tintin in the movies, and had a few copies of the movie books based off the two live action films. SAM_3349

Above: a frame from the stop motion film ”The Crab with the Golden Claws”, the movie book for ”Tintin and the Golden Fleece” and the first Spanish hardcover ”Tintin and the Lake of Sharks” album version.

There was a bit m0re related to Tintin in the media.

SAM_3350

From left to right: a copy of ”Destination adventure”, 2 DVD’s from the 90′s series,  a copy of ”Tintin and the blue oranges” on DVD, an advertisement for the film, and the movie book in french.

A large amount of the collection was related to Tintin trivia, which I love. Did you know that there was an extra page from ”Tintin in the Picaros” that was never published?  Hergé apparently didn’t like it and never included it in the album. The entire page is a conversation between two main villains from the book, and a comical sequence where the mustache of an important bust is broken off by a piece of ice. I guess Hergé decided, and rightly so, that leaving this in would stress credibility…The display had a copy of the missing page in every stage from draft to final product. I have zoomed in only on the final page.missing page

The display also showed a copy of a ”fake” page completed by two of Hergé’s coworkers, Bob de Moor and Jacques Martin. Four years after ”The Castafiore Emerald” Hergé hadn’t even started a new album. The public wanted something new, and so did the newspapers. So while Hergé was on holiday in Sicily, the two created a fake page with Haddock and Tintin in an airplane, telling the papers ”a new album is on it’s way!”. It was only supposed to be a gag, but it gave Hergé some grief when he had to apologize to the world and reveal that the page wasn’t real. How could Hergé just smash the world’s hopes and leave them with nothing? He was suddenly forced into making a new album, Flight 714.  Fans have since added color to the page:

Hergé used a real book as a model for ”German Research in World War II” from The Calculus Affair. To settle further doubts to the lazy question ”Was Tintin a Nazi?”, Hergé wouldn’t even include the swastika from the cover in his album.

SAM_3343

On the bottom right are the cigarettes from ”The Calculus Affair”. Bottom left is the book seen in The Calculus Affair. This book directly inspired the sound weapon, and almost definitely inspired the paint job for the moon rocket. In the back is a very collectible copy of the first edition of ”Tintin in Tibet”

SAM_3342

I could hardly believe my eyes at the end of the display when I saw this board game, which I just posted about recently but with my ”Mille Bornes” post but had never seen in my life. Such a coincidence is almost characteristic of  one of Hergé’s albums!

Dibujo

But what really blew me away was the fact that behind a nice statue of Tintin and Snowy running was the very ”Travels of a Boy Reporter” Tintin map Chris Tregenza has worked so hard on, hanging up on the glass! The last thing I had expected to find at the display was anything related to this site. Apparently the owner of this great collection is a fan of this site. Well, if you are reading this, Tintinology hopes you will continue to follow this blog for years to come. And Chris, you can rest happy that your map has become popular among Spanish tintinologists and is deemed as a valuable part of one’s Tintin collection. Do check it out if you haven’t seen it already.

Source: http://www.naufrageur.com/a-bob-planche_bidon.htm

Posted in Tintin, Tintin and the Picaros, Uncategorized

13 Responses to “Tintin in Madrid”

  1. Mike Dutton Says:

    Have you got any other pictures of the missing Picaros Page? I’m very interested in seeing the whole of it.

    June 27th, 2011 at 10:35 am
  2. Jonathan King Says:

    Apparently (according to Harry Thompson’s book about Herge and his work) Herge miscounted required pages for Picaros — and was horrified when he got to the end and discovered he was one over! That seemed to be OK page to delete.

    June 27th, 2011 at 11:24 am
  3. Stephen Says:

    Here, I found a clear page online that has a scan of the missing page, translated by somebody to english. Apparently that’s not ice…it’s a glass. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Colonel_Sponz_5_and_Colonel_Alvarez.jpg

    June 27th, 2011 at 11:59 am
  4. Stephen Says:

    I can send you the picture of the other drafts zoomed out if you want

    June 27th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
  5. Mike Dutton Says:

    @Stephen
    I would like that very much! Thanks…

    June 27th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
  6. Proman Says:

    Awesome post, Stephen!

    June 27th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
  7. Thierry Says:

    @ Mike and Stephen,

    Took me a while but here is French version of that page, I will try to dig more to see if I can find a better resolution.
    Thierry

    http://nikosolo.voila.net/Tintin2/22bisPicaros.jpg

    June 27th, 2011 at 11:36 pm
  8. Mike Dutton Says:

    @ thierry

    i already have this one, but thanks though.

    i really want a glimpse of the pencil one though. i have more interest in how tintin was made now, rather than reading them. i seek the knowledge and understanding, you see.

    June 28th, 2011 at 1:07 am
  9. Dave Says:

    Wow – this a fantastic collection. It is good to see other bits-and-pieces from Herge and it is so interesting.

    I am going to be a sour-puss though and mention that I didn’t like mention of the “true Tintinologist”. This sort of thing irks me. If I had a spare million I could buy an impressive collection (of anything) and be called a ‘true collector’.

    Please forgive me if the owner here collected these throughout their lifetime and tried very hard to get what they could with what little they had. I have done this myself and Australia doesn’t have much at all. My only rare thing is a 1 metre high cut-out foam of Tintin from a bookstore 15 years ago. I begged and begged and finally the owner gave in. i tried it with the rocket book spinner but that was pushing it…

    I admit I’m jealous when I see great collections and a true collector is one who is passionate with what they collect (or read in this case!).

    June 28th, 2011 at 3:46 am
  10. guardiadetroya Says:

    Dear fellow tintinologists, I am the proud collector of the exhibit posted. Thank you for all your kind comments. I’m just another friend of Tintin’s adventures and wanted to share mya passion with people just as passionate as you are. By the way, I’m interested in moving the exbition around so if you konw anybody interested, I’ll follow the posts here or in Tweeter.
    Kindes regards to you all adventure lovers,
    Guadiadetroya

    June 29th, 2011 at 1:05 pm
  11. Thierry Says:

    @ Guadiadetroya

    Congratulations it is a very impressive collection. I am a huge fan of Tintin myself since about 35 years (I’m 40 now) and I’m trying to share my passion with my kids of 10 and 8.

    Thanks for showing all your items to others.
    Thierry

    June 29th, 2011 at 2:15 pm
  12. guardiadetroya Says:

    Concerning the page missing in “Los Picaros”, which was to be page 23, I have it scanned from the first pencil scratches to the last french version, but I don’t know hao to upload it, if anyone can help me, I will put it here. By the way, it is indeed a glass what brakes Pleszly’s Moustache.
    Regards

    June 29th, 2011 at 4:56 pm
  13. Stephen Says:

    @Dave: I understand completely what you mean. When I said ”true tintinologist” I certainly didn’t mean that if you don’t have a great Tintin merchandise collection you are not a ”real” tintinologist. Congratulations on getting what you could find in Australia! You don’t need an awesome collection to be a tintinologist. I meant that it wasn’t just some display set up by somebody that wasn’t very familiar with Tintin. It was clear throughout the display that the owner knew Tintin well and that the display is designed to appeal to passionate Tintin fans.
    @guardiadetroya:
    I’m very pleased that you actually read this! You’ve got a lot of great stuff! By the way, was the bottle of Loch Lomond on display really a brand of alcohol or a replica designed to look like the comic panel?
    I was very surprised to see the map hanging up on the glass. Thank you for putting it on display! Chris did a great job.
    If you wish, I would be more than willing to post your scans on the blog if you send them to me. I will contact you by email if that’s ok.

    June 29th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Leave a Reply