PARIS, France (Reuters) — A rare Tintin drawing by Belgian cartoonist Herge from the ‘Tintin in America’ edition will soon be up for grabs at a Paris auction, and is estimated to fetch between 600,000 and 700,000 euros.
Following an unexpected record sale of an original Tintin comic book drawing last November, which fetched 1.55 million euros, the Paris auction house Artcurial is set to hold a new auction of the rare drawing on April 8.
The star up for auction is the first black and white off-text of the ‘Tintin in America’ edition, created in 1937 using Indian ink. It shows Tintin on the step of a taxi, pursuing a villain in the streets of Chicago and is accompanied by a color copy of the same illustration.
Images like these are rare and hard to find on the market. These color illustrations printed in black and white albums were a significant innovation of the time, and Herge was reluctant to switch to color drawings for fear of losing his trademark touch.
This work is one of the most emblematic images in the ‘Adventures of Tintin,’ in which the young reporter explores the world – in what can be seen as an original commentary on life in the 20th Century.
Artcurial comics expert Eric Leroy said that during this period, America was seen as a land of dreams for the younger generations.
“You are Tintin, it’s you, it’s Tintin, it’s everyone. So we are inside the edition and we travel through this character who is neutral,” he said on Wednesday, March 15.
Prices for cartoon art have multiplied tenfold in the last decade, specialists say, with the 1932 cover illustration of the same ‘Tintin in America’ edition fetching 1.3 million euros in 2012.
The auction will feature a wide selection of original works from the most celebrated authors of comic books.
A further work by Herge to be put on sale is a drawing from ‘Destination Moon’, in which Tintin makes his first steps on the moon, signed by astronauts and expected to sell for between 15,000 and 18,000 euros.
Herge sold about 230 million Tintin books by the time of his death in 1983.
